I have done this with food and the mark up over the price you have to get is generally 25%. So if you need to get $1 for a plant the nursery will sell it for $1.25 and you get the dollar and they keep the 25¢.

keep a log of what you bring in and subtract from that what sold and from that you can figure out what the nursery owes you at the end of the week

It's pretty simple to do.

But then who is responsible for the care and maintenance of the plants until they are sold?

I do not think you will make it doing the consignment thing. The best bet is to get back to where you once were. Repair the greenhouses. Plant your own flats with veggie and flowers and herbs.Order your spring supplies such as mulch-straw-fertilizer,etc.). Were the greenhouses insured? Maybe--if it is a large well established nursery you could find a investor to bail you out with some cash and offer them a part ownership?

Don't know why, but for some reason I just got 2 responses to something I posed a year and a half ago. So, I'll update what has happened since I posted this. The nursery never got into selling plants on consignment. We did try the swap meet thing for awhile, but that didn't work out either. The man I worked for lost the nursery and the prior owner took it back. Unfortunately, he was no longer interested in trying to continue to run it as a nursery and it has been up for sale since. It is so sad to see it now -- weeds growing everywhere it what was an unbelievably well landscaped area. If it were much nearer town and had acreage to grow dahlias on, I really would have tried to find financing to buy it myself. But, it is about 6 miles from the population and not on a real busy road, so that just isn't practical. It would cost a lot to rebuild the greenhouses that went down in the snow. (And by the way, at least in the state of Washington there is no insurance company that will insure greenhouses for ice and snow). In addition,there just aren't many independent nurseries that can compete with the big stores now. I feel I could as a speciality nursery, but with the biggest income being from mail order.

sorry to hear that it went out of business. We have a greenhouse that is 12 miles outside of town. What he does is to be a vendor at several farmers markets. It's been working for him. Of course, I don't know how much money he makes, but he keeps at it.

Marla

I think that is a great idea i have designed a new plant of sort and would love to get it advertised if interested i would send some pictures of the start up it will look great this spring i would love to consign my product