Archive for October, 2006

Owners of small “commercial” greenhouses are naturally alert for ways to save labor and stretch their producing areas. Both ends can be served by starting annuals (including bedding plants) and tender perennials in flats in late winter or early spring, and moving them to cold frames as soon as freezing -weather is past. Once the flats are moved out, the greenhouse space can be filled with other things.

Selling plants in flats of a dozen to 100 or more avoids the work of potting. Most small plants retail at about 50 to 60 cents per dozen, with the possible exception of double petunias, which usually run to twice that much. Potted singly, these same plants retail for 25 to 39 cents apiece, but to rate that price range the potted plants will also have to be grown a bit larger than is necessary in flats.

Grow the plants in full sun in a cool house, to keep them bushy. Ageratum, marigold, petunias, and many of the lesser annuals such as dwarf phlox, verbena, and torenia, can be grown and sold in flats, a dozen or more plants to the flat (the small-sized “unit” flats, such as Market-Paks, are excellent), or potted and sold in 2- or 3-inch individual pots. You may want to add a few flats of pansies or violas to offer as spring bedders, or you might find it more profitable to consider them as a special profit-making project. (See page 151.)

If you sell to a market in your city, ask them to save your empty flats. You pick them up when they are empty thus cutting your cost of supplies. The following, with brief descriptions, are some of the plants small greenhouse owners have found to be steady, profitable items. The cultural hints I offer are, of course, based on the timing of the seasons, weather, etc., in my area. Be sure you take your own local conditions into consideration in applying my recommendations (or anyone’s) as to seeding time, shifting to the outdoors, treatment of semi hardy plants, and so forth.

Keywords: Greenhouse Gardening, Landscaping, Plants, Pool, Gardener, Landscape, Trees

The “Soft Sell”

Do you for some reason shy away from direct (“hard sell”) advertising? If so, you might try indirect advertising-the “soft sell”-by inviting garden club members out to see your greenhouse. At one meeting or another during the year every club is likely to be stymied for a program; and a trip to your greenhouse is a ready-made program. You can create additional good will by presenting each visiting member with an African violet leaf, a cutting, bulb, or tuber.

If it is at all possible, learn to lecture. Then you’ll be called upon to speak at P.T.A. meetings, church, and women’s organizations, as well as garden clubs. You will be introduced as the owner of a successful greenhouse specializing in African violets, gloxinias, geraniums, or whatever you specify to the M.C. Tell your listeners you will be glad to help them with their indoor gardening problems. Before long you will have a steady stream of eager customers at your door.

Discussing special plants on T.V. or radio programs devoted to gardening is also a form of good advertising. Most stations have a daily or weekly show devoted to people, their work, or their hobbies. Call the station and tell them about some of your interesting plants and you may be asked to appear on one of their shows.

Keep Accurate Business Records

Once in business you will have to keep records of your expenses and profits. Even though you don’t have a “head for figures,” you will find that if you use a simple system you won’t have too much trouble. Purchase, for your first bookkeeping set, two books from the dime or stationery store. In one book, keep a record of all expenses; in the other, your sales. Break down your expenses something like this: initial cost of greenhouse; cost of benches and shelves; cost of potting media and chemicals (including fumigants, sterilizing agents, disinfectants, and fertilizers); cost of tools, pots, labels and other equipment accessories, and utilities such as heat, light, and water.

When income tax time rolls around, you may have to consult someone as to how much you can take in the way of deductions. The usual procedure is to allow, each year, 10 per cent of the cost of your building and its equipment, and the total amount of utilities and materials used. You can obtain full information on all phases of income tax deductions from the office of the nearest Department of Internal Revenue. One thing is sure: you’ll be a sitting duck for the tax man without accurate, properly documented business records.

Keywords: Greenhouse Gardening, Landscaping, Plants, Pool, Gardener, Landscape, Trees

Keying Your Ad

Did you notice the “Dept. A.” in the foregoing sample ad? That is what is known as a key. If you are advertising in more than one publication, always key your ad. This means inserting a department number or letter, such as Dept. A for one magazine, B for another, and so on. There are many other kinds of keys, some more subtle than others. When the inquiries come in, have separate filing places for each “key department.” With this system, you can keep an accurate check on returns and determine which of the publications has the most “pulling power.” Do not make the key complicated; our mailmen have trouble enough deciphering addresses without the burden of confusing letter or number keys attached to the street address.

