If It were me and I had the money and could start my own little nursery business, you better believe I'd go for it!!! Especially since you already have a place to set up and can still help hubby during the day. Yep.... I'd do it in a minute.

I'd do it!! Let's name Kristy's potentially new business!
What shall we call it?? 'Brug Heaven & Friends!' :) Shoot her your ideas! :))) See Kristy - we'll have you in business in no time! And mail-order - don't forget mail-order!! We ALL love mail-order!

Mike

Mike, there is a house for sale 2 doors down cheap and just been remodeled. Wanna come be my partner? Lol. Its warmer here, lol.

lol! But I just bought a new house?? Darnit - you should have done this earlier in the year!! :) But seriously - I think you could do it! And you do have Lucy to help out - sure she wouldn't mind! She'd be cheap to - she works for brug cuttings! There you go - LUCY! 'Kristy & Lucy's Place!! Almost like 'Ricky & Lucy!! :) 'Fred & Ethel!' Just some ideas here! lol! And there's always Pedro!! :)))

Mike

I'd be talking it over with DH first and if he has a love of plant it would be a no brainer!! What an ideal thing to work with his shop and to fence for the deer would be a little work! Instead of one business, ya just have two together and what a way to get added business?

Thats what I was thinking, I could sell plants to people that come to get the cars worked on and he could let people know when they drive up to look at my plants, hey I can fix that noise in your car, lol. He wanted me to open a used car lot in that area but its not something I care to do even though I am good at selling cars. The problem is I have to depend on him to fix he cars I buy to get ready to sell so I wouldn't make any money of own again. I want something of my own I can make money at. Even if its just extra spending money. I know it won't make me rich but it would be mine and I wouldn't have to depend on him for every dime I spend and I think it would be good for me to have something of my own. It would sure make me want to go to work more than I do now, lol. I am getting ready to go look at it. I hope its in good shape with healthy plants. If so I am going to do my best to talk him into it. If not I got my heart rate up good for the day for nothing, lol. I was kidding about taking his money to buy it with and not asking him, lol.

Kristy, what a wonderful opportunity! I suggest you add John's name to the business if not he might say no. Of course, you will first find out what the expenses for running the nursery are, e.g., insurance, water, electricity, soil, fertilizer, pots, and helpers, etc., to see if that $400/day during some months will be worth it. I suppose even if it is not, $900 spent is fairly cheap to end up with GHs and lots of plants, LOL!

GOOOO for it!!...I have always wanted to do that but there are so many here already...Wow, what an opportunity for you!!

Talk with her and take lots of notes and check things over...Wow...You're SO lucky to have that opportunity.

knotz

Kristy, Go for it!.....They say that some of the most profitable business were started as a hobby..This is obviously something you love to do..

Honestly I wouldn't bother. It's not as easy as it sounds. For $900 just buy everything and keep it for personal use.

Kristy,
If you do buy the business you can always decide where you
want to put it later, at home or at the shop and you can
decide if you do want a nursery or just personal use either
way it sounds like a good buy.

Good luck,
Karen

Kristy,
You already have gh experiance right. They are a lot of work. Wow I mean a lot remember in order to go on vacation you have to find a babysitter for them plants. The deal sounds good. Heck I would buy it just for my personal use. Good luck in your decision...Barb

Kristy,
I wish you well on whatever decision you make. I left my computer software job at American Airlines in 1995 to take horticulture classes and pursue a job in the plant industry. I did landscape design and the plantings until I was physically unable to do it. Then we built a 15x20 hoop greenhouse in the backyard and I sold specialty cut flowers to florists. To break even I would have had to hire help and produce a high volume. I didn't go that route and opted to do it for a hobby. My point is....if you don't try you will never know what might have been. What you start with might evolve into something you had not thought of. I don't look back and say what if???? Best of luck to you!!!
Joyce

I love your post Joyce....

So Kristy what happened? I'm dying to know.

Kristy
That is a great opportunity to do what you love, think of it this way all your friends could send you their extra clippings, you could sell those for less, even better no competion. just put you a big add in your shops window. I don't see why it wouldn't work for you. good luck on whatever you decide
Elizabeth

I hope you went for it. Got to go take Madison tó the library halloween party...hope to see a YES later. Then I read everything too lol
Lucy

I've known a few ladies over the years who operated small nurseries as a way to support their gardening addictions.

Since you can sell from your H's business, you might want to start out this way. Just a one-person operation to start out. You could take your time with growing the business, or even deciding if you want to grow the business.

Yes, Do it!

