I do what you are planning on doing already. Meaning I sell seedlings and small plants from my garden. I do it as a part time job and don't make a ton of money doing it but it keeps me busy and I can justify spending more on fancier plants throughout the year.

Propagation for any reason is forbidden on patented plants - doesn't matter if you plan on sharing them for free with friends or selling them on ebay, you can't propagate them without paying the patent holder a fee. That being said, there are no special police officers sneaking around backyards looking for patent infringers. There are people visiting farmers markets and garden centers making sure the laws are obeyed so you need to stay on top of what's what. I also have plants that were either given to me or growing in the backyard when I moved in. Plants I have no idea about their heritage. I prop these plants and sell them but I do not ever claim they are the patented version. If someone asks me if they are, I correct them and explain that although they appear similar, I do not sell patented plants and they aren't. People do ask for patented varieties. People do respond to all the hype and promotion over new varieties but those programs are not designed for small volume growers. Usually, named varieties or cultivars that are protected require that a name tag accompany each plant sold. Each tag explains who holds the patent and the full name of the plant.

In my garden 'Heritage' raspberry fruits from early June til December (depending on the weather). It is the only raspberry that has such a long fruiting time in my experience. The only problem I have with them is that the berries don't have much flavor until we get our first frosts.

trianglejohn, thank you. I have read many of your post in this forum and it's where I got the idea. Since I already spend a lot of time in my garden and truly enjoying it, I might as well sell some of the plants. A little mad money is always welcome. I have been propagating and experimenting with annuals and perennials and decided to stick with perennials. I have a cold frame but don't want a greenhouse plus everybody is selling petunias. I also would like to do herb baskets and container gardens and maybe some cut flowers. I'd like to hear your pros and cons with this idea. Thanks again. Vin

Vin - this whole plan will work but how much money you make is more dependant on the market you sell at then what you have to sell (others may disagree). Some markets just attract more shoppers and some shoppers just don't go to open air markets to buy plants. You can't please everyone.

The few regular customers I have at this market do seem to like that I offer plants that I grow in my own garden and they usually ask me a ton of questions. I spend a lot of time solving gardening problems and explaining why some things work or don't work in this area. This one-on-one aspect is the best part of the whole deal for me, I love talking to folks and offering my opinion (family members and co-workers are howling with laughter over this last comment). But this does not mean large sales.

I find that with my set up I can't really finish a potted plant - I don't have full sun and don't have a greenhouse. So I tend to sell rooted cuttings and seedlings at the biggest point I can get them to before they start to falter. Customers sometimes want big full in-bloom plants which is something I can't produce often. I aim for what I call 'real gardeners' that want to watch it grow rather than an instant plopped into place flowerbed. But that being said it is nice to make some money while spending the day at the market so fill my shelves with a little of this and a little of that. I think that having bedding annuals in bloom is important to the overall display. It tells customers from a distance what I am all about (garden plants). But they often buy the oddball stuff after the flowers attract them in. I hardly sell anything in bloom though I work real hard to have blooming stuff each weekend. I also have strong smelling herbs out front hoping that the aroma will entice shoppers to stop and buy something (amazing how many people are put off by the smell of rosemary or licorice scented fennel or hyssop!).

All in all I think it takes a while (at least a season) to establish yourself at a market and build up a reputation and customer base. At my current market there are a few other plant vendors and though they tend to specialize they often out sell me because regular customers will add on a potted herb when they stop to buy produce - even though I also have potted herbs 10 feet away. You have to have a reliable schedule so that they know when you'll be there and what it is you offer. Around here, once it gets hot people quit working in their yards so they buy fewer and fewer plants but other vendors seem to keep selling right on through the summer. Most them also offer small trees - something I could never produce in any sizeable number.

A good day for me is to make $100 during the spring and over $50 through the heat of summer (my current market is only 8am-noon on Saturdays). Established vendors get excited about $200 days in the spring but can make more in the summer when fresh produce drives sales.

You'll just have to jump in see what happens. Keep in mind that farmers markets need small flexible vendors just as much as they need real farm produce/meat sellers. The customers often don't realize that blueberries or apples have a season and that they can't buy them whenever they want them (I get these questions every weekend). Craft vendors, food vendors and plant vendors keep the market alive during the produce down time.

