“Flowers are a recession-proof business” so the adage goes, and that has been true in years past. But as one columnist recently said, “This isn’t our father’s recession.” Who can tell? The other morning NPR reported higher unemployment and increased inflation, two things our college economics classes said were inversely proportional. Maybe not anymore.  

One category that our industry is banking on is plant sales, and at our market, the figures back that up. There is a lot of talk that people will stay home more this season, and hopefully, they will plant gardens to pass the time. We have seen a huge increase in plant sales at our market over the past two seasons, and we are gearing up for an even better spring this year.

Every year our customers ask us how to get plants or seeds for the cut flowers that we grow. Before we had the market, we simply explained that these varieties were only available wholesale to growers. But when we opened our retail market, we realized that the best plants that we could offer our customers were the ones that already do well for us as cut flowers. And that gives us a built-in exclusive. Most of the varieties we grow as cuts are not available through any retail garden center or catalog.  We now have a following that comes looking for ‘Benary’s Giant’ zinnias, ‘Gold Coin’ marigolds and Mexican Single tuberoses. Selling cut flower plants also gets us in the market earlier. Plant sales in early spring give us more product to stock our market with, and plants generate some much needed cash flow early in the season.  

We can offer plants in a lot of different forms. We sell a lot of 4-inch pots and Jumbo 6-packs as bedding. We also offer 1- and 2-gallon perennials.  We sell divisions of some of our perennials and bulbs, and when we order Dutch bulbs such as lilies and iris, we simply put out a crate of bulbs at the market, and sell right out of the crate. Basically, anything we grow as a cut flower is fair game for retail sales.

We start most of our seed-grown cut flowers in 200-cell plug trays. Most of these go directly into the field in this size. When we start the seeds in the greenhouse, we always plant an extra tray or two for plant sales. It fits right into our schedule. Usually the annuals such as Ammi majus or zinnias go into a Jumbo 6-pack. These are “break apart” packs that come as sheets. They fit into a standard 1020 tray (actually 11 inches by 22 inches). So we get six 6-packs per tray. We retail a 6-pack at our market for $2.99, so that gives us about $18 a tray. When you consider that it only takes a few weeks to get a plant to salable size in a 6-pack, you see how this can be a good return.

We also like to grow in a 4-inch pot. Again we use a sheet of break-apart pots instead of individual pots. We like to use a pot that is a bit larger than the industry standard 4-inch pot, so we call them “Jumbo 4 inch” at the market. The pots come 15 in a sheet, and we use a special bottom tray that is larger than a standard 1020. Ours are made by a company called Landmark Plastics. These are available through most greenhouse supply companies. You’ll need to check with your local supplier because there are many different types available.
We use the Jumbo 4-inch mostly for perennials, but if we are using an annual that has expensive seed, or something that we brought in as a plug, we also put that in a 4-inch pot. We have found that these Jumbo 4-inch pots give us a lot more freedom to keep plants on the bench in the market longer if needed, and they require less watering. We sell our Jumbo 4-inch for $2.00 to $2.99 per pot, depending on the variety. That gives us $30 to $45 a flat, retail, which is a fabulous price.

We use a standard peat-based mix for our bedding trays.  Most companies make a variety of mixes. We use Fafard mix #2 for our 6-packs and for vegetable plants in Jumbo 4-inch. This mix is mostly peat, with some perlite and vermiculite. We use Fafard 52 mix for most of the Jumbo 4-inch, and for gallon pots.  This mix has bark mixed in and is somewhat heavier. You’ll need to experiment for your own conditions. There are some commercially available organic mixes also.

We consider that anything we grow for ourselves is a good bet for garden sales, so we also offer divisions and cutting-propagated plants of our best varieties.  Mexican single tuberoses, dahlias, phlox, rudbeckia – anything that you would divide to propagate  for your own production can also be sold bare-root at the market. You can bring them bulk, in crates or you can prepackage them in clear zip-lock bags.  We do both.  For cutting-propagated plants such as salvias, we start cuttings in 72-cell trays, and then bump them up to Jumbo 4-inch or gallon pots. We also offer bulbs that we buy in for our own production.  For example, we grow some fabulous Oriental lilies that the customer would never find anywhere else on the retail market. We package these in zip-locks and sell a bag of 3 bulbs for $6. We’ll put a color photo of the variety in bloom, and they sell themselves! This is a real deal compared to the retail price of lilies at the garden center, but we can more than double our money.  And the best thing is that  gardeners feel like they’ve really gotten some inside information to get these exclusive varieties – and they have!

Marketing cut flower plants can be more of a challenge than selling regular bedding plants. You can’t sell your plants with flowers on them like those poor little plants in the pack at the big box store.  Let’s face it, a 6-pack of agrostemma just doesn’t have that “impulse-buy” appeal! Cut flower plants need to be sold green, so you will need good signage. We try to use a color tag in each pack or pot whenever they are available, and we use a variety of 3×5 or larger display signs on the bench. We try to get as much information as possible on these signs, telling the customer to plant these when green so they get the best bloom production in the garden. We let them know that they can’t get these varieties anywhere else, and that they are adapted to our conditions and successful here at our farm.

Of course, what you are really selling when you sell any of these plants is yourself.  People love to talk about their gardens, and when you can offer them a scoop on the competition, you’ll have them eating right out of your hand. They want to know how you grow it, and they want to tell you about their experience. At our market people make connections, with us and with other customers. In a shaky economy, it seems like people need this even more. Of course, Frank (always the cynic) says look out for the old coot who wants to spend an hour talking about every single tomato variety he’s grown in the last 40 years.  “Now I remember those Bonny Best tomatoes I had back in ‘68.” he’ll say.  “Maybe it was the weather back then, but I tell ya’…”  At this point Frank starts to glaze over, and then remembers that he better get back to the tractor work out in the back field. Of course, Frank seems to be getting a bit long-winded himself these days. Guess it comes with the territory.  

Frank and Pamela Arnosky grow flowers and vegetables for supermarkets and their own farm market at Texas Specialty Cut Flowers in Blanco, Texas. To learn more, visit www.texascolor.com.