Great video! I am an established grower that has invested in perennials. Baptisa is one of my all-time favorite perennials as you can use it all season as a filler. Echinacea is also a perennial that I love as it will continue to give over the years. Yarrow is such a great staple for me as it can be used as a fresh or dried plant. Penstemon for me is another great one and it's got purple foliage. My problem is I spent more time growing and not enough time finding customers. So now this year I am spending more time on marketing. Thank you so much for your time and effort in the business side of flower farming.
Thanks Patricia! You’re probably definitely nodding your head and saying well duh! 😅 Penstamon is new to me and all the other ones you mentioned I have in the ground or will be putting in! I hope you are able to do better in marketing this year! Do you have a goal in terms of how much more you’d like to sell?
@@bareflowerfarm I looking for more places to sell like Pop Ups. My goal this year is to make 10,000, which is about $800 a month. I also sell houseplants and have classes on my farm twice a month. I am hopeful! People like you keep me on track, so I will keep trying.
@@patriciabunk8114 Love it. Love that you have a number and know have a goal per month. The $10k mark feels intimidating but totally doable especially for someone who has invested in perennials and knows how to grow. Just one thing- when you do the pop ups, make sure you capture email addresses!! Good luck and lmk how the season goes for you!
We're realising this at the same time. Last year I planted rudbeckia, mint and bachelor's buttoms. They were really disappointing last year. So disappointing that I thought my bachelor's buttons were just a weed. I left them throughout the winter and now, my oh my! I a thrilled! They are all blooming and the mint is huge! I'm quite glad that I left it in a raised bed because it spreaded so much! Now, I know what will be doing moving forward.
Isn't it great when our disappointments actually end up being the best thing ever? You can't have enough mint! Ours is in our landscaping and spreading. No regrets right now lol!! Ask me in 2 years though!
Aww thank you. Haha I actually love creating content so much that I'm like constantly brainstorming while I'm driving, in the shower, washing dishes... you get the point 🤣
Yes yes and yes! I am only in my second year but I am doing my best to put in perennials! Some of the seeds I started had spotty germination so thank you for the tip about Ednie!
Sorry, i meant to say BALL! Not Ednie. I haven't ordered from Ednie but it appears they've been going through some massive growing pains post merge with Ball so best to hold off from Ednie until they sort things out!
This is such an informative video. Your focus on the business side of flower farming is what I have been looking for. I would like to have the farm be 60% perennials so each year I add something new. This year it’s VERBASCUM SOUTHERN, ACHILLEA PTARMICA MARSHMALLOW and PENSTEMON RONDO MIX. I will be looking into the perennials you just ordered. Fillers I used for Mother’s Day bouquets this year were hellebore leaves and honeysuckle vines which added a wispy whimsical element to the bouquet. Thank for taking the time to create such useful content. I appreciate you! 💚
Thank you! I love how you add something new each year! I trialed verbascum last year. The colors for verbascum southern are insanely beautiful. But... it's a very delicate flower. The individual flowers have a short vaselife but the flowers throughout the entire stem do open which gives it about a week vaselife. However, it was so delicate that I found it hard to work with and therefore kept some in landscaping but not for growing cut flowers. I am also testing out marshmallow yarrow this year! Honeysuckle vines are a good one! I saw someone else use them and the bouquet looked amazing!
@@bareflowerfarm I harvested my first 2 stems of verbascum today to test for vase life and correct harvest stage. I noticed that the petals were very fragile and feel off. I REALLY want to love this flower. Lol. After listening to Jordon today I am wondering how the marshmallow will hold up too! Only time will tell.
I am really excited to see what perennials you get. Spirea is a great hardy bush and have so many different varieties - it should prove very useful as a fillee as it takes up a lot of space.
Oh yes!! I have quite a few varieties coming in and they can be planted outside the fenced in area so I'm excited! The only issue is that they bloom quite early here for us- like a good 1.5 months before mother's day but still totally worth growing! I find that they keep at most for 2 weeks. How long were you able to keep yours for?
@@bareflowerfarm I'm at 2 weeks for my last batch. I think I'll save a few to see if I can push it 3 weeks. I noticed some of the ones that I harvested a little too late (tip already starting to peel open) are starting to open up very slowly in my fridge. We'll see how it goes. I probably will just put them indoors for me since I'm not sure how they will hold up
One interesting fact about daffodils is that they rehydrate through their petals. I feel like if you can keep the humidity higher in storage like 85%+, you have a shot. I tried 3 weeks. They never rehydrated properly but my fridge humidity was 65% 🥲
Please pardon my jumping in here… Although not your ‘regular’ flower farming avenue, Southernbulbs might be worth checking out. Their daffodils are mainly US native and heirloom varieties (unique and easier to naturalize) and they have a large selection in bloom times.
