Why don't you tell us a little bit about what you would like to sell, and grow?

I'm curious about your vision about turning the trailer into a greenhouse.

Turn the trailer into storage/office space/cash register area/retail space.
Put up a greenhouse.
Set aside part of the $20,000 for a rainy day and put a small down payment on everything.

Thanks Sandy
That is a really good idea on the trailer, better than what I was thinking.

Thanks for your response also John,
I would be able to take to the market fairly easy..... So that would be a definite option.

Hi Rhizo,
I am open to what I would like to sell, thought about specializing in certain things, and then also would like to have a really good variety as well. There is a really nice nursery that I went and looked at I loved their whole set up. Really beautiful plants, all very lush and healthy, when I asked if they grew everything themselves they said no that they used a couple different suppliers. How does that work? Does anyone use wholesale nurseries to supply your plants/trees etc?
Thank you!!!

When I started my nursery in 1989 I started small and slow. I grew plants and sold them on weekends and at a farmers market. In 1991 I quit my job and operated my nursery full time. I was fortunate that I lived on a very busy highway and was able to show a profit my first year. I would never invest my nest egg until I was sure this is what I liked. The nursery business is very hard work and you will not get rich. You have to absolutly love what your're doing to survive. In 2006 I closed my nursery because my spirit was willing but my body was weak. I still am doing some contract growing on a very small scale. I like not being tied down. I am now free to do what I love best "Garden". I wasn't able to get into my gardens until the end of May because I couldn't leave the greenhouse. My husband and a part time helper got my gardens ready for spring. I don't want to take the wind out of your sails but start slow before you invest a large amount of money.

Thankyou! I need to hear "real" stories I guess. I understand what you are saying. I could start small with what I have. I think I just had this picture of starting with a bang.......

Does anyone use wholesale nurseries to supply your plants/trees etc?

Yes, and it is far more common than you might think, specially for retail nurseries/garden centers located in urban areas. Space is small, real estate is at a premium and to be able to offer a full range of plant selection, we rely entirely on wholesale growers.

This may be an option worth pursuing yourself. I buy plants for a large retail nursery in my area and I am constantly on the lookout for new vendors offering selections I can't locate elsewhere. You might want to survey other retail nurseries and garden centers in your area and see where their "holes" are and develop some specific niche plant growing plans. Currently, ferns, woodland plants and organic vegetable starts are hot properties in my area, as are any kind of exotic annual (NOT your basic petunias, geraniums and lobelia) and tropical plants. Wholesale vendors offering these selections are in big demand.

Or as herblady mentioned, try your hand at some custom growing - it's a good way to get your feet wet in the business without a huge financial commitment.

It helps to know both the business and the production end of it. It sounds like you do not know either. The problem with that is not that you can't learn as you go.

The problem is that you are competing against those who know both. They are at a further advantage because they are already in. Unless there are real holes in production that you as an outsider can identify better than the existing industry, you will have to not only find potential buyers, but you'll have to displace an existing supplier. How likely is that when you don't even yet know what types of plants to produce?

Wholesale suppliers grow in volume and make their money on thin margins. You won't be able to produce great volumes, but you will have to sell at the same price level. At the same time, you are not set up to do any of this yet so you have about a year before you can et your first sales. So, you have to invest in a lot of equipment on top of the work you have to put in physically setting this up while the competition have already spread their investment over a longer period of time.

Making contact with potential buyers and marketing to them won't be free either. And how are you going to market plants that you have not produced before? Who is going to buy for next year when you can not show photos and examples of your product? Can you imagine Gardengal needing 3,000 man eating ferns and having the choice of three companies she knows and someone who is planning on producing great plants, but has not done it before. She won't be able to make an order in the spring, if your crop does not turn out well. She and everyone else is going to go with who they know can produce. That means that you have to wait until your second growing season to have any hope at all to supply anyone.

First year to get it ready, Second year to show a product, third year to sell your first marketed crop. Three years of work and overhead to pay for with that first marketed crop.

