Anyone want to comment on how you got started with
selling daylilies? Such as:

Pros and cons of selling from home.
Pros and cons of selling on auction, or other source.
How to market yourself, and to whom.
Have a list of states you cannot ship to due to regulations.

What methods you use to prepare plants for shipping, such as
lining out in beds or using pots, etc.

How you decide on the price of plants.

Basically, anything you think would be helpful for a beginner,
including the good and the bad.

Shirlee there are alot of Pros and Cons to selling daylilies from your home. You have to be willing to put in the time and decide what days you will be open and what hours you will be open. You will need to get a DBA(Do Business As) or whats called an assumed name,this may vary from state to state.You will have to get a state license and inspection yearly,this is fairly inexpensive. You will need to know on what scale you will sell, small grower or large grower. I am a small grower because I have 1/4 acre or less of plants.You can check with your local Ag Deptartment on which states have phyto sanction fees,Where I live we cannot ship to CA,NM,AZ,and OR. There could be more I'm not sure without looking it up.You will have to decide if you want to field grow or use pots, I field grow.I only advertise locally and I have an internet site.You will have to decide if you only want to sell from your home or ship. If you want to ship you will need set shipping prices.You dont make money on shipping in fact sometimes you lose but the sale and the customer is what is important.Preparing your daylilies for shipping is quite easy,just dig,label with plant name, spray all soil off roots,trim the tops,allow them to air dry, wrap in newspaper the next day and ship.I base my prices on a couple of different things,how much did I pay for it,how well it multiplies,and demand.I have several very expensive daylilies but I bought them with the intent of using them for hybridizing. If I sell a double fan or to a year I am lucky. I live in a rural area with a struggling economy so I dont expect to sell $100.00 or more flowers here. The average price that most customers buy are those between $5.00 and $20.00.Last but not least you have to do it because you love it. It is a hobby for me and I'm not getting rich but I get to meet lots of wonderful people and make a little extra money as well.I hope this helps you out some and good luck!!

I would agree with everything Paula said. My own personal reason for starting to sell was to thin them out. After giving away a lot to friends and relatives, who no longer wanted any more, I had to start selling them. I don't make much money either. Seems like the expensive ones don't increase like the older ones do and people are looking for the newer ones more than older ones. I actually do better selling seeds. I am a small back yard grower so I can't sell from my home. Only internet sales. I package mine the same as Paula does. Shipping prices are difficult because all plants do not weigh the same. Shipping is based on distance so within my state I charge less than I would shipping to Florida or Texas. I have also lost money on postage several times by not guestimating enough. It is a wonderful hobby though and I enjoy it very much. My garden inspector said don't ship to western states because they have a lot of regulations. I don't ship to AK and HI or course, but also don't ship to WA, OR, CA, AZ or NM. On deciding on the prices, I get tons of daylily catalogs. I go through them and see what others are charging and I always try to set mine at competitive prices. Also, I keep in mind that with each passing year, one must lower the prices as the daylilies get older. I certainly wouldn't charge a high price for a plant hybridized in the 80's. Because I am such a small business, I do not advertise but I do have business cards and on occasion have handed them out to people I run into when I am shopping if the conversation warrants it. I also have taken plants to our annual perennial exchange and that gets me some exposure. Now that my city started a farmer's market, I may actually take some there next summer.

Also consider talking to your home owners insurance agent. If you sell from home, be sure you have adequate insurance should someone fall, or their child take off running and trip and take an eye out on a marker stake. You never know.

I used to sell from home years ago. People don't respect the open hours, and show up whenever. They would come when no one was home, and be out wandering around. One guy showed up at 10 p.m. once. I live in the middle of no where, and the house is isolated. After that guy came, I quit selling from home.

I stopped selling years ago. I sometimes trade my excess, but usually, just compost them.

I only sell on the Lily Auction, occasionally. I sell when they need dividing, or I've decided I no longer want the variety. It helps offset some of my own lily auction crazies, basically the money I get from selling goes right back into my daylily mad-money fund I have found you really don't make anything on shipping, I'm happy if I break even on that. I'm strictly small time, It is just a hobby, for now.

Thanks Ladies, all of these are excellent points to consider. I appreciate the time
you have taken to relate your experiences.

I didn't feel that selling from home would be a good idea, and your info about this says to me,
"Definitely do not sell from home, or have open garden."

Also, just like you, I want to sell the ones I no longer want or need for crossing, and to downsize
while keeping space for newer cultivars. Hybridizing is my joy. It's what keeps me going.

Your comments are extremely helpful to me, and I'm sure helpful to anyone else
who might consider selling.

