Hi, welcome! I looked real quick and the cheapest I can get vinca minor is .39 for 250 quantity. Assuming it's the plain old vinca minor. I am not a landscaper, but I much prefer plugs than straight flats. When I started selling grasses to landscapers, I went around and introduced myself, and gave out samples, and handed out price flyers. Also agreed to deliver a certain minimum directly to the jobsite. I also gave out a picture book that the landscaper could use to show customers the various grasses. It worked. Good luck. Polly

When I worked full time for design/build landscapers, I would go to the nurseries and tag plants for delivery or sometimes pick them up. Everything was bought for each job when the job was ready. I don't think this is an uncommon practice.

Having said that, the last thing that I would do is to go somewhere different or make separate phone calls for something as easy to find as Vinca. Instead I usually bought #1 (what we used to call 1 gallon) for $6.25 each, but sometimes bought bare root bundles at $45.00 for 100 count. It was on the job with the same load as all the other plants. Time and efficiency saved more money than pre-ordering them from a Vinca specialist or even stopping buy or making the phone call and coordintating a free delivery. Even though it is only a little hassle, it just is not worth it. Maybe it is for others.

Same here: when I worked as a designer/buyer for a landscaper just going to the nearest, largest wholesale plant source(s), picking out the stuff, loading it up and getting it to the job - fighting metropolitan area traffic nearly the whole time - often ate up much of the day. Then I had to unload it, place it, sometimes oversee the planting, or do it myself, and so on. Making multiple stops to pick up this here and that there would've been too much.

If you can deliver to the site, for a competitive price you might have something. If you can offer markedly superior quality (and service), maybe that is the direction to go in. Specific activity we are talking about here aside, in general it is hard for small operators to compete on price.

We pay around $16.00 wholesale for a flat of 48 vinca minor

One-stop shopping is where it's at. I used to sell a lot of specialty potted crops to florists but I had to romance the stone ......... a lot. That meant making contact with them at least weekly and delivering. It was just too easy for them to buy the same wares from their cut flower brokers and have them delivered together. My product had to be something very special, or of an extraordinary quality to sell it. I also had to sell it too cheaply and give them the best of the crop, since they marked it up so much.

It just boiled down to not worth the extra work on my part for the return. It's human nature to just pick up the goods at the earliest opportunity and they will. Have you thought about offering your product to a re-wholesaler?

It will probably be tough to market your product to landscapers or developers. Developers generally hire out the work to landscapers and landscapers will look for the closest and easiest and least expensive place to buy (ie wholesale plant dealers.) Landscapers can't determine very far in advance what they'll need and very few want to hold onto plants in their yard. I'd suggest marketing to nurseries, wholesalers, garden centers, even the big box stores...the places where people buy plants.

I have a few customers who carry my plants.
Due to me having a strictly fern nursery, it's not like I'm loading semi's, ya know?

anyway, find a few good shrub wholesalers or landscape depot type places.

I have one customer grows a few acres of shrubs, but she is mostly a holding place for plant material. A landscaper will fax her a list of required materials. She will gather the supplies in the next day or two and ship them all up together. Generally speaking she marks up everything $.25 or $.50 Not much but enough to make it worth the effort.
At any rate she carries a small amount of my selection, 10 or so of each plant. This helps her show off the wares and keep a few on hand.
When a large order for 1k- 2k plants I just run them over there.

Find these type of places. You may not get as good of a price, but it's nice not to have to deliver to 25 different places. Plus 5-6 customers are easier to please than 30-40.

I feel you trying to market to individual landscapers would be a hastle and result in alot of winshieldtime.

drew

Well actually, we have gained allot of interest from quite a few landscapers in our area. Maybe we're just different in this part of the country.

Here's a funny story to how we came to do business with one of them. I was backing out of a parking spot (I have a 4x4 with a darn camper shell on the back) and I didn't see what was behind me. So BAM! I get out of the truck and walk around back. I hit the tail corner of another truck. Believe it or not but it was the owner of a landscaping companyÂs truck. We're currently in the talking stages of business.... Although I don't recommend this type of marketing!

Golf courses are also a great source of fast income in the spring. Get one on your side and you won't regret it.

We also offer free delivery on large orders and a discount for nursery pickup. The free delivery helps alleviate the one stop shopping issue. We just try to keep them happy

yeah, buy Mylu, you offer a huge selection is various sizes.

it's not like you just produce vinca minor in flats.

how many landscaping jobs have you done with one type of plant?

Deep were sleeping when you wrote that? :)

Very true it would be hard to sell just on plant.

Would I be a socialist if I only offered one type of plant? Sorry I'm wandering now.

sleeping? not really.
south Ga heat, even at 10am is enough to lower your IQ about 45 points.

I'm not that smart to begin with.
and people wonder why everyone talks funny down here.

A one plant growing operation will find it very difficult. Even a retail nursery is unlikely to place orders with an undertaking that offers such a limited product range. Can you imagine the nightmare of placing orders at different growers for each and every species which a nursery stocks. The bit of money that one saved on Vinca minor would be insignificant.
I suggest that you at least grow a reasonable range of ground covers. Have you also considered that it is unwise to put all your eggs in one basket, what happens if your vincas develop a disease, get chewed up,look tatty or maybe just dont sell well this season (it can happen.)