Purple Flowering Sandcherry is an easy plant to grow, always a great seller because of its purple leaves and delicate pink flowers.
An unrooted cutting is pretty much nothing but a stick. But because of the popularity of Purple Flowering Sandcherry you can actually cut the branches into 5” pieces and sell those pieces as unrooted cuttings and guess what? They sell like crazy to other growers and even homeowners if you explain to them how to root them.
When you sell them as unrooted hardwood cuttings people usually buy them by the hundreds. Prices usually start around 35 cents on up to a dollar or more.
Purple sandcherry rooted cuttings are usually hot sellers because people can get a live, viable plant for around one dollar or two and because Purple Sandcherry is a fast growing plant they fill out a one gallon container quickly and can be sold for a lot more money just a few months after being potted up.
A liner is rooted cutting that has been grown for one season. A liner has a heavier root system than a rooted cutting and it is starting to branch out. Liners usually sell for $1.50 to $2.00 each. Growers love buying liners because they can pot them up and sell them almost immediately.
I sell most of my plants in these pots. http://mikesbackyardnursery.com/plastic-nursery-pots/. Right now my price is $5.97 per plant. So just about everything that I grow goes into one of these pots and I sell them for $5.97 each. That’s my Unique Selling Proposition, thousands and thousands of plants at only $5.97 each.
Now, before you get all rattled when I say thousands and thousands of plants, don’t think along those lines. Think “Small area, maybe the size of a card table”.
There are three types of growers in this business. There are people like me who grow and sell retail, there are wholesale growers who farm up to 1,000 acres and do millions of dollars per year and there are “Folks just like you” that sell to people like me.
I’m all the time buying small plants. Things that I don’t have or things that I’ve run out of. My favorite thing in the world to buy is a plant in small pot that I can buy for a few bucks and turn right around and resell immediately. Especially things that I don’t currently have in my nursery.
So no matter how small of a grower you are, it just doesn’t matter, there are people that will buy your plants if you grow quality, nicely grown, properly trimmed plants.
Landscapers and homeowners love buying plants in 3 gallon containers. Just go to any garden center or big box store on a weekend in the spring and watch the craziness take place. People spend millions of dollars on plants each weekend across the country.
People, including landscapers, would much rather do business with you than they would a big nursery or a big box store. Even if you don’t want to sell to people face to face or selling to landscapers, even mail order buyers, other small growers, would much rather buy from another small grower than they would a big wholesale nursery. I see it every day. It’s just easier. I do it all the time.
How do you find the buyers? I cover that in detail in the “Small Plants, Big Profits” book and the videos in our members area.
I’ve gotta run for now. Be sure to check out the movies and other products in our members area. More about that here.
P.P.S. Growing small plants at home is a life changing experience for so many. You can be as small as you want, but still, you what you do will make a difference to somebody.
would love to try this but I live in a trailer park the gound is to rockey and hard to dig can I put the smaller bucket inside a bigger bucket filled with dirt.
Would it be an issue to mix bundles of different plants in the bucket for the winter? i.e. I have forsythia, rose of sharon and grapes here I would like to try this with. Would it be a problem to throw a bundle of each into the same bucket? Or should I use seperate buckets for seperate species?
Mike, the rose of sharon should be fine, but I’m not sure about the cherries. Works great for sandcherries and Pink Flowering Almond which is in the prunus family.
Yes, it should work all through January. Don’t dig them up in the spring until all danger of frost has past.
Mike, I keep getting dropped from your mailing list. My nursery name is Timberline Nursery. I bought your growing information some time back, but this is the second time I have been dropped. Would you please add me back to your list. I will start selling my plants this spring and need your information. Thanks in advance, Dennis
Dennis, if you have my Backyard Growing System you need to be on the Backyard Growers list. Contact Kathy in the office and she can help you. Write to her at [email protected] Make sure you give her your name and address so she can locate you in the database.
Jan, probably not. Lilacs work a lot better as softwood cuttings in June. We’ll discuss those methods in the spring.
