I'm not quite sure what you are saying. You draw up the plans but don't plant the containers? If you're going after an upscale or commercial client, they aren't going to want to bother with finding the plants or actually planting them. I suggest you offer the whole package. You can also offer maintenance, where you come by as needed to water and trim and perhaps change out the annual flowers seasonally.

Sorry, let me clarify! The container part of the business I do install. This is residential at this point, so the homeowners maintain during the growing season.

For gardens that go beyond the scope of patios and containers, i.e., in-the-ground, I am drawing up plans and handing off to the homeowner.

I am interpreting your post to mean that IN ADDITION to container design/planting, you are sometimes asked to do a garden design with a drafted plan. No installation involvement.

Avoiding installation is not necessarily a problem. I do design only (well, just a few, very tiny installations plus planted container design) and it is not an uncommon practice in my area. But there are some things you should be aware of.

First, when designing for do-it-yourselfers, there is a very strong likelihood the design will never fully resemble what you intended. Don't take it personally - it is afterall the homeowners' garden and they will amend/install as they see fit and their credit cards allow. And sometimes, for whatever reason, your design will never materialize at all - I seem to have had several clients recently that wound up in the unemployment line (fortunately after paying me) and who knows when they'll be able to afford to implement the plan I did, if ever. These are also not great candidates for inclusion in the portfolio, btw, although there are sufficient DIY clients serious enough about the project and follow it to the letter to make it all worthwhile. I will access plants for these clients at their request and they are purchased at wholesale and marked to retail, which is pretty typical. I will also help them stage the planting if they wish, at my usual hourly rate.

I also design for clients who prefer to have the plan installed by professionals, either their own or ones that I have recommended. In these cases, the contractors bid the job in its entirety - they purchase everything - but I retain oversight of the installation to insure it is done according to plan and specs. It's a big help to have a good relationship with a few reliable and experienced contractors whose work you know well. Oversight is then reduced to a couple of quick site visits to review progress and to make sure everything is proceeding on schedule. This is written into the contract at the outset and again, is billed at my hourly fee.

The only problem that I see in what you are trying to do, Hotpots, is a marketing one. Design only is going to limit who wants to pay for your services. Most people in the less than $100k landscape range want to do one stop shopping for design and installation while those above are probably not going to hire a person that is not a full time professional designer with a portfolio of that type of work. Since this is in addition to your container business, that might not be a big deal to you.

Selling the plants directly to the client is again a marketing thing if the client is looking for a contractor to install them. Obviously, the contractor makes his living by selling materials and services. When confronted with the choice of selling only services to your client or selling goods and services to someone else, he would be foolish not to do the other job instead. That leaves your clients a little high and dry.

There is one other problem if you are selling materials to DIY clients. That is that you will have to very carefully word your contract as far as what your guaranty policy is, what your return policy is, and payment policy. There was an interesting thread about consumers with return policy mentalities recently.

OK, hotpots, now I understand. I think there is definitely a market for drawing up landscape plants for the DIYer. I have several friends who are looking for just such a service. Good luck to you!

Thanks everyone for your responses. I think that I will be able to find contractors who will do the installation and allow me to supervise. I gather from the people I've talked to so far that some will hire another firm to install and some will want to DIY. And I definitely plan not to guarantee the plants if I am not planting myself.

Thank you all so much for the good advice!