This is a huge opportunity as far as I’m concerned.
Seriously, I truly believe that this could be really big.
All Summer Beauty Hydrangea, completely unavailable in a one gallon.
Okay, so maybe it’s not really a conspiracy, but it’s close to that.
I’ve been working in the green industry for a long time. Since 1972 I believe. Back then it was really, really common for nurseries to have a pretty large selection of plants available in one gallon containers. Then along came big box stores and they seemed to specialize in one gallon plants. Selling them pretty cheap at times.
For whatever reason, the rest of the industry started moving away from selling plants in one gallons, pretty much letting the big box stores have that market. Good idea? Bad idea? I have no idea but over time this has evolved and a lot of things changed.
Big box stores still sell a great deal of plants in one gallon containers, but they also have lots and lots of three gallons and larger sized plants and to be perfectly honest, I am completely dumbfounded by how much they charge for some of these larger plants. I’ve seen some pretty generic varieties of plants selling for $25.00 or more in three gallon containers. In other words, they are not selling plants as cheap as some think.
Landscape contractors are usually looking for larger size plants so most of what they buy is three gallon container or larger, but they still buy and prefer a great deal of smaller plants, lots of perennials in one gallon containers.
So who wants one gallon plants?
The market for one gallon plants can be far and wide.
For one, homeowners love one gallon plants. They cost less, the are easy to carry and handle and digging a hole for a one gallon container is much easier than digging a hole for a three or five gallon container. Don’t think for a second this doesn’t cross somebody’s mind when they are buying plants. They know when they get home they have holes to dig. They know when they get home they have to unload those plants and lug them across the yard.
Baby boomers are still a big, big piece of the plant buying public. But . . . we are tired, sore, out of shade and most of us have some worn out body parts. We love to garden, but the easier the better!
There’s another great big market for one gallon plants that nobody thinks about, most people are unaware of.
Right now the nursery stock market is booming along pretty well. Back in 2008 and 2009 the weak economy had a huge effect on the nursery market just like it did just every other industry. A slow down like that is really a “correction” in the market. The weak economy forced some nurseries that were struggling financially out of business and those that survived scaled back a bit because they had surpluses of plants on hand.
Those surpluses are now gone and many items are in short supply and are likely to remain in short supply for some time.
It takes years to produce a three gallon sized plant.
That’s a problem for the wholesale grower who is trying to “catch up” on his inventory. So what a lot of wholesale growers do is they go looking for nice full one gallon plants that they can “bump” into a three gallon containers. They really only have to grow them out for one, or even part of one growing season and they can sell them as finished three gallon plants.
As long at the market for plants remains strong the demand for these one gallon plants will remain strong. And the market will remain strong until the economy falters again. But the good news is that when that happens people still buy plants, but they watch their pennies a lot closer and are delighted to be able to buy one gallon plants instead of expensive three gallon plants.
So what kinds of plants are wholesale growers looking for that they can shift into three gallon containers? Of course that’s the million dollar question but the key words here are . . .
“High quality and high value”.
In other words, it’s highly unlikely that they would be looking for Golden Curls Willow, Dappled Willow, Pussy Willow, Forsythia or other fast growing woody shrubs.
The things that I see them buying in one gallon containers are;
Dwarf Alberta Spruce
All kinds of Rhododendron varieties
Evergreen and deciduous azaleas
French Lilacs
Highly desirable Junipers
Highly desirable arborvitae
English Holly varieties
Japanese Holly varieties
Some of the more rare and highly desirable viburnum.
Barberry, red, yellow and variegated.
Boxwoods, Green Mountain, Dark Green, Wintergreen and more.
Gold Thread Cypress
Hydrangeas, all kinds of Hyrdrangeas
Blue False Cypress
Blueberries
and the list goes on and on. If it’s popular among landscape contractors and garden centers then it has great potential in a one gallon.
Kinda vague huh? Yes and no. Because you never really know for sure what somebody might be looking for. In Our Members Area we have discussions like this on a fairly regular basis and of course you can bring it up on any given day and get incredible feedback from the other members. We have some pretty experienced growers in our members area.
