Derek...

Two main reasons for larger containerrs @ nurseries

1. Many people want *instant gratification*. They don't want to have to wait for the plants to grow to a reasonable size, but they want it instantly

2. Sometimes, while the same size plant might have been sold in the smaller pots a few years back, some folkks seemed to get the bright idea that if they potted them up into larger containers, they could sell them for the higher price.

Mark-

I love this comment Mark "some folkks seemed to get the bright idea that if they potted them up into larger containers, they could sell them for the higher price."

Reminds me of how really out of it people can be, oblivious to the world around them and to reality that is right in front of them.

Like some the people I sell my crafts to at craft shows.

I friends daughter was helping me out at a show several years ago and had been telling me about her math class.
We where interrupted by a customer who was complaining that my price was "too high" on an item and she wouldn't pay $2.50 for it but would pay $1.50.
I said thank you but would not lower the price.

Anyways, my daughter's friend continued explaining to me how her 10th grade math teacher was showing them how department stores, grocery stores played with math and tricked the consumer into believing that they where getting a bargain on the price they where paying for something, when if fact it was just a manipulation of the numbers and they really weren't paying any less but rather the usual price.

Then she showed me exactly what she meant. She changed the price tags on the $2.50 merchandise and put a sign that said 2/$5.00.

I looked at her as if she was crazy and she said watch this. Sure enough, the lady that wouldn't pay $2.50 for one of these, came back and bought 6 of them and actually thanked me for lowering the price.

As this young lady said "it's just manipulation of the numbers that make it look cheaper or more expensive, and the gullible consumer that falls for the tricks of the numbers.

With plants now, the right shaped pot, even if they are larger than they used to be, can make a plant look bigger than it is, etc. and the consumer will fall for the appearance.

It's the old don't judge a book by it's cover, or don't let the eyes deceive you, that applies with the plants. and don't let those numbers fool you either.

Sounds like an astute teacher to me!!!

There is another main reason for larger pots. So retailers will buy them!
As a retailer, I know that my small 4" cups take a lot of manpower to hold on the shelves until purchased. Since the roots often get bound, they need so much watering as the temps soar, then if nobody buys it, we need to constantly trim it to keep it looking good and then have to either size it up ourselves or discount it - and the discounted price may cover our cost for the original purchase, but not the cost of caring for it.
So if I can get smaller perennials in larger containers I know that it will look great for the whole summer. It will be easier to care for and also easier to sell because it looks healthy (and so it is!!).

GGG

i've also noticed the price hikes. i work in a whole sale nursery and we are keeping the prices the same as always. smart thinking as people will still buy from us rather than going to the higher priced nurseries. we must consider the fact that soil prices have risen because the cost of fuel to run the equipment to move it around. my husband brought this to my attention when i said its the same soil thats been sitting there but it's not really. they have to put fuel in the big machines that load the soil in our trucks. i was mad that the soil i usually purchased at $21 a yard is now $26 a yard. the soil delivered to us at work went up $200 a load. we get about $2000 worth in one load. also, the delivery trucks that bring the items pots, baskets, liners have all had to raise prices because of fuel costs. so it looks like we are in a lose/lose situation. i've quit driving my new truck because of fuel and driving my old geo just to save a few bucks. i think its wonderful we can grow our plants from seeds and cuttings to save on money. we just have to be patient and wait to get the full grown look.

I took up gardening as a hobby this year. Smart or lucky. It will save my family hundreds of dollars in produce cost this year and years into the future.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's garden adventure!

There's a way to get around the sticker shock. If it's someting like echinacea, sedum, daylilies, or black eyed susan, you could divide the entire plant when you get home into two or maybe three! 2 or three good plants for 10.00 isn't bad and they'll fill in nicely. On the other hand, a small plant in a large pot is not a bargain.

Last year WalMart, I think had 1/2 gallon digitalis in full bloom 15.00 each they looked impressive enough I almost bought one myself, but I restrained.
Although I never total what I spend on seed every year I know I am well over 150.00 this year. I cannot imagine how much those plants would be if I purchased individually grown ones. Yeah I have to wait a season for some of the perennials to flower, but I fill in with annuals till then.

Wow, 200.00 delivery charge and I was complaining about 50.00 from the guy 2 miles from the house so I am borrowing the neighbors trailers, my brothers pick up and hauling it myself. I also saw a small dump for rent at Home Depot of 40.00 for the day. I can haul alot in one day for 40.00 rental, no monthly payments or insurance.
I see more and more pre owned pick-ups for sale every day.

This year with my veggie garden, canning, Amish market and a stand up deep freeze I was given i will only buy this winter fresh veggies when I don't want frozen. I froze and canned enough fruit last season I still have some left over.

The way the economy is going time to go back to the Victory Gardens!

Busy Lizzy...I have done a little canning and freezing in past years, but this year, I too plan to go whole hog with it. Next year I should even do more as my various fruit will be more uihm...fruitful to freeze fruit and make jellies, etc.

I don't know that I'll have enough frozen veggies for entire winter, but I sure hope to defray at least SOME of the costs and save 20-25% of my food budget this winter.

clumsy you make a great suggestion. I remember when I first bought my house, I purchased 4 or 5 pots of Stellas for under $5 each and divided those into around 20 or 25 individual plants, and have since divided them 2 or 3 times more.

girlgroup...you are right...larger pots don't dry out as fast, but then...nearly triple the price for the larger pot...when the plant is perhaps 10% larger, is a bit...much.

