This is just to give a heads up to all growers of daylilies that sell their products. I just got a 24 page agricultural census in the mail that I am required by law to fill out. First of all, I am not an agricultural business but am still required to fill this out. Second, I sell from my home which has a tiny yard full of 250 plants.(they want to know how many acres I have, LOL) I have never seen such nonsense in all my life. In the l0 years I have been selling daylilies, I have never received anything like this. I will be skipping 99% of the questions and sending it back in.

I wonder how they knew to send it to you.

Tax information. Evidently our state is turning over that info to the federal government.

Also when you have a registered garden name through your state they must have access to that information.

I stopped selling some years back. I was a state inspected nursery. Other than the inspection, all they did was send me one form before the inspection, verifying I did not add other plants (like trees), to my inventory, and that I still had the same amount of land under crop. After I gave it up, I got this big packet with all kinds of info to fill out. Questions such as did I have hazardous material labels on all containers etc - and, since I was not selling, I ignored it. A second one came. I ignored it. I had already informed the state months before that I didn't need inspections because I was out of business, and thought that the part of the government that mailed the big questionnaire had not been notified yet to take me off the list. Turns out I should have read it more carefully - as a very official letter came next. If I remember right (been a few years ago!), they wanted me to appear in person to the State Ag dept. because I didn't fill out the packet. I spent a lot of time on the phone getting it all straight.

I do understand the need for regulation. If they do all this, though, for a backyard daylily sales garden - I can't even begin to imagine all the red tape any regular business must do.

Exactly, it ridiculous.

I have had to fill that out when I raised sheep and cattle, even when I boarded them at a farm down the road (how many cattle do you have? 12. How many sheep? 14. How many acres do you own 1/2......) At some point they figured out that I no longer own the farm animals, because I haven't received a from to complete in several years ~Jan

That's good to know Jan. I don't have any cattle, sheep or goats either, lol.

I know here (not sure if it goes by counties or not) the way it reads in the regulations ANYONE selling plants is supposed to be inspected and when they inspect us they ask how many plants we have (for sale), how many acres or if in the raised beds the size of each bed; they draw a diagram of all of this. They inspect the plants for disease and insect infestations and they take the soil samples since I get a nematode inspection done so I can ship to CA. When I first applied to be inspected it was nerve racking trying to read and understand all the regualtions especially the ones CA puts in place to be able to ship there. I had to sign more forms for CA than in general for inspection, but once the inspector explained things in plain english it all was pretty simple.

I haven't seen any other forms or questionaire to fill out as of yet. I wonder if we will get one here soon.

I get an inspection every year. It is required by law here if you have a plant business in Michigan.

Same here, annual inspections required for license to sell plants, seeds, etc.
600 sq. ft. or less= hobby garden
600 sq. ft. or more= backyard garden is the same as a big box store for the price of fees
and regulations which also means buying stock from a licensed documented source.

That's two 5 x 60 ft. beds for example. I don't sell anything, but thinking about it.
Just been reading the rules.

Cindy I also recieved the same census in the mail. There is a toll free number on it and I called to find out what I had to fill out. The very nice man I spoke with told me to fill out only the section that applied to me (section 9) that section is for flower growers. He told me to mark less than an acre and less than $1000 and then where you can write in what you grow put daylilies, sign it and send it back so thats what I did with mine. Hope that helps you!!

Thanks Paula

Paula, here the annual fee for a license is $200. I think that is rather
high. Not sure I could even sell that amount, especially just starting
out.

That is high Shirlee. Ours is $95 which is divided in two parts, $40 for the sales tax license and $55 for the inspection.

Our inspection fee goes by how many plants you have or acres. I pay $25 annually. For us to pay $200 we'd have to have 100,000 plants or 36 acres. I do pay an extra $100 for nematode inspection. The nematode inspection fee is determined by how large your area is.

Shirlee are you sure that fee is correct? I would call and ask just to make sure.

Michele, I checked. It's $100 for hobby license, 600 sq. ft. and below,
and $200 for what is called nursery license which is over 600 sq. ft.
Same as for the big box stores. Spoke with agricultural agent, and
then looked up the forms for application.

Thanks for this info. I need to get mine licensed. I have 1,000 SF so maybe I'm a nursery. LOL

I'm under the hobby license because I have a small yard.

Deep down I wondered to myself why I never sell plants. I give them away. Now I know. Imagine that!