Tropical Back Yard Nursery

[BILL MA]

Hello All,
Here are the pictures of my back yard that I've been procrastinating over posting. Well at least by me taking my sweet time posting the pictures it gave everything time to fill in nice.

So here they are, if you guys have questions feel free to ask as I'm not going to label everything.

Driveway overflow area, Nana sago's, gardenias, butias, and nana starts for next year.





Heading into the backyard, there's a ton of plants here. Sorry if I didn't take that great of pictures I'm no photographer by any means. I'm sure I missed a bunch of plants, thinking about it the whole back right corner. Opps! I'll post them later.








Under my maple tree gets filtered light so it's a great place to keep the aucubas, lady palms, and alocasias


Hope everyone liked the pictures, I have some more pictures all uploaded and ready to go. I hoping I'll have time to throw them up tonight.

Bill

[BILL MA]

Almost forgot about some of the trachys, bad picture there are a ton of them I missed to the right.

[Cowtown Palm Society]

Amazing inventory!

Bill, I can't believe how healthy and robust your palms look. They look like they were wintered in Florida.

Good luck with the business!

Duncan

[TerdalFarm]

Bill,
I wish you were selling plants in my neighborhood!
The 'nanas look like Musa basjoo and Musella lasiocarpa, which I assume are hardy there.
Do your customers keep Butia and Trachy in pots or plant them? If the latter, are they used as annuals or do they protect them?
Also, are Aucuba hardy up there?
--Erik

[ScottyON]

I can say that I have seen it in person and it's unbelievable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wish I could have smuggled a ton over the boarder! If I was Bill's neighbor I'd been broke!

[Paul Ont]

Nice selection Bill! Excellent!

[Knnn]

Everything looks great
Good luck with your venture!


Steve

[Okanagan desert-palms]

Bill that is a great selection you have there.Is a greenhouse in the plans? How are you advertising?I`m glad your not in my city as I would have some serious competition LOL. I never get tired of your updates.


John

[BILL MA]

Thanks Guys! it's been fun so far for sure.

I most definitely need to do more advertising to get people here, next year will be a lot better organized that way. I'm heading to a gigantic flea market right out side of Providence RI this weekend for a few hours I think I'll do really well. Time will tell

Eric,
Yeah the big nanas are basjoo and there are larciocarpas too, which should be fine here if protected right. I think I'm going to plant one or two of those Thai blacks today so I can see if there hardy here. I'd fell much better about selling them to people if I'd tried them. I really think I could pull of a orinoco too if it was one my south side, I don't think I have room though, I might have to try and squeeze on of them in somewhere to try. There's bordelons too, there not likely hardy here, but I'll try one why not.

As for the butias most people are potting them and bringing them inside somewhere as of my recommendation, there cheap enough for most people to use as annuals anyways. Plus if there going to do that I'll go and rescue them One guy is planting one in the ground along with a trachy, I should give him this site so he can start learning, I'm going to help him anyways.

John,
No green house here I'm waiting until we move for that, hopefully I'll be sold out for the most part so I'm not storing all this stuff in my Ghetto green house. I'll sell stuff for CHEAP if it's getting close to storage time.

Bill

[hardyjim]

Funny,I think everyone covered what I wanted to say/ask

Are those the Black Thai bananas in the milk crates?
They are coming along nicely!

Those are some beautiful Sagos-I agree with Scotty,
"if I was Bill's neighbor,I'd be broke"

[JackLord]

Damn! Look at all those plants!

Are you gonna do mail order?

You've done it. Its a nursery, man! I can't find the time to go to the one a few miles away but you got one in your yard!

[lucky1]

Jumpin' Jehosophat, that's F A B U L O U S, Bill

I wish you were selling plants in my neighborhood!

Me too!

You need acreage (preferrably near my house).
Otherwise you'll have to do a Search sweep at night to find the last customer

Man, you've done a ton of work (and spent a s**t load of money!!).
I agree with the advertising (even with a website in Fall), the money'll come in faster.

Barb

[BILL MA]

Yeah those are the Black thai nanas Jim, there growing very nicely. I'm giving some to try at there house to see how hardy they really are. Pretty bad when you run out of places to plant stuff and you have to do your experiments elsewhere My mom loves it, there yard looks like a jungle too

Jack I'm not sure on the mail order, probably next year. I will send stuff to people I know though. It is really nice having all of this stuff here in my yard like you said.

Acreage and advertising are two things I'm lacking for sure. This year is like the test year to see what happens, next year things are going to be much more organized. Plus I'm going to carry a lot of plants that will survive here too so I can take care of everyone. I'm having a great time though

Bill

[lucky1]

Bill, I think your biggest "test" will be to RESIST planting your own inventory
I bet you want to put half of them in the ground for yourself

Barb

[hardyjim]

Bill, I think your biggest "test" will be to RESIST planting your own inventory
I bet you want to put half of them in the ground for yourself

Barb

Ain't that the truth

[wxman]

Wow! That is impressive Bill! How much did you spend on that collection if I may ask?

[BILL MA]

No more room to plant anything Barb & Jim the yard is to small I did plant some stuff though

Tim,
Since I'm working on a few years worth of good connections and a ton of time, transportation, and work that would be a tough number

Bill

[gpenny]

Bill
I've been looking at your pictures over and over again and just haven't had time to post. When I heard you were starting a tropical nursery in MA I was skeptical on what that would look like. Well, I am very impressed! Your nursery is as lush and beautiful as any I ever seen here in S.C. I love nurserys where the plants are packed in the areas and there are paths that meander through the stock. You can spend hours in even a small area just admiring everything! Congratulations on a great job. Small nurseries such as yours can be very successful once "word of mouth" gets around. That may take several years to get the word out, so hang in there! I am certain yours is unique to the area.

[Cameron_z6a_N.S.]

Everything looks great Bill !

[BILL MA]

Thanks Penny!
I wasn't really 100% sure what it was going to look like either but it worked out. I agree with you totally about once people start talking about it things will pick up. I knew going in this year was going to be a learning year and wasn't really expecting to make to much money, that just seems to come with most new businesses though.

One good thing that happened over the weekend was a local fruit and vegetable/ nursery owner right up the road stopped by and was very impressed with what I've done. He even offered to bring people over here if he's slow. He said "I know people who would like this stuff and I don't sell tropicals" I plan on hooking him up pretty good.

Thanks Cameron,
How are your plants doing up there so far this year? The weather has been perfect here how about yours?

Bill

[TerdalFarm]

Bill,
your basic business plan seems much like that of the old man I bought my cabbage palm from. He has been going to Florida each March for a few years now and trucking purchases up to Tulsa, a little more each year. Probably a semi-load each April.
He rents part of a parking lot in a high-traffic location as his marketing.
He also has a "plan B" of sending plants that don't sell in Tulsa to a friend in Dallas who can over-winter what he can't sell down in Texas.
--Erik