MoreFrequently Asked Questions
General FAQs:
LeeFee Market is an online marketplace designed specifically for plants.
Made by Plant-Lovers for Plant-Lovers.
Think craigslist / facebook marketplace, but tailor-made for plants! Manage stock and set your own pickup rules. When you list on LeeFee Market, you can make your item(s) available for shipping, pick-up, or both! After Customers complete their order online, they receive an e-mail with your Pick-Up Instructions.
We don’t want you to have to waste time on customers that may or may not ever show up, or have to ever answer the perennial and ubiquitous question: “Is this still available?”
We use the proceeds from LeeFee Market to support and fund nature conservation work in NYS – the maintenance and expansion of native and pollinating species of plants, expanding the lands that we steward, providing habitat and refuge for animals, insects, birds and more.
We love what we do..
LeeFee Market was made by plant-lovers for plant-lovers. We completely get where you’re coming from. To us, LeeFee Market is a labor of love. We’re having a really good time, and we hope that you will too.
We’re good listeners
We’re doing this for you! We’re hear to listen to what you have to say, and shape the future of LeeFee Market based on the needs of it’s users.
Support Conservation
Proceeds are used to fund land stewardship projects to help protect Earth’s ecosystem.
Ease of Use
(We Hope!) We have done our level best to make LeeFee Market easy to use for both buyers and sellers. We know not everyone is a tech expert and you shouldn’t have to be! We want LeeFee Market to be a place where buyers and sellers can enjoy the experience of finding things they are looking for as well as wonderful surprises that they weren’t expecting. It is free to get started, and you don’t have to list anything until you’re ready.
Participate at your level.
We allow seller participation at every level, from selling just one packet of seeds, to managing a large nursery with vast offerings.
Growing Guides and Instructions
Growing Guides and Instructions that you include with a listing, are automatically emailed to customers after their purchase! When making a listing, vendors have the option to include a Growing Guide, Product Instructions, Unpacking Instructions and/or Storage Instructions that will show up on the product page as well as be e-mailed to customers when they place an order.
Attributes and Search Filters
We have a substantial and carefully-considered set of search filters designed to make it easy for you as a vendor to inform customers, and easy for you as a customer to find what you’re looking for.
The Green Thumb Icon shows up on Verified Stores. To become verified, stores usually have to submit some form of photo ID to LeeFee Market, so that we can make sure they’re real. Stores without verification can only have up to five products in their store.
Listing on LeeFee Market is easy!
Customer FAQs:
Questions related to an order you’ve already placed
Make sure you’re logged in. Under your “My Account” menu, navigate to your “My Orders” page. There, you should be able to open a new support ticket for your order.
Questions related to a specific product
Navigate to that product’s page, and follow the link labelled “Ask a Question”. You should find it near the “Add to Cart” button.
Anything else
You can go to that Store’s page, and there will be a link at the top labelled “Ask a Question”
If you just realized that you don’t actually have a question for a particular store or product, but instead have a question for LeeFee Market, you can always contact us here.
There are three common situations that can make this happen:
- There aren’t enough left to fulfill your order
- The vendor took that product down
- You were trying to purchase from multiple stores at the same time
(For now, you can place orders for one store at a time. If you want to keep track of items, you can always add them to your wishlist)
Just one for now! We’d love to allow you to buy from multiple shops at the same time, but because of how our payment system works, we have to keep it to one. If you want to keep track of items from different shops, you can log in and add them to your wishlist.
Vendor FAQs:
We use Stripe Connect to manage all payments. A percentage of each sale goes to LeeFee Market to keep the lights on, support conservation, and continue to improve the site. Stripe collects a transaction fee, and the rest goes directly to your Stripe Account.
You don’t need to have a Stripe account beforehand, but if you do already have a stripe account, you can connect it to LeeFee Market when you create your vendor account. You can find out more about Stripe and Stripe Fees on their website.
(Stripe is a BIG company that wears many different hats. Depending on where you go on their website, there can be a lot of information, but don’t be intimidated: Much of it only applies to web-programmers. “API” is a term that shows up a lot on their site. It means “Application Programming Interface”, and it’s how the LeeFee Market software talks to Stripe. It’s probably not something that you’ll ever have to worry about.)
LeeFee Market is an online marketplace for your
- Plants
- Seeds
- Roots/Tubers/Bulbs
- Mushrooms
- Garden Tools
- Books
- Beneficial Insects
- Soil Amendments
- Dried Plant Materials
- Creations made from your plant materials
- Or anything else garden or plant-related
Basically, you can’t sell anything that breaks laws or that has nothing to do with plants, gardening, etc. For example:
- Patented Plants without a license
- Trademarked Plants without a license (when sold under the trademarked name)
- Controlled or Regulated Plants (without the required licenses or registrations)
- Car parts, dog food, etc.
When you first create a store, you are not yet “Verified.” To become verified, just scan or take a picture of photo ID and submit it to us here. Once we receive it and approve your store, the Green Thumb will show up on your Store Page, and the five-product limit will be lifted!
If someone has contacted you either through an inquiry or by submitting a support ticket, you can respond to them directly in your Store Manager.
If a customer has placed an order, and they haven’t already contacted you, you can add a note to their order, and they will be notified by e-mail.
If you still can’t find what you’re looking for, let us know.
