I currently live in a southern state and find there is a year-round demand for large pieces of quality clay and concrete, as well as statuary and fountains. I would also like to offer high end metalworks/wooden pergolas, arbors. It is not my intention to sell retail.

My concern is weatherizing containers-is it a problem and therefore cutting the demand? It seems like pieces that are "frost-proof"(limestone, granite, etc) are prohibitively expensive.

A friend in Connecticut who is a landscape designer says there is not a demand for containers. I looked around in her area and just didn't find any large pots/planters(36"H x 24"D or larger)Anyone out there have input?

It is the architect, interior designer, and landscape architect doing the selecting and marking up on the product. We all get an unbelievable amount of direct marketing materials sent to us and there is no shortage of high end container, pots, and planter manufacturers whooing us with catalogs and wholesale pricing. That takes away any incentive the designer has to go to or send a client to a residence to pay more for a limited choice of materials.

The retail customer is also going to expect to find these items at garden centers and other more familiar places. In fact, a lot of garden centers do offer a wide assortment of containers.

Garden centers have a greater volume of customers and their overhead is shared by all of the services and products sold. That means that they can most likely sell at lower prices than you can.

The first thing you have to ask yourself is "where is someone going to look for the service or product that I am trying to sell at the particular moment that they are likely to buy it?". If you honestly think that you can position your home business to be right where someone would look when needing these products, go ahead. "at the moment they are likey to buy" is an important thing to remember. They may not remember the lovely full color ad in the paper or direct mail you sent a month before when they had zero interest in these.

I just don't see any retail customer going to the yellow pages looking for pots, or containers, or planters. They will most likely start by going to a garden center and more and more to the internet. The architects, interior designers, and landscape architects are more likely going to go right around you and buy directly from your suppliers who spend more time looking for us than we do looking for them.

That is how I see it, but that is just my perception and not based on statistical evidence.

They sell wholesale to other designers and some smaller garden centers. I realize that most professionals can order direct, but find there is a 6-8 week delivery or a high minimum. They will also sell retail through referral, but they do not market to retail consumer.They have a web site and don't break up nested sets.

Thanks for the input, still doing a lot of research.