Starting a small plant nursery !

[Catsandallthingscrazy]

I know I know I must be mad, but as a teenager I used to dream about setting up and running a plant nursery . I now live in a detached house with an acre of garden and have 2 larger greenhouses , I grow I'd say approximately 70% of my plants from seed or bare root. Most of the garden is set in cottage garden planting schemes, Some tropical ie ; Cannas, Bananas Tetrapanex etc , lots of vegetables and fruit trees , half of the garden is still an old apple orchard so semishaded areas available! My question is is there any Mums on here that have set up and run a successful plant nursery! What advise would you give me for a start up budget ?how much of your lifestyle would be taken up by this ? Totally expecting watering +++ in summer ! Not wanting to open my garden up for nursery traffic or public , I'm on clay soil that's fairly sandy in Cambridgeshire fens. Thanks for reading !

Could you grow a variety of shrubs, perennials and annuals and sell them at a farmer's market once a week to get started?

Absolutely yes, I have lots of plant nurseries around that sell perennials in plugs etc that are ideal to be grown on , just wanting ideas of what sells , type of initial budget to start with for spring next year !

I would try and specialise in growing plants that will thrive in the area you are living. Check out other suppliers in the wider area as theres probably no point doing exactly what someone else is doing. After a while you could add in some more unusual plants or shrubs to attract customers in.

How exciting, slightly jealous :) Maybe start selling on facebook first to see what response you get, then maybe just do one day a week. Near here someone sells plants on saturdays and seems to do well. Good luck

I'm hoping to do this in the future, I do currently grow most of my plants from my own seeds. I think any plants are saleable tbh but I think I'm going to focus more on perennials than annuals as I know I prefer to buy more long term plants. Tomato plants always seem to sell well and I sold a whole load of spare runner bean plants very easily last year.

Definitely go for it, maybe start with a small table/stall with honesty boxes at the end of your drive or boot fairs and then farmers markets.

Well at least if it is a commercial enterprise you will be able to use a hosepipe!!

Seriously though, how are you planning on selling the plants?

are you an RHS member and do you read the section of their magazine on nurseries etc? I'm sure it would give lots of useful info.

There are probably 2 or 3 options
a) become VERY specialised. If you are one of the few people in the UK who does Hellebores or hostas or whatever and you have 100 varieties of that type of plant + a sensible website then people will come to you just for that particular type of plant
b) general popular appeal. Like Beth Chatto or Sarah Raven - you need a very good website manager
c) partner with a local garden / charity / cafe that would do the sales if you provide the plants. I know a successful small garden centre which employs/trains local people with learning difficulties and sells plants at their community college which works well.

if you want (a) or (b) then having an excellent website is essential. If people can't find a plant on your website & get up to date info on what is in stock, they won't buy.

Thanks all some really interesting and valuable pieces of advise there . I mainly trying to speak or chat with someone who's done exactly this I last few years who could me some economical advise, of avoids and initial outlay costs etc ? Sounds like the RHSmagazine maybe the way forward ? I'm in contact with a few nurseries locally but they don't know about my intentions , but I do know they are intending to expand in this area so there is definitely demand ! Thanks again everyone much appreciated !

There is a lady who lives down the road from me who has a nice cottage with a good sized garden. She set up a stall at the bottom of her garden a few years ago with an honesty box and sold a good selection of summer annuals. Each year she has added a bit more, with some very pretty and unusual plants now. She has recently started calling it a nursery. it seems to have been very successful to me and she always looks very happy.

Try the chilli nursery in Chawston (near sAt Neots), edible ornamentals. The couple who run it are lovely.

Are you near to passing traffic or pedestrians?
Do you have parking space?
I like the idea of a table at the end of your garden withhonesty box but it needs to be easy to find.

What about cut flowers for florists. Since Brexit many are trying to buy British flowers. I like Marston Flower girl and Headley flower garden.

