Selling Your Plants!

wssla00

Supposedly sales of veg seeds/products for grow your own accounted for over 60% of total revenue in garden centres so there must be something in it.....

DKLS

Orange_King wrote: »

DKLS - those look superb plants. I think I may be tempted but need to consider the space issue! Can they be started off as smallish plants in pots?

Small pots would be just fine to start off in, The ones I have bought tend to be in 1litre pots.

Here is a guide to growing hostas from seed.

SallyForth_2

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

http://www.fera.defra.gov.uk/plants/plantVarieties/plantbreedersRights/index.cfm

To give you an idea of which varieties of strawberry it applies to, the ones marked with a * on this page are 'varieties protected by Plant Breeders Rights, which means that they are sold for fruit production only and should not be propagated. Plant Royalty payments are included in the price shown.'

http://www.welshfruitstocks.co.uk/acatalog/Soft_Fruit_Plants.html

So you can still buy the Strawberry plants then, and presumably if it puts out runners, you can be prosicuted. What about the Raspberries, do you have to remove and destroy all the new canes each year?

foreign_correspondent

SallyForth wrote: »

So you can still buy the Strawberry plants then, and presumably if it puts out runners, you can be prosicuted. What about the Raspberries, do you have to remove and destroy all the new canes each year?

Realistically, I doubt very much that any plant breeder would be interested in, or concerned by an individual using runners etc in their own garden, for their own use - however, when distribution, selling and profit comes into it it is a different matter.

Mayflower10cat

katiel wrote: »

Would you recommend trying to sell on ebay then? OH thinks I should have a go.

When I was running a small plant nursery from home, I looked into selling perennials on eBay -as an example I packed up three pots of decorative grasses very carefully into a nice cardboard box with lots of polystyrene peanuts, took them to the post office to see how much they'd cost to post - good grief, it was about £5 more than I'd priced the three plants at..!!! I didn't think parcel post would be fast enough for living plants so I didn't bother pursuing the idea.

Plants that 'sold themselves' for me included lupins, perennial geraniums, lilies, foxgloves, shrubs from cuttings like phygelius, oh and penstemons were popular. I found starting everything from seed took ages and if you cost in your time with all the potting on and maintenance they come out as very expensive plants. A few cheaty tips; when you see those (cheap) collections of perennials advertised in the Sunday magazines and in so many of the plant catalogues, buy them and grow them on, selling them seperately. Oh and those packs of bare-root dormant plants you see in Wilko/Homebase etc, in plastic bags with loose soil, are such an easy way to raise a mature plant very quickly.

ukjoel

I would really reccomend going for unusual and different varieties of veg.
What always happens is everyone goes and buys a pack of seeds and a few weeks later the boot sales are full of people clearing out their excess gardeners delight and moneymakers. However if someone turns up with something slightly different even if its just beefsteak then they fly out the door. If they are really different like yellow cherries, millions, or blacks then people go mad for them. People also are happy paying a lot more for something different or unusual.
I also think presentation makes a big difference. Having a clear label on the pot is a good start but something as simples as a laminated sticker with a pic of the fully grown plant and some info means for the cost of a few extra pence people spend a lot more.

Orange_King

ukjoel wrote: »

I also think presentation makes a big difference. Having a clear label on the pot is a good start but something as simples as a laminated sticker with a pic of the fully grown plant and some info means for the cost of a few extra pence people spend a lot more.

I agree. People like to also read up on whatthey are buying so I usually have a colour pic of the plat and info underneath on an A4 sheet (in a poly pocket) and that makes them stop and have a read. Then you can emphasise the good points - usually the plants being a feature in their garden for as long as they want them!

Davesnave

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

Realistically, I doubt very much that any plant breeder would be interested in, or concerned by an individual using runners etc in their own garden, for their own use - however, when distribution, selling and profit comes into it it is a different matter.

Realistically, if they are at a car boot sale, there is zero chance of a prosecution.

The Plant Patent scheme is administered from Holland and there seem to be no Plant Police, uniformed or otherwise. Owners of patents can, of course, look for large outlets selling their plants (the Internet is a good starting point) but nipping around to every car boot sale would not only be unproductive, it would also be totally impossible.

It is largely down to the owner's partner in the trade to do the real policing.

And just imagine for a moment what could happen if I found Mr Scroggs selling my patented plant in Exeter next weekend. What might I do?

(a) Make a citizen's arrest.
(b) Shout 'These are all mine!' and seize the offending plant material
(c) Think, 'The cunning devil, he knows a good plant!' and grill him for 10 minutes about it, before moving on swiftly to buy something from the stall next door.

I would suggest (c) especially if Mr Scroggs is 6' 4" and built like a tank, as he invariably is.

foreign_correspondent

davesknave - of course, prosecution is highly unlikely in those circumstances - just think it is worth people knowing about.

Davesnave

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

davesknave - of course, prosecution is highly unlikely in those circumstances - just think it is worth people knowing about.

Knowing about it is fine, laudable even, but the selling of a few protected plants is in no way regarded as in the same league as pirating DVDs and computer games. There is a danger that people reading this thread might see it like that.

There are thousands of folk up & down the land, in WIs and garden clubs, merrily pirating plants, often in total ignorance of this law, and that's not a problem for anyone.

Once a person is into the league of using wholesalers, the revenue is collected automatically, so the scheme polices itself.