Blooming Profits: Conversations with Flower Farmers

I sit down with fellow grower and Youtuber, Tara from Wild Bird Farm to talk about her small scale U Pick and how she's been moving stems over her 4 year flower farming journey. I think you'll find this discussion particularly inspiring as Tara grows in a relatively small space but yet is able to pump out so many blooms!   You can find Tara at @WildBirdFarm both over at Instagram & YouTube! --- Link to my free newsletter! Get timely and relevant business tips and insights every other Wednesday. https://bit.ly/3yitpiI Want to support me in making more videos like this? Join my Patreon! For less than a fancy cup of coffee a month ($5), you'll also unlock access to gated articles for even more valuable content. www.patreon.com/bareflowerfarm Preorder spring 2025 tulips! Here are our offerings: https://www.bareflowerfarm.com/shop/tulip-bulbs  Looking for a reliable, rugged, and remarkable focal that you can succession plant throughout the season? Lilies are the perfect crop. I'm selling lily, roselily, & callas in 25 and 50x on www.bareflowerfarm.com/shop/lily-bulbs 

@jordonsflowerfarm and I have been texting all season long about successes & mistakes, and we want to share it all with you in a live and allow you to ask questions! More importantly though, Jordon has been hard at work building her "retail" following this winter & spring. Here is what makes Jordon's spring season so impressive: 1) Jordon relocated her farm to a completely different town in Oklahoma, about 1 hour away from her last farm. It's a completely different local market and Jordon had to put in farm infrastructure and plants AGAIN. 2) "Buttercup" the farmstand was put on site in late 2023 but Jordon really started rebuilding her local following this year. Jordon's Facebook page is now close to 4k followers and all of them are REAL potential customers (versus other flower farmers) 3) In less than 6 months, Buttercup has exceeded sales expectations and outperformed the farmers market as a sales outlet. We are going to dedicate about 50% of our time talking high level about spring lessons learned including how Jordon accelerated Buttercup's success and then spend the other 50% talking about lessons learned with spring flowers. Come with coffee ☕️ and a notebook

Both Jordon and Jessie recently invested in woodies & perennials. We share about the perennials we invested in and why. Jordon was even able to harvest some off of her first year baptisia starts!   Link to my free newsletter! Get timely and relevant business tips and insights every other Wednesday. https://bit.ly/3yitpiI Want to support me in making more videos like this? Join my Patreon! For less than a fancy cup of coffee a month ($5), you'll also unlock access to gated articles for even more valuable content. www.patreon.com/bareflowerfarm Looking for a reliable, rugged, and remarkable focal that you can succession plant throughout the season? Lilies are the perfect crop. I'm selling lily, roselily, & callas in 25 and 50x on www.bareflowerfarm.com/shop/lily-bulbs

It is one of the most recognized fertilizer brands amongst small organic flower farmers and gardeners, yet many of us have never heard of the origin story of Neptune's Harvest. We talk about what it takes to make this fertilizer, the difference between a cold process, hydrolyzed fertilizer vs a fish emulsion, and when/how to apply fish fertilizer. I hope you'll enjoy this interview as much as I did! Want to buy Neptune's Harvest fertilizer? The company offers free shipping within the contiguous US. You can find the range of their products here https://bit.ly/3Wy2oSy You can also buy the 2-3-1 fertilizer that Ann spoke about (and the one I use) via amazon here via my affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3UBjvjX   Link to my free newsletter! Get timely and relevant business tips and insights every other Wednesday. https://bit.ly/3yitpiI Want to support me in making more videos like this? Join my Patreon! For less than a fancy cup of coffee a month ($5), you'll also unlock access to gated articles for even more valuable content. www.patreon.com/bareflowerfarm Looking for a reliable, rugged, and remarkable focal that you can succession plant throughout the season? Lilies are the perfect crop. I'm selling lily, roselily, & callas in 25 and 50x on www.bareflowerfarm.com/shop/lily-bulbs

This is part 2 of my interview with Lennie where we talk high level how we can set ourselves up for profitable flower farming. Here are some of the topics we cover: Marketing for year 0 flower farm Advice for the flower farmer who is maxing out at years 2-4 What profit margin you can realistically expect when you have hired help Recommended % of time to spend on marketing #1 piece of advice for new flower farmers Link to Youtube Interview with visuals here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYWg2F9f_7I&t=300s Follow Lennie at Flower Farming for Profit: https://www.flowerfarmingforprofit.com/ - there are a ton of free resources for profitable flower farming Instagram for Flower Farming for Profit: @flowerfarming.forprofit B-Side Flowers Instagram: @b.side.farm.flowers Other interviews with Lennie's that you'll enjoy: Floral Brouhaha | Flower Farming for Profit with Lennie Larkin: https://www.botanicalbrouhaha.com/flo... Growing for Market Growing a profitable flower farm with Lennie Larkin:    • Growing a profitable flower farm with...   Dirt on Flowers | 5 Keys to Profit with Lennie Larkin: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast... Want to support me in making more videos like this? Join my Patreon! For less than a fancy cup of coffee a month ($5), you'll also unlock access to gated articles for even more valuable content. Looking for a reliable, rugged, and remarkable focal that you can succession plant throughout the season? Lilies are the perfect crop. I'm selling lily, roselily, & callas in 25 and 50x on www.bareflowerfarm.com/shop/lily-bulbs