Ok, here is what happened. I had already pretty much decided I was going to do it and just sell whatever I didn't want to recoup some of my costs because I knew it would take time to get everything set up to try and start it as a business so was just going to get it for personal use and see where it went. I was on my way to the shop to tell John what I had decided and talk it over with him because I would have to do a lot of prep work and would need his help to do it. I got a message from Pattie saying she was going to look at a greenhouse later on and they had two did I want to go in halves. It was the same ad she had seen, lol. It took us about 5 minutes to decide we would buy it together. Well we got out there and it wasn't quite the deal it seemed. Turned out the plants that she had selected to sell were all fairly common except a couple I would have liked to have had and she wanted $900 for just those specific plants. The greenhouses were homemade for $400 and nothing would have been usable except the carport cover type frame after it was taken apart. The $150 for all the flats was for used empty ones. If I had everything set up for it I might have considered the plants because I maybe could have kept what I wanted and gotten my money back but it was not the deal of lifetime like I thought. We left and decided we were going to build our own. I had the structure at the house for mine but John never put it together and said parts were missing etc. and we were going to make a shade structure this summer and it never happened. Well we went to the house and put it together and ended up with I think it was 24 L X 12W X 12H I think. The side walls are 8 feet so I think the roof would be 12 after thing about it. Anyway we finagled it to work and I had enough landscape timbers to frame the bottom and just have to go buy some 2x4 and plastic or panels and something for the floor like heavy landscape fabric with gravel on top. Her husband is going to run my water and electric so I will have a nice big greenhouse. Turned out to be a good day after all. The parts I have to buy John let me take a loan from the shop, lol. Maybe someday I will have my little nursery but for now I at least will have someplace to propagate and keep things for the winter. The trees will lose the leaves and it will get lots of sun in winter then they will shade it some during the summer. I'll post a pic later. Gotta go feed John something. Patty turned a bad thing into a good thing for me today. I am so grateful for my gardening friends!

I could never figure how anyone could make a living on plants. As a addition to the business it would be good and if you did not want to work it you could still use it at leisure.

If you need any south Texas cuttings let me know. One good thing about a business is you can write a bunch of stuff off.

Jim

Im sorry it wasnt the deal of a life time BUT it may of happened for a reason...it caused you to do it, just in another way.

Im glad we didnt have it named !

Kym

Lol, I haven't given up on the idea but am going to take my time and get a place at the shop fenced and fixed up that the deer can't get to maybe for just spring through fall with good size plants so I can just put down landcape fabric to keep the weeds down and be able to water them without a mess with a hose to just sell during shop hours for some extra money to use to buy my own plants and potting soil etc. Something to think about down the road. It would give me something to do when I am bored at work. I can do all my paperwork for the shop in a couple days a week and unless we get a lot of phone calls it gets boring for me and all I can think about is I could be home doing something. I know I couldn't make a living at it but it would be something I like to do that I could work on at the shop and still help John. He wants me to sell used cars but thats more of just sitting in the office and not something I really want to do. Oh well. I got my heart rate up good for a while at least, lol. Something to think about for the spring. Now I have the greenhouse in my backyard to work on. I have to figure out how to secure the panels on the roof and what I want to use for the sides. If I use plastic I could still use it like a shade house in summer.

what do they say...if it sounds to good to be true...it isn't?

To bad I already had all my dollars layed out to be your first customer lol

but like you said Kristy....now you have YOUR OWN finally build. Boy you guys worked hard then today!!!

I have not done hardly that much but I am beat roflmao.

Good night my friends

Lucy

Im trying something very similar. I have a 16x16 greenhouse and plan to sell My Brugmansia and other things I start from seed over the winter. I am very excited But I do know it will be a lot of work. I got my hubby a compact tractor with a tiller on it. It helps alot. I am also going to have a daylily/iris farm in the front yard. They are all in the ground. Plant wise though My hubby wont be helping it all up to me to make it all work. It has been very expensive getting enough plants for me to enjoy and grow to hopefully sell in the spring. I am trying to get everything I like that way if it doesnt work I have a yard full of what I like But truthfully It has been very costly to get started But I do think I will get my money back by summer. I have been sticking with things that multiply easily and not alot of ther people have. I would jump on it and if nothing else you have a greenhouse that you can enjoy.

It was a good day, all around. The sun was shining, I got to play hooky from work, got to look at some plants, figure out how to build Kristy a greenhouse and spend the day with friends. What more could I ask for?
Life is good.
Patty

Thanks for all the help today Patty. I would have never attempted to put that monster together without you. Couldn't figure out how it was even supposed to look, lol. You sure are handy with rubber hammer, lol. When John said pieces were missing it never occured to me that even without the last panel it would be so big. I was thinking like the size of a tent, lol. It would have been about 6 feet longer with the missing parts but then I would have had to move the gazebo all way out of the way instead of just a few feet. I hope I can get all the stuff to finish it this weekend. I'll have to post the pic later.