But the truth is, and I want you to really let this sink in . . .
On a daily basis growers buy things they are not searching for.
So lets say that you just happen to have 400 All Summer Beauty Hydrangea in one gallon containers and those plants are nice and full and in bloom. Chances are some grower would be happy to get their hands on some of them if they knew that you had them for sale. See the photo of the All Summer Beauty Hydrangea at the top of the page.
Who would not want to sell that plant if they currently not growing it?
There are so, so many plants that I think would work well in a one gallon container because nobody is doing them in that size anymore. Everything is in a three gallon! Even smaller, independtly owned garden centers should be delight to buy and sell really, really nice plants in one gallon containers.
One gallon plants are great items to sell because the retail customer has to “think about” buying them a lot less. Mentally there is less “buying resistance”. They truly are impulse items.
Think about things like fragrant viburnums. If you can crack the code on propagating fragrant viburnums, and it’s not impossible, we just Discussed it in detail in the Members Area, you could be hitting it out of the park with fragrant viburnums.
Here’s the deal. You have to pick one, two or a few items that have really strong appeal. Both on the retail market and in the landscape market. If you grow these plants out of beautiful plants in one gallon containers I’m pretty sure they will sell. Worst case scenario if they don’t sell? Move them up to three gallons and sell them to landscapers or re-wholesalers.
What is a re-wholesaler?
A re-wholesaler is somebody that sells lots and lots of plants, often doing more than a million dollars a year in plant sales, but they don’t grow. They don’t grow anything. Because they sell so much stuff they have tremendous buying power. They buy from wholesale growers, mark the plants up and they re-sell to landscape contractors.
Landscape contractors are happy to buy from them because they tend to stock everything that a landscaper needs and the contractor doesn’t have to tie up a truck and an employee, or worse, their own time, chasing around from nursery to nursery to put together an order for their next job. The re-wholesaler does that for them.
It pays to do things differently.
Successful business people in all industries are often successful because they took the path that was less crowded, the path that nobody else is on.
When Tom Monaghan started Domino’s Pizza he offered free delivery with a 30 minute guarantee. Never heard of in the pizza world. He Guaranteed Fresh Hot Pizza in 30 Minutes!
When Sam Walton started out he started by building department stores in rural areas when other retailers would never build a store. People thought he was crazy. He just did the opposite of what everybody else was doing.
Everybody is growing in three gallons. That screams that there has to be a market for one gallons. It really costs very little to make a one gallon plant. A cutting that you root yourself, a 25 or 30 cent container, maybe 25 cents worth of potting soil.
Currently one gallon plants are selling wholesale from $3.85 to $5.50 depending on what they are, how many are readily available and overall depend.
Here’s the really awesome thing about one gallons.
When a wholesale buyer buys plants in one gallon containers, they don’t buy five or 10. Most buy at least 100, maybe 300 or 400. Often times even more than that.
Questions? If you really, really want to grasp this topic the best place to discuss it is in Our Members Area. In there discussions go deep with input from many experienced growers. Often a topic like this we will kick around for a number of days and or up to two weeks before all of the questions are thoroughly answered.
But, you are welcome to post questions here and I will do my best to answer them for you.
Dave’s Garden has some info on plant patent’s that have run out.
We have an extensive list of public domain, non patented plants here; https://mikesbackyardnursery.com/2019/03/non-patented-public-domain-plants-that-you-should-be-free-to-propagate/
Mike, I love your site. I’ve only go the $7 deal so far. BUT…reading your emails, and reading articles have spurred my creative green thumb. Gonna keep at it, thanks to you. I know I can be successful. It’s the old lemons to lemonade. Thanks again!
Thank you Julie, I appreciate that.
Mike, I need some real help and pretty fast. I am pay check to pay check and it looks like my position is goig to be emiminated soon. I will try to do the $7 deal, but can you tell me which one or two plants I should concentrate on so I won’t lose money. I am in south eastern Va. Not sure ebooks will dowmload on my computer. You can email me privately if you wish.
