Re: Ran's catalog

Jim:

>At the time, 'Spilt Milk" and "Sparkling Burgundy" were both $150.00 
>apiece, and I had to have them both, right now! Today I was looking 
>thru a few catalogs, and I noticedthat SMis going for $35 & SB is 
>$15.

Every plant society has it's plant collectors and many of them are 
willing to pay high prices to have a new introduction right away.  
Considering that many of the better hosta introductions will be tissue 
cultured and the price will come down quickly, then, if you are just 
looking to use the plant in your landscape, it would probably be 
better to just wait a few years until the price comes down.  However, 
if you are into serious hybridizing or are a small time commerical 
grower, then buying those newer hostas at a high price might not be a 
bad business decision.  If you know what you are doing you can get a 
8-10 fold increase with hosta without doing TC.  If you buy one plant 
at $150, then in three years you could have 100 to 500 plants for 
sale, although they might not be top size.  Even if you sell them for 
$10 each you can make a thousand dollars or more the first year you 
sell them and still have several hundred to sell each folowing year.  
That amounts to about $300 per year interest on a $150 "investment."  
Try getting that kind of interest from a bank.

The problem with doing this is that you have to get the plant early 
enough, know how to propagate it and it has to be a plant that will be 
in high demand 5 years down the road.  You also have to have a means 
to sell the plants in quantity for it to work.  Selling new hostas at 
high prices to AHS members my be fine for backyard hybridizers who 
aren't trying to make a living hybridizing and selling hoatas, or any 
other plant for that matter, but the real money is with the average 
gardener.

I've been doing this with daylilies and I have more customers lined up 
for these plants then I can handle.  This works better with daylilies 
because daylilies don't TC as easily as hostas.  However, hostas are 
much easier to TC and this changes the equation somewhat.  However, 
even if you buy TC liners at $5, you can still make money if you have 
someone lined up who wants the plants.  If you buy 100 TC liners, then 
in a few years you can easily be turning out 1,000 to 10,000 liners on 
a yearly basis.  

Joe Halinar

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