This is a longer interview split into two parts and this is Part 1! I interviewed Lennie of B-Side Farm & Flower Farming for Profit to talk about how we can set flower farms up for long term success and we got down the rabbit hole of farm stands! We let the conversation go DEEP and I know this conversation will help you- whether you're looking to sell through a farmstand or a different outlet.   We cover the following topics: Leasing a farmstand if you cannot have one on your property Little things you can do to optimize your farmstand for success Pricing/mark ups Lennie also has a free resource on farmstand tips for anyone interested! https://bit.ly/3UfWdQe Follow Lennie at Flower Farming for Profit: https://www.flowerfarmingforprofit.com/ - there are a ton of free resources for profitable flower farming Instagram for Flower Farming for Profit: @flowerfarming.forprofit B-Side Flowers Instagram: @b.side.farm.flowers You can find the video version of this interview with visuals at https://youtu.be/yO4CrQCCq4E  ----more---- Want to support me in making more interview like this? Join my Patreon! For less than a fancy cup of coffee a month ($5), you'll also unlock access to gated articles for even more valuable content. For this interview, we have an article on price anchoring and how you can utilize that for Mother's Day! www.patreon.com/bareflowerfarm Looking for a reliable, rugged, and refined focal? Lilies are just that! You can buy lily bulbs in smaller quantities of 25x and 50x on www.bareflowerfarm.com/shop/lily-bulbs 

Robyn is a microgrower in MA. She took The Tulip Workshop to maximize her indoor growing space where she was able to grow over 5000 stems this winter. Without a website or a traditional sales outlet, she was able to move a majority of these stems through pop ups! We talk in detail about how she approaches pop ups, realistic expectations and how a "hustle" mentality has led to a successful second season. I loved this conversation because Robyn has stayed true to herself - she leans into her strengths and does what works for HER. I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I enjoyed interviewing Robyn. Link to Youtube interview here with visuals! Sponsored details: Looking to lily bulbs for a programmable and reliable focal? Shipping now!  Want to support me in creating more content like this? Consider joining my Patreon where for $5 a month, you can gain access to more gated content that accompanies 

SOOOO much to talk about here with @jordonsflowerfarm. Lots of successes but also lots of failures and we won't shy away from discussing where we went wrong and how that impacts next year's plans. Topics being covered: Field grown tulips in a hot zone (Oklahoma) General failure/attrition between field & hydroponically forced tulips Sales strategy for moving an excess of tulips for Jordan Selection of varieties for 2025 based on harvesting, storage & marketability When you should be getting in your bulb order for 2025 & suppliers we buy from Impact of shipping on bulb costs To watch the videos, check out the Youtube Live version of this episode!    Sponsored details: Looking to lily bulbs for a programmable and reliable focal? Shipping now! https://www.bareflowerfarm.com/shop/lily-bulbs

I sat down with Marie aka  @floristsonfarms  for a chat. We talk a bit about Marie's background, having grown up in the floral industry and how she ended up as a farmer florist. More importantly, she shares how her design skills help set her apart from a highly competitive floral market where floral prices can reach rock bottom. For more content, check out the bareflowerfarm Youtube page  Sponsored details: Looking to lily bulbs for a programmable and reliable focal? Shipping now! https://www.bareflowerfarm.com/shop/lily-bulbs

This is going to be a really interesting conversation. I'm personally excited to catch up with Jordon because she is doing SO much especially in year 2, some of it quite high stakes when it comes to $ & time investment. High level, we will be talking about: 1) Pushing the envelope when it comes to what we're seeding and experimenting growing wise 2) Crops we are "betting on" in 2024 3) New farmers market sales strategy (Jordon) 4) What scaling looks like in terms of high $ investments in personnel & services   Links Mentioned: Shop for wholesale lily bulbs in 25x & 50x quantities: https://www.bareflowerfarm.com/shop/lily-bulbs For more content, check out the bareflowerfarm Youtube page 

