This is a U Penn bulb joke, right?

The mouse-over on the underlined 'bulbs' would bear out my theory.

Nell

Huh? What mouse-over?

There was an "intellitext" message attached to 'bulbs' in the first post when it first appeared. It disappeared. If you haven't noticed the "intellitext" messages, maybe iVillage has taken them away. You couldn't miss them; a word was double underlined and when you moved your mouse over the underlined word, a text box appeared. In this case it was advertising not flower bulbs, but light bulbs.

The writer isn't putting the double lines under their words - it's the site owner who is doing it. (not Spike)

Sstrutt, probably your best bet is to start with is yellow daffodils and red tulips. That's what most people seem to want. Van Engelen (prices for wholesale ARE the same as listed online) and Colorblends (online prices are about what "true" wholesalers charge small-volume retailers) probably provide the lowest prices for small-volume retailers. Most of the "true" wholesalers have a huge dollar minimum which makes it difficult to make a profit unless you have a large, loyal bulb-buying clientele.

Don't forget to factor in the time and packaging materials into your final retail prices--and if you can't beat local merchants on price, you may be in a fairly precarious position. That means you may actually lose money.

I used to work in the nursery business, and it just isn't easy keeping an "ordinary" locally-owned nursery running. I can't tell you HOW many times I heard "I can get that at Wal-Mart for HALF the price." You have to have some other attraction that will keep people coming to you and paying your prices. In our case, it was that we helped our customers choose and care for appropriate plants for their gardens. We spent a LOT of time with each and every customer who walked in our doors.

It would be most difficult to compete with the Dutch producers on the more common bulbs as a grower. I growing your own bulbs I would either go for the more unusal bulbs to grow or forget growing and think of buying wholesale than turning those around for sale.
I plan on growing tropical gingers, Crinum and rain lilies on a small scale. So I am gathering as many different varieties of each that I can. I also will breed 'em and hope for a gem or two.
Mike

SStrutt,

Start with what you know.

Big Easy has a plan: sell bulbs he knows and grows to people with similar interests who grow in a similar climate (or in a pot, I guess).

Now, what do you need to know, based on what you already know about bulbs, and your potential market?

Nell

I would research what is being sold in your local stores and try to find something a little different...

People also like buying ready made combo color sets that bloom together...

Or a bunch that bloom early, mid, late etc... so they are covered for the entire spring...

good luck :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Best selling bulbs