Great vid! I’m working on having about 60%+ perennials on my farm for all the reasons you mentioned + the fact that they often require less water and can weather droughts etc better in a lot of cases. I’m so glad you brought up value based pricing as it’s one of my personal missions to open flower farmers minds to that concept - we should NOT need to charge less than a florist if we are putting up an item and experience that is just as good or better. A florist that owns a shop may HAVE to charge more due to overheads but to me COGS should represent the minimum we have to charge to be profitable, not the final price. People also forget that owning land is also expensive and flower farming is a lot of labour so why not charge accordingly? So often labour is taken out of the question - we don’t expect anyone else to work for free… why should we?? Now of course, if we’re offering a cheaper product e.g less well presented, have less design expertise etc that’s different but really it should be based on what the market will bear, not exclusively on COGs.
Excellent content! I'm just starting out and learning what grows well and when here in SoCal Zone 9b/10a. I love hellebores and bought a dozen last year but lost 3 to overwatering last summer. I've invested in 5 Bartzella Itoh peonies, 3 Baptisia Australis, and 3 Baptisia Twilight Prairieblues. I rent so I can't go too overboard.
Where in SoCal are you? That's quite the climate! Have you heard of Epic Gardening down in SD? Your rental comment reminded me of his crazy set up when he was renting before he found his homestead lol! My husband is actually from Orange County and when I go back, I am seriously astonished at the perennials they have despite the lack of rainfall!
@@bareflowerfarm I'm in Poway. Epic Gardening is what inspired me to garden. Then I got the flower bug from Bri at Blossom & Branch and Danielle at Northlawn Flower Farm. We certainly have our challenges. Our UV intensity is the real problem. I get tired of seeing Proven Winners this and that on TH-cam. They aren't readily available in CA and many (most?) of their plants don't go above Zone 8. Monrovia has the stronghold here. I'd love to take Dave Dowling's course at the Gardener's Workshop but fear 90% wouldn't grow here. You should check out Roger's Gardens and Dana Point Nursery next time you're in Orange County!
Some suggestions for perennials: Astilbe (shadow loving, many colors and varieties) and which I love and flowers now: Campanula glomerata (both dark blue and white). Thank you for the wise insight of how to become more profitable.
Yes! I have some astilbe in my landscaping and can't wait to see them grow out even though the deer actually ripped them out. I'll check out campanula glomerta, thanks for the reco!
Perennials in my first bouquets, which just started yesterday - are rhododendrons and Itoh peonies (which bloom before the herbacious peonies do). Filler is a long needled pine branch for super interesting texture and the leaves on the rhodos, both are also perennial. Coming soon are the globe alliums (perennial), and the anemones and ranunculus - which I consider somewhat perennial as the corms are not only reused every year, but they multiply as well. I do have columbine but I don't like using it. I would say it takes more than 3yrs for every flower farmer to figure out what works best for them. Everyone's situation is different.
How do you find your rhodo's do vase life wise? My parents literally have like 100 of those. They put on a great show in the spring but I've heard they don't make a great cut flower? I'm also putting in some summer blooming alliums but would like to invest in some for the spring.
@@bareflowerfarm I find the pink ones I can use have terrible vase life. The deep red ones are on par with the peonies which are on par with dahlias. In other words, up to a week but definitely not longer. The red rhodo is our neighbours and hangs over our fence so much that it needs yearly pruning from me. I just wait til each stem blooms before I "prune" it.
Great video! I very lucky to be working in a place that already has perennials and I am steadily planting more. Flowers are a hobby for me but I'm trying to keep it as a "revenue positive hobby".
Thank you! I think you can absolutely keep it as a revenue positive hobby and even a good side cash hobby! One of my goals is to model for people who don’t want to do this full time, what the potential could look like because I have zero desire to take this full time 😅
Yes this is me! Just a hobby grower who wants to make money on the side. I find that there isn’t enough TH-cam content for us. Much of the flower farming content is geared towards large scale and isn’t helpful for me. Thank you!
