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We often work with community organizations, school groups and garden clubs on fund raising projects. We do not offer a canned fund raising brochure since most of our fund raising clients sell different varieties of flower bulbs geared to their particular audiences. They find that it is most fun and most successful to sell the best quality of flower bulbs that are not commonly found in local shops or chain stores. Selecting the Flower Bulb Varieties for Your Fund Raiser On click-on pages above, we have compiled a list of the most popular mixtures and individual varieties for your consideration. Some groups develop their own special collection of flower bulbs for their fund raisers around school colors, community beautification themes, garden club "picks" or...their own personal favorites. Other groups select varieties based on historical garden research or flower names that fit into a children's secret garden theme. Others rename varieties after teachers, local landmarks or historical figures. Let your imagination run wild! We would recommend not offering more than ten choices for your fund raiser. The key is to keep it manageable, and therefore, fun. Take a look at the Horticultural Tips section or phone us at (860) 567-8734 if you want to find out which flower bulbs are good for warmer climates, shady spots, more moist soil, a munching deer population or which flower bulbs are fragrant and which are good naturalizers. There are many terrific ways to select flower bulbs for your fund raiser. We would be happy to help you pick them out too.
Planning Your Fund Raiser Quite often, fund raisers are conducted through a one-on-one volunteer sales effort with a sell sheet and order form followed by a scheduled pick-up and/or supplemental sales event. Call us at (860) 567-8734 to request our Fund Raising packet in which we will include sample sales materials produced by other groups. Your sell sheet and order form can be made easily on a personal computer. They are best when made simply; they do not have to be fancy. Feel free to use the photographs in the John Scheepers Beauty from Bulbs catalog for your sell sheet. We have also provided some descriptions as examples for your sell-sheet or bag labels above on a click-on page: feel free to copy any copy that you want to from our website or catalogs. Setting the Prices for Your Fund Raiser Community groups typically order their flower bulbs through Van Engelen, our wholesale company. You would determine the prices that you charge for the bulbs: groups usually charge $1 per tulip; more for narcissi and less for crocus or muscari. Often, groups offer a volume discount: for example, 10 Tulip Angelique would cost $10 while 25 would cost $20. Other groups give an incentive for buying one bag each of several varieties: for example, buy one bag each of four varieties of tulips and get a free bag of ten crocus bulbs. When to Order Your Flower Bulbs As soon as you decide to run a flower bulb fund raiser, call us to set up your initial order before you actually start to sell the bulbs...at least by the end of the summer. As your group is conducting the fund raiser, we ask that you give us periodic updates so that we may reserve additional flower bulbs for you to cover your sales. Since perishable flower bulbs can not be returned, we take great care to finalize your order before we ship the bulbs to you for repackaging and distribution to your own customers. To reserve your bulbs, we ask for a Visa or Mastercard: we will not charge your credit card until your order is finalized. You may also provide us with a check as payment once you are ready to finalize the order at which time we will delete the credit card from the order.
Once you receive your bulb order from us, a group of your volunteers will be responsible for repackaging the bulbs into smaller units for distribution. Most groups repackage the bulbs into simple, brown paper lunch bags with air holes punched in to them and with your own computer- generated, stick-on labels that identify the flower bulb variety with brief horticultural information. Please do not put flower bulbs in plastic bags; it is not good for the bulbs. Please make sure that the flower bulbs are kept in a cool, dry spot with good air circulation prior to distribution. When you place your initial order, we will provide you with copies of our planting guides so that you may include one with each of your customers' orders (a sample planting guide is included in our Fund Raising packet). Distributing the Flower Bulbs to Your Customers You may distribute your flower bulb orders through your volunteers or announce a place and time where your customers may pick them up. Some groups order extra bulbs for on the-spot sales at community events in October such as school book fairs, football games, car washes, church fairs or local farmer's markets. You should distribute the flower bulbs to your customers in time so that they may plant them after the ground starts to cool down, normally after the first frost. Establish a Garden Angel Program Many groups have had success with what we call the Garden Angel Program. If someone does not want to buy flower bulbs for their own garden, your volunteer can ask if they would like to be a "Garden Angel" and purchase bulbs for a special community garden that your group would sponsor. By doing so, Garden Angels can support your fund raising project as well as donate flower bulbs to your group's special garden at a town green, a hospice care center, a day care program or a senior citizen center. The Garden Angel program makes everyone happy. Often, local newspapers like to take photographs of the volunteer, Garden Angel planting as well as the spring flowering results: this publicity helps to promote future flower bulb sales.
When We Ship the Flower Bulbs to You Most of the flower bulbs in our collection are available to ship to you from September 22 through October 31, 2003. We generally ship flower bulbs out in advance of planting time with a little extra time allowed for you and your volunteers to repackage them. We can schedule a "ship-week-of" date with you. If you and your group would like to sell the flower bulbs offered through any of the Van Engelen collections, please keep in mind that these collections are not available for us to ship to you until mid-October. Oriental Lilies, Chinese Trumpet Lilies and Dutch amaryllis are not available for shipment until late October. Paperwhites and Amaryllis Don't forget to consider selling paperwhites or amaryllis at a late fall event or when distributing your outdoor planting bulbs. For easy impulse purchase, you may sell amaryllis bulbs in tulle netting with a raffia ribbon and package paperwhites in little tulle net bundles. You may also sell paperwhite gift boxes or amaryllis gift boxes for perfect holiday gift giving! (Christmas Flowering Amaryllis and paperwhites are available for shipment starting the week of September 22nd; Dutch Amaryllis are not available for shipment until late October.) Please Call Us with Questions - We Are Here to Help! We will include our 2003 John Scheepers Beauty from Bulbs catalog, the 2003 Van Engelen wholesale price list and a planting guide for you in our Fund Raising packet. If there is any other information you need, please do not hesitate to call. We would be happy to help you and your colleagues in any way we can. We encourage you to recruit enough volunteers to make the sell sheet, do the actual selling, repackage the bulbs and assist with the order distribution. By having enough volunteers, the whole process will be fun for everyone, as well as hugely profitable. |