Ads That Pulled

An Oklahoman, who has a small greenhouse, placed a $15.00 ad in one of the gardening magazines when he was only a teenager, listing gloxinia tubers and seeds, rare begonia and geranium seed. The orders poured in and he sold $700 worth of seeds and tubers in a short time. Then he had to call a halt. His greenhouse was only 8 by 10 feet and he had to save some stock for propagation! I have frequently run this ad in garden publications:

African violets, rare gesneriads, species sinningias; seeds, cuttings, tubers. Free list. Name . . . address . . . phone.

Returns were always good-with from $150.00 to $300.00 worth of seeds, cuttings, and tubers sold. If you live in the South and are dealing with customers in frost-free areas, you can ship most of the year; but in the North, you must limit shipping to the period from May to October.

Years ago, before I acquired a greenhouse, I wrote a magazine article entitled “Sprouting Saintpaulias from Seed.” I stated that I was ready to sell the seed for $1.00 per package. A few days after the magazine went on the newsstands I found myself deluged with orders. Lacking a greenhouse, I didn’t have enough seed to fill the orders and had to relegate the orders to gardeners all over the country. I received nearly 2,000 letters on the strength of that “story.” That’s the power of publicity.

Incidentally, you should be able to induce your local paper to run a little story about your business, or get publicity through the department, “Letters to the Editor.” You could construct your message along these lines.

Dear Editor:

America’s favorite house plant is probably the African violet.

Although hobbyists all over the country are familiar with propagating them by leaf-cutting, I wonder how many growers know that they can produce a wide range of colors and leaf patterns when they grow African violets from seed. The seed is small-one hundred of them would barely cover the top of an ordinary pencil eraser. They are sprinkled on moist vermiculite, covered with transparent plastic or foil with ventilation holes punched in it, and set in a warm place to germinate. As the seedlings enlarge, they are moved to pots. With good care it is possible to obtain flowers from seedlings within 6 to 9 months. I have enclosed a picture of some of my own seedlings.

Sincerely,

……………

If you know your local paper plans to devote space to the garden club or to publicizing a flower or plant show in your vicinity, it may pay you extra dividends to insert an ad on that day. As a result, expect to see a number of gardeners who will drive out to browse around your place. Perhaps none of these visitors will buy right away, but they may later on. And they will tell other gardeners, and thus you will become better known throughout the community.

Keywords: Greenhouse Gardening, Landscaping, Plants, Pool, Gardener, Landscape, Trees

Mail-Order Advertising

For the small plantsman who wants to sell mail-order, the best advertising investment is space-either “classified” or “display”-in one of the regional or national garden magazines. In the classified sections, ads cost from 40 cents per word with a minimum of $8.00, to 75 cents per word with a $15.00 minimum. Since most of these periodicals have circulations between 250,000 and 350,000, an advertisement in one of them will be read by many interested people. But don’t advertise in such mass-audience publications unless you are ready and able to fill a large number of orders and do it promptly.

In your mail-order advertising, if you are just starting in business, do not include any such statement as, “Please enclose stamp for plant listing.” True, by not requiring a stamp, you will receive a great many inquiries from folks who just naturally answer advertisements and don’t often buy. If you request a stamp, you will avoid these idle inquiries but you will also shut out many interested gardeners who may not have an extra stamp on hand or who want to inquire by postal card. The names you receive from your ads will form the nucleus of your mailing list. And, even better, satisfied customers from such a source write you year after year asking for new circulars or for special plants.

There are many specialty magazines like those issued by plant societies. If you advertise in these, you must offer something mighty rare, exceptionally low-priced, or perhaps inject a “gimmick” into your ad (i.e., that something free will be included with an order of specified size), if you hope to induce the specializers to write for a listing. These gardeners obtain much of their plant material by swapping with each other, so unless you can make your ad really appeal to them, you won’t get much of a return on your specialty advertising investment. True, rates are low compared to those of the larger magazines -but it is the final sales results which really count.

What you spend will be dictated by the budget you have set for yourself. A wise move is to try first an $8.00 or $15.00 ad in the classified section of a garden magazine. If the ad is run under the right heading, it will get a lot of attention and should bring you an excellent return. If, for instance, you have several types of rather common plants to sell, such as wax begonias, ivy, and philodendron, and at least fifty plants of a rare kind, ask to have the ad placed under the heading best adapted to the rare type. If your list includes a number of ordinary plants, plus a good line of African violets, have the ad placed under African violets. It might read along these lines:

African violets, newest varieties; other interesting pot plants. Free list.

