SALE: ETIS rhizome sale

Our sale this weekend was a tremendous success.  For us, the key to
having a big sale has been becoming part of the garden festival
(Bloomsdays) that is held on the University of Tennessee Agriculture
Campus in the nearest big city (Knoxville) every year.  They charge
admission ($8 each day), so the only attendees are serious gardeners
with cash to spend.

The University has had a AAS (?) trial garden (I'm not sure they still
do this), with many beautiful display beds of both perennials and
annuals set among landscaped trails, paths, trickle fountains, shrubs
and small trees, with lots of benches.  Trees and shrubs shade enough
areas that it's even bearable to view the grounds on hot days, by moving
in and out of the shade.

They set up a huge rectangular tent for vendors, with a central row of
vendors on each side in the middle and plenty of room on the outside
"lane" under the tent for customers.  It's expensive - I think it was
$100 or maybe $150 for a "booth" about 12 ft square (wild guess at
size), but that helps pay for a <lot> of publicity, portapotties and
refreshments (free for vendors).  Plus they restrict types of plants
that each vendor can sell to make sure they aren't competing with one
another.  We sold only irises, daylily folks right next to us sold only
daylilies, carnivorous plant folks sold only carnivorous plants, native
plant people sold only natives, etc.  We cleared over $2000.

If there isn't this type of combined garden sale event in your club's
area, it might be worth trying to start one.

--
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
East Tennessee Iris Society <http://www.korrnet.org/etis>
American Iris Society web site <http://www.irises.org>
talk archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-talk/>
photos archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-photos/>
online R&I <http://www.irisregister.com>

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