A great day last Sunday at the Friary Fete with the plant stall taking £427/$840. The weather held, the grounds were jam packed and maybe we'll top last years proceeds of £10,000/$19,700 for the day.
If you are running a charity plant stall here are a few lessons
- don't underprice, you're not a nursery but just because you're a charity people shouldn't (but often do) expect you to be cheap.
- where plants are donated you can afford to offer a deal. We'd some geraniums donated by a Chelsea Flower Show designer and these sold quickly at a fair price; people loved the provenance.
- everything in flower will sell, buyers want immediate impact, something to go by the front door or on the patio and in one case to decorate a grave. Pack the stall with marigolds, geranium, lavendar, anything with colour and in bloom.
- tomato plants sold out, we didn't have had enough courgette (zucchini) plants, people wanted basil and we had none, the fancy mints took ages to shift with everyone wanting a bog standard spearmint and we were left with what seemed like a prairie load of grasses. I'm not a Festuca fan anyway - no bloom, no stall appeal!
- don't want to carry anything home? Get the PA to announce, half an hour to go, that the plant stall is open to any reasonable offers; stand back and wait for the rush.