Another great video! My issue too this year has been filler flowers. I didn’t grow enough sweet rocket or corn cockle. It will also impact my lilies because they will flower next and my Achillea hasn’t started flowering yet so again I have no filler to go with the lilies! 😕 constantly learning 🌸
@@jordonsflowerfarm thank you. Yes I did grow some Saponaria but only a bit because I wasn’t sure I’d like it or have room for it. I love it so I’ve started more just hope I’m not too late! 🌸
Baptisia doesn't do well from plugs, so no worries. We use them in our designed landscape all the time from container plants. They are slow perennials, take a few years to establish. So get a bigger plants if you want to have them still!
Try Asparagus. Let it grow out and trim the stems every year. It has good vase life and is very durable. You can even get little orange berries. Beware, the deer love it. Maybe you can plant it around the perimeter of your yard as a trap crop for deer and harvest what is left.
I would love to grow asparagus just for our personal consumption! But to your point the deer love it and they take up quite a bit of space. I tried this trap crop idea for deer. There is no such thing as a trap crop for them. Basically, I just entice them to come back for more when I do that 😅 PS- my callas are finally sprouting and I'm sooo excited!!
They do take up space, but mostly vertical space. Deer are grazers, but I was picturing a border of asparagus to keep them near your property border since they are already in the area grazing.
Pricing theoretically is easy but hard to act on. A part of it is you believing in yourself. Would you pay for the price point you’d like to charge? Can you sleep at night based on the quality of the product? If yes, you have nothing to lose!
Great video! I am an established grower that has invested in perennials. Baptisa is one of my all-time favorite perennials as you can use it all season as a filler. Echinacea is also a perennial that I love as it will continue to give over the years. Yarrow is such a great staple for me as it can be used as a fresh or dried plant. Penstemon for me is another great one and it's got purple foliage. My problem is I spent more time growing and not enough time finding customers. So now this year I am spending more time on marketing. Thank you so much for your time and effort in the business side of flower farming.
Thanks Patricia! You’re probably definitely nodding your head and saying well duh! 😅
Penstamon is new to me and all the other ones you mentioned I have in the ground or will be putting in! I hope you are able to do better in marketing this year! Do you have a goal in terms of how much more you’d like to sell?
@@bareflowerfarm I looking for more places to sell like Pop Ups. My goal this year is to make 10,000, which is about $800 a month. I also sell houseplants and have classes on my farm twice a month. I am hopeful! People like you keep me on track, so I will keep trying.
@@patriciabunk8114 Love it. Love that you have a number and know have a goal per month. The $10k mark feels intimidating but totally doable especially for someone who has invested in perennials and knows how to grow. Just one thing- when you do the pop ups, make sure you capture email addresses!! Good luck and lmk how the season goes for you!
I’m adding a new perennial Caryopteris.
Great information. Thank you!
Great video! Thanks for the encouragement!
😊😊😊
We're realising this at the same time. Last year I planted rudbeckia, mint and bachelor's buttoms. They were really disappointing last year. So disappointing that I thought my bachelor's buttons were just a weed. I left them throughout the winter and now, my oh my! I a thrilled! They are all blooming and the mint is huge! I'm quite glad that I left it in a raised bed because it spreaded so much! Now, I know what will be doing moving forward.
Isn't it great when our disappointments actually end up being the best thing ever? You can't have enough mint! Ours is in our landscaping and spreading. No regrets right now lol!! Ask me in 2 years though!
By
Thank you so much for all of the work you do for these videos. I seriously don't know where you find the time!
Aww thank you. Haha I actually love creating content so much that I'm like constantly brainstorming while I'm driving, in the shower, washing dishes... you get the point 🤣
Yes yes and yes! I am only in my second year but I am doing my best to put in perennials! Some of the seeds I started had spotty germination so thank you for the tip about Ednie!
Sorry, i meant to say BALL! Not Ednie. I haven't ordered from Ednie but it appears they've been going through some massive growing pains post merge with Ball so best to hold off from Ednie until they sort things out!
