let me correct what i said privately ...

when TC started.. the plugs were two inch.. near impossible to grow runts ... most of us gave up way back when ... it was going to be two years.. and major losses to get them to salable size ..

these days... TC plants vary in size.. and the price is reflected ...

i have seen things from walters gardens that are 6 inch plants.. with monster roots.. which could be stuck in a one gal and grown on for sale the following day.. or the next year ... but they most likely are not 50 cents each...

what you get.. will determine the price you pay ... so the cheapest will most likely not be the most efficient ...

the other problem you will have.. is buying at wholesale.. where you are going to have to buy in multiples of ten or 25 .... what are you going to do with that many of one kind...

and then there is the whole 'holding stock over in pots' .... which is another nightmare that has forced MOST of us to not fool with pots .... at all ...

the simplest way.. MIGHT be to make a nursery bed.. divide your own hosta... plant back most of it into your garden.. and grow the extra in the ground.. and then in spring.. pot some of them up .. for sale ...

if this were easy... i would be doing it.. i am not ...

but that should NOT stop your dream ...

ken

I just this spring, turned 50 hosta babies into 2 gorgeous Japanese maples.

I'm no professional... but IMHO if you want to profit from selling plants you should first invest in a greenhouse... or pick a plant/flower that could be field grown from a type of bulb or seed and farm them.... you could build a decent greenhouse for an investment of around 2k USD... like I said its an investment that could very well pay itself off after a couple years... sad part about our economy these days is that a dollar doesn't go really far and the small timer is SOL... a large investment is the only way to show any desirable amount of profit... like Ken.. its why I haven't quit my day job...
I'm pretty noobie to hosta fanaticism... but I was born for business... Give yourself time... collect and grow the must have moderate to fast growing hostas... sagae, june, liberty, paradigm, OBL for example.... keep expanding your garden space and make new plantings... in six or seven years you might be able to make divisions every year or two and have one sale every year you can make 500 or so dollars at... yeah its only 500 dollars but how much fun is it? thats the main thing.... and how many cool new hosta growing friends did you make? a ton.... final thought... business sucks... money corrupts... do what you love and makes you happy... gardening is a joy whether you go broke doing it or make a fortune... more than likely you'll go broke like the rest of us =)

Actually, I like buying the small plugs for small bucks. I don't fuss over them, just line them out in the veg garden, give them a couple years and use/trade/sell them when they have some size. In years past, I've picked three varieties per year, bought a dozen each and it is surprising how soon you have supply of extras. I'm also a big fan of dividing older ones - half goes back where it came from, and the rest gets divided to single eyes to line out in the veg garden.

Ken is right about the plugs from Walter's Gardens "plugs" are a really nice size. However, many of the other ones I have bought over the years for my own garden are very small. It takes many years for them to mature. So in my experience and IMHO it's better to sell divisions off your own plants. People can see what the mature plant looks like in your yard, and they will come back for years knowing they are getting a established plant with a good root system.
Jen

If it were me, I'd go with cathgreen's method. Not only a good way to grow extas to sell, but a good way to grow a supply of traders and gifts! I've never done this buying a batch of plugs myself, but I have bought numerous first year tc's to put in my nursery bed just for the pleasure of watching them develop into nice plants.

Hi Jamie, I am in Menasha. Since we share the same climate, I will tell you about all of my recent experimentation.

I bought a lot of liners and 4" pots last year from Q & Z (Mark Zilis, author of The Hostapedia) down in Rochelle, IL. Some are for me, some are to sell...basically to help pay for my habit. I really enjoy selling perennials from my garden, I've met a lot of nice people doing it. I don't have any plans to get a greenhouse. Some years I feel like running sales, some years, I don't. This year, I will not sell much and that's just fine by me. Bottom line, this is my hobby, not my livelihood.

Here's what I did with my purchases...lots of variety in methods, lots of success. Most of what I did came from direct advice from other people here on the forum, like Carol (just1morehosta) and Ken.

The 4" pots, and larger. Turned on their sides, stacked in a bottomless wooden box (picture a coffin) that's about 18" high. The "coffin" is sort of snuggled on the north side of my property between two mounds of soil and this area receives very minimal sun. I had planned to lay a few unopened bags of mulch over them once they were fully frozen, but I never did get out there to do it and the coffin was pretty much covered with snow the whole season, so it worked out ok. I think I lost two or three 4" pots (all plantaginea and Katie Q). I had a 4 gallon Eola Sapphire in there that did not make it, and 1 that did. (By the way, I also stacked about 20 one gallon pots on the north side of my garage, no coverage but the snow. Everything survived there except for one pot, and that was Great Expectations, known to be finicky, even when planted/established.

