Plant Sales: how to make money despite bloody APHA!

A couple of years back, I wrote about the situation regarding APHA (Animal and Plant Health Authority, part of DEFRA, which used to be MAFF) concerning the unworkable and unenforceable new Plant Passports (PPs) Directive which, as it stood, was the DEATH of plant sales in the UK: they changed a few of their rules, but we were still left in a situation where their rules about selling plants by post has impacted disastrously on small sellers.

That second post, from late January 2020, attracted a heartfelt wail from one reader last week, along these lines: 

"OOF well there goes my hopes and dreams of growing and selling to try making a living! 

So I was thinking, as I have social anxiety, I wanted to post plants from eBay sales as I couldn't do car boot. I am thinking about alternatives like selling to resellers but then I wouldn't make anywhere near as much."

My response was:

"I feel your pain... this is EXACTLY what we have been saying to APHA. Once we sell a plant face to face, we have no control over where it goes.

But those are the rules. Face to face keeps any pests and diseases local: posting spreads them all over the country. "  

And as far as APHA are concerned, that's the end of that. So what happens to all us small plant sellers? 

 

We end up only selling locally, face to face, and that means a sad round of taking stalls as village fetes (*groan*) , Yellow Book open gardens (*slightly better*) or specialist plant sales, where the stall fee is usually quite high and sales are rarely correspondingly high, unless you happen to have their exact specialist plants for sale, but if you do, then you are competing with all the other stalls....

I'm not even going to mention car boot sales, because they are completely useless: people are there to get something cheap, so you need a large van full of annuals grown cheaply from seed, in full flower, for 50p each.

Personally, I absolutely detest standing on a stall: I do enjoy talking to the customers, because I love talking about plants, but honestly, they would mostly be picking my brains about their garden's problems, under the guise of: 

Them: "Would this plant do well in deep shade under some conifers on a north-facing border?" 

Me: "Not really, I'm afraid. It really needs a reliably moist soil and full sun," (*mutters to self "as is clearly written on its label, you dummy" *)

Them: "Oh dear. What would you recommend, then?"

Me: *offers them a plant* "This particular plant would grow quite well -"

Them: *interrupting me* "Well is there anything else we can do?"

Me: *somewhat bemused - anything else? * "Well, you could consider improving the soil in that area..." *goes on to lecture for ten minutes about how to improve the soil, lift the canopy, reducing shade, altering shape of bed etc while fourteen people listen avidly, making notes.*

So, to get to the point, although I don't have social anxiety as such, I do hate, loathe and detest the waste of time spent standing at stalls.. The profit/time ratio is hellishly bad, unless you have two acres of polytunnels and a van, and can take 400 plants all at the peak of flowering - because frankly, that's all that sells. 

Prior to the APHA law, I used to sell by post via eBay sales, which had its own drawbacks, but at least meant that my time was my own: I could put up the for sale posts after work, and I could pack and post at a time that suited me. Although, even then, I found that I was wasting a lot of time going to the post office which, for me, meant driving there and back, which was an expense, plus the time in queueing etc etc... it only really works if you either sell quite a lot of plants and can do one post run a week: or if you are selling specialist plants, at a high price. 

Oh, and there's also the nightmare of plants getting delayed in the post, or squashed: so the customer demands a replacement, and that means more hassle... so, was selling by post really the only alternative to standing on a stall?

I thought long and hard, and decided that I loved producing the plants, but hated selling them, so I needed to find someone to sell them for me.

This led to a search for someone who enjoyed standing on a stall all day, and who could add my plants to their stock, and sell them for a commission. I thought some sort of partnership would be the perfect answer: I'd grow my plants, drop off a car-load to them every so often, they'd do the boring bit, and I'd take back the unsold ones, and the money - less commission - for the sales. It need not have been another plant seller: it could have been someone selling garden ornaments, perhaps, or arty-crafty items. 

I thought we would come to an arrangement, either they would pay me an agreed amount for the plant, and sell it for as much as they thought they could, keeping the profit: or they'd sell them at my marked prices, and take a percentage, which we would agree. Frankly, I was prepared to agree to offer anything up to 50% commission.

So I scouted round some plant sales, and approached a couple of the stallholders. I actually found a woman who sold plants, who was interested: but we just couldn't quite get to grips with all the details. What would happen if my plants died while in her care? What if she thought I'd priced them too high? Could I produce the plants that she asked me to provide? What if any of my plants had pests or diseases which spread to her plants? What if any of my plants were toxic, and she sold one to someone who complained, or fell ill? Who would be responsible?

It all became just too difficult, so we didn't take it any further.

Then I noticed that quite a few people had stalls in their front gardens, with an honesty box. I contacted one - I popped a note through the door saying that I was considering doing something similar, and did she have any advice? She very generously invited me round, and showed me her set-up: she had a massive garden, so she was able to grow large numbers of plants, which meant that she had a good stock and was able to put out a good selection of plants every day. 

There were problems: not everyone put the money through the letterbox (she'd tried an honesty box attached to the stall, and it has been broken into several times), and a couple of times, she'd had whole trays of plants stolen. This taught her not to put them out in trays, but to put individual pots out, as they made it harder for someone to quickly steal a whole bunch of them. These days, we would have camera doorbells, which would probably reduce that problem. But, she said, it provided enough money to cover her costs of pots and compost etc.

