Starting A Small Nursery part 2

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This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series Starting A Small Nursery

Already had some interest in this subject so here we go. We had about two months before the layoff so we decided to pursue the nursery idea. Got lucky and sold our house within ten days, cash and get out in 30 days. That meant find a house for the property, find a contractor to put in runners for a mobile and get it moved and livable within that 30 days. In the mean time I started doing my research for the nursery plan. Back then (1988) there was no internet, at least not for us yet. This meant that research was done by actually getting off my butt and going to nurseries, big and small. I remember walking into a bunch of nurseries and politely asking the owner or manager how to plan for a nursery. This was the only way I could think of to get information at the time, ask someone who was in the business how you could compete with them. I would always tell them I was going to be 200 miles away and a few of them opened up. Folks in this industry seem to almost always be ready to help someone else in the business or at least willing to share some horror stories to prepare you for what you are going to experience. I will do a series on horror stories some time.

I finally ran across a fuchsia grower in Marysville Wa. (that’s where we lived too) who kind of felt sorry for us and started giving us tips on what we could expect and basically telling us how the industry worked.  The first thing he did was give me the name of a plant broker, WEHOP. That one thing alone launched our nursery. Sure we could have moved down to the beach and planted some marigold seeds and some carnations but we would have been out of business in a year or two. With the name of a broker though we opened ourselves up to a business that had years of experience in the industry and was able to help keep us from making some of the costlier mistakes. They do make money from each plug you buy through them but you still pay them only what the grower would charge you. The broker makes most of their profit by getting volume discounts from the growers.

That same fuchsia grower mentioned a local nursery supply outfit. We went up to see what they had as far as pots and soil and chemicals and ended up leaving after buying a 20′x100′ greenhouse for delivery to the beach the day we were to move down there. The nursery supply house is another great resource. They have knowledge ranging from greenhouse structures and greenhouse coverings to potting soils  and even the chemicals you will need for your everyday operation. If you think about it they sell everything needed to start and run a nursery. You can’t find a better resource than that.  If you are serious about starting a nursery make the time to go and meet with one of the sales reps at your closest nursery supply place , even if it means a drive of a few hours. If you have a large supply house in your are they will send out a rep. Let this rep. know that you are in contact with another supply house,  he or she may not be so quick to just sell sell sell you stuff. If they think you will turn into a long term customer they will treat you right. Do however check pricing with other supply houses from time to time just to keep your rep honest. I have dealt with a couple of different medium sized nursery suppliers and find that over time they keep nudging up prices on you, sometimes the bump up is not warranted but  they feel they have you on a short leash. If you can form a good relationship though you will never have a better ally. They only make money if you make money, so you’re success is one of their goals.

Okay you have a broker and a nursery supplier now what?

Research  Your broker has sent you 25 pounds catalogs from every grower they represent. Read them. Cover to cover. Look at what they have to offer,in what amounts and at what price. The quality of a grower kind of takes care of itself. If a grower has constant complaints a broker will drop them in a heartbeat.The better growers grow bigger and what you end up with is what we have today. There are probably 10 big nationwide growers that grow mostly the patented plants,like Proven Winners for example. Google proven winners, you will find 1,440,000 sites with information on them. If you deal with one of these growers through your broker you already have an established product line. One that almost every gardener already knows. This helps to move product. (yes even flowers and veggies are product, sorry to say)

After the big growers come the hundreds of  local and regional wholesale and wholesale/retail growers. You probably have one or two around you. Ask your broker then go meet them. These folks grow stuff that is more  suitable for your area. These folks sell to the public and local nurseries both so they really have their finger on the pulse of the local needs and requirements.

The greenhouse supplier also sent you some catalogs. Study them. Even the stuff you know you will never need. You just might.

Okay my typing finger is getting tired, more in a couple of days.

Starting A Small Nursery

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This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series Starting A Small Nursery

I’ve had a request to start the series on starting a small nursery so here it is. I plan to write this series with all of it’s warts just the way I got started in the nursery business. As you know by now I am not afraid to do just about anything as far as business goes. I didn’t used to be that way. As a machinist I was a very quiet  9 to 5 person that went along to get along. Boy has that changed. The nursery industry has changed my life completely. I used to wonder how to get some overtime so that we could take the next vacation. Seems like that’s all there was to work for. Raise our daughter,Amy and work toward a chance to get out of town for a few days.

Being a machinist I was used to getting laid off about once a year so there was never a real chance to get ahead. Then my former wife went to work in a huge wholesale nursery. She worked there part time a few days a week for about 5 months. After a few weeks she started bring home some of the plants they would throw out that weren’t good enough to ship to their customers (yes there was a time when you only shipped out your best,imagine that). This stuff started piling up and I went out to help move it from place to place every other day. Then I spotted some carnations she had brought home. That’s where it all started for me. I love the smell of a real carnation. I pampered these plants pruned the dead off of them fertilized them and smelled them,a lot. I got to the point that I couldn’t wait to get home to mess with all the plants in the back yard. Long story short, by the end of the first summer we had a flowering basket hanging from every rafter tail on our house, front and back both. We had scraped up enough for a small down payment on a 10 acre piece of property in Long Beach Wa. we though it would be a great place to go on weekends and there was a small old rental house on the property to make the payments. Well within 6 months I had gotten laid off again and we decided we would move to the beach and try our hands at a nursery. We had a combined total of about 7 months of plant experience how could this idea not work?

It did. More Tomorrow.

It’s Like Waiting For Christmas

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Here we are a three weeks into the new year. Lots of tomato starts up as well as a newer pansy variety (plentifall mix, trailing pansy) already seeded and sprouting. We’re waiting for our first plug delivery only 6 days away. Waiting for plugs to a nursery person is like Christmas to an 8 year old. All of the plans, orders and dreams made back in September of last year will begin coming to light this week. It’s like the nurseryman/nurserywoman experiences a rebirth every year at this time. A new chance to repopulate our local environment  with another batch of amazing flowers.

