Regular readers will know that my growing passion is propagating perennials. I use to grow lots of vegetables and then I bought 'Portugal' my plastic covered and metal hooped polytunnel.
Within one season nearly half of my veg plot became a plant nursery. I seem to find myself making new plants and potting them up every week. Every day even!
I sell them at car boot sales and to the odd neighbour. My prices are incredibly cheap: a Euro for a small plant and two Euros for a large plant.
Propagating plants is like farming. You never put the price of your time and labour into the price of your product.
If it pays for a few cans of Guinness or some cheap compost from the local German garden centre and beer providers I am happy. I would gladly barter too. Or swap plants for different kinds of plants that I haven't got.
Yesterday I decided to have a look around a local market. It's made up of market stall holders and car booters. You can buy artisan food, work clothes, bric a brac and even plants.
I checked out the plant prices. Some of them were 6 Euros each. Perhaps I have been selling my plants too cheap?
Here's some of my ever increasing perennials collection:
When the powers that be in Dublin allow carboot sales to recommence. I think I might have to put up my prices. Can you sell something too cheap? Especially when it's your hobby or a labour of love?
I would like to purchase half a dozen mixed plants. Please fly them over in your private jet. I will give the money to the pilot.
ReplyDeleteWill do. Roger over and out.😊
ReplyDeleteMy name isn't Roger!
DeleteHa,ha. I usually fly cattle class by a well known budget airline.
DeleteIs the head of that budgie airline the odious Michael O'Leary? That guy needs a good slapping with a wet haddock.
DeleteCould be YP. At least his standing only passengers never took off.
DeleteI heard it was going to be five euros for a wee wee and ten euros for a poo poo. I would have worn an incontinence nappy instead.
DeleteI'm surprised they don't have outside toilets on the wings. 😀
DeleteI suppose those market stall sellers have to add on a bit to cover the cost of renting their market stall space?
ReplyDeleteWhen you fly over to deliver YP's order can you drop off a couple of pretty ones as you pass the IOM?
Yes I think you could be right about market stall traders JayCee having additional costs. My costs are compost and diesel.
ReplyDeleteOh to go carbooting again. I reckon I could host a programme aimed at at carboot sales and the contestant is given the challenge of furnishing an house and planting up the garden.
If you sail the yacht to Bantry Marina we will meet you with a car full of plants and refreshments.
Tish!
DeleteCheers🍾
DeleteYes you can. Although accessibility is good, there is also deep value in much of what we do and sometimes to give it away cheaply devalues its worth in more important ways than the price.
ReplyDeleteI remember my old painting tutor once saying - I'm not selling many paintings - I shall have to double their price!
Good point. I just like to offer something to everyone. I'm more of a Mr Lidl than a Mr Waitrose.
DeleteMy husband says the same about the price I put on my paintings!
ReplyDeletePaintings? Please tell us more about them. I never understand how art is priced. Someone once said to me "you don't buy it by the yard."
ReplyDeleteWell, the clue's in the name. My paintings sell to farmers, gardeners and cooks!! I don't put my work online, but this link is for my hero, Juan Sanchez Cotan. These were painted in the early 1600s!
Deletehttps://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2F7c%2F9f%2F79%2F7c9f7990a0b58d600d26a654cf467828.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Fbalogh_mercedes%2Fjuan-sanchez-cotan%2F&tbnid=IphGApMlXkKo_M&vet=12ahUKEwiV4dz9lLzwAhUOxhoKHQDRBlMQMyhDegQIARBn..i&docid=8-cz_EIhjP0PxM&w=500&h=466&q=cotan%20paintings&hl=en-GB&ved=2ahUKEwiV4dz9lLzwAhUOxhoKHQDRBlMQMyhDegQIARBn
You must be very talented? I can grow them and write about vegetables but I could never paint them. Thanks for the link. His vegetables paintings are amazing.
DeleteI don't know about that! People have said that looking at my paintings makes them feel hungry, and a very elderly farmer told me he really liked the fact that I had grown the tomatoes in the painting we were standing by.
DeleteLike many, I've not had any sales in the last year - when I die, they'll find me, brush in hand, under a heap of toppled canvasses, but if I can get to be nearly as good as Cotan, I'll be happy.
Many many painters never received the recognition they deserved when they were alive. It's great to have a God given talent like painting. I believe allotments and gardens are a form of art. The soil is the easel and the plants the paints and the gardener and Mother Nature paint the scene.
DeleteYou're doing everyone a service by giving them healthy plants to enjoy. Now more people can enjoy them if they're cheaper. It's your passion, not your essential income.
ReplyDeleteDont give them away though. You've done all the hard work!
Thanks Linda. I think there is making a Pound or Euros and being too expensive. I've never been a Capitalist. Perhaps I should put my prices up a little?
DeleteNo opinion on pricing. Here things range so wildly. The local walmart has mother's day hanging baskets for $16.99. I bought mine for $6.99 at the local Aldi's. They were looking a bit bedraggled, and so I set them on the ground to get a bit of rain before hanging. Tim ran over them with a truck. :( I salvaged the plants and repotted them in smart wire plant pots. Hopefully they will live.
ReplyDeleteThanks Debby. I've often rescued a very unhealthy and very thirsty plant or two from a discount supermarket and nurtured it back to life. I am sure your salvaged plants will bounce back to their former glory and look resplendent in their hanging baskets.
ReplyDeleteIf they don't I will have to hop a plane and by some healthy stock from an Irishman known the world over for his mad plant skills.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame I can't email you some and you can print them out. 😆
ReplyDeletewhat about contacting the gardener at a stately home and see if they need any of what you have. I always buy a plant or 2 at Threave castle gardens as they are grown here and hopefully will withstand the weather. although threave isnt as high up as we are and I have to protect everything from the wind. all rather a palaver
ReplyDeleteGood idea Sol, I've been thinking about selling them online. Can't wait for carboot sales to start again.
ReplyDelete