Anyway, I was thinking that maybe I could do a ONE DAY ONLY kind of introductory sale in my driveway some Saturday in a week or two (if it stops raining, that is!) I live in a middle class subdivision that seems to have its share of garage sales etc. I am just wondering if anyone had any ideas of how to advertise it or set it up to make it visible/professional and successful? I am not in a position to sell at a Farmer's Market or to a store or anything....I work fulltime and do this on the side.
BTW, the flowers include lots of kinds of roses, lilies, daisies, perennials and annuals that are blooming.
Thanks everyone for any help you might give me! :0) Phyl

That is all that occurs to me right now, but I am trying to encourage my sister to start her business in much the same way, so will be interested in others ideas.

Instead of selling from your subdivision driveway, why don't you think about starting at an antique store? With online auctions, some antique stores that are not located in antique malls are really in sad shape in a lot of places. Look for one with a lot of glassware - i.e. vases and vessels to use as vases. You don't want the one with the $20,000 mahogany breakfronts!

Make them a creative offer. I don't know your business, but I would guess you have some artistic bend...am I right? You may have to inflate it a bit when you talk to the proprietor, but why not offer them a class for their customors in "Shabby Chic flower arranging". The benefit to the store owner is they would get more traffic because you'd be advertising the event and it would be a special event they could advertise. You could also use their wares for your demonstrations. And you could really do some cool stuff, I imagine, and possibly sell the finished products, your flowers & the vase.

There are a million ways to do this. Seems like using 'Shabby Chic' would draw in a certain type of person who would prefer an informal arrangement,,,but if you change the antique store to a different kind of antique store -- say one that has more of a country feel, you change your class to "Cottage Flower arranging". Or say one who sells antiques with a few reproductions and also more expensive antiques, it would change to "Williamsburg flower arranging" It doens't make any difference - LOL! The REAL object of the game is to find a store owner you love and who loves you. I'm thinking you could set up a sort of French open air market in front of their store on nice days -- using those french floral buckets on a wheeled stand. Maybe they would actually SELL your flowers for you. Or buy your flowers to sell themselves. It would have to be a fairly busy place,,,at least with walking traffic. Near ice cream stores, Starbucks, Trader Joe's, that kind of thing.

If this is not your style, then think about what is your style ...Gingham? Organic? Healing Crystals? Just find a store, library, art museum, historical center, botanical garden, living history museum, church, whatever, and find your niche to get your name and product out where people can see you.

If you're not opposed to people calling you for flowers or even picking them up from your home, look for public places to hold your flower arranging classes...the public library, public park systems, and the local high schools all have classes, both free and for a fee. You could put something together, talk about your business, talk to people about when and where your flowers will be for sale, have flyers or business cards to hand out..extras for their friends. Offer your specialty -- arranging your flowers in their priceless vessels or possibly doing it at their homes if you're willing. (I realize for some people it's the gardening/farming aspect and for others it's the design element...these are just examples -- just sell what you're good at)

Public parks and libraries sounds sort of low-end, so choose municipalities where you think the residents have some extra cash for things like fresh flowers, people to whom $75.00-$100.00 for a flower arrangement is sort of middle of the road figure might be good customers. (and also target places where they don't have room for growing their own... and if not room, per se, then in manicured &/or gated neighborhoods where a lot of blooming flowers would be sort of frowned upon.)

Get email addresses wherever you go! Make people sign a sign up sheet for any class you give, any-anything you do, and get those email addys! Then, 5 days before an event, or your sale, or whatever, email them the information. Set up a small website and have a newsletter / event calendar. A lot of people don't know what Agrostemma is, and if you grow it, you need to have a picture up! A way to do this is to tell people it will be ready "in two weeks" or whatever, and if they don't know what it is, say, "Oh, it's gorgeous -- lasts forever in a vase -- you MUST see it. Give me your email addy and I'll send you the picture." Of course, when you email them, just send them the link to your website with the picture on it. AND add the email addy to your list!

If you wanted to sell from home, have a set day where people can roll up and get their flowers fresh. Even if it's only the 2nd Saturday of the month, make it EVERY 2nd Sat of the month during the growing season. Print that date on your flyers or business cards and at the bottom of every email and say it in about every third sentence in your classes.

Farmer's Markets are fine and dandy, but they look like too much work to me! Sometimes the people working them (around in these parts) rarely smile and don't look like they are having fun at all. They just look hot & tired. I want to have fun choosing my bouquet and admiring their flowers. Ya know what else I'd like? To buy a bouquet and be able to add some super-duper stems to sort of make it my own. So buy a base bouquet and be able to add a variety of stems of my own choosing for extra money. Only 4 different add-on varieties would be enough. Love those giant purple/plum/lilac zinnias. Despise that millet or grass plume stuff. And the floppy faded-red stuff that looks like wilted ragweed. Yuck! LOL!

I have more ideas, but I think that's all I'd better write for now!

Lime

I'm hoping you will do me a big favor and give me some ideas.

I also live in a middle class suburban neighborhood. We have a subdivision Garage Sale twice a year, in Spring and late summer/fall. One woman sells her extra plants in the spring and does fairly well. (Even with putting the plants in plastic bags). I have thought of doing this with my extra Daylilies, but have never managed to find the time when the Garage Sale comes around (I'm so busy in the garden at that time and I work). Once I went to a City plant trade, and found it almost impossible to trade my Very Nice Daylilies. Pictures and some fast talking finally did the trick.

Anyway, what I want to say is that I would love to do the Daylily Sale and a Bouquet sale at the same time. I do not have a cutting garden and would greatly appreciate it if you could give me a few hints of what you grow to make your bouquets since you are in the same zone as me.
In the spring I guess it would be mostly the bulb flowers, but what would you suggest for the late summer/early fall?

Also, I loved the idea of your portable 'vases'. Were did you find plastic cups with lids? Gordon Food Service maybe? What size cups? How many flowers are you putting in each cup?

I'd like to try this at least once. :o)
Sharon

There are so many flowers that could be grown for this. And taste changes in different areas. If everyone grows masses of a certain flower in their landscaping, then chances are it will be seen as "too common" and no one will buy them from you. Also, you will want to use some flowers that really call attention to themselves and then you will want some fillers that are pretty but not hard to grow, to give it a nice fluffy look. SOme of the flowers that many of us grow are snaps, glads, zinnias, asters, lilies and roses, ammi majus or ammi visnaga, sunflowers, dahlias. Those are just a small sample. Roses and lilies often have a starring role in the mid summer bouquets. And you will want some kind of greenery too, whether it is native ferns, ornamental grasses or shrubbery clippings. YOu can find a look that is all your own and if others like it they will buy them. Price your flowers at a fair market price, and learn about conditioning them...that is what makes your flowers last longer and convince people that your bouquets are better then the neighbor down the street, who just jams some flowers in a jar and sells them for twice the price. Good luck!