I catch up with Haley, a full year later after our first interview to talk about the following topics: 1) General expansion from year 1 to year 2, including how she more than doubled sales 2) Why she expanded into retail after launching with selling to wholesale only 3) Updates on her winter tulip forcing in year 2 This is less of an interview and more of two flower friends catching up. We hope you enjoy! You can find Haley at @Brynhillflowerfarm on Instagram!   Want to watch with visuals? Here's the link to the youtube video https://youtu.be/NkJ8VwEfK2k

In this live, we switch gears, talking about selling retail but specifically at farmer's markets. Jessie spent her first season selling at a local farmer's market and appeared as a guest in the 2023 season. Prior to, she had sold at dozens of markets for her other side hustle soap business. Jordon also spent her first season at a popular farmer's market in OK. We'll talk about what we learned, tips, pricing, set up and so much more! Hopefully by the end of this live, you'll feel more informed as to whether selling at a farmer's market is right for you, or if you've already signed up, you'll feel more confident that you'll kill it this upcoming season! This will be a ~1 hr live where we will have a structured discussion, a quick fire section, and then open it up to more Q&A! Watch on Youtube via https://youtube.com/live/F5aDOqETBII

This was such a fun interview with Serina from You Can't Eat the Grass! Serina and Ian have been a huge inspiration for me. The algorithm fed me their content back in 2021 and I was hooked. This was when I didn't even realize flower farming was a "thing". Serina focuses many of her videos on the flowers and selling them, but we get into flower farming business and profitability topics like: 1) Her farmer's market vs farmstand revenue and future plans to increase sales 2) Building $20 bouquets and her process/evolution 3) Rethinking about profitable $20 bouquets by decreasing the number of stems, but still increasing the value of those stems left 4) Some ah-ha's in terms of specific varieties that she has come to realize are less profitable than one may assume 5) General plan for 2024 & beyond ($100k or bust) And much more!! A huge thank you to Serina for her generous time. You can find them over at @YouCantEatTheGrass on Youtube.   Head on over to Youtube where we share this interview on the screen. Get an idea for Serina's farm scale, operations and some nifty drone shots at https://youtu.be/V31bdlBeRTU

In our 1st live, we spent all of our time primarily talking about the traditional route to selling to florists - delivering to them either through a bucket run or via an availability sheet. But ya'll were still interested in hearing more about my experiences selling to a cooperative (similar to a collective) and shipping to florists. So that's what we'll cover in this live. This will be a ~1 hr live where we will have a structured discussion, a quick fire section, and then open it up to more Q&A! Want to see this on Youtube, including all of the visuals we show of Jessie's cooperative? Head on over to https://youtube.com/live/DHGjqIjl1CU

In our latest interview, I sat down with Lauren of Alchemy Farm House, located in the Hudson Valley NY. Lauren is entering into year 4 of growing and has largely sold her flowers through a CSA subscription. She has now grown this subscription to 45 shares this winter! We take a deep dive and talk about all things related to CSA, including: Why a CSA? Biggest challenges with running a CSA Starting CSA size and scaling it up Structuring a CSA Approaching small businesses to partner with Pricing General thoughts about having a CSA as a main sales outlet I hope you find this interview as helpful as I did. You can find Lauren at https://www.alchemyfarmhouse.com/ and @alchemyfarmhouseblooms on Instagram. Want to watch the visuals that come along with this interview? Head on over to Youtube at https://youtu.be/-mpX6YH4R-g

 In our first of many joint weekend morning coffee chats (via Youtube Live), Jordon and I will go into deeeeeep details about selling to florists. Why us? We are two "newer" flower farmers reflecting back on selling to florists for the first time (Jessie was in year 2, Jordon was in year 1). Here is what's going to make this conversation interesting: ** We have two completely different sized farms. Jessie grows on 40x90 ft with a heavy focus on forcing programmable crops like tulips & Lilies in New Jersey. Jordon grows on much larger acreage, having invested huge to go "big" starting in year 1. ** Between the 3 of us, we sell through 3 outlets to florists 1) Direct to florist (delivering to them) 2) Direct to florist (online & shipping to them) 3) Via a cooperative This will be a ~1 hr live where we will have a structured discussion, a quick fire section, and then open it up to more Q&A!

I sit down with Melinda from Springdale Flower Farm, located in Dover, MA about how she found success in her 1st year of flower farming on just 800 sq ft. Melinda is a complete new grower who started from complete scratch this year. She not only had to learn flower varieties, but also how to grow and sell her product. Impressively, she achieved all this AND found a very profitable sales outlet, with some weeks selling $1k!  Catch this interview over at Youtube at https://youtu.be/vZaXm5KyBdo