Don't pot them. Dig and divide what you want to get rid of and replant the divisions. When people come, simply pop them out of the ground and put them in a plastic bag. You then avoid the problem of what do do with the leftovers. Lots of pots sitting around are also hard to take care of.

If you advertise on CL, make people commit to an appointment time unless you just want to sit around all day hoping people will stop over. That's a waste of time IMO. I always state in my ad: "I show my plants by appointment only." It works and the people who are serious will do it. I don't have time for the rest of 'em.

Know the correct botanical name of your plants. That makes a huge difference. Advertizing "white daisy" for example is useless to most people. In addition to correct names I always include a photo of each plant I'm offering in my ad. I can't tell you how many people have told me, that's why they responded to my ad.

Price - that's a hard one. Look at CL and see what others are charging, but don't give your stuff away. I would say most of my stuff goes for $5 - 6 per division or plant. Peony divisions go for $10-12. The most I ever charged was for a fern leaf peony division and that was $25.

Kevin

thanks again!

You also need to consider the cost of soil either to pot your plants or to refill the holes from where you did them up. I like the don't pot them up ipart of Kevin's Craig list method, but not the customers come to my house part.

I also know several people who live on (or have access to yards on) well travelled roads who do monthly "yard sale" style plant sales. To maximum traffic and sales, you need the regularness of holding sales so that people can refer their friends or come back and buy more. Holding sales only irregularly means you only get those who drive by and happen upon your plant sales.

Good id (with latin names) and information about the plant characteristics (light, water, soil, flower color and time etc.) is really important except for the most common plants.

Kevin gave some good advice, IMO. Kimka's right - Kevin's method of digging up at point of sale would indeed save money on potting soil. Didn't think of that one!

Dee

Just a friendly reminder, you did disclose your intentions. However, Freecycle frowns upon it.

25.) MAY I RESELL ITEMS OBTAINED FROM FREECYCLE(TM)?
When requesting an item with a WANTED post, or when responding to another member's OFFER, please state whether you will be selling the item. In general, it is NOT all right to take an item for free just to sell it on ebay, at a flea market, or elsewhere. There are people who may truly and personally benefit from the item, and if it were going to be sold, the person offering it might have done so. When it's offered out of kindness, please do not abuse it. However, there are some circumstances in which it might be acceptable for you to resell an item (i.e. you repair broken appliances and might be able to fix it up and resell it). If your situation might be something like this, please just state it in your request or when you email about an offer. If you are found to be reselling items obtained from freecycle without appropriately disclosing your intentions, you may be banned from the list.

I advertised a week ahead of time with only email or phone # for contact and then put up address signs around the neighborhood on the sale days. Other than removing the plants I wanted prior to the sale (or posting a couple of NFS signs) I did no other preparation. They dug, they bagged or potted and I collected :-) Worked great!! Even sold a couple of decent sized trees :-) And a whole bunch (better part of a pallet) of Arizona sandstone, several copper trellises/arbors and all manner of garden tools and gear. I did have a couple of helpers to assist with 'crowd control' and to make sure folks paid properly and dug/took only what they were supposed to.

Actually made more selling plants and garden stuff than I did selling off typical interior household goods and furniture, including antiques and collectibles! It was an amazing experience. My old neighbors still talk about it :-)

For the plants I sold, which were mainly divisions of things that were taking over the place (like lily of the valley) I just potted them and put them in a wheelbarrow at the street with a pay on your honor can and a sign. Since these weren't super exciting high interest plants, I just charged $2 for bigger divisions and $1 for smaller ones. Mainly I found I'm too far into the country for "free" listings on freecycle (people replying wanted me to work around their schedule because I'm "so far"-uh, no, I'm GIVING you plants, you work around me) and I didn't want to just toss them, so it worked pretty well. I reinvested everything I made into more plants (over $100). I have maybe 20 or so left that I'm going to clear out at .50 a pot.

Eventually I'll probably build a little stand from reclaimed wood (to save $$ and not eat into my profit margins) and sell the lesser plants on your honor. Then have a plant sale a few times a year for "higher end" stuff.

I got a bunch of things from a neighbor who put out a huge trailer of plants. From the looks of the tags, they had them at a sale and these were the left overs. $1 each or 8 for $5. I got more echinachea, a wild clematis, sedum, sea holly...I love inexpensive roadside plant sales! I don't bother with ones that get close to what I'd pay at a garden center. I have two that sell quarts for $3 a piece and include things like the newer rudbeckia near by.

But still, it's not like you are turning around and selling the empty pots for huge profits. And I still would bet that most people would prefer to give you the pots, knowing full well what you would be doing with them, rather than throw them away. After all, most people who participate in freecycle just want things to be put to use, not thrown away.

Oh well, there's always craigslist, lol! Good luck!

Dee