The Perfect Flower Farm.
Did you know the goal of a good cut flower farm is to never have an open bloom in the fields? Seems strange but flowers last the longest if they are picked at the stage right BEFORE they bloom. Often times if they bloom in the field, they drop their petals or wilt sooner in the vase! If I am selling all my flowers in the best stage there should never be an open bloom in the field!
Flowers are also planted in “successions” or weekly groups. What this means is I plant a type of flower in small groups each week in the Spring and early summer. This helps keep flowers blooming little by little each week instead of all at once and then nothing at all. As the plants mature, I pick it before it blooms, dig it up and plant a new type of flower where it was that will bloom at a later date. This also means there are always “gaps” in the rows or spaces where there are small plants or maybe even no plants at all.
This all works well for subscriptions but where we run into issues is on the U-Pick side of things. When you hear flower farm you expect rows and rows of open blooms but in reality, we only leave a small number of blooms in the field each week for U-Picks especially during our slow period from June - July.
Last year I had lots of blooms left in the fields, but what that really meant was that I wasn’t selling enough to cover the amount of seeds I planted! This year I worked hard to set up more subscriptions and reduce the number of seeds I planted, but apparently I did a better job of getting the word out about our U-Picks. I shrunk my supply to fit last years demand and instead of staying the same, demand grew!
I always struggle with how to handle this
I worry about disappointment from people coming to pick flowers expecting to see an arboretum like field, when in reality farming is much different. Blooms are speckled throughout the fields in a scavenger hunt like fashion. Over supplying blooms to make the fields look full of color but is costly too since I cant sell the flowers after they bloom!
Reducing the subscriptions would leave more flowers for the U-Picks, but in reality subscriptions are vital income for me before the season and give me a guaranteed market for 90 bouquets
Having a set amount of U-picks or reduced U-Pick hours would keep the fields from getting over picked by the weekend, but I love letting people come and go as they please for a little unscheduled self-care in the fields. Scheduling and reserving tickets is another piece that would require time I don’t have to spare.
Agritourism and always been something I’ve wanted to be a part of and part of that is letting you see a real actual functioning farm vs one than is beautified for outward presentation but lightyears off from how farm actually functions!
So this is flower farming - a total balancing act and typically a gamble and I’m my best to bring you along on the ride! Right now there isn’t a good quick fix to increasing blooms in the field except wait for August when the blooms are in full swing. There are still flowers out here for U-Picks - lilies, lisianthus, rudbeckia - but by Sundays the fields may look pretty picked over until August! Which in my head is amazing because we are using every last bloom, but may differ from the vision in your head of rows of blooms.
I’m setting up for next year - finding ways to bring on more July blooms using perennials and early season crops. I’ve been busy planting coneflower, rudbeckia, veronica, salvia and a few other blooms. I also plan play around with overwintering a few things to give us some June and July blooms. Welcome to journey of local blooms!
