For the last five years we have done spring plant sales in our carport/driveway, but ONLY ornamental plants, mostly perennials. When we did the pricing for our plants we try to be at about half of what you'd buy from a retail nursery.

The cul-de-sac we live on has an annual yard/garage sale every spring that coincides with the start of the spring baseball season for the kids -it's the last weekend before that starts. We start our 'selling season' with that weekend, which happens to be April 14th this year, and from there on we do one every weekend if the weather is decent until the May long weekend. By far the bulk of what we have for sale are cuttings and divisions from our own plants, but I won't hesitate to buy some boxed dry root perennials like certain Hostas, Heucheras or Lilies from Costco in early March, pot them up and offer them for sale. We'll have 3 gallon pots with spring bulbs in flower for these sales that we purchased as bulk packs from Costco and recover our initial investment after 2 sales; with 50 to a bag and 7 or 8 to a pot, you do the math.

Here is a link that might be useful: The sales table with plants is about 1/2 way down

pietertje, thanks for the info. I had actually been considering buying hostas or lilies from Costco and planting them but didn't want to be stuck with leftover Hostas in case I had trouble selling them. How much did you manage to sell Hostas and Lilies for, and how much in advance do you plant them?

Thanks,
Lakshmi

Hi there. I usually try to do a plant sale around the long weekend or earlier, if you wait too long, people have already bought most of the veggies they want.
I sell a variety of tomatoes, also herbs (basil, oregano, chives, etc..) sell well. I also divide and pot up hostas, people really want perennials, and sell some of my brugs.
Price really depends. If my tomatoes are really nice, I would charge $2.00, or 3/$5. Perennials, depends how large the division, maybe $3-$5. They would sell for double in the nurseries. You're pretty much in the same zone as I am, and I find after the beginning of June, people aren't really too interested anymore or have already bought what they wanted. I also put out a lot of my houseplants, (trying to make more room for more plants!!!) I have a lot of jades, aloes and such, much too easy to propagate, so I end up with way too many. Annuals tend to be so cheap at nurseries, that I wouldn't bother unless you really wanted too. It's a fun way to meet other gardeners, and make a little money to support the gardening addiction. What to charge is pretty much up to you, keep in mind how much effort you put in probably won't compare to how much you will make. I can't remember who it was, but someone here sells plants throughout the summer, even when she's not home, on the honor system. The plants are there, and a box for people to leave the money in, people tended to be pretty honest.

I'm in a very different climate zone out here on the left coast. I bought a couple of Hosta varieties @ Costco over the past 3 weeks and potted them up into 1 gallon pots. Both varieties were already sprouting in the bag and certainly out here with no real danger of frost any longer that would not be an issue. The perennials you see @ Costco will have been exposed to 'sprouting' temperatures for at least the last month or so and in your area putting those outside without any further protection would not be a good thing. The other thing with Costco Hostas you have to be on the lookout for is HVX, most of the ones I bought there last year were HVX infected. They gave me my money back, but forewarned is forearmed. In case you haven't heard of this before, follow the link below the message.

With Hosta cultivars you can afford to do a bit of checking around and see how much they sell for @ the local nurseries. A gallon sized Hosta @ retail can be anywhere from $8-$20 depending on how fast it grows and how common it is. The bulk of what they have there now @ Costco potted up in a #1 pot I sell for around $5-6, depending on the exact number of shoots. The less common ones (those would be the ones they sell 4 to a pack) I get $10. Lilies I put 3 into a 3 gallon pot and get $10-15 depending on how common, I had a couple of 4 to 5 gallon sized containers that I wanted to get rid of last year which I planted up with about 10 Lollypop lilies and they sold for $20. I have sold budding fragrant peonies for as much as $35, it's matter of knowing what you have and what the going price for the comparable product is @ retail.

Finally, I don't really worry about leftovers with my perennials, if they don't go this year, they will next year.

