Most & Least Profitable Flowers I Grew in 2023: Costs & other factors you may not be considering 

I had terrible thrips on my snaps. I applied beneficial nematodes and that worked to knock them back but they are so pricey. I’d say you had an amazing second year and balanced things with the baby very well! Sleep regressions are the pits!

As a flower farmer with a very tiny growing area - my whole city lot is only 1/8 acre and that includes the house, the garage, the long driveway - I will always put dahlias as my number 1 profitable flower, and I allot about 1/3 of my growing areas to them. That said, I do pre-start them in my seed room, plant them out May 1st, and had flowers this year before June was over with the first killing frost having just happened. That is was a 5 month blooming period for a prolific, highly sought after, expensive flower. I timed it this year, it only took me 6.17min. per clump to dig, divide, and store the 146 dahlias I grew, and that was working at a comfortable pace. That's not a lot of time. Bringing them out of hibernation in the spring is even faster. If I loose some tubers, it doesn't matter, I don't need to multiply my stock, any extra pre-started dahlias I just sell off. Also, I wanted to say thank you for your well thought out, easy to understand post on your profitable verses nonprofitable flowers. Sorry if my comment last week sounded a bit grumpy but it is something that I feel strongly about. It might be worth also doing a video on why it doesn't make sense to grow too many flowers in too big a space. I know you are already applying this so it should be easy to convert your reasons into a video. Part of the reasons would be overhead. How much fencing do you need, how many grow lights, how much indoor space to grow under grow lights, how much compost or fertilizer is needed, how much bed maintenance. It all adds up and the bigger the growing area the bigger the add up.

Discovered you not long ago, but really love your videos. So authentic and open! You are helping build my confidence and that is priceless. Thank you for all you do!

I always enjoy watching your videos and I hope you are cutting yourself some slack for this year. Becoming a new mom is a big job and weeds, bugs and contending with clay soil all contributed to some hardships. That being said, your positive attitude shines through and like a true farmer you know things will be better next year. I loved growing green gladiolas for the first time and I will definitely grow more next year. I will not grow persian kress again, it was a jungle and fell over even with stalking it. I bought mountain mint seeds this fall and can hardly wait to grow it next year! I hope my dahlia tubers survive in my potato bin along with all my gladiolas corms. I can't grow tulips where I live, Zone 3 has it's limitations. I will grow yarrow next as well as I bought a package of mixed yarrow seeds from Johnny's but did not get around to planting them. We learn something every year and my horrific weather year this year has taught me volumes. Cheers from Alberta, Canada!

Another great video ! 😊x

LOVE your videos!!

I love your context at the start! I think it’s super helpful

I love your videos Jessie! Your genuine passion and analytical approach is refreshing and greatly informative 😊 uggh those dang thrips!!!

Tulips, peonies and dahlias were my most profitable. I’ve made a list of what’s making it through to 2024 and it’s based on a mix of harvest, growing and selling difficulty. It is actually quite a relief to slim things down.

Very insightful. Now I know what to expect from the sea holly. At the end of day, I wish I had the space like you do to grow more sunflowers.

Awwww. Monica! She is a gem!!

Just a thought about thrips from a CSA farmer. Thrips don't like to come under cover. Think high tunnels. They don't have to be expensive. Johnny's sold a hoop bender the last time I looked and that's how we make greenhouses, high tunnels and low tunnels. Ag Supply and other greenhouse suppliers often have ends of rolls of plastic that are cheaper. If your experimenting, builders grade plastic should last one season! Just a thought. You don't have to buy kits! The hoop bender will pay for itself again and again over the coarse of years. Happy farming!

A note on the lilies! I love them, but I don't often buy them in bouquets, because they are dangerous for cats. Almost all of my loved ones have pets so even though they are beautiful, I think that a ton of people stray away from them for that reason, rather than look/fragrance.

I am in zone 6a. I successfully grew ranunculus for the first time this year and they were amazing producers for me in the spring, so was the sweet william. I can't say enough good things about sweet william. I would say zinnias were my most profitable flower this year. The powdery mildew is a normal thing with zinnias by early September. By that time I just stop selling them. My snapdragons performed badly as well. Not sure why since last year they were wonderful. Your math and knowledge of profit per flower is truly impressive.

The field next to my flowers was full of wild yarrow this year I foraged so much of it!! But I need to grow some intentionally next year so I can get some of those colors!

Yes, great info. An especially good reminder to myself to rip out the snaps and not hope for a later flush. I do this every year and then kick myself! 😅

Thanks Jessie for all your great detail. I grew yarrow from seed this year and it did well in the ground. However. I had trouble with the stems wilting within a day after cutting. How do you get your yarrow to remain healthy enough to sell? Whether to florists or retail? Thanks

Appreciate your videos Jessie! I mainly listen to your videos while driving and your patreon (page?) isn’t on your main RU-vid page and I couldn’t really find it on your website. Kept wanting to pay your patreon without having to find within the video. Are you allowed to do post on your main RU-vid page/website? I would find that helpful!

Which areas are yarrow averse? Please clarify

Yarrow is spot on for me....BUT AND except it mostly dies in the heat here..unless i give prized areas...shady in after noon...yarrow is iffy where im at. I have resisted lisithiathus for years

Could you look in to sourcing tulip bulbs from the southern hemisphere?

I grew Sea Holly from seed for the first time this year. I did not pinch them and I did get one big stalk that was about 18-20 inches tall. A few of my plants did produce a smaller side shoot that was about 12-16 inches tall. I did find the the one big main stalk was a bit too big and bulky for market bouquets. I’m hoping to get more stems per plant next year.

What yarrow variety did you grow? It’s beautiful! I tried Colorado mix and it was very blah colors, so trying sumner berries next year.

What spacing would you recommend for yarrow?

I’ve never pinched sea Holly and honestly never even heard to. And with their growth habit pinched doesn’t make sense. Also, I know you had thrips but I’ve heard from so many growers including myself, in the mid-Atlantic, snaps were just all wrong this year. I’ve always gotten a fall flush and didn’t and didn’t have thrips, well lots anyway. So I’m looking at a lot of crops as a wash this year and not using this years lessons as a hard rule to learn from.

If you plan on growing field tulips again (can’t remember if you said in the video), Pepperharrow had a video on harvesting and I guess what they do is just cover them with a foot or so of wood chips and they are really easy to pull up and clean. Haven’t tried this myself, so I can’t speak from experience, but if you can get an arborist to dump a bunch of chips for you, perhaps that would be a better alternative than digging a trench in clay? It sounds as though a better weed management strategy would really benefit you. I know it has its drawbacks, but I use landscape fabric with a lot of success. I only have to weed the holes, basically. Or maybe the Bio360 stuff? Of course that adds a cost that has to be factored in (I ultimately chose the landscape fabric because it can be reused for many years). I totally hear you on the sunk cost flowers. My snaps were a bit like that. I had a lovely first flush (some thrips, but few enough that I could dunk in soapy water and knock them off), but my issue was they bloomed too soon and all at once and I didn’t have a market lined up! Then I figured I would get more successions, and I did. But the second and third successions got munched by bud worms! I should have just pulled them in early summer and planted something else!

How many seeds and bulbs did you purchase and plant? Also, how do you formulate a cost per stem when selling to florists? Space is not an issue, but i want to start out realistically and not become overwhelmed.

I grew some dahlias..only.got three that made it thru the heat we have..took a lot of effort...wasted space to my limited space.

You've sold me on the yarrow... But the yarrow isn't sold on me 😂 I'll figure it out.

Most profitable for our farm was cosmos!