This is my first year growing cut flowers. It hasn’t been great, coming across your channel has me excited to keep trying and do more research. Thank you for all your great info.
Thanks so much! I’m going into my first year of flower farming so this was really helpful! Especially the part about making the bouquets stand out from each other at different price points.
Cress was an amazing filler for me last year. You do want to succession plant, but it is so nice to just plant those directly in the garden a few weeks before last frost and know they would do their thing on their own. 💁🏼♀️
You should grow peonies and lilies, liatris for earlier spring bloom. The leaves of peonies can be used for filler too. I know the peonies need more space but I think they are well worth it.
Thanks for sharing! A lot of good take away from your experience. As it was my first year selling, I also quickly realized the importance of fillers and growing more than you think you need. Sunflower Steve says “if you’re not composting some flowers, you’re not growing enough.” Now, if only I had more growing space! 😉
Thank you for sharing your tips! You always have such a well though out video topic and are very organized in your context delivery which is helpful to us viewers, especially if we want to take notes. I was interested in what you said about the different price points at the market. Very good advice!!
Incredibly helpful! I'm starting a cut flower garden this year here in France but I will pretty much give everything away. Next year when my work and family visa is sorted out I'll be able to sell them! (getting married to my French sweetheart)
Great video thank you. It mirrors my first year flower farming and we seem to have learnt some of the same lessons. Thank you for the really comprehensive and organised synopsis. From Top of the Hill Flower Farm in Ireland 🇮🇪
Great video & tips! I made sure to grow an equal amount of focal flowers, filler flowers, medium size flowers, spikes, & fillers & foliage b/c that's the one thing I saw EVERYONE saying- "You'll never have enough filler, grow a lot of filler!" 😂 My biggest mistake was treating it as a "pretty" flower bed & not a farm! I didn't want to use landscape fabric because of the aesthetics but I soon learned, since I built my beds "no-dig style" I need landscape fabric! Well technically, if I would have put a good 6" layer of compost on the entire area, I don't think the weeds would have been so bad, but I didn't because of the unevenness of the property, & not wanting to purchase more compost... But this year I will be using it.. I spent at least 20 hours a week hand-weeding last year! (Including my landscaped beds also) One thing I would have clarified though, is that there are branching varieties of sunflowers & single stem varieties of sunflowers...
Great video! Have you considered growing a perennial bed for your cut flowers (Peonies, Lily, Hydrangea, Bee Balm, Salvia, Veronicas, Poppies, Daffodils, etc.) And perennial fillers (Ninebark, Forsythia, Sedum, Spirea, Feverfew, etc)? Thinking those options might be helpful to remove some flowers you need to grow each season qnd cut down annual costs. Happy New Year from your neighbor in MN 👋🏼❄!
Great video! I am so glad I found your channel. Just curious how do you change the pricing when you offer mixed market bouquets for coffee shops and boutiques to resell? Furthermore, how do you get paid for the ones sold? Are they purchasing them outright? or do they pay you next time you drop off?
They pay me ahead of time for all the bouquets. That works best. Then I dont' have to go back for any. When I worked with the bakery, I charged her $12, she sold them for $20
Yes - just next to the previous planting. This year I planted my very first planting of sunflowers in my pumpkin bed - they got tall before the pumpkins took over - it was a great first planting without taking up my bed space.
Great information. Can you advise where to purchase the netting you used to stabilize your snapdragons please? I look forward to watching the upcoming year. Your so talented.
Just for clarification: the sunflowers 🌻 grown by flower farmers are typically single stemmed - meaning you get only 1 flower per plant. These tend to be pollenless and have long stems for bouquets. But for the home gardener, to whom this many not matter as much, there are many branching varieties that one can grow.
Probably not at a farmers market because I usually sell out so why offer a discount? But, at a larger market event or even a special sale where I had preorders…..that would be a good idea!
I had zero fillers with my tulips last year. What are you planning to pair with them for this coming Spring? I did plant daffodils this year so that I can at least offer a mixed bouquet if I don't have enough early spring fillers.
Thank you for sharing your helpful experiences. It was so interesting. Could you write down, which fillers you grow? I couldn't understand it in the video, especially I'm interested in the flower in minute 6:11. It looks so interesting. Thanks a lot Andrea from Germany
Glad you enjoyed the video! I will be growing cress, basil and a few others for filler. Once I have the exact varieties set I will be doing a video on all the varieties I have - it should be in a couple weeks!
Hello! Thanks for sharing this! Can you specifically tell me what type of pincushion flowers did not work well for market bouquets for you? I was planning to grow them,have limited space, so am now wondering if that is a mistake.