First I need to make room for my flats and baskets in a clean greenhouse (the clean part took 2 days). Then start filling the flats for the incoming plugs. 25 pots to a flat 4 flats equal 100 plants. First shipment is 932 plants of trailing petunias. Also the same day an order of Begonias, Fuchsias and Lewisia. That’s 37 flats for the petunias alone.

Above are the first flats for the Calibrachoa’s. This is where an old dog learns a new trick. After filling this many flats with soil so that I can get the Cali’s off to a good start I realize that I am going to use 3 bales of $30 soil. That’s .096 cents per pot worth of soil.These bales are costing more and shrinking every year. It used to cost right around 5 cents to fill a pot. This is where the new trick part comes in.( I’m the old dog by the way)

Screw it, I’m going to plant directly into the baskets this year. I used to do it this way years ago but fell into the habit of starting in 3 1/2″ pots over the years and like a crappy bank I have stuck with it. Well I now have a nice local bank that I can put the money that I save on soil into. I emptied all of those pots into baskets and will plug directly into them.

This method will save some money but has some of it’s own problems. When you have a larger mass of soil it stays wet longer thereby giving those tender rooted cuttings more of a chance to rot. I will water in the baskets this week so that they will have a chance to settle in and let the top dry slightly. Then when I plant the plugs I can water in each basket lightly. This will help me control the dampness (I thinks that’s a word) in the top couple of inches of soil. I will incorporate a fungicide into the first watering to help stave off any fungal disease. Then it’s a matter of keeping the air moving constantly in the greenhouses. I use a box fan at each end blowing in opposite directions.

I have been guilty of saving money on heat and over the last couple of years I have paid for it by having my production slowed greatly. I am used to running the greenhouse temps at night between 50 and 55 degrees. After talking to the begonia expert at my supplier I plan to hold 60 to 65 this year. He says the begonias will jump out of the pots at 65. We’ll See.

Echeveria and Sedum Ogon Starts

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I hadn’t planned to use this blog for selling my wares but have had a few emails asking about some of my plant starts. I have quite a few Echeveria Snow White starts in 4″ pots available. These starts will have pups by this summer so if you have patience you can have a whole grove of these to sell by this late summer and every year after. I am selling sell these starts here for $5 plus shipping . The 6″, some with pups already are $10 plus shipping.

I started with one of these years ago and now sell  60 to 75 a year for $3.50 and $7.00 at the market. These Echeveria get beautiful yellow flowers on 6″ stems several times in the summer and into the fall. These plants are frost tolerant but I recommend to my customers that they take them indoors for the winter.

Echeveria 4" and 6"Below are the Sedun Ogon. Same pricing. with these 4 inch you will be able to start around 25 plants this year. You simply break off a few short branches and stick them on top of some 4″ pots and let them go. When they get leggy you cut them back to the pot and plant up all of your cuttings. Very easy plant. The color of the foliage is covered with tiny yellow flowers in the late spring summer and fall.  This Sedum is hardy to zone 7. Even when it freezes to the ground it comes back in zones 7, 8 and 9.Another really easy seller. Great rock garden plant or used in a Sedum combo bowl. I drop a couple of branches of this into my Zonal Geranium patio planters. By summer they are trailing a few inches.

The 6″ pots here were shifted up from 4″ pots in September. They are very compact right now due to the cold greenhouse they are in. When they start to take off over the sides you will have about a dozen starts for 4″ pots. It’s a vicious cycle and just continues to pay off.

Like I said I hadn’t planned to sell anything here but if you want some of these I can take paypal. Who knows, if these sell maybe I will sell some plain greenhouse pots like I use. I’m pretty sure I can sell them for about half of what some of the greenhouse supply places sell them for and still make a little profit.  thanks  Steve.

 

My Plant and Plug Orders For 2012

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Here’s some pretty dry information about ordering plugs for my upcoming season.

Above is an order confirmation for some Calibrachoa plugs. 932 of them.  I left out the pricing  but this is a typical order. I placed the order in Sept of 2011 for 1-30-2012. The broker is Wehop and the plug supplier is Fessler Nursery. They are a large plug grower for our area.  You can see that the plugs come either 72 or 100 to a tray. These are all intended for baskets so most of them will be planted into 3 1/2″ pots for the first 6 weeks or so until they get a good root system.They will be ready to go into baskets then. I will usually plant them 4 or 5 to a basket. The trixi-liners are a liner that is bigger and has 3 different colors in it.  They use sets of 3 of the most popular combinations in a trixi-liner.

The cost for these trixis is about two and a half times the cost of a regular plug. With these I plant three into a 12″ basket and put a white Magadi lobelia into the center of the basket. These were a very good seller last year. Added to the cost of the individual plug, which is 56 cents each this year, you also have to add 4 cents for royalty fee and 5 cents for the plant tag that goes into each pot. So for 932 plugs I am in about $900 plus $12 shipping. Based on 4 plugs to a basket i will end up with 233 baskets out of this one order.

Above is an order for fuchsia starts and begonia liners as well as some lewisia liners. 922 plants total also for delivery on 1-30-2012.

The fuchsias will go into combo baskets and the begonias are mostly the trailing varieties and will go into baskets too.This will add 150 baskets to my plan for the year. Begonias are a little tricky to grow and will rot off at the base but if you grow them dry enough and have good air movement in the greenhouse you will do alright. These begonias also require some additional lighting until mid March. The pic below is 3 fuchsia starts one Bacopa and a lobelia in the center that winds through the whole basket.

Fuchsia Combo