Kristy that sounds like it turned out for the best and the new GH sounds great. You'll have to post pics when everything is done. The tree cover sounds perfect. You might not even need a shade cloth during the summer. If you want to sell plants why don't you just try Craigslist or Ebay? You can also look into selling to local nurseries. I sell and trade some of my collection to a little local nursery. Honestly I trade a lot more then I sell. lol

Running a nursery is a lot of work and fairly high overhead. We've been too busy to spend much time at the farm. It's only 10 acres of workable land excluding the greenhouses but it's exhausting. There's one full time year round employee and more part time help during the growing season and they only work in the greenhouses. We haven't had the time to plant all the fields the past two years. I've been busy with the kids and DH is busy with his real job.

Jim you'd be surprised at how much money can be made in the wholesale end, especially flowers and it's fairly recession proof. The wholesale floral business (DH's real job) has done just over 14 million in sales so far this year and Nov/Dec are the biggest months. It's also a good sized company with 87 employees, not a big business but not a little mom & pop shop either.

Thats wonderful that you got it up Kristy!
What a nice friend Patty is to help you!

Karen

Have you folks all looked into the permits and licences also? We used to sell plants on the weekends and my neighbors were so pissssssssssssed it wasn't funny due to all the traffic. We need a permit here to put up a greenhouse even if it's for personal use and one can only make a certain amount of money before folks come knocking for that license. Then there is taxes and so on and so forth.
fool4flowers, take it slow and know if it was ment to be it will happen. Have a back up plan and it sounds like you did the right thing. Friends are great helpers!!

There is an excellent book by Tony Advant (of Plant Delights Nursery), called, 'So You Want To Start Your Own Nursery'. It is really informative and even some libraries carry it.

I knew I couldn't handle a large nursery. It was going to be one greenhouse at the shop and one at the house and just sell to people that stop in the shop because so many people come by there everyday but I would need a license to sell from there so it was going to start in the spring and I was only going to propagate from what I had and sell some. Having it as a real business I could write off losses on my taxes but I don't know if it would be worth it. Maybe just something small to make a little spending money instead. My health wouldn't allow a full scale nursery. My daughter will be here this summer and she wanted to start working this year at the shop to make extra money so if I do anything like that she can work for me instead of John and make her spending money. Right now all she does is help me water and cut all my flowers and fill the house with vases, lol. I'm glad she enjoys the flowers. Maybe its something she would like to do when she gets older that I could help her with learning about the plants. I might sell some on craigslist. I have to get my trades done and see what I have left. The great thing is if I finish my greenhouse before we get another freeze I can dig up my doubles and watch them bloom in the greenhouse instead of leaving them in the ground! Well gotta get to work. Have to mow the grass go buy candy and do the payroll before 4pm. I nearly forgot Halloween is here already and its one of my favorite times. I love to see the kids all dressed up.

Yay, Kristy, ya got a greenhouse! Just not the way ya thought but I'm so happy for ya!! And jealous!! More room= more brugs! LOL!

Have fun finishing it and filling it up! Ya gonna let John have a little corner? ;-)

Brenda

Hah, he is staking out his territory already, lol. I can keep some in the garage and some in the greenhouse and have a lot more room. I told him he can take his tall plumies in the greenhouse so he won't have to cut the huge ones. They won't fit in the garage anyway, lol. I will look for those books. Sounds like some good ones.

I am so JEALOUS of your greenhouse!

If nothing else, you will have it for your pleasure. However, I am sure you can make enough to support your plant "habit" from selling out of the shop. I don't know your area but it may turn into a very profitable enterprise.

Green eyes here -- I would be happy with just a small portable greenhouse.

GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thats what I thought too until I discovered this place and ebay, lol. Now I am even beginning to think I will still use the garage and the greenhouse so neither will be so crowded and I can enjoy blooms all winter. About to get my first blooms on Pink Perfektion and Naughty Nick. He has dropped about 1000 but has a whole lot more hanging on and getting big if the wind doesn't get high and snap them again. I would recommend placing him in a protected area if you live in a high wind place. They sway and snap right off grrrr.

I did check into permits. I live in the country so most rules dont apply. I have to get insepected and thats it as long as I consider myself a hobbiest not a nusery. Thats all that I will be I am small scale by all means.