[georgiehopper]

Not sure if this post is in the right place or not, so I apologize if it is...

but my question is I get my plant material from several sources.

Most perennials I am growing myself and start them from either seeds,cuttings,bareroot, or liners.

Others I order as finished plants.

and still others I purchase from local garden centers and even Home Depot at times.

The prices are all over the place and sometimes its difficult to figure out how to mark them up.

The costs are all different for them too. Obviously the least expensive ones are the ones I grow myself... and the most expensive are the garden centers, even if they give me 20% off.

So I'd like some suggestions on the best way to figure out how to mark up these different plant products.

[HardDaysKnight]

Whatever you decide, the ones you propagated yourself
should get the same mark-up as those from suppliers.
You did the work...get paid for it!

[NCSULandscaper]

i get everything atleast half price of retail, so i charge what the retail price is, the customer would have to pay that price even if they went and bought them.

[Paul]

How about one set price for all 1 gallon plants?

We got ours from all different places but used one price for all. Sure it's not the cheapest but if you figure you might have to go to 2 or three different places for one job ???

[TrickyDick]

I'm with Paul. You can avoid a lot of problems by just charging the same rate for the same sized plants unless it's an unusual plant that you pay a lot for. We get perenials from five or six wholesale nurseries and they're all priced differently.

No wholesale growers near you?

[agla]

Another method method is to make a standard based on one of your suppliers catalogs. Some nurseries have a rather complete catalog,whether you buy from them or not, which you can use as a pricing guide by using their price multiplied by whatever factor you find works for you. Sometimes you'll pay more and sometimes you'll pay less for individual plants that you pick up or produce, but you'll have a standard. You can make your own price list from it for quick reference.

[dan deutekom]

Agla has hit the nail right on the head. You may loose a little on some plants but you will gain a little on others and it should all even out. Just make sure that you don't sell yourself short.

[FungusMudGrub]

I do a straight 50% markup on all plants, no matter where I got them. I do this to cover my time ordering, picking, and transporting them. If it is a really big job, I might ease back a little on that percentage to make sure I'm staying competative. Overall profit on the entire job is a different line in my quote spreadsheet, so I don't try to squeeze it out of the plants.

[Dale Wiley]

We have a set price list that we bid/quote from. Its all set a rewholesaler prices, and then I can go direct to the nurseries here.

We then mark it up additionaly in the quotes.

Charging 50% on the plants and hoping to cover your logistical costs on the plants is cutting yourself short. You should be charging production time for the mobilization ont he job, and that includes sourcing plant materials.

[FungusMudGrub]

I do keep pretty careful track of the time, milage, etc, associated with plant buying, and 50% is based on those figures, not on hope. In fact the markup generally more than covers those costs. It's just a faster way of figuring it in the quote process. Other material aquisition costs are more variable, I find, so I figure in those as seperate lines. Time spent plant sourcing and specifying gets coverd by design fees. Believe me, I really strive to get paid for everything I do!

[Bud]

Marking up plant material I usually will double the cost of larger items such as 15-20' Crape Myrtles and all small perenials I charge 50% extra. You have to take in the factor of time to go to the nursaries to pick up the plants, deliver the plants to job site, installing the plants, basically comes down to your overhead. Plus if you warrenty the plants for a certain length of time

bud

[earthscape on]

because we get all plant stock wholesale, we can multiply our cost by 3, and still our installed price is very close to what the local nurserys are selling it for!

[rivergirl]

We double the cost of rooted in perennials we order from wholesalers but triple the bareroot we do ourselves to cover labor and materials in potting. It has worked very well.