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  • From: HoeManGray AT aol.com
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Re: Flower pricing
  • Date: Thu, 08 Jul 2004 16:36:11 -0400

I too have had an interesting time at market with pricing this year.
Initially I started by bouquets at $6 vs $5 from last year, had a few larger
bouquets for $7.50, and had smaller flower arrangements in mason jars for $5.
I sold the jar bouquets and very few of the higher priced bouquets. There is
one other local grower who sells at higher rates and we now have two new
vendors that to me appear to be wholesaling flowers (different subject!).
These new vendors are making arrangments onsite and priced at $5, 8, 10
wrapped in white paper and plopped into small black vases on the ground in
the sun!

Last week, I only had $5 bouquets in sleeves, $10 arrangements in vases, and
some "grower" bunches for $3.50 - sold some of each...I think its a price
issue - even increments seem to work, i.e. $5 or $10 or something less than
$5. I tried extra flowers (daisies and rudbeckia)by the stem and didn't sell
any...however, the last few years, I've been able to sell sunflowers at $1
per stem. I may try the per stem approach with lilies as well.

Hang in there! Let the shoppers get to know you and your product!
And, have lots of signs that say "locally grown" with your name and number,
including business cards.

Wendy (Oregon)
Cutflowers For You

In a message dated 7/6/2004 12:09:27 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
market-farming-request AT lists.ibiblio.org writes:

