i wouldn't to the leaves, to bad you didn't have enough time, you could put them in the pots that would be the money you knew them to be. ya know what i mean?? LOL then there would be no swithcing!! no confusing or anything!! shady people just make me mad!! stapling to the pots sounds kinda cool, but maybe a little of that cool car paint, LOL i bet that'd flick off easily thoug?? i was thinking to make it look pretty. (ya have to remember i'm partially not there!! as tabor says!!! LOL) (lovingly though, dang kids) LOL Good luck!!
i'd put the sheets where the plants are, just above them, so they could read them, you are good!! :') ~Medo

Depending on how you going to display those pots I would try to put info at the eye level. Definitely put nice blooming pic and short info- most people want to know annual/ perennial, sun, shade, height, time of bloom and spread.
If you not going by the size/ color of the pot then I would suggest putting colored cross or dots on the pots with paint or nail polish. Have a sheet available with price regarding color.
Not sure what to do about advertising- pity about garden clubs I looked into it as well- they do not forward info unless you are one of their members and it has been agreed upon by committee.
I am going to be out of town this weekend otherwise I would come to lend you support. Good luck and let us know how did it go.

How about putting signs up in your local markets in the area of the plant sale and signs up similar to what is done for yard sales.

As for prices, how about this idea.

Get a couple of red sharpie pens to mark the pots with the price on them, red should show up on most colores of pots. i they are tera cotta color then use black.

You could also just put different shaped marks on the pots and have a list of those marks for the price.

a square is $2.00
a circle is $3.00
etc.

print up a list with those marks for your info and you can post what the info is as well.

I like the idea of the printout with info and pics. planting inst. amount of light needed etc and the pic of the plant is perfect.

Good luck with the sale, would love to be there but I'm in MA, to far to go.

Fran

buy cheap cans of spray paint - hit the "$3.00" with a dot of yellow - $2.00 blue ect... cheap and they can't move it. you can put a sign out letting them know how to tell how $$ it is.

craigslist for the local and surrounding cities - it's free - put it under farm and gardening, and general - treat it like an ad for a garage sale ( oh list it there as well ).

print up sheets with info and pic in bloom - I have seen them then hung over the plants like a laundry line - she had posts stuck in the ground and ran the line above them.

and if you have them sell your extra seeds - pkg them up and get rid of them that way.

i do like the spray can thing!! WOW next year i''m definately doing that!! and i absolutely doing linalana's idea!! when i put my info in my "garden journal" that's the info i will have
http://www.homesteadgarden.com/plantinfo.shtml you could put the pic in the bottom spaces where the solutions and such are supposed to be?? or i have another one.http://www.orlandosentinel.com/media/acrobat/2007-03/28562955.pdf
but i copied down a few more for like what's blooming and seeds info and such. for the garden journal. i'm trying to be more better!! LOL (not getting there!! LOL) ~Medo

Annette,

I did a plant sale earlier this year and it WOWED the gizzards out of me. It was such a success I will do it again next year.

I did ask some advice from a lady who's been doing it for years in our community and applied some of her words of wisdom.

First thing I did was make three lines of tables. Use anything for tables that is at your disposal. First line was all $1.00, second line was $2.00, and the third was $3.00. You might think that's cheap, but when you've potted over 600 plants, you want very few leftover. The intent is to sell them right?

Every plant was tagged with the name, height, and colour of bloom. All $1.00 plants were dotted with a red marker of the tag, $2.00 plants were dotted green, and $3.00 plants were dotted blue. This made it much easier when folks took their pots off the tables and bunched them up in a spot. Figuring out the pice was a breeze.

Most people have computers and as long as they have the name of the plant, they can google it to find out info.

Plants in huge pots were sold for the highest price ($3.00) and set on the ground in another line after the $3.00 tables. These included Hostas, Potentilla Bushes, Rose Bushes, Hydrangeas, etc.

Most people came between 9am and 11am. I was the only knowledgeable one but I made sure to talk to everyone who came, ask what they were looking for or if I could help and thanked them!!

If there's anything else you might like to know, just e-mail me. Not sure how much I'll be on the forums in the next few days since my father is facing a coronary bypass. Hope the info was helpful.

I know your enthusiasm and knowledge will be the best things available to make this sale successful! :O)

I just went thru this last weekend. My whole neighborhood was having a garage sale so I took advantage of the traffic. I used garage sale price tags (bought at the pharmacy). They are colored dots and they already have prices marked on them. They are not easy to peel off the pots (and they stick to styrofoam cups).
The neighbors already had it listed in the paper and took care of the signs so it made it really easy. I also used craigslist. I posted under garage sales, farm and garden and the general to make sure I hit everyone. Do you have a yahoo account? They have "for sale" groups that you can post on for extra advertising. Sometimes it takes the group a couple of days to approve your post and send it out so it's best to do them early.
If you're willing to give something away, you could also do freecycle. That reaches tons of people. If you post that you'll have some type of plant to give away "after your plant sale" interested people will email you for the info :).