I agree with the at home stuff above. I had listed some of the seedlings we were getting ready to dig up and get out of the way on Craigslist. It stated plain as day what hours I would be there to dig these since I did not live at the garden. Well of course people DO NOT read things thoroughly at all and people would show up hours after my close time.
And yes do check on what you would need for licensing (business and nursery) because there is a difference between garden sales and "mail order only" as for taxing rules, insurance and other things, at least here.

My nursery license is for "mail order only" and I'm not sure what I would of had to do if it was garden sales.

As I said in the tree mail I have shipped to ALL states except Hawaii (James has shipped there though with no problems) and have had no problems at all. Most of the regulations are for "shipped in soil" larger nursery suppliers and not BARE ROOT plants.


The way I price daylilies on the auction is I look up open and closed auction to see what they are selling/sold for and use that as a guide. If something isn't listed on the auction I will google the dayliliy and see what other nurseries sell it for as well as the hybridizer. Usually they are a lot higher than I would sell some for but they are paying for website, catalogs, employees (some do) and whatever else. I also have the Daylily Eureka reference guide that lists the prices of various places. Not all daylilies are in there but it helps. Last resort I just put what I think it's worth to me. If it doesn't sell the first time it can be listed one more time for free and you can lower the price if needed.


I line out in pots. To me it takes up less space than lining out in ground. The pots can be moved around as needed also. I alphabetize them so they are easier to find when shipping time comes. Lets say I have 10 pots of CAROL TODD I will only list 6-7. The reason is you may need extras in case you need to replace one or if one decides to rot on you or an animal decides to dig it up and break the fans off the crown (has happened to me) before it gets shipped. These get listed in the spring after all the fall bought ones are shipped.
Anyway, to me, it's easier to grab a pot for an order than to have to dig it up.

These comments are so much better, and so much more informative than
what I could find searching the internet.

And I knew it would be.

I like to trade if I can but also sell because I have to support my habit. Lots of good info on here. I'm selling a few things on the LA for the first time this fall. I don't think I'll ever have more than a weekend open garden sale. Everything else will be mail order.

Shirlee, if you don't have it yet, look into the PlantStep software. It's an invaluable tool for keeping up with your inventory, hybridizing, printing invoices, etc. Kent Balen is awesome in technical support and you'll have lifetime free upgrades. The $30 or so charge is some of the best money you'll ever spend. You can even produce an online "catalog" of your plants that is helpful even if you're just trading.

You might also look into daylilyfans.com They host websites for daylily folks free! They give you an easy to use template and you can make changes at any time. Here's a link: http://daylilyfans.com/Main/Si...

Great ideas from everyone! Shirlee, in your gardening zone, daylilies might not survive the winter if planted in pots that are left outside in the elements. If they were submerged in a pile of leaves for insulation, they might.

Oh yes I forgot you are in a colder zone, pots may not be your best choice.

Shirlee I have left daylilies in pots and done exactly what Farmerbell said about the leaves it works.

The PlantStep software looks like a really nice way to keep up with
everything, and yeah, they accept money orders.

I had a pot last winter in the unheated garage. It was a prolif of a
seedling. Didn't water it or anything, and it survived. I wouldn't want to try that
with an expensive plant though, and last winter was a mild one.

Thanks ladies for all your ideas.
I have taken notes, and many of these pointers I can use to ask the inspector as to
what regulations are required here.

The links I have placed in my favorites list.

Hi,
You will not get rich for sure lol! It does help when you are a dl addict. I use my sales to purchase western mix, tags, pine straw, fertilizer, gloves, ect. Plus new daylilies! You get the gest :)

Teresa in KY

When I moved last month I dug up most of my gardens including many many daylilies. I decided that since I had to dig them up I would divide some to sell on the Lily Auction to help offset some of our moving expenses. Those sales covered the costs for the Uhaul truck rental and the gas. Another benefit of selling daylilies on the Lily Auction is the nice people you can meet on there!

Wow!!! Congrats on your sales, Karin.
I don't expect anything like that, but maybe enough to offset some costs
as Teresa suggests.

Thanks, Shirlee, I'm not one that likes to dig up too many daylilies so knowing that I had no choice because of the move made it easier to dig up and divide, especially since some of the clumps were quite large and I knew the plants would do better being divided. I wish I could have put the money towards some new plants!

I stopped selling from home many years ago because of all the things already mentioned here. I do sell on the lily auction and have for a long time, not as much this year as in the pass, I haven't had a lot of time to post things and the new web site has done really well, best $89 dollars I ever spent. I wish I had gotten the site years ago, my advise, if you want to sell long term get you a web site, if you build it they will come.

Fred could you post a link to your site? I haven't seen it yet. Thanks!

Here's the link to Fred's website
http://www.daylilyplace.net/