Hi Chris, I’m just getting to some of these comments. You can do hollies and burning bush as hardwood cuttings, but don’t bury them. Just stick out in a bed. But I’d wait til spring because they are much easier to do as softwood cuttings.
I am buying a large bucket with lid to get started rooting hard wood cuttings as you demonstrate. Can I use your method for BeautyBerry Bushes and Blue Chaste trees?
I don’t honestly know. The cut and bury method is limited to certain woody plants. But just about anything can be one like this:
Hi Mike: Always great info and videos have learned a lot, thank you. P.S. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Donald
Thank you Cathy! I’m glad your sister is enjoying the Backyard Growing System. Join the Backyard Growers Group, you will be amazed.
Great video. Thanks so much!! Quick question…do you check to be sure that the soil stays moist? I’m in zone 5b so it gets pretty chilly here and I’m afraid that bucket might just freeze shut.
It wouldn’t hurt to wet the soil again over the winter, but if the bucket freezes just roll with it until spring.
You mentioned a few hardwood/deciduous shrubs by name. Would this video presentation be the same procedure for Rhododendron, Azalea, Hydrangea, and Hibiscus ? Also, with Vermont’s frost line being deeper that Ohio’s, I would have to use something (bucket) deeper than the one shown on your video, wouldn,t you say ?
Hugh, Even though this method can be succesful, the number of plants you can do this way is limted. However, you can do almost anything thing this way and you do it when the weather is warmer. http://www.freeplants.com/homemade-plant-propagation.htm
Really interesting and well done. I haven’t seen this method before. I thought plants were best pruned in early spring … ‘course these are trees or shrubs, but still … quite a different way.
Patricia, I’ve turned over my website to my son Duston. He now does all of the editing, images etc. He created this blog, edits the videos and does all kinds of other things. Expect a lot out of us in 2011.
OMG! I am so amazed at this method. I’ve never heard of it before or seen it. I am going to have to try this with my Potentia (not sure of the spelling there). I never would have thought to turn the cuttings upside down. Way to go Mike!
I lost one of my yellow flowering bushes to drought in the winter…from then on I try to water in the winter once a month. I’m going to do it! Thank you for the tip! It makes perfect since to bury it so it doesn’t freeze and the warmth is almost like composting it. Wow! I’ve got to do this.
William, you might have some success this way, http://www.freeplants.com/homemade-plant-propagation.htm, but most are grown from seed or grafted onto seedlings.
Mike: your tips regarding gardening are extremely useful….would like to go outside and begin a project but our snow climate does not permit this, as yet………..I am a spring/summer person and do not like fall/winter as it inhibits the growing season………….enjoy all your information as it is short and to the point – easy to ujnderstand and remember……thanks, Gloria
Thanks for your wonderful ideas and videos. A question, will the mother plant withstand so heavy pruning this time of the year?
I too would really like to see something with evergreen cuttings, I haven’t had any success with them yet. Thank You for all of the great advice throughout the years, you’re definitely a garden guru, please keep up the good work.
Good video! Thanks! I did have a little trouble seeing what you were doing as the dark branches blended in with the dark clothes. When you plant these out, do you keep them covered for a few weeks?
This was a great video, Mike! I’ve never seen this method before. One question, do you have to put the bucket in a sunny spot or can it be in the shade? I live with woods surrounding my yard so that is a big concern for me.
Like most mornings I grabbed a cup of coffee and headed to our sun room to read and enjoy my coffee. As the sun was coming up I looked outside and through the porch railing I see this spectacular display of red foliage being illuminated by the morning sun at a really interesting angle. I was really taken back by this display of red color and early morning sun so I grabbed my camera and out the door I went. These are the photos that I snapped of the ‘Fireworks’ Fountain Grass in my landscape.
You can see the sun shining brightly through this ‘Fireworks’ Fountain Grass. Pam and I were at one of the local nurseries this summer and these beautiful grasses really caught our eye so we bought five and added them to our landscape.
As I often do, I planted all five of them in an arc in the landscape. However, as I did a little research on this beautiful plant to write this article I learned that they are rated for zones 9a through 11b. On the plant tag no zone information was given. So as beautiful as these are, chances are they will not make through our Ohio, zone 5 winters.