Ask yourself what annual salary/profit you need to be functional after all the overhead is paid. Do you need $30k to be comfortable in your area? Divide that by the selling price of your six packs or trays or pots. That is how many you need to sell after all the overhead has been paid. That is 10,000 plants @ $3 each .... after you sold enough to cover the overhead.

I'm not in the nursery business, but I am close enough to it to know it is not a "build it and they will come" proposition.

laag is right. Go to the library or bookstore, get Tony Avent's book So You Want to Start a Nursery. Read it, cover to cover, then report back. I don't want to squash your dream, but it's slow going and no money at the beginning.

I had a similar dream, started small from my house and tried selling at the local farmer's market. I quickly discovered that people wouldn't pay more than they would at Walmart or Lowe's, even if my plants were better quality, and I couldn't make ANY profit at those prices. I could sell the really unusual plants, but not very many of them - most customers wanted something familiar. I was glad I started small - lost about $500 on the venture. I ended up going to work for a nursery for a couple of years, then I moved into interior landscaping. The money there is better, the hours are more regular, and you don't have to deal with outdoor weather very much.

Not only should you read Tony Avent's "So You Want to Start a Nursery" from cover to cover, you should look at the cartoon on the front cover, too. It shows a guy sitting on his deck overlooking a neighboring field with a "For Sale" sign on it, and daydreaming about putting a nursery there. lol

Watergal is right people will not pay more even if the quality is better. I have owned and opperated a nursrey for 30 years and this is the single most important thing I have realized. So what do I do? I sell lower than home depot and lowes and walmart, and I take care of everything better. I have ran off all the nurseries within a 20 mile radius of me and I am doing great. Don't sell what you think is good, sell what people want. Hire good people and treat them right as this is an extremely hard business. I work around 100 hrs a week for 6 months straight, along with a full time staff because no one will ever care or do a good job like you will. But back to my point price and quality is everything, just the other day we had a lady flip out because she thought a 3 pack should have been the same price as a 4 pack. She left the store steaming mad over .39 cents.

You could also perhaps research what and were local lanscape contractors get their material. While you are building your business certain landscape plants could be cultivated. Fruit trees can be purchased for much less as whips. With 3 or more years of growth and proper pruning their worth and selling price multiplies many times over. The same with pre-trained box hedge. What is the market like for Christmas trees in your area? Again plant them young and let them grow. It's an investment of time with not much labor for pines. Plus some states give tax breaks for growing pines. If you can in some way provide to the lanscaper and contractor you could extend your selling season through the building season as well. And with Christmas trees you'll have another potential selling season even in winter.

You might check out this web site.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Art of Running a Small Garden Center or Nursery

If you got a great idea go for it. Been in this business for 30 years. You will never know till you try. I am happy in a 900 sq ft shack of a house that many customers would belittle. Got the best plants though. I have yet to make enough money to retire.

I too have been contemplating starting up a small backyard "nursery". I was a propagator at a local nursery for 3 years, and learned the ins and outs of propagating both by seed and cuttings. I was wondering if anyone can tell me how to find nurseries who would purchase rooted cuttings from individuals such as me. I could start this off slow, as I have 8 acres and one heated and one hooped greenhouse already. I am presently working but am looking forward to retirement in about 5 years, with the intent upon propagating plants. I would appreciate any information or direction someone can give me. Thanks.

So...did you do it? Or still thinking about it? I want to do it, too. I have a bit of a different situation. I own my property, I would have to build a shelter, as at first all I want to do is sell retail, buying from a wholeseller. I am thinking of selling my 'other business' I currently own a small real estate office. If I do, I would use the sale of the business to get into the retail nursery business. No debt incurred and no overhead to speak of. I have river irrigation, live in a small town, dont want to get rich, but I do want to make money. So...did you or didnt you?

lots of good reading here. I too, am looking at starting a nursery/retail center. However, I have a little different situation...I am currently a landscaper and am looking to start a small retail plant store with a twist, I would like to offer supplies to the other local landscapers such as retaining wall rocks, bulk mulch, fountains and garden pond supplies, and hard to find shrubs. I live about 3-4 hours from wholesale plant growers and could make as many trips as needed once I found what the customer wanted. I used to manage a local co-op so I understand the retail side of things. I just want to have a store front to go along with my landscaping business and use the store to increase my existing business. plus there is only 1 other place within 50 miles to get bulk mulch. I also have a greenhouse at my home that I can plant fast-growing fast-selling plants like decorative grasses and such....
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

It can be challenging mixing the wholesale trade you aspire to with the retail customers. Or are you simply interested in re-wholeselling? I'm confused! ;-)

Hello...? Dragonflylady...