Shirley,
I am not in the business of promising people any amount of financial results and I’d hate to see you spend/invest money that you need for bills. There are a lot of ways to go about them and the best way for person in you situation is not spend money getting started. Even on my products. With that said, any flowering shrub or perennial will sell.
I agree, but if I don’t figure something out, I will always be in a slump. I did order your $7 deal, but have not been sent a link. I have scrap wood and some forsythia close by…don’t know the variety. How about fig bushes? Hostas would be easy, too and maybe cheap right now…any particular variety?
Shirley,
I once had a member pay for a permanent membership http://backyardgrowers.com/join, by simply digging up green hostas, dividing them and selling them. Now that’s not something that I necessarily endorse, but by the same token I’m a firm believer that a person striving to succeed has to what they do to do to make it happen. Fig trees are in big demand, propagating them comes up in our members area all the time and people are always looking for some they can grow out and sell. Any hosta variety with color will sell really well.
Right now I suggest that you do what you have to do, but at the same time for future reference get familiar with this; For years and years and years this has been my rant;
http://freeplants.com/rant.htm, I bring it up all the time.
Hi Mike,I have. Rooted cuttings of hydrangea. . I planed them I pots ,and trimmed them to make them full. Some now looked as if the leaves are bleacded. Very light green. Can you advise me on why this is happening. Thank you.
Doris,
They probably need some fertilizer and maybe the potting mix is not to their liking.
Mike…. You must always have plants on the brain… Did you mean to say out of shape ?
But . . . we are tired, sore, out of shade and most of us have some worn out body parts.
I’m one of those baby boomers and have trouble just moving.. Love those smaller pots !!
Thanks Kathy, even my brain is tired. Especially this time of year.
hey Mike, up here in canada, well in British Columbia anyway ther is lots of stuff sold in gallons and
also “grow bags” these are i gallon size but way cheaper.
I use gallons exclusivly. the plant “looks” bigger / older, more valuable.
I had a failure with most of the forsythia last season. took cuttings at the wrong time?
I like your stuff, keep it up. Carl
Carl,
Really hard to go wrong with forsythia, they do as softwood or hardwood cuttings. Early spring is about the worst time to take cuttings.
“Early spring is about the worst time to take cuttings.” That’s news to me and probably why so many sprigs I took as cuttings, as a gift, did not make it, BUT I did get at least 4-5 successful rootings, so, I’ll baby them and see what happens. If they survive, I can maybe trim them in the fall and see if I can propagate it more.
These are for personal growing not for a business and I don’t know what variety they are. I just like the plant and someone offered me cuttings a couple of months ago, in early spring.
Do you sell your plants out of state and do you ship.?
Ann,
At this time I do not ship any of my plants. We have hundreds of members, http://backyardgrowers.com/join, that do ship and at crazy low prices.
Hydrangea’s are beautiful plants!! They grow all over beautiful on the North Coast of Calif. The camp ground where we stay at when we’re over there is full of them and in bloom in May, and I think most of the summer. Living in- land of Northern Calif. , I’ve tried growing one, Just too hot hear in the summer, “Too bad”. Won’t try that again. It’s gets, usually over a hundred degrees hear, and freezes in the winter hear. Over on the coast, usually ones about 55 to 70 degrees. Perfect climate.
I live north of Sacramento in t he valley years it’s hot but I’ve had hydrangeas that have been growing in my yard for 10 years, both in ground and pots. morning sun and on the north side of house.
I live in Sacramento and have a few hydrangeas in my yard and have successfully propagated them. Find your micro climates.
I think it is important to note that when you are trying a plant variety for the first time, you probably don’t want to invest $25-35 dollars until you have some idea of how well it will fare in your yard! Especially if there is a deer or underground tunneler problem. Have you noticed that the price of Daphnes has gone sky high? I started rooting my own when the price jumped from $5 to $25 for a ONE gallon pot.
Candace,
You’re right, the prices of all plants are going up, up and up. The market is really strong right now. But the crazy thing is when the economy crashes, as it does every now and then, the market goes weak, but that helps us small growers. All of a sudden we are able to get great buys on things that weren’t even available to us previously. In the last crash we had members who were buying rare Japanese maples, all kinds of beautiful varieties, and selling them in the members area for $7.00 to $15.00. I bought thousands of dollars worth myself! As small growers we really are in the catbird seat.