That’s too bad, but I like them so much that I’d buy five new ones next year if I can find them. I’ll treat them much like I would an annual flower here in zone 5.
So, if you are in a warmer zone you should see if you can find this wonderful ornamental grass. If you are in colder zone you could plant them and treat them like an annual as I will do, should I be able to find them again next spring.
Why would any of us have trouble finding them? Because they are patented and you can’t just propagate them at will like you would many other plants. So that usually makes them a little more difficult to find because growers have to buy the small plants from a wholesale grower who is licensed to grow them. So that limits the number of wholesale growers who actually have them on hand to sell.
How do you know which plants are patented and which are not? Patented plants will have the plant patent information right on the plant tag like this; ‘Fireworks’ Fountain Grass (Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’) PP18504. And somewhere on the tag it will say “Propagation Strictly Prohibited”.
In my Growing System, “Small Plants, Big Profits from Home” I explain in great detail about patented plants, what plants you are free to propagate, and where you can buy patented plants at really low prices to grow on and resell at a nice profit. Anybody can grow and sell a patented plant as long as they purchase the small plant known as a liner from a wholesale grower who is licensed to grow and sell that plant. At that point of sale the plant royalty is paid. It’s just that you cannot reproduce the plants that you buy. You can pot them up, grow them to a larger size and sell them at a profit. The royalties on patented plants are not that much, maybe 50 cents or a dollar. Some are even less than that!
However, don’t think for a minute that all of the good plants are patented. Nothing could be further from the truth! There are hundreds and hundreds of plants that you are free to propagate to your hearts desire. I’ve grown and sold thousands and thousands of non patented plants and the people just love them!
‘Fireworks’ Fountain Grass grows in zones 9a through 11b. It really needs full sun to look it’s best and will grow in variety of different soils. It grows to a height of 24″ to 30″ and for the most part is considered an annual, not a perennial.
Mike, I need your help. Not about fountain grass, though, which I also have here in Parkersburg, WV!
My 4 year old Crepe Myrtle is alarming me this year. It was very slow to green up, with new shoots from the base. The rest looks dead. this is always the way it looks in winter, not now. I dont think it will even bloom this summer. Do I dare cut back the top? It is a beautiful scarlet/pink! Everyone else in the neighborhood has theirs blooming. Help, please, Mike
Check to see if the top is dead or not. This is how you test to see if a plant, or a branch on a plant has died. Just scratch the bark of your plants with your finger nail. If the tissue below the bark is green and firm your plants are fine. If the tissue is brown and mushy that part of the plant is dead.
Dig them up after the first frost, trim the tops and roots, place in a 5 gal bucket or pots in a basement or protected area, replant in spring
I have some ornamental grass in a corner of my yard. Don’t know the name of it but it is causing me a problem. It seems to have reseeded all over my lawn! How do I get rid of it without starting my lawn over from scratch?
I have no problem with patented plants that have been developed by someone. I do, however, wonder how someone can find a wild growing plant in their backyard and put a patent on it. How is that even possible?
Technically a person should not be able to patent something that was not grown in a cultivated area.
I am loving my fireworks grass too. I want another one but am just now realizing it’s not hardy in my zone. Really kinda bummed now.
In a cold climate cold permeates most everything. In a whole in the ground covered with a wooden cover, that would likely work.
I have a whole setup in front of my living room window with 6500k LED lighting to overwinter all my tropicals. I am in 6b and some of my tender angels are up to 10b (NO frost) so they go out for the summer and come in every fall. That said, nothing says you can’t take some of your Fireworks grass in as a houseplant, is there? I put my pothos and spiderplants outside for the summer (in a properly shady spot so the sun doesn’t burn them) and they love it….
Your beds look so nice….weed free! What is under your mulch and how much mulch did you put on it? Thank you for all the helpful tips and info. I love your videos too!
There is a difference between propagation and preservation, Particularly with ornamental grasses from warmer latitudes, one can dig them up, trim them, pot them and store in your garage to be brought out and replanted when weather stabilizes above 55/60 F. In certain cases, divission may be necessary to preservation for your own use.