Vinnie’s Violet House, Dept. A.

45 Main Lane, Maintown, U.S.A.

Should you be undecided about the proper heading or classification for your ad, ask the publication’s advertising manager to insert it under the heading he thinks most logical.

Keywords: Greenhouse Gardening, Landscaping, Plants, Pool, Gardener, Landscape, Trees

Your Advertising Budget

No matter how small your greenhouse business is, advertising should concern you. Let’s consider how, when, where, and how much. Established firms base their current year’s advertising budget on a percentage of the complete total of last year’s sales. With a new business, of course, this is not possible. So you will have to estimate how much business you hope to do per month or year and construct an advertising budget around this figure.

Authorities on advertising will tell you that any new firm spends more money on advertising during its initial period of operation than after it becomes established. There is no specified amount to spend-much depends on just what you want to accomplish. While your advertising budget may, in future years, taper off to 1 per cent of your sales volume (total monthly or yearly sales), you may want to spend up to 4 or 5 per cent to introduce your greenhouse and its plants to the public.

Your Best Buy in Advertising . . . Newspapers, Magazines

If you plan to sell locally, advertising in your home town paper will be your best buy. This will let gardeners in your community know you are in business and what you have to sell. The way your ad is worded can give your greenhouse a distinct “personality.-

If you are unfamiliar with writing advertising copy, just make a list of the plants you have for sale. Put at the top of the list the plants you want to push the ones you have the most of or the ones you’ll be making the most money on. Jot down their desirable traits, and what you consider a fair price. Take the list to the newspaper’s advertising manager and ask him for suggestions. He will have the ad set up for you and may even have a stock of ready-made “mats” or “cuts” of common plants such as geraniums, Easter lilies, some annuals, etc. The use of these will spice up your ad. Regular advertising is more resultful than sporadic advertising. Repetition makes the impression. Consult with-and heed-your newspaper’s ad man. He can inform and guide you.

Keywords: Greenhouse Gardening, Landscaping, Plants, Pool, Gardener, Landscape, Trees

Supplying Commercial Seed and Plant Houses

Each year many of the major seed houses try to add new and distinctive material to their established lines. Before you attempt to sell to any of them, study their catalogs to discover what they already stock and the type of plants they seem to be interested in obtaining. If you make a specialty of one or more things, such as African violets or begonias, and you note that some seed houses carry these items but list only a few varieties, then it’s time to query them. They may be in the market for additional varieties.

Note well, too, the seed, bulbs, and tubers listed in their catalogs. If you enjoy hybridizing and can’t use all of the bulbs and seeds you grow, contact these companies and mention the material you will have on hand at a given time-such as gloxinia tubers, small plants or seed, iris or daylily plants or seeds. If possible, enclose some good clear pictures of your plants with your letter.

Direct your letter to the “attention of” the Purchasing Agent. Enclose with your query a stamped, self-addressed envelope, and you will be bound to receive a reply. Very often the purchasing agent will ask if you grow additional types of plants or if you know a source where they might be obtained. This past winter I was compelled to turn down an order for 1,000 gesneriad tubers. The company I dealt with wanted types unavailable in Europe and they were willing to pay me up to 50 cents each for them, but I was unable to supply their needs, and I knew of no one who could.

On Contract

Speaking of filling orders, there is still another way to make money from your home greenhouse, it is called “contract growing.” I would not recommend it to anyone who wants to retain something of the fun of under-glass hobby floriculture. In contract growing, you make a binding agreement (usually with a single large customer) to sell all of your production to him, and he in turn guarantees you a market. That, of course, is just a broad description of the system; there are many angles and conditions. But what usually happens is that, because of the sure and easy profit, you eventually grow whatever this customer tells you to grow. You may wind up growing only Chinese evergreens or some equally uninteresting plant. That’s fine, if profit-maximum profit-is your sole goal. But if you want your greenhouse to be fun, too, then you should be, at least partly, a miscellaneous grower and an independent seller.

Keywords: Greenhouse Gardening, Landscaping, Plants, Pool, Gardener, Landscape, Trees