Thanks so much for all the great ideas, everyone!

I have a little more problem-solving to do, because I realized that I've used cheapo nursey pots, plus terracotta pots, plus some pretty nice plastic pots. Some I can't staple to, some I don't want to mark up! If they were all the cheapo nursery pots, I'd be using your suggestions. Those suggestions did lead me to this possible solution:

Knot a colored piece of yarn around the plant. The color indicates the price. Anyone who wants to switch the price won't be able to unknot it. And hopefully there would only be one or two people like that, anyway.

If I have time, I'll package up some seed that I may be able to sell. Good idea! I will definitely make up some more of my wintersowing brochures to give out.

And thanks for the advice on putting the info sheets with photos right by those plants. I think I'll staple each sheet to a tall stake, and put the stake in one of the pots. Whoever wants to buy that plant will hopefully move the stake into a different pot for me.

you have to tell us how you did!

and tell me what you did to prepare -

Whew! Well, I'm done with Day One.

I got to my friend's house 10 MINUTES before the sale started, (I thought I'd have an hour) and he'd already let people start to wander. I still had about 100 plant tags to put in pots, while he started to tape the photo printouts onto the stakes. We were mobbed for the first 2 hours. People had to wait to ask questions, pay, etc. I felt so bad about tags not being on, and the signs not being up, but people kept buying, and buying!

I have no idea where I set down a big pile of plant tags, I'm soooo glad I stayed up late last night making them!

There were really nice people who came to the sale, maybe I can even arrange some kind of area plant swap with some of them.

I think all the traffic came from Craig's List, although maybe the road signs helped too. The tip to post in Garage Sales too was a good one. I didn't post the address on Craig's List until the night before, because we were concerned about Plant Thieves! I offered to email people directly with the address, or even call them. The side benefit of that was: I was contacted by a LOT of people who wanted to be emailed directly, so I knew I should have a good turnout!

The downside to that was: I posted the address at 5pm Fri, and at noon Saturday I was still getting emails saying "I don't see an address in the post, are you still doing the sale?" The problem is this: some internet providers "cache" pages--they show you a page that is hours or days old. You don't see the new information unless you hit Refresh. So I had a bunch of people who weren't seeing the sale's address! Now that I know this, I will post a tip about this caching thing in my original posting for future sales.

Now, I have to rest up for 8 hours of sale tomorrow! I bet it will be pretty slow.

so how did it go?

stage rat, I am very interested in hearing how your sale went. I've been having a sale every weekend since memorial day. i have not made over $60 dollars in one day and havent had anyone come in three weeks. I am open wed-sun. 9-5. I have signs all over our little town and ran an ad in the paper which was a waste of money as no one came.I also advertise on Craigs.list. I finally started selling at our local farmers market and the most i've made is $54 (today). it's only 3 hours. last week i made $45 so sales are up :). My gardens at home are 4000 some odd sq feet of gardens to stroll thru so you can see what the plants will look like mature and then my greenhouse full of plants and surrounded by plants. i just can't seem to get the people out there. everyone at the farmers market says "oh, i didnt know you had these kinds of plants or that much stuff, or I keep meaning to come out." drives me nuts. I am 2 miles out of town. there are other nurseries further out than i am and they stay busy. I have more perennials than either of them. if anyone has any advice i would sure love some!!!
Tanya

Sunday was nice and quiet--until 3pm came! (The clearance)

I got all the color photos and descriptions taped onto stakes (of course, most of the few we managed to do on Saturday were plants that sold out!) and the yard looked nice and organized--what with at least half of the plants sold!

I'd set all the shade plants in the shady driveway beside the house, and the sunny plants in the backyard. This made sense for security, and there were too many plants to make a move to the front yard feasible. That was fine on Saturday, with the Craig's List group. But on Sunday, we got people driving by because they saw the signs, and they only saw a couple of daylily pots in the yard, and they drove off! I cut up a pizza box to make an extra sign: "Most plants are in the BACK!"

At 3pm, a couple of people from the Saturday sale came back for the advertised clearance sale, and some new people arrived shortly afterward. There were 3 people who spent about 5 hours hanging out with us, between Saturday and Sunday! It was really a fun party, except I had to try not to neglect other people who came to buy plants!

I made only a third of my money on Sunday, although it was 2/3 of the sale time. In other words, the most money was made in the first few hours, like Tiffy had with her sale. The hard-core people come early, grab and pay. But, then some of them come back for the clearance!

I didn't sell all the plants, but that's ok--my friend needs a lot of plants in his yard. :)

On Sunday, I had the presence of mind to ask people if they'd be interested in a plant swap. I got contact info for many people who are. Some of them don't use the internet, so I don't know if it's unfair to do a lot of pre-arranging of swaps with people, since they won't have that chance. But maybe that will be the final push to get them onto the internet!

