How people make a living on orchids

[LWP]

How to make a Million on selling orchids, first you take two million ...

Somewhat of a standard quote in the nursery business, but very appropriate here. Most never get rich, many that do make their money by selling their property and pocketing the appreciation after decades. For others, it's an act of love, fulfilling their hobbies and an income stream ... not wealth. Understand your customer, anticipate trends, be ahead of the herd, offer consistent value and promote, promote, promote... and luck be with you.

 

[ehanes7612]

i am hoping to garner a thousand awards and sell off my collection when i am 60 (i figure i will be sick of orchids by then)..and do something else...i have two awarded plants so far..998 TO GO!!!!

 

[Rick]

i am hoping to garner a thousand awards and sell off my collection when i am 60 (i figure i will be sick of orchids by then)..and do something else...i have two awarded plants so far..998 TO GO!!!!

Isn't that about $40,000 dollars in awards fees!?!?



I know several growers that make a good portion of their revenue by doing the speaking tour thing, and selling plants direct at OS meetings. That's like a constant marketing thing.

A Phal grower friend of mine is an AOS judge. Owns his house/property/GH's outright (so opperating costs minimized). A lot of his sales (primarily to local florists) are plants he purchases from wholesale sources in early bud, and then blooms them out. In general he has them for less than 6 months, and the bulk are white hybrid phals.

He has a ton of awarded plants, species and hybrids, every color and pattern immaginable, breeds his own, but blooming white phales are what pay the bills.

 

[ehanes7612]

Isn't that about $40,000 dollars in awards fees!?!?

Yikes!!!..AOS should give out more awards, huh?

:rollhappy:

 

[SlipperFan]

Somewhat of a standard quote in the nursery business, but very appropriate here. Most never get rich, many that do make their money by selling their property and pocketing the appreciation after decades. For others, it's an act of love, fulfilling their hobbies and an income stream ... not wealth. Understand your customer, anticipate trends, be ahead of the herd, offer consistent value and promote, promote, promote... and luck be with you.

Welcome to Slippertalk, LWP. Please introduce yourself in the Greetings and Salutations section. You sound like someone who knows about the orchid business.

 

[limuhead]

As far as a business it never really occured to me to make a living on orchids, but to supplement my income or 'support my habit' I think it is a necessity unless you are fairly well off. I have raised orchids for about 20 years, made a few hybrids, and grown and sold thousands of orchids. Many would say that having sold thousands I must be a commercial grower; the answer is no. I am a hobbiest that buys flasks and compots(very expensive ones at that), grows out a small population, selects the ones I feel that will be nice, and sells what I don't have room for after discarding stunted or unhealthy plants. I have in the past sold at local orchid shows and plan on doing it again in the near future. Last year I sold over 10,000$ on Ebay alone, but about half of that went right back into my hobby/habit. It allowed me to build a 600 square foot greenhouse in my back yard and then fill it (overfill actually) with what I consider quality breeding stock. After all is said and done I made about $2,000 dollars last year, but I estimate if I sold everything I have in the greenhouse retail right now I would have about $40,000.

 

[abax]

As a nursery owner, the best advice I've heard here is don't quit your day
job!

 

[goods]

I don't have much to add to this subject, but one suggestion I can make is to learn and become a pro at flasking. By being able to do everything "in house", I think you can save yourself some money and increase your collection frugally.

I'm still learning all the details of the process, but I have a friend who does all of it for me, and I just trade out the services by splitting the seedlings with him. I've been able to acquire some pretty rare species this way on a rather limited college student's budget.

 

[Ozpaph]

I dont want to offend but it seems to me that one of the major factors causing the demise of large growers in this country was 'hobbyists' buying flasks and selling mericlones and seedlings (cymbids and catts) at a cost the large growers counldn't compete with (no overheads or staff costs). The market was flooded with small, cheap stock which killed a lot of the adult plant business (which attracted a premium price). Orchid shows here also allow almost unlimited disposal of divisions etc by society members to the public - why go to a nursery? That, with a major decline in the public's interest in horticulture and plants saw many established business fold.
Now, if you can supply premium sized plants or the latest breeding (in paphs) you have a chance. I suspect the dark times will come again when all the hundreds of paph flasks bought by hobbists come onto the market via eBay.

 

[limuhead]

I dont want to offend but it seems to me that one of the major factors causing the demise of large growers in this country was 'hobbyists' buying flasks and selling mericlones and seedlings (cymbids and catts) at a cost the large growers counldn't compete with (no overheads or staff costs). The market was flooded with small, cheap stock which killed a lot of the adult plant business (which attracted a premium price). Orchid shows here also allow almost unlimited disposal of divisions etc by society members to the public - why go to a nursery? That, with a major decline in the public's interest in horticulture and plants saw many established business fold.
Now, if you can supply premium sized plants or the latest breeding (in paphs) you have a chance. I suspect the dark times will come again when all the hundreds of paph flasks bought by hobbists come onto the market via eBay.

I would have to agree with that 100%. I have sold on Ebay, but not cheap; at least at above average retail prices. What I personally think is killing the market is those nurseries that produce 1,000's of a particular orchid and have to dump them because they have 1,000's more coming out of the lab and have to make room in their production houses. That is one of the many reasons I love phrags and paphs; at least they can't clone 1,000's of them...

 

[The Orchid Boy]

That is one of the many reasons I love phrags and paphs; at least they can't clone 1,000's of them...

That's one of the reasons I love them too.

I'm wanting to set up a sales website, but a very simple one. I like buying from ebay, but I hate selling on ebay. Maybe I'm just not familiar enough with it. Maybe I should try it again. But if I was to set up an independent website, what should I use and what should I know? I like the simplicity of Leo S., Tom K., and Sam T.'s websites. I'm mainly just selling to help pay for the hobby and so I can get more orchids and growing space, not seeking much profit.

 

[cnycharles]

you should ask limuhead how he does this, since he buys tons and sells lots of the extras

 

[NYEric]

If you can get seedlings at a low enough cost to sell them and make a small profit you can have funds to get better/select plants you desire.