Here is a link that might be useful: HVX information

Thanks! That helps a lot! :-)

I'm still open to more ideas/suggestions...especially of what is popular at plant sales.

Lakshmi

I also have a perennial sale each year. I take pictures of my perennials when in flower in the summer. In the wintertime I will label and get the pictures developed.The pictures are all placed individually into photo pockets with their name inside the pocket in the bottom corner. Then, the pockets are sealed with scotch tape to prevent any moisture from getting in at a garage sale it will be used at. Then the pictures are all placed alphabetically in a case for easy access in the spring when I divide my perennials. The next year or whenever the perennial is large enough to split I will divide it and then that summer at the sale I will display a picture of the plant in bloom along with the plant. One iris looks just like the other iris until you see the blooms they each will have.

We also place all perennials in alphabetical order in 3 rows down the driveway the day of the sale. We have lots of people coming for advice on what to plant and it is easier to find it if we/they just have to look in the H's for the Hosta or the D's for the daylilies. People appreciate it also when they ask whether you have any particular perennial and you just have to tell them everything is alphabetical. We usually have between 80 - 100 different kinds of perennials/roots(cannas)/ fruits(raspberries and strawberries)/shrubs at the sale each year.

As for price tags...my girlfriend and I cut up vanetian blinds and use them. I use a black marker and she a red one. We place a marker in each pot with the price and when it comes time for the customer to pay we pull out the price tags and add them up while they lie on the (by then, dirty) table. We wash the price tags after the sale and reuse them the following year. If we have friends who have different perennials than we have that year then we ask that they either use a different color of marker or a different color of vanetian blind to put their prices on. After the sale we just sort the tags by color and then divide the money accordingly.

Advertizing...we do so in the garage sale part of the paper. These plants are from our yard and we need to get rid of them.

Pots...we ask people to bring their empty pots for us to reuse next year.

Hostas...variagated hostas sell better than solid colored ones.

Blooming vs. non blooming...blooming flowers will be sold first.

Each year is different in what will sell. Some years all daylilies are gone, next time everyone wants Virginia Creeper or lilies or something else.

Delphiniums are popular.

New and unique perennials will be the hit of the sale.

Is that of any help to you?

Brenda

Thanks Brenda! That's just the kind of advice I was looking for. :-)

Costco has some really nice Dahlias and Clematis...I was thinking of picking some of them up too. They have a lot of Lilies as well but I presume people buy stuff like that in bulbs?

Where does everyone get pots from?...I really have no clue other than styrofoam cups which would be too small for most things.

Lakshmi

I got the bulk of my pots from building sites. You will find just a ton of pots at building sites -condo sites are best- when they are doing the landscaping. You just need to clean them up, make sure you don't end up with some undesirable mould.

pieterje, that's a great idea. We have so many condo developments coming up here!

What size is a #1 pot (sorry for my ignorance)?

Lakshmi

#1 = 1 gallon (they come square or round)
#2 = 2 gallons
#3 = 3 gallons

I have a huge plant sale every May just before the long weekend. I've been holding it for six years now and it has become bigger and busier every year.
I have an acre of extensive gardens and begin to pot up divisions from it in March. Most are potted into 3" pots and grown on until the sale. I have a 10x16 greenhouse I get things going in, then move out to a large coldframe after a couple weeks. Start filling up the GH again, empty out the coldframe into a holding area outside and keep up the cycle until sale time. Last year I had over 2000 perennials, mostly 3" pots, some 6 and 8, some 1 gallon. I have some shrubs and vines also, a few little trees etc. I don't thnk I've ever charged more than $5 for anything. The small pots are a dollar.
Everything sells in 6 hours! It is quite insane here for a few hours as people arrive in droves. The first year I was half afraid no one would come as I live 25 miles out in the country but at 7:30 in the morning the road was lined with cars and it has just got bigger every year.
I also open my garden for people to tour.

People bring me tons of pots and flats, during the sale and thruout the year. I use a mixture of munincipal compost, ProMix I've bought on sale and perlite or vermiculite as potting mix. I advertise with flyers, ads in the local paper and now have an email mailing list as well.