Trianglejohn, today I jumped in and this is what happened at the new flea market that just opened last week. I have a lot of potted experimental plants so I applied for a space ($27) for one day just to see and feel what the people in this area are looking for. And you are so right on just about everything I've read from your post.
I had herbs (annuals and perrenials)in 2x2 inch milk cartoons for $1. Herbs, Perrenial flowers, cucumbers and raspberries in 4" pots for $2. Zucchinis in #1 pot for $3.50. Liatris, hostas, hardy geraniums, ribbon grass in #1 pots for $4-$5. Houseplants in nice pots, hanging baskets, container gardens (really nice ones with annuals and perrenials I made for my patio) and herb baskets for $ $5-$30. So basically I had plants for gardeners and nongardeners.
Lots of nice apartments and condos in the area but I only sold one houseplant and one container garden and no herb basket. Lots of seniors looking but buys nothing. I gross $115 mostly from small and #1 pots. Quite a few people were looking for cellantro, rosemary. peppers and tomatoes. I had plenty of tomatoes (4 varieties) but thought they were too small to sell. Don't know how to grow bigger ones without a greenhouse. Bought the annuals for the container gardens because mine were too small and not blooming. I printed a picture of liatris and sold a few plants because of it. Lots of people wants to know if I will be there next week with the container gardens, maybe because it's close to pay day, but I don't have enough plants and it's a 7 hour market. Next year for sure. Again thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences as a market gardener, I learned a lot from it. Vin

Congratulations!!! you did it. You learned something, well actually a lot of things. You do have the skills to sell what you grow. You do have plants that people will pay money for.

A simple guide to pricing stuff - if you sell completely out of something then you aren't charging enough. You want to price your plants just at the limit of what the public will pay for them. If you're too cheap they sometimes feel that the quality is low. But if you're too high they won't return each weekend to buy from you (which is the best thing you could hope for - repeat customers). I shop around a lot. I pay attention to what other places sell plants for. If I have a plant that looks like a five dollar plant, I sell it for five dollars regardless of what it cost me to grow it (often less than a dollar). Even if someone else at the market has the same plant with the same quality for a cheaper price, I keep mine where it is and hope they sell out before the end of the day. If something doesn't sell well I retire it and figure out another way to price it and bring it back in a month. Like I break it up into smaller plants and sell them at a smaller size for a smaller price. I never sell the same sized plant for the lower price. The only thing similar that I have done is to bring back the same plants at a future date for a lesser price, but I take them out of their pots and wrap them in newspaper with a rubber band. Making them look like a bargain and not like the same plant at a reduced price. Once you drop prices, people will wait for your end of season sale or they will start haggling you for a discount (something I flat out will not do. I often explain that my garden can use the compost and proceed to take the plant home and compost it!). Every vendor has their own threshold on what they will do to make money. What works for me may not work for you.

One year I had a bunch of Rosemary cuttings. I sold them for $1 each in a tiny cup. We are talking about a stick of rosemary for a dollar!! people bought them all day long even though I'm sure one of the cut herb people must have had bundles for $2 or so. Go figure - for some strange reason that spring everyone thought a sinlgle stick of rosemary was worth a dollar. It has never happened since.

Yesterday I loaded light because I figured the holiday weekend would find everyone at the beach - wrong! they came to the market in droves. Most were just out sightseeing and showing the town's farmer's market off to visitors. Very few bought plants but the few that did bought over $20 worth so it all worked out in the end.

The other vendors have convinced me to sell produce in addition to plants. I had considered this but didn't really want to compete with them since they are so nice to me at the market. But they claimed that they cannot have enough tomatoes at the market. That customers always complain about the selection of produce. So I guess I better put in a few more tomato plants just to be safe.

Selling perennials at market is selling nursery stock. So in addition to keeping legal with things like patents, you also need to find out what the requirements are in your state for nursery licenses. Yes, plant inspectors do find their way to places like farmer's markets. Our plant inspectors have been there when they found out perennials were being sold there.

Those requirements are not designed to keep the back-yard producer out of the show. Anyone can get a license if they comply with the regulations. Our market requires you to have a nursery license and post it when selling nursery stock. The probability of disease is greater actually, because many hobby growers use their own soil, and some are not up on current quarantines or plant pests and diseases.

I am doing the same. Planning on selling potted herbs and butterfly attracting plants for sale at the various flea/farmers markets in my area. I used to work in the industry in my younger years, and then life happened (i.e. kids). But now I want to start my own nursery and this is a good way to start. Your dish gardens and hanging basket idea is good. I have another idea for you. Go to your library and get kids books on gardening and gardening crafts. There is some really cute and fun stuff in there you could sell too. Also, I plan to give customers a sample of something like say salad, so they can see how awesome my purple ruffle basil tastes. Oh but you're growing ornamentals? OK give them a flower to suck on. Just kidding. Also, I don't know where you are but where I am I will have to have a plant inspection and be certified as a nursery. I am getting my Florida horticulture professional certification now, something I've always wanted. Anyway, you might want to check your states agri website. Good luck! I would really like to know how things are working out for you.

My state has very relaxed rules as long as you grow the plants yourself and grow and sell in small quantities. I believe a Nursery Dealer license is $6 for a backyard operation if you want to sell bushes and trees or gallon sized perennials. You can sell 4 inch pots of anything as bedding plants which require no license. Special incentives to encourage tobacco farmers to switch to different crops also allow anyone who grows their own plants to sell them without collecting sales tax or having a sales tax permit/number. Sounds like a dream except that my area is glutted with large nursery operations so plants are generally cheap, competition is fierce.