This wouldn't work for me, as I live in a cul-de-sac, and you need to have what is called "passing trade".

I did try having an occasional Plant Sale in my own front garden, publicising it on social media for a couple of weeks beforehand... it did work, I sold quite a few plants, but I noticed that people would note the word "sale" and would expect everything to be super-cheap. And of course I would have to stand there and take the money, which was as bad as standing on a stall, and I also had to stand there long after the official closing time, because odd people would turn up and wander round the garden. I did also have one rather scary occasion where a particular woman, who had wanted to buy some plants where were not for sale, sneaked back after dusk and would probably have stolen them, had my security light not come on as she was halfway up the front path. 

So there were problems with selling from home.

Well, I can't change where I live, so I went searching for a different type of outlet - and during a visit to a National Trust property, I'd noticed that the tea shop had plants for sale.

There aren't any NT properties, or similar establishments, near to me, so I went in search of tea shops. They'd be the perfect outlet: they attract the sort of people who have gardens, who have the leisure to sit around in tea shops, who are likely to buy the lavender-bags and fancy notepaper which such places often sell.

Alas, there were no tea shops near to me, other than some in the town centre, which were not suitable for having a plant stall: either they didn't have any pavement space, or they would have been too difficult for me to access them for restocking, which would usually be outside of office hours.

Eventually, I  found a local farm shop, which also stocked things like locally made honey, hand-crafted cakes and biscuits, and they turned out to be brilliant.  They let me have a permanent stall outside the door, with an honesty box, and I paid them a commission on all money taken. 

I was initially hoping that they would take the money at the till, because that would ensure payment!! However, the manager explained that if my money went through the till, it counted as "income" for the shop, and that they preferred it if I would have the money put in the honesty box, then just pay them the commission monthly: they weren't trying to avoid paying tax, because I paid them by bank transfer, all official: they just didn't want the hassle of having to sort out which sales were mine, how much commission they'd take off, how much they'd pay me, etc. Much simpler for them, to take the honesty box route.

I used to go and check it 2 or 3 times a week on my way home from work: watering the plants, taking new "stock" with me to replace any sales or any drooping plants, and emptying the honesty box. 

Because it was a farm shop, it had a lot of customers of the "right" sort ie not modern mums with no time for gardening, but senior folks who were prepared to pay a bit more for their meat and veg, and who had time to browse. It also had its own car park and shop frontage, and the owners lived on site, so although it wasn't gated, it was pretty secure, and it was ok to leave the plants on the stall all the time: I don't think they would have agreed, if they had had to take the plants in every night, and put them out every morning.

I will be perfectly honest with you, it took a LOT of nerve to go into the shop and ask. 

I asked for the manager, and then explained that I was a local plant grower, I wanted an outlet, I would do all the work ie I made the stall, painted it in their house colours: and it was totally my responsibility to check and water the plants, and to empty the box. They literally had to do nothing. 

 

My first bench was quite simple: literally just a low bench, with a grid of trellis to stop the plants falling over: a blackboard above it, on which I could promote anything particularly good: a box underneath for recycling plant pots (I got quite a few back, which could then be re-used) (and yes, I also got quite a lot of unwanted used pots which I would then have to dispose of!) and an honesty box bolted to the frame.

 

After the first year, they had a new porch built onto the front of the shop, and I was promoted to The Front Door, which made quite a difference to the sales.

By then I'd made a more decorative blackboard, as you can see, and things were looking a bit more professional.

In recognition of this, the manager had a pair of matching benches made for me, one each side of the door.

I was there for about three years, until I lost my rented nursery, and could no longer produce the volume of plants that you need in order to have an updated selection.

I made some money, not much: I could have made more if I'd specialised, or if I'd been a bit more savvy about growing annuals from seed, and a bit more savvy about keeping up with trends on tv (I don't have a tv) so I would  know which plants were suddenly popular, having been mentioned by Monty or whoever. Yes, I lost a few plants where people didn't put in any money, or just put in a few coppers, or - memorably - put Monopoly money in the box.... but on the whole, most of the plants were paid for. 

I learned quite early on that Big is Better, because small plants dry out too quickly: and I learned that people need very clear prices, hence each plant having a gigantic yellow plastic label.

In conclusion, then, I would say to you, don't give up on selling plants: if you can't have a stall in your own front garden, then consider finding an outlet: think about your target audience, who is going to buy your plants? Where are they likely to shop? Think about how to make it as easy for the outlet as possible, and although this is really hard to do, you will get better results if you visit in person rather than writing to them, because firstly it's harder to say no to someone in person, whereas it is very easy to ignore a letter: and secondly, they can see that you are sensible and honest, so they are more likely to give you a chance.

And through all this, remember: APHA are not doing this deliberately to ruin our business, nor to prevent us from making money. They were tasked with preventing the spread of pest and disease, and making it possible to trace back outbreaks, to see where they originated, and to stop them spreading further.  

I have seen the devastating effects of Ash Die Back, and now of Box Moth Caterpillar, both of which were "introduced" to our safe, secure little island, when there were no controls, and now they are ravaging the countryside and our gardens, respectively. 

We are the people who shouted "something must be done!" and this legislation, for all it's flaws, is what the government is doing.

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