Hmm...what did I do to prepare for the sale:
I dug about a billion plants out of the ground, and then I kept running out of free dirt for potting them up, and I'd have to search the yard for more.
I used up my enormous stash of garbage-picked nursery containers, so every garbage night, I'd go driving around.
I used up all my used mini-blinds to make up plant tags. I put just the common name, and sometimes the latin. I used a black Sharpie or Eddings, I hope they don't fade too fast. I always use pencil for myself, but that's hard to see.
For info on sun, moisture, size, invasiveness, bloom color and time, and latin name, I made up a sheet that listed every plant. Everyone got the same sheet. For more info, they can look up the plant.
About 2 weeks before the sale, I made a Craigs List ad, with all those descriptions, sale hours, the zip code, and an explanation that I would post the address the day before the sale, and would email or phone anybody who wanted the info that way. 4 photos are allowed on CL.
I answered a lot of emails.
I printed out the description with color photos of the plants in bloom (I stole most photos from the internet!) for signs on stakes.
I found all my yarn and string, and decided on a color heirarchy. (By the way, once rained on, Lavender, White and Plain String look very similar! And, don't call it Lavender--people always thought I was talking about the plant!)
I tied a LOT of knots on a lot of plants!
I made up a price sheet that went by yarn color. Then I changed my mind. Then I made the clearance one. I printed them on different-colored paper to keep track. The color-code made things flexible for me changing my mind, or for when the clearance started. I should have printed up more sheets, because a lot of people took them home, or lingered at the sale.
I emailed a lot of people with the address, and called a couple. Then I answered emails from maybe 15 people whose internet caches pages, so they didn't see the address addition.
I made signs. I used old election signs, the stitched 2-sided cardboard ones. I cut them open and flipped them inside out, and taped them back together with clear tape (after writing on them). The address and hours, when clearance started, an arrow, and "no early birds." I made 3 signs for streets, one sign for the yard. My friend put the signs out at 10am Saturday.

That's about it! :)

Flowerchild:

I'm not sure how big your town is, but that may have something to do with your level of sales. Here are some thoughts:

* What's blooming sells. I read that on here, and I priced the blooming things a little higher--they sold. When you're doing the farmer's market, bring mostly blooming stuff, or stuff with buds. And have a big color picture of it in bloom.

How are you advertising? At the farmer's market, I think you should have a brochure to lure people to your garden. I learned how to make a brochure using microsoft Word, and all I did was google for a tutorial on how to do it, and follow the directions. It's a trifold brochure with just words, and I print it on plain paper. You need a map, which you could trace onto the brochure, and then photocopy the brochures. Or, make it like an invitation. That's what it is, anyway. "If you like the plants here at the Farmer's Market, come see the huge selection at my home greenhouse and nursery!" "You are invited to tour my 1/2 acre perennial garden and greenhouse..." (or whatever the dimensions work out to be). "A master gardener since 19**, Flowerchild loves sharing her garden and experience with people." Give your property a name (not pretentious, I hope, but something alluring: Foxglove Farm, Serenity Gardens, etc.)

If you're not already a member of garden clubs, do join them. Don't be too obvious that you're doing it for advertising, but the information of your sales will come out.

Maybe make a binder with a big photo of everything you sell. The photo of the flower helps almost as much as seeing the real flower. Photos of it in bloom, in combination with the other plants in your garden, are a good idea too. If someone comes to your home garden, hand the binder to the customer, or keep it with you as you walk around the garden with them. Where you keep the pots of plants for sale, if you can, laminate the color photo of the bloom and have it right there. Or, be ready to reprint the photo if it becomes wet or dirty. I'm just talking about computer-printed photos.

In your brochure, offer a coupon: "buy 8 plants, the 9th is free! (Bring a friend and shop together!)" And once you've gotten two or more people out there to see what you've got, hopefully you can sell a lot of stuff!

Offer something for free, just for coming out. Free seeds, or a lavender bundle, something really easy that is essentially free to you. Offer free cookies. Have some photos of your garden at its best, maybe get them enlarged to 8x10 or so. Post them in your booth at the farmer's market with "You are invited..." printed beneath.

Those are my thoughts for right now!

Wow! thanks stage rat!! I've done most of that stuff. i havent been able to make the brochures or flyers but am planning on it. I pick MY computer up tonight as it got a virus from something my son downloaded. im on my other sons computer now with no printer. anyway, Almost all my stuff is blooming now. lavander sells like crazy. I do have photos of what all the plants are. just not in an album or book yet. It's also getting kinda late in the season so people look alot and oooh and ahhh but don't buy. There is a retail person selling more expensive plants but she is not doing to well either. I actually think i outsold her. this next year I am going to do cut flowers and herbs also. I'm bound and determined to make this a success!!
Your sale sounds like a great success!! I am happy for you!! I am keeping this page for referance as you have great ideas. I don't know how you have the time to do all that stuff.
Tanya