In my state a nursery license is not required if you sell less than $100 per year or cut flowers only. Then it depends on gross sales. I paid $46 for up to $2,500 only because I am an optimist. Plant pests and diseases are poor excuses for plant inspection at the farmers market. Plant sales and exchanges happens everyday and everywhere between neighbors, families, friends, garden clubs, etc. This type of activity is healthy and should be nurtured as it benefits the whole community.

For the record, I respect the patent owner's right to make money from their plants. I spent years in R and D and it is hard work. Fun but hard.

I had a plant and yard sale last weekend. I didn't advertise, just a sign with ballons on a busy corner. I was basically selling my experimental container gardens with tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, perennials, annuals, succulents, grasses, etc. Got some nice pots from the dollar store and the plants really looks good. Some bought it for gifts. My favorite customer were a young couple in their 20's with body piercing and tattoes and they just bought a fixer upper in the neighborhood and were very excited to start a garden. I was more than happy to give them a huge discount. I get really excited when I met young people like that. It makes my day.

Florida is pretty strict. I guess they have to be. I did some digging and found that where I live isn't zoned for home based businesses. So I couldn't very well get a plant inspection (I guess) because technically I'm not supposed to have a backyard nursery. BUT...I don't have to have a plant inspection to sell my herbs fresh cut at the market or to local restaurants. And if I'm drying herbs and making culinary sauces in my kitchen and selling them on my website, who's going to know, lol! So I'm busy now getting my gardens in order. I really want to turn out a quality product.

I have been thinking about doing a yard/plant sale too just for fun.

lorjacks, having the plant and yard sale was fun. I always enjoy meeting people who are interested in gardening (nature lovers) because they often care about the environment as much as I do. The only people who knows about my plant sale were those who lives in the neighborhood and that's a big plus for me. I didn't mind giving them discounts because it just feels right.

I only sold my plants at the flea market once, just to get the feel of it. I was encouraged to proceed but the farmers market is giving me cold feet. There seems to be an endless rivalry between farmers and backyard gardeners, fulltime and partime vendors, farmers and crafters, etc. So much energy are wasted in minding each others business and some vendors are so teritorial it's not even funny. I envy trianglejohn's farmers market where his friends asked him to join them in selling produce. I already have a stressful job so a twice a year plant and yard sale might be an option.

Another thing I do is to host plant swaps. I started doing it about 4 years ago and it has just gotten better and better each year. I hold a spring and a fall swap and usually the group of traders gets together sometime in the winter and trades seeds collected from their garden. We even had a round robin style seed box that got shipped from one gardener to the next where anyone on the list could take out any seeds they wanted and put in any seeds they didn't need. It was a huge hit but took too long to make the circuit. Now we just meet at a restaurant and talk gardening and trade seeds back and fourth.

So why would I do all this NON-MONEY MAKING stuff?? Because it gives me insight into what gardeners are looking for in a plant. Because it gives me a pool of customers who already know me. Because it gives me free "mother" plants to propagate from. Because it is so much fun. By talking and sharing with a large group of nearby gardeners I can really learn better propagation techniques and better growing skills for this area.

At my market I don't sell a lot of any one thing. I sell flashy unusall plants if I bring them in small quantities and price them high. I believe that if I brought a boothfull of only them I wouldn't sell as many and I would have to mark them down to move them. So I bring some of the usuall stuff that everyone has and some of the flashy stuff. I also bring a lot of filler plants that do nothing but keep the display looking full - sometimes someone buys one of them but for the most part they are just there to fill in the holes.

Trianglejohn, sometimes the non-money-making stuff are the best. Last week I asked one of the local farmers' market if I could sell flowers. I got a lot of hydrangeas, glads, liatris and other perennials and annuals but they already got somebody selling flowers (zinias and daisies). I had to do something. I enjoy growing them, but also love giving them to certain people: my sister in Florida ($22 for overnight delivery), my hairdresser, a friend at the nursing home; no money but it sure feels good.

Your plant traders group sounds great. I belong to a very active and very large garden club. We meet once a month and we also have a plant swap once a year. I learned a lot from our guest speakers, garden tours and newsletter.

Re: your flashy stuff, I was in Germany eight years ago, visiting a friend who lives in a beautiful village outside the Air Force base. One of the house had a small tree with at least two dozens huge white trumpet like flowers. It was awesome and I never know what it was until today (how sad is that?) when I saw a picture of it in the brugmansia forum. If brugs are still one of your flashy stuff, I'd like to buy some. I haven't seen one in our area but I enjoy the challenge of growing new and unsual plants.

Vin