Pat: I think you are pretty close at 20 cents a label. The big growers who
do label have very expensive thermal printers (cost of which must somehow be
amortized per label) compared to my ancient -- and cheap -- dot-matrix, but
most of them have cheaper labor than small growers, and it's more efficient
to tag huge lots of the same thing, rather than smaller lots of different
plants.

But the real factor is demand. The vast majority of customers don't WANT
labels. They pull them out and toss them like they were the price-tags on
clothing. I even find them strewn in my parking lot.

I give a very short version of the spiel mentioned by another poster, about
labels and plant value, with my repotting talks. I also tell the audience
that the tag is important, because someday they may have a question about
their plant, and if they call me and say "I have a question about my
orchid," I'm not going to be able to help them, if I don't know what it is
(and if they tell me it's a "white one," I'm liable to hang up on them G).
The latter seems slightly more effective than the former, but neither
converts more than 1-2% into label keepers. Kenni

"Pat Brennan" wrote in message
...
I was talking to one of the really big growers. He said what it would cost
to put labels in all his plants was about equal to how much he took out of
the business. I though it seemed a bit far fetched so I did some
calculations with sales numbers from Greenhouse Grower and assumed labels
and man power would run between 10 and 20 cents per label. Numbers seemed
to be just about right on. It is not like these growers do not know what
they are growing, it is just the nature of the business. I am guessing for
the box stores to carry plants with labels would add 50 cents to a dollar
per plant to the consumer.

Pat


"Weng" wrote in message
...

Orchis Wrote:
J -
Of course, just because something is a No ID hybrid Phal does _not_
have to
mean that it is unsuccessful and a throwback. If you like the looks of
it,
and are pleased with your purchase, that's what should count for you.
Some
of my favorite orchids are No ID hybrid Phals.

Joanna-

Thanks Joanna,

you're right, I have two NoID Phals and I'm so happy with them
I'm just a bit uncomfortable if they are without a name...

Bahram

I have at least 30 NoIDs ;-) And no, they don't have to be rejects. In
fact, quite the opposite. Most commercial plants are mericlones, and if
you are about to produce and raise a million plants, you'd chose the
very best, free-flowering parent money can buy! It is just a pity they
don't then tell you what it is.

I just label mine as Phalaenopsis hybrid #?. You could also give it a
clonal name, if you like. The label might then read Phalaenopsis
hybrid #2 'Walmart'. This way, the plant never gets into the wider
community under a false name.

Weng




--
Weng