Mark-

Yes, I too am shocked at the prices around here. I am so glad that I can still have a beautiful flower garden, and a bountiful harvest from my vegetable garden from wintersowing or direct sowing my plants. I couldn't afford gardens of this size otherwise.

Sinfonian, I love your site. I made the same self watering containers a few years ago too. You can see pictures of my containers in the link below. I removed the pvc pipe because pvc can leach chemicals into the water.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Frugal Home Gardener

This is my first year winter-sowing, but it should eventually save me hundreds of dollars or maybe more in the cost of nursery plants, in the long run. IF I could even find all of the plants I'm winter-sowing in nurseries or on-line.

Yes it will take a year or maybe three to get blooms on some of the plants, but that's okay. I enjoy watching the babies grow up. It took 5 years to see blooms on a very small Cornus Kousa given to my son in 3rd grade. But so satisfying when it finally happens!

This Spring and last, I also purchased tree & shrub seedlings from the NH Nursery in packs of 10 for $10.00. That's a buck apiece. Can't beat that, but again, it'll take a few years for them to put on some size, and get blooms.

On the other hand, there will be some larger plants or tools that I need, so I'll spend money at the nurseries too. Sometimes I want instant gratification, or a larger specimen, or will wait until fall and get several shrubs on discount.

I love ivy Geraniums for their habit of laying out of the pots or window boxes and also, and this is a big reason in my area, the bud worms don't attack the ivy type like they do the standard geraniums. This year I fell in love with one called Picasso so I spent the $ on them, $4 each. BUT! I winter them over in my garage and never have to rebuy any of them. These new ones will be mixed with the pretty pale pink ones I WSed about 4 years ago. I agree with you that the price of plants is very high and will likely go up. I spend about $80 in electricity over the winter to run my grow light set up in the garage but in the spring I have $400 worth of plants for containers and baskets that I don't have to re-buy. Even the Diamond Frost Euphorbia plants are $5 each in the store, I have 8 I kept alive under lights. Several years ago I bought an annual grass called Toffee Twist for one of my containers, it was $4. I have divided it and now have 4 of them that are three times the size of the original. So now the cost is only $1 each. I can live with that price. And the many plants I have wintersown, my goodness, they are too many to list. One I will mention is the bubble gum pink Hibiscus I WSed about 4 years ago. It gets 8' tall and will have about 80 blooms at one time. It is delicious eye candy! Love it!
trowelgal

Clumsygrdnr, that is exactly what I did last year. Bought myself a nice healthy sundown echinacea for $7.00 and divided it into 3 nice healthy plants. It came back beautifully this spring and divided it again into 9 plants each. I have lots of them now! Yay! I did the same thing with my heuchera's, iris, ferns, and even my butterfly bush. They are all coming back strong!

Also remember that you can buy ONE expensive 4in pot of things like geranium and sweet potato vine and then take cuttings and make lots of plants! I try to get to a greenhouse early in the season (like next week around here)and pick a really healthy full pot, then have cuttings looking like small plants by 4th of july for my pots.

This is my second year winter sowing and I find myself thinking twice before buying nursery plants now. I used to spend hundreds with most being impulse purchases every year. Now I plan out what I want to purchase (nothing that could be winter sown, of course) and even then I have a hard time forking over the money. Some things are so ridiculous in price that I won't buy it no matter how much I want it. Winter sowing has changed my whole outlook and I couldn't be happier!

Joanne

That's right, Nan! Don't forget to do that with impatiens and coleus too. I bought an expensive shrub last fall and the cuttings of it are already big enough to plant!

Wintersowing has become the foundation for my garden. Because I have a huge amount of space to fill it would be impossible to afford if I were buying plants at today's prices.

I also prowl the markdown racks at the nurseries and garden centers. It's catch as catch can but there are often amazing bargains to be found. And it's so satisfying to nurse a poor, neglected plant back to health.

Winter Sowing, along with growing under lights will likely save me around $1000 this year. Next year I expect to double that, as this years' costs were heavy in terms of equipment and soil purchase, which, next year will be significantly less, I hope.

For indoor seed starting, I like the coir pellets, which cost around 10 cents each, so there is some expense there. For winter sowing, I plan to stock up on the bales of pro mix, rather than spend lots more on the bag soil. That alone should save me 60-100$. I can reuse many of the trays I used this year, but some will need to be purchased, especially the pellet trays since these have been used 3 or 4 times each, now.

Most plants I have are hard to find online and even more difficult to find locally....horehound, mullein, motherwort, lemon balm, etc.

Mark-

I used to go out and buy everything every year, until I started winter sowing. But now that I'm completely obsessed with gardening (thanks to GW!), there's no way I could afford to do that!

I do buy some plants every year, but I've gotten so much better about it. More and more, I find myself buying mostly perennials (if it doesn't germinate for me or I didn't have the seed.) I used to buy ALL of my annuals!

I love perennials, but annuals give way more color and yes--more of the instant gratification! But I don't buy anywhere near what I used to. Bare minimum.

I've become pretty good at other propagation techniques as well, and that has saved plenty of money! But of course, then I'll see a picture of someone's flower on here that I don't have...

don't be so shocked!! we have to take into consideration of the fuel it takes for them trucks to get from place to place, my mom is a truck driver, and if she was for herself and not having them pay for gas, she'd hav to quit! gas is that bad!! so the hike in prices is mainly in the gas i'd almost bet!! and its a gonna be going up even higher!!