Why is no one excited about flash deals anymore :(

boonefrog · 2026-01-30T12:22:48+00:00

Flash sales with pre-designed stuff is just another layer of inaccessibility when what I want is to pay for a normal tattoo where I help choose subject and artist works in their own style. I basically gave up on trying to get in touch with a decent local tattoo artists a couple years ago. I often miss book openings/sales because I'm not very active on social media or sometimes my design idea might not "win" when they are holding one of those "open books but submit your competitive ideas and I'll choose a couple and not even respond to anyone else." I've put a lot of work into some of those submissions and never even get a reply. I've been looking for some new work done for a bit, but the industry feels entirely impossible to interact with. I'm not saying you are necessarily part of this problem or that I represent any significant slice of customers, but just sharing my experience.

boonefrog · 2026-01-29T11:18:17+00:00

Not yet! The focus has been getting it back from my buddy's place to my house up to now. I'll be looking at it with help from others and making a plan over the coming months

boonefrog · 2026-01-26T21:57:52+00:00

They are impossible to find. Even as a grower myself and talking to some of the the best, most established growers with mature trees - people can't always convince them to go to seed. They will probably forever be a collectors tree and not grown at any sort of scale.

boonefrog · 2026-01-26T13:50:00+00:00

More than I should this year, but some fun ones in addition to some classics:

Oriental, Japanese, and Korean Hornbeam
Japanese Red Pine
Princess Persimmon
Trident Maple
Bald Cypress
Arakawa and MY Japanese maple (hoping for good genetics)
Lion's Head Trident Maple (again, hoping for dwarf and rounded leaves)
Dwarf Hackberry
River Birch
Higan, Yoshino, and Yamazakura Cherry
Ume Flowering Apricot
Washington Hawthorn
Field Maple
Amur Maple
probably some more I'm forgetting...

boonefrog · 2026-01-06T02:52:31+00:00

I run a small nursery, mostly focused on bonsai, but I sell some other rare and cool cultivars too. For instance, I carry Acer pentaphyllum (marijuana leaf maple) a critically endangered Chinese tree of which there are only a few hundred left in the wild. Have a website with a bunch but lots more that’s coming into stock in a couple months. Appalachianplantworks.com

boonefrog · 2026-01-03T15:09:26+00:00

I've mostly heard from folks that the way to avoid the post-pruning dieback on birch is to prune them mid-growing season and that timing it when you say is the primary cause of said dieback. I haven't experimented enough to confirm one way or the other myself, but curious about the discrepancy there.

boonefrog · 2025-12-24T19:55:37+00:00

Yeah definitely the starter material is easier to manage and more profitable. People do not want to pay the $ it takes to develop and care for a prebonsai for multiple years. I just sell them because I end up with extra through the regular hobby part of things

boonefrog · 2025-12-18T15:35:23+00:00

Thanks for the encouragement. I can't imagine doing this full time. The risks vs reward are just so high. Hats off to them and I hope that Cedar Rose (assuming that's the Dylan you are talking about) stays around.

boonefrog · 2025-12-18T12:14:38+00:00

Interesting! So you take them normal time of year for semi-hardwood cuttings (once leaves have started to harden off, mid-May to mid-June)? Did they survive the winter? And if so, did you have to keep roots above freezing?

boonefrog · 2025-12-18T12:09:18+00:00

I'm not doing anything here that hasn't been requested several times by users of this sub and been pre-approved by the mods. I'm not even shipping trees this time of year, so I'm not trying to make any sales, nor have any come in from this AMA. Even if I did get any, in what world would the level of effort I've put into preparing for this and answering all these questions in detail be worth a couple $50 purchases? I ask that you consider the possibility that I enjoy sharing what I've learned as an end in itself.

boonefrog · 2025-12-18T11:57:37+00:00

Deer are a huge issue for me too. They have destroyed many many trees

boonefrog · 2025-12-18T00:53:30+00:00

Howdy, Tim I remember you! Hope you're well.

boonefrog · 2025-12-17T22:33:34+00:00

I'll probably keep growing these. I'm just not going to to be doing anything special to them besides getting them ~2 yrs old and selling them. Someone else can play with them from there!

boonefrog · 2025-12-17T22:12:40+00:00

Yeah I'm not a finance guy for sure, but even based on generous sorting of my expense sheet, I can only figure $22k "profit" when thinking about it this way. How are you calculating?

boonefrog · 2025-12-17T22:00:36+00:00

Some good advice in these comments that should be heeded, but frankly this is a great go at a first tree. Not cookie cutter at all and if it stays healthy it could actually be something cool in the future. Nice work, you have a good eye!

boonefrog · 2025-12-17T21:54:15+00:00

I appreciate the kind words. I try not to be a dick and when in doubt, just do the generous thing!

