If the nursery is donating 25 and you can sell more, why not ask what their price would be if you bought some additional. Yes, you won't make as much profit, but you should make some.

Sorry, I don't grow 'hangers', but I do sell several tomato plants for Mother's Day, big ones that look like patio planters.

Marla

What an outstanding community project. We have not grown hangers for several years but when we were doing it we used wire framed baskets with some sort of fiberous lining (for the love of me I can not remember what it was). Timing was the hardest part - we worked back from the sale date and started the plants accordingly. We transplanted them into 606's and let them size an start to bud. Once they did that (hopefully about 2 weeks before the sale) we transplanted into the baskets. The plants were big enough that they full and were transplanted to give nice full pots. We hung the baskets in the greenhouse and kept them well watered and fertilized. When everything worked out the flowers were full and blooming for the sale. Unfortunatly timing was always problem - for us it was not a big deal as we also sold them from the farm so we took the best and held the others for sale later. We transitioned out of growing flowers into vegies (now we are not growing any plants for the general public just ourselves and a couple of other growers that contract with us). I am sure that there are many others here that are much more experienced with growing baskets than I so I hope they chime in.

Tom

Thanks for the reply Marla,
Even buying at cost is cost prohibitive. The PW grower in NH and my local hook up are 11 bucks a whack at cost. Any money i spend on the sale I have to front. And I try to limit that. Plus the more I front the more I have to take from what I raise from the hospital...
Your Toms sound awesome! I aspire to that too some day!

Tom, Thank you. it's a labor of love.( and in May it's a labor of insanity LOL) This is the 3rd year. It Ends tomorrow. 1st yr we did 3,000 next year we did $10500. And it looks like we did that or slightly better this year, I'll know Tomorrow night
Do I have enough equipment to do this? How do you know when to start? Are there easier/faster plants I can use for this then the petunia/verbinum/calibrocia?
I am a rank amateur with a slightly green thumb who is awed by you people who do this for realz!!

Even a profit of $14 is better than not that sale at all. I would buy some AFTER some of the donated ones sold. I'm sure the hospital would understand the expenses involved to make more.

I know from experience you could get some impatiens in the flats and create your own baskets. Maybe take orders for the colors that people want.

Marla