Price For Planting Azaleas

[B&B LAWN]

A GUY CALLS ME TODAY AND WANTS ME TO GIVE HIM AN ESTIMATE TO PLANT 20 AZALEAS. HOW MUCH WOULD YOU GUYS CHARGE.

[dfor]

How big of a plant does he want? Will you be picking them up or will he have them at the property for you to plant?

[NC Big Daddy]

Somewhere between $1,000 and 1,000,000 or if you think you can "Get in good with them" charge $30. Great question by the way.......Also turn off your CAP's Lock.

[1MajorTom]

First off, when would he want these planted?
If its now, he is going to have to be told to keep these well watered going into the summer like this.
Also, to get good results, he should have soil that is suited for azaleas. Azaleas thrive on a soil pH between 4.5 to 6.

Now you didn't ask all that. Onto your question.
Your price, as mentioned above, will depend upon if you will have to pick these up for the customer, or will the azaleas aready be on the premises?

[B&B LAWN]

he will have the azaleas already on the property

[NCSULandscaper]

Id charge between $75 and $100 depending on how tough the soil is to dig in.

[blafleur]

What size are they? Is the bed ready to plant, or does prep work need to be done? Is a guarantee supposed to be included in this. I never guarantee anything I dont pick up.

Bryan

[B&B LAWN]

there is no prep work. he had bushes there and he already pulled them up and cleared it out a few years ago. the soil is very soft and it should be an easy job. i went and talked to him today and gave him a price of $4-5 a bush. so that would be from $80- $100. does this sound about right?

[blafleur]

I'd do it for that, if the owner took responsibility for the plants. Should be quick easy money.

Bryan

[turfquip]

I believe it's a little on the low side.

Sound like the kind of guy who's trying to put one over on you. What happens if you discover there's an old root or trunk from a previous shrub in exactly the spot where he wants one or more azaleas planted? Do you have a contingency for that?

What happens if, after they are all planted, he says "Great! Now in the back of my SUV I have 11 bags of pine bark mulch I want placed around them...that is included right?"

When he waves the cash, will you let him burn you for another hour?

I'm not trying to put you down. I have the sense that you are somewhat new to the business. What I'm saying is to think about all the possibilities. There are people out there that will take advantage of a young, aggressive and motivated upstart like yourself.

Don't sell yourself short young man.

Ed

[bobbygedd]

im not too happy to plant things for people that they have purchased. i sell plants, installed, why would i want to let someone else sell them the plants, and hire me for the dirty work? then there is always like the man said, find an old root, and your bustin hump for nothing, pass

[vardener]

How long do you think it will take to plant those shrubs? If it takes say, 10 minutes per shrub, that's 1000 minutes or basically 16 hours. Now 10 minutes is digging, planting, and backfilling.

Depending on the size of the shrub, it could take one man 10 minutes to plant one shrub. Well, that's two day's worth of work. since its really not too much more than sticking a rootball into a hole, I wouldn't say it's worth $50 per hour. After all, plants are already onsite.

I would do it for no less than $400. That wouldn't include soil ammendment or mulching.

I usually charge the price of the plant for the install. If I can get a 1 gal for about $5, then I charge $5 for the install. If he doesn't want to pay you what you're worth, you don't want him for a customer anyway.

no less than $400.

[NCSULandscaper]

Originally posted by vardener
How long do you think it will take to plant those shrubs? If it takes say, 10 minutes per shrub, that's 1000 minutes or basically 16 hours. Now 10 minutes is digging, planting, and backfilling.

Depending on the size of the shrub, it could take one man 10 minutes to plant one shrub. Well, that's two day's worth of work. since its really not too much more than sticking a rootball into a hole, I wouldn't say it's worth $50 per hour. After all, plants are already onsite.

I would do it for no less than $400. That wouldn't include soil ammendment or mulching.

I usually charge the price of the plant for the install. If I can get a 1 gal for about $5, then I charge $5 for the install. If he doesn't want to pay you what you're worth, you don't want him for a customer anyway.

no less than $400.

If its 10 minutes per shrub and he has 20 shrubs last time i looked that was 200 minutes, not 1000 which would be a little over 3 hours. However you can plant about 4 shrubs in 10 minutes which you can do all 20 in less than 1 hour if it was me so around 75 to 100 is about right with no warranty.

[vardener]

Oh, I thought he said he had 100 shrubs. I guess I mistook that number for one of the price quotes.

What size are these shrubs? What kind of condition is the soil in? Alot of that depends on how quickly you can plant the shrubs. If you have a 3 gallon azalea, and you are planting it in an area with a high concentration of clay, with digging, soil ammendment, and backfilling, not to mention mulching, I doubt you can plant 4 in ten minutes. If so, more power to you. You obviously like to work harder than I do.

When I bid a job, I try to figure how long it will take me to do the WORKING part of the job, not the driving, loading, unloading, etc. I then multiply that number of hours by $50. I have not had any complaints about what I charge, and though I usually don't get to keep 50 bucks an hour, I still make enough.

Oh, and I always overbid a job then when I show the estimate to the client, I tell them I'm running a "military/senior citizen/4th of july/Orville Reddenbacher's birthday/ etc. special and cut them 10% at the table. It works like a charm.

It's all business. I ultimately charge what I'm worth, especially if all concerned parties are happy.

Good luck on the job,

J