It’s nice to be popular. I get at least a half dozen emails and phone messages every week from other flower farmers or folks who want to become flower farmers. These inquiries come because Love ‘n Fresh has inspired others to think more creatively about either jumping into the flower business or expanding on the business they have. I really love that what I’m doing fires people up! And I get to “meet” a lot of people from around the world, including New Zealand (hey, J!), Canada, the UK, and Italy.
The challenge for me, with all these questions being launched my direction, is that I really don’t have much time to devote to answering them. See, it’s just me who is running my own two acre farm, juggling the many intensive demands of working in the wedding world, wearing the many hats of managing a thriving small business, and trying to get a few hours of sleep once in awhile. I wish I had a team of little pointy-hat wizards tapping away on keyboards behind the scenes for me, but I don’t.
As one of my close friends likes to say about me, “I’ve got a lot going on”, and truthfully, the emails with farming questions often get pushed to the back of the line since I ultimately need to take care of my clients and my farm first. So I’m writing this blog post in an effort to give some general advice for flower farming. If you’re reading this, you may very well have emailed me, and I sent you over here. I hope it helps!
 
THE GOLDEN RULE: If you’re unsure about something, try it!!
When in doubt, go with your gut! The real beauty of flower farming is that it’s a constantly evolving occupation. You’ll learn so much with every passing day, month, and year. You’ll always be learning because the variables will never be the same. The weather is going to be different every year. What worked once might not work again. What didn’t work before might suddenly “click” and you’ll be a pro at it. What works for one farmer may not work for another. Your farm/garden will have its own micro-climate so what I say works for me in my fields might not work for you. Did I mention the weather will never be predictable?

To be in this business, you have to experiment and be okay with failure. Very little in farming is ever perfect.

 
BOOKS: Get the following!
The Flower Farmer
Local Color
Specialty Cut Flowers
Garden Insects of North America (or find something similar if you’re on another continent)
Grow Your Own Cut Flowers
The Cutting Garden
Growing For Market
 
JOIN: Get invaluable access!
The Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers (ASCFG) is killer for new flower growers. All those burning questions you have about where to buy a hoop house, how to install drip irrigation, how to get fussy seeds to germinate, what crops to succession sow, what are the best dahlia varieties how to take cuttings, where to get funding for buying land, how to juggle family and a farm, what shrubs to invest in when starting out, how to take credit cards at farmers markets, what crops to direct sow in the fall in your zone, where to get the best seed selection, and so much more HAVE ALREADY BEEN ANSWERED by hundreds of experienced flower farmers from around the country!
When you’re a member of the ASCFG, you get access to an online forum called The Bulletin Board where several years worth of excellent questions and answers about flower farming have been archived in an searchable format. So when you have a question you really want answered, instead of having to shoot an email off to me or another grower (and hoping for a reply in a timely enough manner so that you can still use the information), you could just hop online to search the ASCFG Bulletin Board and get your answer instantly! How cool is that?? When I first started farming, I scoured the Bulletin Board day and night. I would have been lost without it. If you have a question that isn’t on there already, you can post it for hundreds of flower professionals to see and you’ll almost certainly get a response back quickly.
And once you’ve gotten your feet wet in the ASCFG with the Bulletin Board, you’ll quickly realize you really want to attend one of the big regional meetings or a national conference to meet like-minded (i.e., literally crazy about flowers) folks in person and see hands-on demos on topics that are probably going to be really helpful to your own operation. I always leave these gatherings so jazzed.
 
INTERWEBS: Get social!
While I’d like to pretend I’m a bottomless fount of knowledge, the truth is I only know what I’ve experienced for myself. There are still so many things I don’t know how to grow or how to manage. There are several fantastic ways to connect with farmers online via social media and other websites. There’s a Flower Farmers group on Facebook now. Join and read the Q&A posts there. You should also follow blogs by other flower farmers who are doing a great job sharing technical knowledge online, like Denise and Tony at Bare Mountain Flowers. Erin at Floret also posts great info on her blog. And, of course, I try to get some “technical” posts up here on my own blog for those interested in the science and art of flower farming.
Another great website I’ve been using for tools and equipment questions is Farm Hack. It’s a virtual think tank full of great solutions for small farms.
 
SUPPLIERS: Get what you need!
Some favorite suppliers of mine, in no particular order:
Deer fencing & poultry supplies: Premiere 1 Supplies
Seeds: GeoSeed, Harris Seeds, Fred Gloeckner, and Ivy Garth
Irrigation, plastic mulch, potting soil, hoop house kits, etc: Nolts Produce Supplies
Organic Fertilizers: Peaceful Valley
Perennial Plugs: North Creek Nurseries
Dahlias: Swan Island
Tulips, etc: Our American Roots, Netherland Bulb Company, Ednie
Mums: King’s Mums
 
WORKSHOPS: Get dirty!
Come to a Love ‘n Fresh Flowers workshop and you’ll get to tour the field and ask lots of questions in person. We have floral design workshops and “field days” for farmers. Follow our Facebook page for updates on what’s scheduled and visit the Workshops page on the website for details and sign-up.
 
If you’ve read all of this and you’ve searched the ASCFG Bulletin Board and you still have a burning unanswered question(s), shoot me an email letting me know you did your homework, and I’ll do the best I can to help!