Yes close to a dog walkers paradise and with quite a few housing estate to the end of the garden too ! The drive is huge and you could easily park 6 cars on there so no problem with parking either. Astrabees she sounds just like me ! Always pottering !! How many years from selling on drive to calling herself a nursey though ? Chilliesandsp8ces, not near St Neots bit if I ever am ill pop in ! Thanks all , any other suggestions greatly welcome especially from mum/parents who have already done exactly this ! Thanks

I don't see how this would be financially viable unless you were very specialised, as a PP says. I've not done it myself but I work at a nursery. It's hard to make a profit on selling plants from bare root or from seed; this is why commercial nurseries still often buy plants as plugs from Holland, despite Brexit. It's also hard to sustain a business that only functions for part of the year, which you would if you only have two greenhouses, I think? With an acre, you're presumably not going to specialise in something like hedging/roses/trees in bare root state, so during the winter you would probably be selling very little?

I agree with a PP that starting with a stall/honesty box sounds good. If you then set up a nursery, my understanding is that you'd need to apply for a change of use, from a domestic garden to a plant nursery. You also need to be aware some plants can't be propagated for commercial ends without leave, and for others (like your exotics), you may need inspections or plant passports if you import. I'm not sure what the legalities would be if you used your domestic driveway as parking for a business - it might be covered under the same change of use as the plant nursery, but you need to check. I know when my boss set up, he was lucky in that the land he bought had aquifers so he's able to draw on ground water (and there are rules about how you do this). But otherwise, water is an important cost.

How much of your one acre would you plan to turn over to producing/stocking plants? And how are you planning to do that - would you, for example, see the greenhouses as your 'shop' space? Or would you have perennials/annuals laid out in pots or trays somewhere else (where?). I would think that, on an acre, you would need at least 1/4 of an acre to be dedicated to the 'business' side of things, where you keep seeds germinating or propagated plants growing on.

All good advice. I've had a nursery and garden open to the public for 25 years. I specialise. The only time I made reasonable money was when I had a cafe as well, but that was a killer. Advertising is horrendously expensive. There's an awful lot of competition in your area, and an acre's pretty small. I have several commercial sized polytunnels - better for hardy perennials than greenhouses.

I used to be head gardener at a city farm and as part of it, ran a nursery.

There was two of us, one 5 days a week and one 3. And about 10 volunteers. We took about £600 in a good week, £400 in a general week and in the winter hardly anything. Our throughput of visitors was about 50k people a year, mainly to see the animals. We specialised in veg and herbs, and also sold the crops and due to the large Asian and Caribbean locals, grew plenty of non UK things that they loved.

It is hard work, no time for pottering, on your feet all day and you need to be sure there is a demand for your speciality otherwise people aren't going to make a trip. Usually these things start from a love of a certain species and develop it, eg I'll drive to a salvia nursery as i know thats what they will have and they know their varieties and their species.

My top tip would be to try and work or volunteer at a plant selling establishment first. And do that during March and April.

It sounds like a great idea in theory but as everyone has said it’s almost impossible to make such a small enterprise profitable as a full time job.
As a sideline, and if you love it though then go for it.
As a customer, I would pay more for expert advice, rarer more unusual plants, and plants that grow well in local conditions.

Look up urban herbs, urban-herbs.co.uk they started their growing business about ten years ago I think, they specialise in unusual herbs. It’s not pottering though, it sounds like a lot of hard work.

Definitely check out the plant passport situation, as I know this is really expensive if you are required to have it. I run a charity plant stall at my gate - predominantly perennials. I only charge £1 per plant using an honesty pot system. I sell about a thousand plants a year (2000 in the first year of lockdown, when everyone took up gardening). Mostly people are honest, but I did have one person who saved all their defunct foreign currency to put in the pot and i had to buy a lockable wall-mounted cashbox after someone started emptying the pot.

There’s an interview with the owner in the April issue of the RHS Garden magazine! Would be worthwhile reading

Excuse the ! Finger trouble

It's great you want to start your own business. If you're on the Fens speak to Chris George at GrowthWorks Cambs/Peterborough to see if there's any start-up and business planning support available at the moment. They did have a targeted Fenland Start-Up program a couple of year ago, they may have another one. Remember, it's a business first and a plant nursery second.

Write a business plan and understand your costs. Running a business from your garden will involve a number of changes. You may need change of use, and you'll be a business for rates, water and utilities. Invest in rainwater storage.

If you don't want the public to access the garden/nursery, what will be your sales outlet? - weekend markets and car boots?