Chapter X 



PLANNING FOR PLANTING 



THE problem of making plans for the nursery end 

 of the florist business involves the question of which 

 to start first — business activities or nursery work ? 

 The solution is somewhat like the answer to the question, 

 **Which came first, the egg or the chicken For it is 

 purely a matter of preference. There are several sides 

 to this question, however, which come to mind and which 

 should be given consideration in deciding what to do. 



The one big advantage of having a nursery established 

 is that you can show customers the stock actually grow- 

 ing on your place; this creates greater incentive to buy. 

 It is a big advertisement, too, in many other ways. But 

 of course it takes time to get nursery stock looking salable 

 and the time lost in this preparatory work might perhaps 

 have brought more results employed in selling. This 

 leads us to the big advantage of starting sales work first, 

 which is that for the first season or so you can simply 

 order the stock for which you have a sale and thus make 

 direct profits, beside getting a good gauge on the type of 

 stock demanded by your neighborhood. 



Actual experience in the matter, however, has shown 

 that a combination of these two plans is the best one to 

 pursue. For example, plant a little assortment of the more 

 standard kinds of stock and go out and sell on the strength 

 of it; for the larger orders you can easily purchase the 

 extra stock needed. An assortment of 1,000 shrubs (forty 



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