Miguel, my guess is that if you have to divide a patented ornamental grass for preservation the holder of the patent would expect you to throw way the divisions. Just my guess. As a grower who grows for profit I that’s exactly what I would do.
Mike, when a plant is “patent pending”, does that mean you cannot propigate it whatsoever or can you propigate it for your own use, not to sell? I would respect someone’s work and the law as well, but I am just not clear on this. Thanks!
John, nobody but is allowed to propagate a patented plant no matter who you intend to use the off spring. In most cases a plant patent protects the plant against asexual reproduction which means any kind of propagation except seeds. Growing from seed is sexual reproduction. But if you look on plant tags of patented plants most say “propagation prohibited”. They used to say “asexual propagation prohibited”. So . . . I’m not sure why they are not printing the tags as they are. Just to intimidate us, or are the seeds protected? As far as I know they are not and if you search plant patents wikipedia has a pretty good explanation of how it all works.
We as Backyard Growers, there are still thousands of plants that we are free to propagate so that is always our focus. We grow almost all non patented plants, but we also buy some patented plants, pay the royalty at the time of purchase, grow the plants on and sell them.
Ur right Mike. We have these plants in our landscaping at our residence. I would never sell such a plant . There are way to many plants u can divide that don’t have a patented on them. Keep up the GOOD WORK MIKE !!
I got 5-6 of these plants from dividing a 1 gal container. When we buy we try and buy plants that are about to bust out of the containers . $$$$
Tommy, just beware that patented plants are protected against propagation. I’m going to write an article that explains this in more detail.
Since I live in Southern CA, they are readily available. And one thing I have noticed, they do reseed. I started with five plants and now the hill they are planted on, I have ten. But, I do have to cut them back, every year. Here they are called Red Fountain Grass. They are quite beautiful.
I have some of this, it does well in containers too, I planted some at the office in a big pot with some hostas and other stuff. I am in zone 7a so i know it probably won’t make it through the winter here.
Thank you for the tip, Debbie. I was ready to start looking for them so I’ll head straight to the local Lowe’s.
Just got this grass a week ago. It was called Purple Fountain here. We’re a little milder here so I’m going to mulch it and try to get it to make it through the winter.
Oops, forgot to add I’ll probably just have to follow your advice and treat them like annuals. Meanwhile, if you learn of a hardier but similar variety, that would be even better!
it’s gorgeous! I found this last year and had high hopes – unfortunately it didn’t make it through our winter – zone 8, relatively mild but wet winter. If yours does, I’d like to know so I can try again.
This grass is sold all over here in the west as an annual ornamental. It is very popular as a conainer plant, I also think of it the same as I would petunias or any other annual for color. I prefer to grow things like this rather then petunias. There is also a couple of pennisetums that are hardy to zone 5 but they are green until fall and then they start turning red and bronze, and they have the same beautiful blooms! Georgeous! But, you’ll have to google it. Mike, I can’t wait to get your growing system! I’ve already started selling plants!
Donna, that’s great! But . . . if you are selling plants you need my system more than ever. Many people get started without my system only to find out that they made some serious mistakes and have to back track. http://freeplants.com/wanted.htm
So pretty! You may not be able to propagate them for sale, but perhaps you can dig them up and save them for your own garden next year. I do this with lemongrass, geraniums, and dahlias. (I live in NJ.)
I often saw something similar to this growing wild in a field next to our home in southern Virginia. The colors are really beautiful!
looks pretty much like “purple fountain grass” to me, available at nurseries. like it too. just planted one the summer, looks good with purple cone flowers and gaura
Hmm? Except that purple fountain grass is PURPLE and fireworks grass is a deep red…? Have planted both in the past, & they are two VERY different colors.
I purchase Purple Fountain Grass every year for my garden. It is definitely always red. I have never seen actual purple colored fountain grass. I would buy that to if I could find it. I will be looking for the one called Fireworks! Thank you Mike for sharing all of your wonderful knowledge with all of us gardner’s.