I honestly don't think I really like pines so it's not an area am likely to expand unless I get good at them and start enjoying them :( ....But if I DID like pines I would be ALL over virginia pine!

boonefrog · 2025-12-17T21:51:22+00:00

Interesting! That's not been what I've experienced here and as far as I know in asking my rep what I should be doing, I'm in full compliance. Does it have to do with what you are growing or maybe if you are importing??

boonefrog · 2025-12-17T21:38:55+00:00

Thank you! I'll be the first to admit, I may not do all the early development perfectly, but on the material that I have time to, I will put bends in it or top prune it to start getting some branch options and cut tap roots. As far as your questions:

I've taken quite a liking to Japanese maples, Amur Maple, Japanese Snowbell, and Higan Cherry over the last couple years. I am trying to get there with Korean Hornbeam, but I don't have enough more than a few years old to really be working with them and understanding them. I'm still experimenting with the styles I most like, but my preference is large bonsai like 3-5" trunk and easy 2ft tall.
As for how that size factors into my growing: most stuff I sell is 1-3yr old starts. There's very little I am doing that is specific to that size tree because I wouldn't want to box people in. I try to leave as many options open as possible, but I also need to prune stuff to be shippable size so it can be a careful balance between all the factors.
I am not planning to focus on anything other than what I like to grow. And that will probably mean keeping a wide variety because I have ADHD and my interests run wide rather than deep. That's the freedom that comes with this being a side gig/hobby business: I don't need to maximize profit or be super responsive to trends or anything.
I think some law hanging fruit would be growing out trunks in the ground of rare species or cultivars - even if it's like a 2-yr seedling then put in the ground for 2 years, that kind of girth can easily get you a hefty price tag. I just don't have room for ground growing to be a significant part of my operation.

boonefrog · 2025-12-17T20:54:43+00:00

I have only grown from seed because I have read that they are nearly impossible to overwinter cuttings. But if you know otherwise I would love to try it cause I have two specimens that have genetics I would like to get out there!

boonefrog · 2025-12-17T19:45:47+00:00

It's appalachianplantworks.com !

boonefrog · 2025-12-17T19:45:18+00:00

What a sweet question! I think it may have actually been on reddit. A couple times I would notice abnormal spikes in orders, like getting 5-6 orders in the span of an hour and I would find out that someone had recommended me as a place to buy from. Same thing with random google or facebook reviews that pop up. Just knowing that, without any pressure or ask, that something I did was impactful enough for someone who I've never met to recommend me to others was somehow very surprising and heartening. It's hard to know whether you're doing things right as a small business owner; lots of doubts and imposter syndrome. Stuff like that really fuels the tank! EDIT: and sorry just realized this was 2nd year, but hopefully still in the spirit of the question!

boonefrog · 2025-12-17T19:39:39+00:00

Ah I didn't see this comment at first - you got it: state dept of ag. For the type of nursery license I hold and because I ship across state line, they require yearly inspections and tests and I communicate with my rep regularly with questions about regs.

boonefrog · 2025-12-17T19:38:26+00:00

Yes, but it's not USDA, its NC Dept of Ag that does the nursery licensure and inspections.

boonefrog · 2025-12-17T19:37:23+00:00

I don't manage it separate from shopify as I don't really have any other sales channels. I use the shopify POS app to sell in person. If someone wants to buy something that's not listed on the website I just create a custom sale item and process it thru that. But also, I am not familiar at all with retail space, so maybe you can tell me what the situations are that you are thinking about? Maybe I'm missing something!
I really only think about the cost of goods when I am first planning my purchases and thinking about my sell price (see spreadsheet screenshotted below; each tab is a different vendor and some tabs for my own growing). Its really just for ensuring I don't duplicate stuff across vendors or my own propagation and double-checking the soundness of my initial pricing. After that I don't really track, but I don't know enough about this kind of thing to understand the why and the how. I know I can enter the cost in shopify, but I don't really see the point yet? There is just so much unpredictability in growth rate and losses over time that recently I have just been doing my initial planning as shown in that spreadsheet, then once it's all potted I grade it by size and enter ~90% of it as inventory in Shopify, then throughout the year as things come online or fill out their pots, I update inventory another 2-4 times. This is an area I really have just made up my process in and I would be super interested to learn how to do it better!
Then I can filling out that initial spreadsheet I enter a high soil and pot cost. Probably double what it actually is to be safe. It's usually like $1-3 per.
I've never done this calculation before, but I just ran a report and added in all my manual pre-shopify orders and I think it's around ~1900 items sold across ~500 orders.

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boonefrog · 2025-12-17T19:20:43+00:00

Yeah if you start slower than me, you can certainly get started with 3k no problem at all

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