I am in Orange Park, Florida. I want to plant a Pecan tree and I need to know, do I need to have two of them, like you do when you plant citrus trees? Thanks.
Nancy,
I know little about Pecan trees but I’ve never heard that you need more than one tree.
I look for the small shrubs etc. because I want to be the one that makes them grow in my garden.
BUT,finding these small plants is difficult, Any suggestions on where to go to get these small plants without breaking the bank or my back
Fran,
That’s why I work so hard to create small backyard growers in communities around the world, so people can buy beautiful plants are reasonable prices. You just have to look around, even ask friends. I bet they know somebody.
I am looking to start a backyard nursery and recently discovered that it is against the law to propagate plants from cuttings if the plant is trademarked or patent protected. My current plan is to buy my plants/trees as container liners, raise them into solid parent specimens, propagate, and repeat. I tried searching online for a website that lists protected plants but was unsuccessful. How do I know if I am breaking a patent/trademark?
Jen,
This really is the million dollar question and it’s more difficult because today so much of what is being sold in garden centers are patented plants. There are plenty of beautiful plants that you are free to propagate but you pretty much have to ferret them out. This is something that comes up almost daily in our members area. But at the moment membership is closed. When we do open it up it’s usually only open for a few days. http://backyardgrowers.com/join
I’ve written a couple of articles that will help you.
https://mikesbackyardnursery.com/2014/05/patented-plants-and-plants-with-registered-trademarks-and-the-tale-of-white-fountain-weeping-cherry-trees/
https://mikesbackyardnursery.com/2016/01/proper-nursery-plant-tagging/
You can search the plant patent website, but if you don’t do it exactly right you’ll come up with inaccurate results. Me? I don’t trust that I would do it correctly. In our members area we have people are really good at doing this research and collectively, we all have a pretty good idea of what is patented or not and constantly discuss this.
I hear that you Can propagate and sell patented plants all lot of time. You just have to sell it under a different name… or just generalize what species it is on the label… like “rabbit eye blueberry” as an example. Is this true?
No it is not true. It is very much against the law to propagate a patented plant, even if you just want to give it to your grandmother. You cannot propagate them at all while the patent is still in place which is a period of 20 years.
In order to propagate patented plants, and sell them under their licensed patent name, you have to be licensed to do so. You have to pay the patent “royalty” fees. This process varies from state to state.
Kathy,
The process has nothing to do with the state. This is a private matter between the patent holder and the propagator. In most cases, for small growers, it’s too cost prohibitive to get licensed to grow patented plants. Better to buy them already rooted, pay the small royalty and grow them on. I do that a lot.
I just moved to my new home and have to start all over establishing trees, shrubs and plants. I have fully landscaped 5 homes by myself. I am 68 and this is my last. I wish to buy, or get for free, all this is needed so that I can get my garden established and enjoy it. Can you refer me to someone? Thanks.!!
Iris,
Not sure what you are asking but the chance of getting the plants that you need free or charge would be difficult. Right now the demand for nice plants is really strong and plants are bringing top dollar. Many are getting hard to come by at any price.
Hi Iris,
If you are not picky, I would check on Craigslist for people just wanting help clearing out their perennial beds, these plants are established and I have had great luck with hosta, daylily, purple cone flower etc . They are normally dug, just bring a plastic bag. I normally tip $5 or $10 depending on the quantity.
You could also post on CL under the Wanted section, I have done that as well and it worked great, I got established raspberry canes for $1 each..
For daylilies, I can always find them on CL in my area for $3-5 each.
I got hundreds of orange lilies free just for the digging – it was HOT and miserable but I have tons planted and it will look great this Summer.
If you are lucky enough to get some some shrubs propagate them in a white plastic bag like Mike shows. It has worked for us and I have 100 burning bush and another 100 mixed varieties that I will plant out this year. It doesn’t take too long.
Good Luck!