Markets for Your Plants,/h3> Dime, chain, variety, grocery, drug, and department stores and even pet stores and cafes all these can become your customers. These outlets usually have to purchase the plant material they sell and generally have the plants shipped in from out-of-town wholesale growers.

 

Look over the plants and seeds at these retail counters. If you feel you could make money by being a wholesaler and selling a store similar plant items at about M to /2 the price that you see they are charging the public, seek out the manager and have a talk with him. It may be to his advantage to obtain plants from a nearby source—such as you—rather than risk shipping delays, etc. Your plants will in all probability be fresher than those shipped in. Since you escape the high overhead that most of the larger plant houses have to contend with, you not only can sell for less but you can also probably safely offer to replace poor plant specimens such as those that have become ragged through customer handling. You can bring back the flats and pots of plants to your greenhouse, spray the plants to kill insects, give them a little time to rejuvenate, and then offer them again, for they will be as good as new. This additional service will undoubtedly please the buyer and help you make additional sales; it will also get your plants out of your greenhouse and exposed to customer traffic in a display room or area. Once you have established yourself, the buyer is likely to go on from his first cautious dealings to purchasing some of the unusual (and more profitable) plants you grow—cacti, new philodendrons, pilea, peperomias, and such flowering gesneriads as columnea, kohleria, and species gloxinias. You may find yourself growing specialties just for one outlet, which will want even more than you can grow (a pleasant and profitable experience). When you arrange sales to a large chain store, you may be asked to ship sample plants direct to their central buying station. If you get the O.K. there, you will be placed on the preferred list, and from then on you should be able to count on this store as a regular outlet. On Consignment You may find consignment selling is more agreeable to some potential customers. It is quite a common practice in the florist trade. In a consignment setup, unlike direct selling, you merely leave the plants with the store owner or dealer, promising to pick up leftovers at a specified time. The consignee does not pay you for all the plants delivered—only those he actually sells. He gets a percentage of the sale price for providing a \"show window\" for your plants. It occurs to me that a pet shop might be an ideal place to try a few plants on consignment. And incidentally, thanks to the moisture escaping from the aquariums, your plants should remain in excellent condition. Roadside Markets In a roadside market you have another really excellent prospect. Here is sold everything from dairy products to plants and vegetables. Usually on the outskirts of a city, the roadside stands attract the Sunday drivers, people returning from vacations, and those who feel they obtain fresher produce in such places. In our area, we have a number of such markets. In early spring, they sell annuals in pots or small flats (Plant-Paks) of one dozen plants and large flats of 100 each, featuring pansies, bachelor buttons, marigolds, petunias, bedding begonias, coleus and various other well-started or blooming-sized plants. Later on this space is given over to potted green plants—ivy, dracaena, dieffenbachia, and sansevieria—and flowering plants, such as fuchsias, abutilon, African violets, and even potted roses. Make your contact with these potential customers by carrying with you a box or two of the type of plants you sell. These people have to buy from someone; and if your plants are well grown, nicely potted, and priced so that the market can resell them at profit—why, you\'re elected.

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