All the perennials sell well but people especially ask for hostas and want my fringed leaf bleeding hearts, pasque flowers, solomens seal and whole flats of ground covers.
I label with popsicle sticks I buy in bulk boxes in the States (I live minutes from the border). I price by size and made a large sign stating prices. I've made large ID cards over the years with plant info and pictures or photos and clothespin it to a flat.
I might be the one Sammyqc referred to as selling on the honour system as well. During the rest of the summer, I have a cute little cart I fill with plants at the end of my drive with a can for leaving money and making change.
I've never had anyone take plants without leaving money. Last summer, the county closed the next road over and routed traffic by my house for 6 weeks. I did especially well with all the new people who had never seen my cart before. :)

"Last year I had over 2000 perennials"

Wow - that's really impressive! Here I'm sweating over a few hundered! :-)

Seems like shade plants do really well everywhere.

Lakshmi

We hold a plant sale each year. I kind of started out selling extra plants that I had started over the winter. I found that the selection and quality of plants available at the local stores was not the greatest. In my opinion, "we" seem to be going for price over quality.

We put a lot of effort into growing a wide variety of seeds. It would take a whole growing season before I was happy enough to sell them the next year. The request for more varieties that we didn't have kept coming.

My dream is to one day open a garden centre. I love the opportunity to speak with fellow gardeners and the exchange of ideas and expereinces. Nothing is better than helping someone identify a problem they may be having. I also enjoy seeing the excitement and reactions over our plants.

Having the plant sale allows us to change up our beds. We may leave a couple plants in the beds for 2-3 years and then decide to get rid of them. These seem to be our best sellers. Anything in a 2 to 3 gallon pot moves first.

Hostas are popular. I've had to try and source supplies for new cultivars. I find that the divisions are small, and though some people buy them, an extra years growth makes a much better plant.

Most of our plants are in either a 1 or 2 gallon pot. We are known especially for our cannas. Typically, they are priced at $5/pot or 3/$12. The number of stalks ranges from 2 to 5, depending on the quality of the tuber and sometimes the cultivar. Some of the higher demand or more expensive cultivars could be as much as $10. The availability and quality really fluctuates from year to year. For example, I ordered 25 Canna 'Australia'. !8 of them were nothing more than a black mush by the time I received them. The ones that were good had the smallest eyes that I have ever seen on a canna.

What we try to do now, is work on plants for the next year. In addition to potting up plants for this year's sale, we are also looking at dividing or buying stuff that we know we will plant in our beds and grow for this year. Next year, it should be ready to sell.

wow lots of great ideas!i too do a sale usually the last week of May(SAT)i advertise it as a plantsale and garden open house .i supply coffee and tim bits in the greenhouse .I have a few friends who come help as things get very busy in the morning .i group plants of the same variety together in wide rows in the yard and have the smaller 4" one in trays on tables.i will also divide some things if someone sees something they really want and it has sold out (this saves on pots as i use grocery bags for these)I find i get repeat customers each year.most people love a deal..LOL.i am also in the country like Windyacre and the cars really do line the road .For pricing i use window blinds with a spot of spray paint with different colors indicating the price(gold -$5.oo,silver $4.oo ect.I put on my very pink flower shaped posters that pots and trays are welcome and people love to get rid of them .have fun with it we do ...

We just had our first sale this past weekend, Saturday only. I would have liked to have been able to continue on Sunday but we ran our of salable product. Couldn't believe how well Dicentra spectabilis sold for us. Again. We divided one of ours earlier this spring and ended up with 5 one gallon and 2 two gallon pots. The ones went for 6 bucks, the twos for 10. SOLD OUT. And yes, it sure helped they were flowering. Promptly took some of our earnings and got 7 more from Costco for 14 bucks for next year. They all went into 2 gallon pots, you do the math.......it's how we support our obsession.