[sandim]

I'm in a bit of a pickle. One of the things that makes us different from the other companies around here is the unique selection of woody ornamentals and perennials we install. My perennial wholesaler is awesome. I've been working with a garden center for my woodies as they have an incredible selection and everything always looks phenominal. Problem is, they are not equipped to do deliveries very well and have not done a very good job getting back to me this spring regarding availablitity and delivery. I need to know what they have and when they can deliver it and there just not getting back to me (perhaps a subtle hint).
The wholesalers I check with have the usual standard things that always sell but that's not what we install. Have I shot myself in the foot? Is it time to change my ways (cringe)?

[agla]

Retailers have limited space and also move more retail material in the spring than any other time. Put yourself in their position. You are a retailer and most of your customers want their stuff right when they go to you simply because they do not have any reason to go visit the plants until they want to get them. Many will need them delivered. If the delivery schedule is pretty full, it would be foolish to lose a retail sale because your truck is out delivering discounted materials. It is even worse if you could be selling those discounted materials at full price.

You can't blame the retailer. It is good that they sell to landscapers when they can.

In a way, you are hoping for others to be responsible for you to have unique plants. There are lots of little things that we assume work a certain way, but often we learn that there are little mechanisms that make it work in another way.

It is often assumed that a discounted sale isstill profitable, so it should still be welcomed. It is assumed that it is in addition to the undiscounted sale, but sometimes it displaces that full priced sale instead of adding to it. Sometimes it is based on supply and sometimes it is based on timing. A lot of product can not be restocked in time to make both sales. Deliveries throws a whole lot more into the mix.

[TrickyDick]

You may just have to look around a little more. I don't know where in CT you are but chances are there a dozens of smaller wholesale nurseries within an hour of you that you probably don't know about. Every year I learn about nurseries within a half hour drive that I never new were there. There are also some bigger ones in CT that have very nice selections. I guess it depends how unusual the plants you're talking about are but the answer may be that you need to find a sales person that you can work with to get you the plants that you want rather than finding a place the has them.

[sandim]

Good point Tricky, to find a good salesperson. There are plenty of wholesale nurseries around but they all just seem to carry the bread and butter stuff. Maybe a combination of a good salesperson and a few less specialty.

[NCSULandscaper]

the retail centers have to be getting their unique material from another wholesale nursery somewhere, just keep looking around............

If you have the space, buy alot of material and keep it on hand..........what i dont grow myself, i buy in bulk and store it until its needed, ive always got atleast $20-30k worth of stock sitting around at my disposal, and we grow close to $300k worth of material ourselves

[papercutter]

Have you thought about a plant broker? If you have a place to stock plant material and the means to keep it healthy and saleable, you may be able to buy in stock from different growers around the country. If you can't fill a truck, they may have another customer in your area and you guys can split the freight. I haven't bought anything from Islei Nursery in OR yet, but if I do that's the only way I'll be able to make it work.

[site]

You could go to the New England Grows show next winter and pick up about 100 wholesale catalogs.

[Lanelle]

sandim,
Check your PM box for my message.

It seems that finding great quality plant material for a reasonable price with good availability and service is an ongoing challenge. For a while things will be working well and then we have to go searching again for a replacement supplier.
We pay our bills on time so I can only imagine the supply problems that slow paying landscapers have to face. That is another factor to add to Agla's list. Why would a retailer want to re-wholesale to slow paying landscapers? (I'm not saying that you are that way but many landscape companies have 'spotty' payment histories.)

[Terre]

I do quite a bit of the specialty type of plantings, it's part of what I advertise. I also do a lot of mail order for my plants. Many of my ground covers come from Classy Groundcovers - evergreen flowering ground covers, grasses, vines, ivy, .... (Good prices, and free shipping, and absolutely beautiful plants. We've agreed on our fondness for heucheras, and those come almost exclusively from Terranova. Yeah you have to buy a flat, but it's only one and after looking through their plant pictures, you'll play hell ordering only one item. They also let you divide it and get two 1/2 flats.

I'm fairly fortunate so far in my larger shrub and tree suppliers. If I were back east I'd probably look harder at a new place I just found, Dave's Nursery - A Propagator of exotic plants of all types operating out of New Jersey.. He says he offers wholesale as well as retail, and specializes in unusual.

I spend a lot of time searching for the specialty plants. I hit multiple nurseries every week, which I know is not a good use of time, but it's the only way I can find what I want to install. And I have found that my wholesaler isn't saving me a ton of money until I get into shrubs and trees.