(If you’re a vendor, make sure to check the Quick Links in the Navigation Menu at the top of the page)
Glossary
Annual
A plant that grows its entire life cycle (seed, plant, flower) in a single growing season. Many tropical imports to colder climates are annuals (if you get a winter) but a perennial in their native region. Some annuals can be brought and kept inside to overwinter them. Annual Examples – Basil, Datura, Marigolds,
Biennial
A plant with a two year life cycle. The first year the plant is only leaves. The second year the plant blooms, sets seed and then the main plant dies. These plants are often great re-seeders. Biennual Examples – Angelica, Foxglove (Digitalis), Kale, Parsley, Snapdragon
Deadhead
To remove spent flowers, which encourages new flowers and prevents seed formation.
Deciduous
Deciduous plants drop their leaves at the end of every growing season.
Dormancy
For plants: For Plants, dormancy declares when to prepare their soft tissues for freezing temperatures, dry weather, or water and nutrient shortage. Instead of exerting energy in an attempt to grow, they know to stop growing and conserve energy until mild weather returns.
For Seeds: Seed dormancy refers to the inability of viable seeds to germinate under apparently optimal environmental conditions. Induction and maintenance of dormancy during seed maturation is influenced by genetic and environmental factors.
Germinate
The beginning of the growth of a seed into a seedling is known as germination. All seeds need water, oxygen and the right temperature to germinate. Dormancy is a state of suspended animation in which seeds delay germination until conditions are right for survival and growth.
Growing Zone or USDA Hardiness Zone
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map divides the United States and Canada into 13 zones, based on the average annual minimum winter temperature. Each zone is, on average, 10 degrees warmer or colder in the winter than the zone next to it, with Zone 1 being the coldest and Zone 13 the hottest.
Herbaceous
Herbaceous means that the plant has non-woody stems that reach their full height and produce flower within one year, before dying back over the winter and then reappearing the following spring ready for a repeat performance.
Microclimate
A microclimate is a small area within a climate zone where the climate is slightly different from the zone predictions. A good example of a microclimate that is fairly large would be a valley where cold air settles. Large bodies of water or urban area temperatures may also create microclimates. You can have microclimates, warmer or colder, on your property… south or north side of a house, near a body or water or an area protected from the wind etc.
Naturalize(d)
For a plant – A non-native plant that does not need human help to reproduce and maintain itself over time in an area where it is not native. Also, Naturalizing your bulbs simply means planting and then leaving them in position after flowering to allow them to self seed and propagate themselves naturally.
Overwinter(ing)
Protecting plants from the cold in a sheltered place, like your home, basement, garage, etc. Some plants need to go through a dormancy period and will need to be overwintered in a cool, dark space such as a garage or basement.
Perennial
A plant that when planted in the ground, in a certain range of growing zone, regrows from it’s original roots every year. Often the top portion of the plant dies back in the winter. Perennials planted from seed usually bloom in the 2nd year of growth. – Perennial Examples: Asparagus, Bellflower, Coral Bells, Echinacea, Mugwort, Rhubarb
Propagate
To breed specimens of (a plant or animal) by natural processes from the parent stock. “try propagating your own houseplants from cuttings”
Re-Wild(ing)
A conservation approach to restore (an area of land) to its natural uncultivated state. It’s about letting nature take care of itself, enabling natural processes to shape land and sea, repair damaged ecosystems and restore degraded landscapes. Through rewilding, wildlife’s natural rhythms create wilder, more biodiverse habitats. Re-Wilding focuses on restoring sustainable biodiversity & ecosystem health by providing the basis (plants, habitat etc) for the natural reintroduction of animals in the natural food chain.
Scarification
This involves weakening, opening, or otherwise altering the coat of a seed to encourage germination. Scarification is often done mechanically, thermally, and chemically. The seeds of many plant species are often impervious to water and gases, thus preventing or delaying germination. Any process designed to make the testa (seed coat) more permeable to water and gases (and thus more likely to germinate) is known as scarification. Scarification, regardless of type, works by speeding up the natural processes which normally make seed coats permeable to water and air. Example – Putting a nick, using a mail file to make an opening through the seed coat, in a morning glory seed and then soaking it in water overbite before planting.
Stratification
Cold stratification is the process of subjecting seeds to both cold and moist conditions. Seeds of many trees, shrubs and perennials require these conditions before germination will ensue. There are also some plants that require warm stratification.
Sunset Climate Zone
Originally developed for the western part of the US, the Sunset Climate Zone system takes the USDA calculations and also accounts for length of growing season, timing and amount of rainfall, winter lows, summer highs, wind, and humidity. The USDA zone map divides the country into 26 or so different zones, while the Sunset system has over 40. The USDA map shows you where a plant will survive, the Sunset map shows you where a plant will thrive. Maps for: CA, AZ, WA, NM, NV, OR – https://www.sunsetwesterngardencollection.com/climate-zones
Variegated
Leaves or flowers with two or more colors, usually in random patterns.
Winter Sowing
Winter sowing is a method of starting seeds outdoors in winter. This is generally done with seeds that require a period of cold stratification. The method takes advantage of natural temperatures, rather than artificially refrigerating seeds.
Winter sowing involves sowing seeds in a miniature greenhouse outside during winter, allowing them to germinate in spring. Users of this method have had success in most hardiness zones.
