Discover how flower farmers can thrive in the lucrative flower subscription business, even without season-long blooms. Learn how to navigate challenges, offer seasonal blooms, and build trust with customers. Read more to maximize your flower business success.

I knew in the beginning peonies would have a place at Muddy Acres Flower Farm. 7 years later and they are one of the only 5 flowers we grow. And for good reason. Once they are planted, they require minimal labor. They get better year after year. The demand for peonies is unmatched. They can be shipped across the country and the price per stem is seductive. These qualities make for a dream product.

If you’ve been following me for a while, you may know that I’m a huge advocate of feedback. It’s so valuable to help create trust with your customers and build a successful business. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll see that I include polls, questions, and other interactive posts in my story frequently. Why? Because I love hearing my followers' opinions, questions, and thoughts.

My tailgate slowly opened to reveal the goods inside. I felt like I was hustling gold chains in NYC except it wasn’t gold chains. I had tulips that resembled limp spaghetti noodles with a bulb dangling from the bottom. The florist, her staff and the bank tellers from across the parking lot were rummaging through my stash and building piles to buy.

So you’ve decided to finally start your flower business, but you’re still months away from actually having your first bouquet ready to sell. You’re not nearly ready to start marketing yet, right?

Wrong!

It’s never too early to start creating excitement, and more importantly, building a community of future customers.

Growing flowers for profit is a rewarding and sometimes challenging journey. But my flower farming goal is to work smarter, not harder. And that’s one of the reasons I love dahlias and the multiple ways it can help bring money into my business.

Dahlia tubers. The blooms are the queen of the late-summer garden and the tubers are a critical income stream for flower farmers in the dead of winter when their field is dormant. But as you log hour after hour planting, digging, washing, dividing and storing, you start to wonder…is all the time and effort worth it?

So you’re ready to jump head first into growing your own cut flowers and you’ve reached the most exciting part so far: deciding which flowers to grow. But when choosing seeds, it’s very easy to get overwhelmed by the options and just choose the flowers you think are the prettiest. It’s also easy to feel like you need everything — especially when you’re a beginner. 

But what’s more important than having a wide variety of flowers is having types that are are easy to grow, produce a high yield and are still beautiful.

Can we start breaking the unspoken rule we inherited from our grandparents and start talking about making money? I think it’s beyond time to expose the underground world of numbers, sales and profit and utilize this data to show what is possible.

Now that I got that off my chest, let’s get into what this article is all about - how I generated over $250k in sales in one year from my flower farm, Muddy Acres Flower Farm. And did I mention that I had just one (incredible) very part-time employee?

Starting a cut-flower field is not as simple as picking a spot in your yard and converting the grass to soil. I wish it was. Instead, you want to choose a location that sets your field up for success. In this article we will go over six key factors to consider when choosing the location for your field.

Trying to decide if a raised garden bed is right for your cut flower garden or farm? Consider the pros and cons before choosing the best method to grow your flowers.

I always feel like a sham when I share my growing techniques because I don’t follow the textbook. And let’s be honest - there is an imaginary flower farming textbook, or should I say BIBLE? I’m just going to say it…I think a lot of what is shared in this imaginary bible is over the top. Or maybe just too extreme for my laid-back style. I mean, a fish tank bubbler for soaking ranunculus!?!

When I was ready to buy my first hoops to make a low tunnel, it was a mystery. I couldn’t find them anywhere. Where were growers getting these horseshoe shaped tubes? And then I realized that I had to MAKE the hoops. Come to find out, it’s actually pretty easy. Let me show you how!

When it comes to planning your cut flower field, zinnias should be the foundation. From their ease of growing and prolific production to a rainbow of beautiful color varieties, zinnias are a great choice for any flower field.