Is your dream still alive? Did you buy the 5 acres across the street? What are you growing/selling?

I'm starting out real slow too: 100% financed by my "day job" for as long as it takes while I build up the skill, the products and the market (and lurking on the Professional Gardener Forum) :-)

Good luck to all of you,
Ron

Great information on all of the postings! I, too, am interested in starting my small nursery for retail. Right now, I need as much information as I can possibly get. I have worked in customer service for years and am considerably miserable at my current job. Understand, I am not looking to get rich, but to be able to live rather than just exist. I now how to budget, and realize that there would be little if any profit for the next three years. I just need a starting point. The local library has been a considerable source of knowledge.
As far as starting capital, I have very little, but am researching into government grants that do not need to be repaid. The US Government offers grants to first time entrepreneurs up to 250,000.00 dollars!! Check into it at
www.usgovt-grants.org
you will have to pay a processing fee for $2.

I'm a vendor at my farmers market and have been selling tomato plants for a few years, now I want to grow more plants and less produce. I'm starting out this year with that in mind, mainly because our community garden spaces have grown 4x over the last year. More people want to grow their own veggies, so why not supply their plants?

I'm not sure if I'm ready for a store-front on the farm, but this year will be the deciding factor. We are going to offer produce and plants from the farm. Wish me luck.

Marla

A bunch of great information here. I agree with all this! Another Huge thing is native plants to your area! Want to make sure you do all your research about all the native plants. Here is a link to our nursery website and its got some blogs and other information that might be able to help you out with getting started. If your in the area stop by and check them out. 1207 Hoffner Avenue Orlando, FL, 32809. Earthscape Nursery Orlando. Hope this can help and good luck to you!!!

I started my nursery business off in 2010 while I was still working a full time job. Slow, slow start, but having the acreage I do (see prior post) it was easy to just plant plants and take cuttings to sell. Really love doing this; still doing this, but not making a lot of money and could not do this if I was the only one working. I retired a few years ago, with the hopes of this taking off. A lot of work later, and I saw things slowly starting to work. I am state inspected yearly, grow only organically (not certified), and use no pesticides. So there is that yearly fee for the inspection. Remember there are pots to purchase, tags, signs, advertising, etc. etc. etc. etc........

However, life happens. My granddaughter happened. Babysitting happened and two to three days a week was taken up with this precious baby. I still have a home to keep up, supper to make, yard to care for etc....while my husband works 6 days a week at his job.

I change plants that I sell periodically, if things are not selling. I sell daylily and hostas (easiest to raise and sell), perennials and shrubs. I love my gardens, but don't get enough time to do what I want to do. I'm actually thinking of cutting back and doing more online selling. It's really what you make of it, but really, the big box stores still get you, no matter what. Their prices are competitive (I had to raise my prices finally as I was actually LOSING money one year. I love the concept. I love the plants. But I'm already getting tired. All the work put into the greenhouses, area for the nursery, walkways, shelving etc. I don't want to go to waste.

I do grow 99% of what I sell. That really helps. No overhead. Our property is paid for. Just note: nurseries are suffering the last few years. We've had three major nurseries close in our area alone. It's not easy. But please note. I might sound negative, but I'm still doing this! I love it but I'm only really open the warm months of the year here. I really wish anyone starting this all the luck and self fullfillment you can get. Good luck!

When I had my wholesale nursery years ago I bought plants and plugs from the big boys. They were loaded with bugs and diseases. If you can find cuttings to start from landscapers or curbside you'd be better off. Or start your plants from seeds.