I really think it sad when you commented on people making nasty, sarcastic comments when posters ask for advise. I don't think it is the norm on this forum, especially compared to many others. Those most willing to help will often be the growers who have been in it for the long haul and most I know enjoy mentoring those who follow in the same footsteps. You've already read other posts about starting up 'backyard' nurseries.

Don't confuse honest replies with sarcasm. Even if those replies you receive are not what you want to hear. OK?

First of all, I don't know what your vision is. I'm picking up that you'd like to grow with your business as it grows and not put a lot of expenditures into it before the fact. That's not a bad idea because you shall be modifying your goals and plans depending on your successes or lack of them

First off, 200 square feet is miniscule for starting a plant business, especially if you are starting off with very common plants everyone else is selling. Your profit is based on what is left over after your costs and you'd be surprised on common bedding plants just how low the return on the dollar can be. They were my 'filler' crops I used to occupy bench space when those specialty crops with a high return on investments weren't filling them. I had to heat half a g'house of pricey crops anyway, so I grew them so the heated space with a constant $ amount of overhead wouldn't be a total waste. If you do grow the 'common crops' then you might want to specialise somehow like offering them already planted in urns or specialty pots. You will not, no way compete with mass producers doing that unless you plan to mass produce and you can't do that without a big up-front investment and mucho moola. Say you don't agree and do it anyway. Say you're making a decent profit on each pot and flat. Good on you........but consider you have a very small inventory and even at top dollar, you will only reap a very small return. You operation has to be at least large enough to make it worth your overhead and time. Since you say that most of the impatiens, marigold and geraniums you see are used in pots, you may want to offer a pot planting service yourself. I used to do a good number of special order pot fills where they'd drop them off, and I'd fill them up and all they had to do was take them home and display them.

It's very difficult to use ecologically responsible packaging. It's more expensive and you have to pass that expense along with higher prices. That's something the marigold crowd usually doesn't understand. They're also harder to work with than plastics requiring more bench space and better aeration because the rigid support often collapses over time. You may be able to pitch to the 'green' crowd and pick up customers who don't mind field grown mums or tomato starts wrapped in recycled newspapers. It could be one approach.

You can use recycled plastics, reused containers. Again, using old containers will turn some of your consumers off, and it can if not done responsibly introduce diseases.

You will be faced with minumum orders sizes for the amount of plants you are going to be buying. IOW you may have to order more geranium cuttings than a 200 sq ft. g'house can accomodate. My suggestion is to partner with another small growers and consolidate your orders to fill the mins.

I order my geranium cuttings in anywhere from Mid february to early march, depending on the size pot I wish to place them. That brings us to the heating issue. It was one of my biggest expenses. You'll have to consider it one of your's as well because you'll be running that g'house four months before you make your first sale.

If you do things like marigolds, you'll have to consider their day length requirements. Some are day neutral and some aren't. Your greenhouse enviroment will also play greatly in to how long it takes to produce them. You'll find data available, but that is assuming you are heating at optimal levels, and not just keeping them from freezing.

For a beginning grower, ordering plugs are much more reliable because it cuts down on your production time and you can order them in any stage you wish, from just sprouted to big enough to bloom

I have always recommended people before they ever strike out on their own to have some experience in the business. You are going to need it to produce a good crop realiably and gaining it may as well be on somebody else's nickle.

What you want to do isn't impossible, and it sounds like mostly a hobby operation at this point. Just go slowly and don't get in over your head. If you have been selling stuff from a camper, just be aware that you are also obliged to do things like collect sales taxes, and if you are selling perennials you are probably also required to have connections with your state's agricultural departments for inspection at some point. Jumping from a hobby to a money making venture is a legal line in the sand and don't cross it unless you are willing to do it by the book. The penalties are stiff and just not worth it.