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>Today's Topics:
>
>   1. Re: Flower price (nancy a parker)
>   2. Re: Re: Flower price (Pat Meadows)
>   3. Cooling off-grid (sora AT coldreams.com)
>   4. Garlic Question (Carl Hatfield)
>   5. Re: Garlic Question (Dcimmarr AT aol.com)
>   6. Re: Tools for small farmers (Grow19 AT aol.com)
>   7. Re: Tools for small farmers (Pat Meadows)
>   8. Flower price  (herbthyme AT simcon.net)
>   9. RE: Flower price (Sue Oberle)
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Message: 1
>Date: Mon, 5 Jul 2004 11:40:40 -0500
>From: nancy a parker <nan3russ AT juno.com>
>Subject: [Market-farming] Re: Flower price
>To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
>Message-ID: <20040705.114040.2464.0.nan3russ AT juno.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
>
>I sell flowers at 5 for $1, most folks take $3 dollars at least. Couple
>other vendors have bouquets made when they come, in glass jars, and sell
>for $4 a bouquet. They always sell out to regular customers. Last
>week,they sold out before all the regulars had been there and made them
>mad.
>Maybe they'll be mine next week.
>Lot of people like to make their own so I offer that option. When the
>number gets low, I make up a bouquet and sell it for $3.
>They are all homegrown which I do not find to always be the case.
>I find I can't possibly grow and sell cilantro for what Meijers does. 5
>inch around(wide) for .69. Plants are a different story.Atleast a $1 a
>stem.
>Just some thoughts,
>Nancy Parker
>Sulphur Hill Farm Gardens
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>Message: 2
>Date: Mon, 05 Jul 2004 13:28:10 -0400
>From: Pat Meadows <pat AT meadows.pair.com>
>Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Re: Flower price
>To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
>Message-ID: <pp3je0hnq12aphqr9mjfh98u1q7d0hn6tu AT 4ax.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
>On Mon, 5 Jul 2004 11:40:40 -0500, you wrote:
>
>>Lot of people like to make their own so I offer that option. When the
>>number gets low, I make up a bouquet and sell it for $3.
>>They are all homegrown which I do not find to always be the case.
>>I find I can't possibly grow and sell cilantro for what Meijers does. 5
>>inch around(wide) for .69. Plants are a different story.Atleast a $1 a
>>stem.
>
>Oh, man, what a difference.  A lousy little bunch of sadly
>wilted cilantro is $1.99 here (rural northern Pennsylvania).
>
>It's a good thing it's so easy to grow - even in winter, I
>can grow it on a windowsill, no problem at all.
>
>Pat  
>--
>CLICK DAILY TO FEED THE HUNGRY
>http://www.thehungersite.com/
>
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>Message: 3
>Date: Mon, 5 Jul 2004 12:13:44 -0700 (PDT)
>From: sora AT coldreams.com
>Subject: [Market-farming] Cooling off-grid
>To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
>Message-ID: <1149.4.242.3.57.1089054824.squirrel AT qmail.coldreams.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1
>
>>>I let them sit for 1/2 hour, then
>>>make up bouquets which each go into their container of solution.  Then
>>>into the coolers with the an ice jug wrapped in a towel.  I swap jugs in
>>>the morning and the flowers are chilled and ready for the ride into town.
>>
>> You've lost me! How tall are your bouquests? What are you using for
>> containers? -Allan
>>
>>Sorry...the bouquets are limited in height by the size of the cooler.
>Sometimes if I have something Tall like Delphinium, I'll wrap the base in
>paper towels soaked in the solution inside a plastic bag and lay it in
>the cooler sideways.  For containers, I've been hitting all the Goodwill
>type stores for vases.  They are usually $.50-.75 apiece and are always
>plentiful at these stores.  I use the smaller ones at market because I
>found our area was too poor to feel they could squander $7 for a large
>bouquet but had no problem with a 6 stem mini-bouquet for $2.50.  The
>larger ones work well for my flower shares at $7.
>
>One of our most prolific veggie vendors at our market is also off-grid and
>she works entirely with a concrete root cellar with a dirt/gravel floor.
>She says it stays at about 48 degrees year round.  She patterned hers off
>of the root cellars at Ronnigers Potato farm, where they are operating a
>huge seed potato operation completely out of root cellars.  There might be
>info on their website ronnigers.com.  I believe USDA also has pamphlets
>available on root cellar construction.
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>Message: 4
>Date: Mon, 5 Jul 2004 20:55:43 -0600
>From: "Carl Hatfield" <cmkfield AT pmt.org>
>Subject: [Market-farming] Garlic Question
>To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
>Message-ID: <002a01c46304$bb5f23d0$124c53d8@garlic>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
>Today I dug my soft neck garlic the hard neck & elephant isn't quite ready
>yet. Most of the heads were good sized.  My question is a lot of the heads
>had clusters of small bubils in the stem above the main head.  I nhave had
>some of this befor but not to this extent.  Has anyone else experienced
>this?   Has anyone planted these enough to know what size heads you will get
>the following year?  Also will anyone have garlic for sale that they will
>ship?
>
>THANKS
>Carl   zone  5 or 6  (IDAHO)
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>------------------------------
>
>Message: 5
>Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 07:24:14 EDT
>From: Dcimmarr AT aol.com
>Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Garlic Question
>To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
>Message-ID: <1e5.2477fa49.2e1be5de AT aol.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
>Carl,
>I am also zone 5. The bubil formation on the garlic that  you are referring
>to is nothing to worry about. Some varieties....esp. Red Toch have these
>bubils
>naturally occuring in the area you mentioned, rather than at the top of the
>scape. These are plantable bubils and a good way to reproduce garlic to
>increase your stock if however you dont mind doing this for a few years. The
>bubils
>that you speak of planting will eventually turn into bulbs pretty similar to
>the ones you originally planted. The first year after planting the bubils,
>you
>will most likely harvest small versions of the original. Each succesive year
>in
>which you plant out the cloves from that bulb, the garlic should increase in
>size until it reaches its full genetic capability. I may have some digital
>photos I can send you off list if you would like to see the size of these
>bulbs
>having grown from bubils. Also garlic to ship.
>Denise Cimmarrusti
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>------------------------------
>
>Message: 6
>Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 09:03:47 EDT
>From: Grow19 AT aol.com
>Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Tools for small farmers
>To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
>Message-ID: <12b.4593c732.2e1bfd33 AT aol.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
>check with ATTRA (www.attra.org).  try a google search for 'appropriate
>technology'.
>Judy Tiger
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>------------------------------
>
>Message: 7
>Date: Tue, 06 Jul 2004 09:39:43 -0400
>From: Pat Meadows <pat AT meadows.pair.com>
>Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Tools for small farmers
>To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
>Message-ID: <sqale0pokiegkuv3qucg022c6mt92jjpj1 AT 4ax.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
>On Tue, 6 Jul 2004 09:03:47 EDT, you wrote:
>
>>check with ATTRA (www.attra.org).  try a google search for 'appropriate
>>technology'.
>
>Here is another source of possibly useful ideas:
>
>http://www.journeytoforever.org/farm_library/device/devicesToC.html
>
>This is a book written in 1910, entitled 'Handy Farm Devices
>and How to Make Them'.  The entire book is online at the URL
>given above.
>
>Pat
>--
>CLICK DAILY TO FEED THE HUNGRY
>http://www.thehungersite.com/
>
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>Message: 8
>Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 10:11:38 -0400
>From: "" <herbthyme AT simcon.net>
>Subject: [Market-farming] Flower price
>To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
>Message-ID: <f70dad67a5b342c6a2ded44e4c07b521.herbthyme AT simcon.net>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>
>
>I make up a bouquet and sell it for $3.
>
>WOW!  At the market where I sell, the bouquets are going for $7 ea.!  I
>think it is a bit high, but then we cut bouquets out of our yard last firday
>for something to sell and I was getting $5.50 a bouqet.  And I was more than
>thrilled with that!!!!  I don't really mess with flowers yet but that little
>bit was fun!
>
>Courtney
>Herb Thyme
>Middlefield, Oh
>
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>Message: 9
>Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 09:03:56 -0600
>From: "Sue Oberle" <sue AT oberlebotanical.com>
>Subject: RE: [Market-farming] Flower price
>To: "'Market Farming'" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
>Message-ID: <000701c4636a$76050460$0202a8c0@OberleDesktopXP>
>Content-Type: text/plain;   charset="US-ASCII"
>
>
>My first post after months of lurking!
>
>Flowers are a funny thing for me at market. Sometimes sell a lot;
>sometimes I end up "giving"  them away at markets end. I'll give them to
>good, repeat customers, elderly folks, etc. I see this as an investment,
>not a loss. I look for neat containers through the winter (cheap!!) and
>often sell them with the container - seems to help sales. My bouquets go
>for $4.00 to $15.00, depending on size. We also have a "by the bucket"
>price of $30.00 (5 gal. Square bucket) Around mid summer we do a handout
>that goes into bags about basil in bulk & flowers by the bucket.
>
>One thing I'm sure of though - they attract the eye & dress up the
>table. Even if I don't sell them, I'm sure they attract people to our
>stand. AND we get a good amount of interest in the flower by the bucket
>thing for weddings, parties, etc. People see those flowers every week &
>it registers in their minds. I think this is where a person can really
>make money on flowers. A fully conditioned bucket of flowers will hold
>up a long time & lots of people see them if it's a party, wedding,
>banquet. 2 very good things. Without all the extra labor of putting
>together bouquets, buying sleeves, etc.
>
>Sue in Colorado
>
>
>
>I make up a bouquet and sell it for $3.
>
>WOW!  At the market where I sell, the bouquets are going for $7 ea.!  I
>think it is a bit high, but then we cut bouquets out of our yard last
>firday for something to sell and I was getting $5.50 a bouqet.  And I
>was more than thrilled with that!!!!  I don't really mess with flowers
>yet but that little bit was fun!
>
>
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>End of Market-farming Digest, Vol 18, Issue 7
>*********************************************
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