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cammiepaul

Digging up Plants!!!

cammiepaul
15 years ago

My mother is not able to take care of her flower beds anymore. In a couple of weeks a neighbor is going to bring a backhow and take out all of her flowers and sow grass seed. She is on a fixed income and she is going to place a sign at the road and sell the flowers and bulbs. How much should we charge for her flowers? The following is a list of what she has....

1. Spiderwort - pink, purple, blue

2. Bearded Iris - Purple, Yellow, White

3. Dutch Iris - Purple

4. Easter Rose

5. Ginger Lillies

6. Hosta

7. Day Lillies - Orange, White, Yellow, several name ones

8. Helleborus

Many, many other things.

Thanks in advance, Cam

Comments (5)

  • DYH
    15 years ago

    Cam,

    If there are collector's varieties among those, then you can charge more. The hellebores, hostas, daylilies and bearded iris are probably going to be the most interesting for potential buyers.

    Have you looked at eBay to see what the prices are there? I'm a plant retailer and can guess at some prices for you, but you'll probably need to sell slightly lower than retail prices in order to move the plants quickly.

    Do you think these will fit in 1 gallon or 3 gallon size pots? Since they've been in the ground awhile (assuming), then a shovel full is probably closer to 3 gallon. That's a large size that is difficult to come by at retail stores for perennials.

    The wholesale price on a hellebore is really expensive for a 1 gallon pot. Do you know what strain those are? colors? Swirling Skirts is VERY expensive compared to the "Lady" varieties.

    Daylily prices are all over the place. Same with hostas. Do you know if she has any special named varieties?

    If you don't have the names, then you'll probably want to just go with an average price by looking at the big box store nurseries for comparison. If you've got the names, drop me an email and I'll do a price lookup for you.

    Cameron

  • trianglejohn
    15 years ago

    This time of year plants are cheap - but, this time of year is when everyone is out there shopping for plants so it's your best time to sell.

    It all depends on if you want to make a lot of money or if you just want all the plants gone and make "some" money. If it was me, I would make a standard price across the board - like "X" dollars for a plastic shopping bag filled with plants and let people come dig them up themselves. Once you get a backhoe involved the plants are going to get so damaged that no one will want them.

    To keep things in perspective - my garden club just had its big annual spring azalea sale. They have thousands of plants left over and near the end of it all they were selling for a $1 a pot!!!!! They usually donate the left overs to Habitat for Humanity (which you could consider).

    Growing and plant, and Selling a plant are two completely different things.

  • cammiepaul
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    My sisters and I are planning on digging up the plants and bulbs before the backhoe gets there and putting them in pots. There is a greenhouse down the street from my moms and we have already covered him up with plants. This is what we were thinking about...

    1. Spiderwort - $2
    2. Bearded Iris - $2
    3. Dutch Iris - $2
    4. Easter Rose - $2
    5. Ginger Lilies - $2
    6. Hosta - $2
    7. Day Lilies - $2-$5
    8. Helleborus - $3

    Do you think that is to much, or not enough? The count will better than you get anywhere else. Left overs going to Habitat for Humanity is a really good idea. Yes, we want to make money, but we are not trying to make a killing. She lives in Duncan, SC and she said if you mention GardenWeb she will give you a really good deal. We just want the plants to go to a good home.

    Cam

  • tamelask
    15 years ago

    I think i'd charge more for the hellebores because they start so slow and premium plants are expensive. Much much slower than daylilies! The other prices seem cheap, but i guess if you want to move stuff fast that's ok. I think if it were me, i'd start a bit higher- like maybe $4 for most, 6-8 for premium- you can always lower it if stuff isn't selling, but you can't raise it. Plus, some people will probably want to dicker and you want to leave room for that (and for GW discounts). At the prices you said, there's barely any room to move down w/o just giving them away. You want to pay for your hard work, too. If they're shovel/3-5 gallon size, that seems fair, ok very cheap even at $4, to me for price. I also like john's idea of dig yourself- that could cut down on your work significantly. BTW, what's easter rose?

    I've bought stuff at habitat before and i think that's a wonderful idea. I wish i lived closer so i could stop by more often to ck and see if they had something in.

  • Dibbit
    15 years ago

    I would agree with Tammy, that's a very cheap price for large plants, and leaves you with no "wiggle" room. Bump the prices up a bit, is my thought. You can always lower the price after, say, 2PM. I work part time at a nursery - one gallon hellebores sell retail for $7.95.

    Have you thought of advertising - a BIG push to get the most people? See if your local newspaper, or Craigslist, or one of the other freeby papers has an inexpensive ad section, and put in a small ad to draw the customers. This does assume that you will have enough plants for a hundred or so people - you may well get them!

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