Growing is to a certain point as far as profit is seasonal, but if you have enough experience and money, and are willing to invest in a business large enough to justify the expense, it can be sustainable year-round. If you have capital expenditures and overhead you have to do it year around even if just to cut your losses on an off-season. I don't think you are ready to do this, however, and to do it and survive you need to be multi-dimensional. My first crop was poinsettias, entirely to the wholesale trade because I studied the market here and it was basically an-unfilled niche and was back in the day before large wholesale nurseries made such crops available through box-store outlets. The line eventually was supplemented with fresh greenery and that went well. The g'houses ran 24/7 and twelve months of the year so even with points on the bench, Easter lilies were growing and w were working on potteds for Valentine's Day..........Easter co-incided with bedding plant productions, perennials were selling and mum cuttings would be in. All periods where there weren't active sales, but just crops growing were supplemented with cut flower work for banquets and weddings. Eventually I worked in conjunction with a landscaper to move perennials and woody stock.

What I am saying is to make the green industry a year-round profession.............sooner or later you are going to have to think past bedding plants. You market is constantly changing, and now more than ever. And you can never, ever, ever rest on your laurels. One of the skills you will need to be the most adept at shall be marketing your product. If you are not actively searching for market share, making contacts, exploring outlets and modifying your business plans to accommodate your potential market share your business will shrink.

I love to see new blood coming into the industry, and now........more than ever in our economy being an enterprenuer is one of the few open-ended career choices where you can grow to your potential if you're willing to invest in the work involved. This is the point, right now, where you need to establish your goal of where you want to be twenty years from now, and make long-term and then short-term business plans so you can work toward them and use them to make your decisions.

Good Luck

I'm in college majoring in Horticulture and Greenhouse technology (as well as landscape design but anyway). That being said, there's a lot to be said about experience in the real world. Here's what I know that might help you:

Lots of wholesalers have, like a list about when to order their products depending on the type so that they're ready in time for sale in your area. Around here, Wagners sends a really hard to read but very helpful packet of info to everyone they've sold to. Park seed has something similar for those who grow from seed.

Go to trade shows! Here in Minnesota, everyone who's anyone goes to Green Expo every year in this industry. There you get to see up and coming trends, especially in the nursery sector. It might be better for you to let the big nursery guys sell the old standards, and you try some new and up coming wonderful awesome cool novelty or something, I don't know.

Also, for your greenhouse. What are you going to do to heat/cool it by the way? Ya gotta know what kind of environment you're going to be pushing your annuals in, so you can buy the right stuff without killing it.

There is a difference between a greenhouse and nursery business.

Greenhouses tend to focus on bedding plants and nurseries tend to focus on perrenials. You can successfully start a nursery business on a small scale by filling a niche in the market. Specialize in something that is not being provided by the big box stores and go from there using a greenhouse as a seed and cutting incubator and setting the plants out once they reach a certain size.

Ordering liners and repotting them is a nice shortcut to fill in gaps with what you are able to do yourself. Just make sure that whatever you order can weather the low winter temps that you have up there or you are going to be stuck with over wintering a lot of plants in a heated greenhouse.

The idea of gaining experience from an established greenhouse is priceless. I worked a few years at a growing type green house, meaning they grew 80-90% of their annuals from seed to finish. It's fascinating to watch the growth from seeding to cracking chamber to hot house for the plugs to greenhouse for the new starts to cold frames to finish them off to the sales table. Then add in all the other factors that make it all possible, the guy who makes the soil, or the lady who makes the signs, not to mention the business side of it, wow.

When I had a chance to do my own backyard 'nursery' I found I had to be all the people I got to work with. I had to learn how to make my soils, and signs. I had to make the decisions on what plants to grow, then design a system to grow them. In my town, the only reason I made it into the premier farmers market was I was growing some unusual crops, Otherwise they wanted to tell me, "No, because I was too new to the scene and had no experience." Which was fairly true, but I also had an opportunity to try new stuff and see it sell.

Wow. I love my private nurseries even more now. Thanks for the interesting read.
Renee