MZ:is whether there is a relatively easy market for these cute little critters
MZ:or is it horrendously difficult to find buyers? I would prefer just to ship
MZ:them off rather than pounding on local nursery doors. Sorry for this
-Mike Zeigler
When I started my business of propagating and disseminating
carnivorous plants, I was working as a piece-work glassblower for
another company, so it didn't matter if I made any money at my
business. However, when I quit that job, my experimental plant
business came under scrutiny to determine whether it would support
me - and it quickly demonstrated that the plant business, when
based around indoor-propagated-and-grown plants, was too labor and
cost intensive to be profitable (for me). If I had possessed a
greenhouse, it might would have been practical, but the cost of
electricity, and the amount of labor per plant, left little margin
for profit.
The problem with setting up in business for the sale of carnivorous
plants is that the public is mostly ignorant (this is also a
blessing, if you are raising VFT's, because the public ignorantly
thinks of this as "the" carnivorous plant and will buy them even if
they are not prepared to care for them). However, as far as
personal satisfaction goes, I, myself, could never sell VFTs to
the public because I know that they will insist on feeding the
traps and that this will quickly kill them (when I ask people, "Do
you have a Venus' Flytrap", 80% of the people say, "I used to have
one", with the remainder roughly evenly divided between those who
have never had one and those who still have one that is alive - I
have only met one person who is _not_ an active CP enthusiast and
who has also kept a VFT alive for more than three years).
Should you decide that you can afford to go into this business,
there will be a demand, but only if you can provide the plants
cheaply; I have seen Venus' Flytraps for sale in little plastic,
egg-shaped terrariums, with color-illustrated instructions, for
$1.75 (US retail) - the traps appeared to be 2-year-old seedlings
(they could have been 1-year-old clones). Since the nursery where
I saw these marks up their products by at least 100%, that means
the wholesale cost was probably less than ninety cents, and I would
guess that the plastic container would cost you anywhere up to
around twenty or thirty cents in large quantities (if you want to
have something like this made by contract, the manufacturers of
plastic goods typically want at minimum of 50,000 pieces, and the
prices don't start to drop until hundreds of thousands of pieces
are requested - at least, that was the case when I priced bottle
caps). If you can find a company which sells surplus molded plastic
products, it may be possible to find a source of decorative
containers that would work for this project; if the flytraps are
not put into special packaging, they will dry out in the stores and
die. You might find sources for packaging in the Thomas Register, a
set of green volumes in the reference section of the library which
lists who makes what in the United States - extremely valuable
resource.
Once the packaging is perfected, the sales are yet another matter -
although, if you are going to sell to a wide geographic area,
packaging becomes even more important. It may be necessary to pound
on some nursery doors - I found this to be effective, as long as a
person has a solid platform (which you have, since you are
propagating the plants from tissue culture - this is very "in", at
this time, as more people, now, are aware of the damage caused to
the environment by pillaging plants from the wild; selling them as
tissue culture should add some cult following). I have been grilled
by nursery owners concerning the origins of my plants - they act as
if I were breaking the law, and then, after proving that I had
propagated the plants from legally-obtained cuttings, they would
turn down the plants, anyway; suggestion - if they act too
righteous, drop them, as they are likely to be only interested in
busting your chops. Mail order is supposed to be only 3% effective,
but I would guess that properly formed business letters sent to
carefully targeted retailers might have a better response rate,
especially if the price is right. Unless you want to get old, fast,
don't sell to the public, yourself - always sell to a retailer, and
let them deal with the public (that is the reason they can raise
the price by 100% or more when they had nothing to do with making
the product).
On top of the fact that it is not economically practical to grow
plants indoors for wholesale trade, it is not practical for yet
another reason: the plants must be hardened-off before putting them
out for sale, or they will croak from the stress of moving them
from one environment to another; they certainly will not look good
enough to sell unless they are hardened-off - some outdoor
conditions must be available in order to do that. I decided that
this field could not support me with my equipment and propagation
area status (one 12' x 12' [3m x 3m] room with halides and and one
8' x 20' [2m x 5m] area with fluorescents plus one 400-watt halide)
- it costs me about $40 per month for electricity. I examined the
fields within which I was capable, and figured that glassblowing
paid more than anything else I could think of which did not require
additional college education (I am currently charging $48 per hour
for my time, and I have contracts on my desk which date clear up
through September). Now, my plants are just a hobby, and the only
time I bother to sell anything is when my Nepenthes get so big that
I must hack them back (making clones of them and raising the clones
to market size by hydroponics, and hardening them off by putting
them outdoors in the shade for several days - obviously something
which can only be done in the spring or the fall, for me). When
that happens, I just offer them to a couple of local greenhouses,
and it usually takes only a day or two to get rid of a year's-worth
of growth (for an income of less than $1000, which I can make in
three days at glassblowing - you can see why I chose my current
career).
Good luck. Oh, and if you are not familiar with flytrap culture,
please make certain that they get a good outdoor winter for at
least one season; during the gradually shortening and cooling days,
the Venus' flytrap will withdraw its resources into the bulb-like
area at the root; this forms a solid center of reserves which the
plant will draw upon during the growing season - if you are selling
plants which will end up in the hands of the public, this is
critical, as the plant will require this reserve to survive the
trauma to which novices will submit their plants. If growing from
clones, your plants at one year will probably be the size of
seedlings at two years, so it may be tempting to sell them right
off, but I strongly recommend a proper winter dormancy before
selling them. I hope this long letter is not too boring.
-Douglas Wiggins zoron@nwcs.org, Portland, Oregon
ps if you have too much of a surplus, I wouldn't mind obtaining a
moderate quantity - perhaps a hundred or two - and they would not
need to be run through a winter dormancy for me. I have an interest
in raising seed (crossing the clones with my six-year-old
seedlings). Contact me by EMail, if interested.
--- * OLX 2.2 TD * Zoron Research, Inc. - Custom Lampwork (Glassblowing)