G I N G E R B R E A D F A R M P E R E N N I A L S

Distinguishing retail from wholesale plants

Gingerbread Farm Perennials' primary business is retail, but the company also wholesales annuals to customers including area landscapers.

Manager Gregory Black said his typical walk-in wholesale customers quickly learn how to tell what's available wholesale and what's not.

"We grow our annuals from seed and it's almost inevitable every year that something doesn't come up well," Black said. "We try to make everything we can available wholesale but that's not always possible."

If a certain annual variety germinates poorly, the surviving seedlings are planted into 4-inch pots so they can be sold retail for higher price points. If germination is good, seedlings are planted into both cell packs and 4-inch pots.

"If wholesalers come in and see a certain variety in packs then they know it's available wholesale. If it's not in packs, then it's not," Black said. "We put out a catalog every year but it usually has to go to print before we have a good idea of what we're going to have available."

. © 2000 Branch-Smith Publishing