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Summer Fete
Hi I have agreed to have a stall on the schools summer fete. Can you tell me which plants are cheap for me to grow that will sell easily to raise money for the school. I am think of doing some plants as well as veg. I was think of lavender which I have already, I can take cuttings and some grasses which I also have. I was thinking of tomato plants, strawberrys and sunflowers, maybe salad too. I dont want to spend too much as it will be coming out of my pocket and any profit will go to the school. Many thanks for any help
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What date is the fete? It's a wee bit late to be starting to sow things like tomatoess, but French beans, courgettes, cucumbers and squashes could all be started soon. It depnds how much time you have to let them germinate and grow.
Hardy geraniums, hostas, brunnera, pulmonaria, primulas, lily of the valley, campanulas and some other perennials should divide nicely now. If you (friends / family) have a clump or two of any of those you can spare you might well be able to 'make' several smaller plants to put into 3" pots.
You could also consider buying a couple of large pelargoniums and striking multiple cuttings from them. Penstemon cuttings might also have taken by then (depends when the fete is). A large pot of supermarket parsley will also subdivide into about a dozen smaller plants which will be a good size if you do it now.
In terms of seeds - I would go for perennials like dahlias, lupins, coreopsis & nepeta. Also herbs (chives, coriander, parsley, basil, dill)
With the possible exception of sweet peas I wouldn't spend time sowing bedding plants. Most people have their pots etc sorted out by June / July which is when I assume you will be holding the fete.
Sorry its the 2nd July
Nasturtiums grow quickly. Crassula (jade plant) roots really quickly. If you,want a house plant.
You could put some bizzy-lizzy stems in water and when they root, which will be quick, plant them in pots.
Lots of good ideas above. I recently bought a pot of creeping red-flowered saxifrage and have split it into three smaller plants, which are all growing fast, so this and similar rockery plants are also a possibility. You or your friends may have this kind of thing going spare, and if you pot them up now that shoild be grand by July.
You could buy petunias as plugs and pot them on. The trailing ones (e.g. surfinia) are very impressive in a pot.
If you have a bay tree, you can trim this and sell small branches of it. Or rosemary, or sage - a friend of mine asked me for some sage to treat a horse with toothache (no, honestly!) and remarked that it's very hard to buy fresh sage.
Hi Night Owl,
Back in the dark ages when I used to man the plant stall at school, we used to get trays of plants on a sale or return basis from a local nursery. It meant that there was no worry about the plants being ready at the right time and there was no danger of losing money.....unless someone dropped a tray of plants. Its worth finding out if there is a nursery near you that will help you out this way.
You might even find that a local nursery, GC or hardware/garden shop would donate some plants or other garden items to a good cause.
Having done this in the past, I offer the following advice: the people who attend a summer fete are not there to buy plants intentionally - their purchases are likely to be impulse buys. A few discerning members of the public may value some lovely hardy perennials, but the majority of those of a buying disposition will want colourful quick-fixes. I found that ready-planted hanging baskets or small pots went well, as did trays of half-hardy annuals. Anything else was pretty hard to shift.
Some veg can be popular: tomatoes (named varieties only!) lettuce and quick result plants. Long-term-investment veg eg brassicas are less likely to find a home.
And by the way - set up a plant crèche - even the impulse buyer doesn't want to carry plants around - so you'll need a shady spot and lots of carrier bags for your customers.
Hope it goes well for you - it can be profitable if you don't get too ambitious.
Great ideas thankyou, im gonna start sowing seeds and going to get platic see through cups for the herbs so kids can see the roots things like basil for their pizzas, gonna try and get some strawberry plants too, im also going to make some living salad trays. Im excited but nervous too. The nursery sounds a good idea too. Going to plant in some old wellies to and tin cans, i think i best get busy