Purple Sandcherry-Pruning and Propagating

Always in demand.
How is this plant sold? Let me count the ways.

Unrooted hardwood cuttings.

An unrooted cutting is pretty much nothing but a stick.  But because of the popularity of Purple Flowering Sandcherry you can actually cut the branches into 5” pieces and sell those pieces as unrooted cuttings and guess what?  They sell like crazy to other growers and even homeowners if you explain to them how to root them.
When you sell them as unrooted hardwood cuttings people usually buy them by the hundreds.  Prices usually start around 35 cents on up to a dollar or more.

Rooted cuttings.

Purple sandcherry rooted cuttings are usually hot sellers because people can get a live, viable plant for around one dollar or two and because Purple Sandcherry is a fast growing plant they fill out a one gallon container quickly and can be sold for a lot more money just a few months after being potted up.

Liners.

A liner is rooted cutting that has been grown for one season. A liner has a heavier root system than a rooted cutting and it is starting to branch out. Liners usually sell for $1.50 to $2.00 each. Growers love buying liners because they can pot them up and sell them almost immediately.

Small Pots.

I sell most of my plants in these pots. http://mikesbackyardnursery.com/plastic-nursery-pots/. Right now my price is $5.97 per plant. So just about everything that I grow goes into one of these pots and I sell them for $5.97 each. That’s my Unique Selling Proposition, thousands and thousands of plants at only $5.97 each.

Now, before you get all rattled when I say thousands and thousands of plants, don’t think along those lines. Think “Small area, maybe the size of a card table”.

There are three types of growers in this business. There are people like me who grow and sell retail, there are wholesale growers who farm up to 1,000 acres and do millions of dollars per year and there are “Folks just like you” that sell to people like me.

I’m all the time buying small plants. Things that I don’t have or things that I’ve run out of. My favorite thing in the world to buy is a plant in small pot that I can buy for a few bucks and turn right around and resell immediately. Especially things that I don’t currently have in my nursery.

So no matter how small of a grower you are, it just doesn’t matter, there are people that will buy your plants if you grow quality, nicely grown, properly trimmed plants.

Back to Purple Sandcherry.

How about selling them in a 3 gallon container for $12.00 each or more.

Landscapers and homeowners love buying plants in 3 gallon containers. Just go to any garden center or big box store on a weekend in the spring and watch the craziness take place. People spend millions of dollars on plants each weekend across the country.

“Here’s something you need to know.”

People, including landscapers, would much rather do business with you than they would a big nursery or a big box store. Even if you don’t want to sell to people face to face or selling to landscapers, even mail order buyers, other small growers, would much rather buy from another small grower than they would a big wholesale nursery. I see it every day. It’s just easier. I do it all the time.

How do you find the buyers? I cover that in detail in the “Small Plants, Big Profits” book and the videos in our members area.

I’ve gotta run for now. Be sure to check out the movies and other products in our members area. More about that here.

-Mike McGroarty

P.S. Until next time, by all means stay inspired!

P.P.S. Growing small plants at home is a life changing experience for so many. You can be as small as you want, but still, you what you do will make a difference to somebody.