For the liners...
1/2 of the liners were planted in my field garden in rows, planted from late September to mid October. Losses seem to be variety related...but also those happened to be the mid October plantings, so I would be sure to get in the ground by mid Sept if I do that again. (I knew I was taking a risk with such late plantings.) I did not mulch the plants...I might have taken measures to avoid them freezing/thawing in the spring, but our spring this year didn't seem to demand extra precautions. If I do this again, I might cover them with bales of straw once the ground is frozen hard. I'd say I lost less than 5%, so I am pleased.

1/3 of the liners I repotted into 3" pots in early September. Most of these were overwintered successfully in the "coffin" on their sides, but some were in my unheated garage. Both came back, 100%.

Lastly, I had about 2 trays of liners (there are 96 plants in a tray) that never got handled in the fall. They overwintered in my garage and I had nearly 100% survival. I did not water them at all. They were outside until about mid-October. I was advised to not over water them so I did keep them slightly on the dry side in Sept/Oct. I brought them in as soon as we started having night temps near freezing, because I didn't want them going through freeze/thaw cycles. I monitored them carefully this spring and put them outside on my driveway near the spigot so that I could water them as needed. They sure were different in their growth...some had me worried, but in the end I think I only lost 2 or 3 little plants out of 192...all the same variety.

About 24 liners, I planted in late October on the north side of those dirt mounds where my "coffin" is. All of those made it just fine.

I learned a lot and I'm actually glad that I did so many methods. The others are correct also, that some of the liners are actually quite large when you get them.

I hope this gives you some insight...there are many ways to grow these little babies. I do believe that the particular weather patterns of the winter probably played a large part in the success. If I am overwintering such babies ever again, I will make a greater effort to either plant them by early September and/or make sure that they are better insulated to protect against greater temp fluctuations, or lack of snow cover.

We should get together...I'm recovering from surgery right now and going to Mpls for the convention next week...but I'll be home most of July.

Your gardens look lovely. Mine are all overgrown with weeds right now and the rains just keep helping them along!

Hi Jamie - I sell perennials every year at my yard sale for $2 (one eye), and they are all divisions from my yard. I generally pot up 10-12 hostas (common varigated one) and sell them easily. I have found that the average person only wants the basic common hosta, and will not pay more for the not-so-common hostas. I sell at my yard sale because I have extras that I don't want to compost, and I enjoy sharing my babies and it is fun to have repeat customers each year. Whatever is left over, I set out at the curb, and people stop by throughout the week to buy them.
Some thoughts:
- Don't let anyone take your dream away. Go for it, and share with us the good, the bad and the ugly.
- I have rooted a leaf with some crown attached in water.
- I have (by accident) propogated Wolverine when it developed root rot, and I cut out all the rot, bleached, all that was left was the eyes in very small pieces with 1-2 roots attached, and potted them up. Most pieces survived, and grew the next year. I didn't think any would, and now I have dozens. I did the same with my June. You might want to experiment, although I imagine that different varieties would respond differently to this treatment.
- I used to take my young hostas, and divide them, usually for trade, but decided to stop trading and let the hostas mature a bit. I should have traded them as the voles got many of them.
I wish you success in whatever you do.

HI Mary;

Great to hear from someone local who has had so much success with Hostas. I've been working on the yard the past 2 days and have been selling a few divisions off my Hostas.

When your feeling well enough, you would be welcome to stop by and see my garden. I would love to see your plants and see how well the plugs grew. Feel free to email me.

Thank you for all the information you shared about the liners and how you overwintered them.

What do you learn at the Hosta convention? Is this your first time going?

Thanks
Jamie

Hi Annie:

Thanks for your words of encouragement. The last 2 days I have been dividing several of my Hostas and was quite surprised at how many pots I was able to make that looked quite nice. I've sold a few and have someone else coming in a hour.

I will try rooting some of those scrap leaves that still have a little crown on them and see if I can also have any success with that.

How much do you charge for your Hostas when you sell them?

Thanks
Jamie