This is such an informative video. Your focus on the business side of flower farming is what I have been looking for. I would like to have the farm be 60% perennials so each year I add something new. This year it’s VERBASCUM SOUTHERN, ACHILLEA PTARMICA MARSHMALLOW and PENSTEMON RONDO MIX. I will be looking into the perennials you just ordered. Fillers I used for Mother’s Day bouquets this year were hellebore leaves and honeysuckle vines which added a wispy whimsical element to the bouquet. Thank for taking the time to create such useful content. I appreciate you! 💚
Thank you! I love how you add something new each year! I trialed verbascum last year. The colors for verbascum southern are insanely beautiful. But... it's a very delicate flower. The individual flowers have a short vaselife but the flowers throughout the entire stem do open which gives it about a week vaselife. However, it was so delicate that I found it hard to work with and therefore kept some in landscaping but not for growing cut flowers. I am also testing out marshmallow yarrow this year!
Honeysuckle vines are a good one! I saw someone else use them and the bouquet looked amazing!
@@bareflowerfarm I harvested my first 2 stems of verbascum today to test for vase life and correct harvest stage. I noticed that the petals were very fragile and feel off. I REALLY want to love this flower. Lol. After listening to Jordon today I am wondering how the marshmallow will hold up too! Only time will tell.
excellent talk- with many great points! you're awesome 👏🏽
I appreciate that!
Love this, so helpful!
Glad it was helpful!
I am really excited to see what perennials you get. Spirea is a great hardy bush and have so many different varieties - it should prove very useful as a fillee as it takes up a lot of space.
Funnily, this house came with 3 spirea bushes but... they have thorns! I know there's different kinds out there- does yours have thorns?
No mine does not.
Add daffodils to your list! They were easier to store and rehydrate than tulips for me. They come back reliably every year too
Oh yes!! I have quite a few varieties coming in and they can be planted outside the fenced in area so I'm excited! The only issue is that they bloom quite early here for us- like a good 1.5 months before mother's day but still totally worth growing! I find that they keep at most for 2 weeks. How long were you able to keep yours for?
@@bareflowerfarm I'm at 2 weeks for my last batch. I think I'll save a few to see if I can push it 3 weeks. I noticed some of the ones that I harvested a little too late (tip already starting to peel open) are starting to open up very slowly in my fridge. We'll see how it goes. I probably will just put them indoors for me since I'm not sure how they will hold up
One interesting fact about daffodils is that they rehydrate through their petals. I feel like if you can keep the humidity higher in storage like 85%+, you have a shot. I tried 3 weeks. They never rehydrated properly but my fridge humidity was 65% 🥲
@@bareflowerfarm oh, good to know! Thanks 😊
Please pardon my jumping in here… Although not your ‘regular’ flower farming avenue, Southernbulbs might be worth checking out. Their daffodils are mainly US native and heirloom varieties (unique and easier to naturalize) and they have a large selection in bloom times.
Great vid! I’m working on having about 60%+ perennials on my farm for all the reasons you mentioned + the fact that they often require less water and can weather droughts etc better in a lot of cases. I’m so glad you brought up value based pricing as it’s one of my personal missions to open flower farmers minds to that concept - we should NOT need to charge less than a florist if we are putting up an item and experience that is just as good or better. A florist that owns a shop may HAVE to charge more due to overheads but to me COGS should represent the minimum we have to charge to be profitable, not the final price. People also forget that owning land is also expensive and flower farming is a lot of labour so why not charge accordingly? So often labour is taken out of the question - we don’t expect anyone else to work for free… why should we?? Now of course, if we’re offering a cheaper product e.g less well presented, have less design expertise etc that’s different but really it should be based on what the market will bear, not exclusively on COGs.
Excellent content! I'm just starting out and learning what grows well and when here in SoCal Zone 9b/10a. I love hellebores and bought a dozen last year but lost 3 to overwatering last summer. I've invested in 5 Bartzella Itoh peonies, 3 Baptisia Australis, and 3 Baptisia Twilight Prairieblues. I rent so I can't go too overboard.
Where in SoCal are you? That's quite the climate! Have you heard of Epic Gardening down in SD? Your rental comment reminded me of his crazy set up when he was renting before he found his homestead lol!
My husband is actually from Orange County and when I go back, I am seriously astonished at the perennials they have despite the lack of rainfall!
@@bareflowerfarm I'm in Poway. Epic Gardening is what inspired me to garden. Then I got the flower bug from Bri at Blossom & Branch and Danielle at Northlawn Flower Farm.
We certainly have our challenges. Our UV intensity is the real problem. I get tired of seeing Proven Winners this and that on TH-cam. They aren't readily available in CA and many (most?) of their plants don't go above Zone 8. Monrovia has the stronghold here. I'd love to take Dave Dowling's course at the Gardener's Workshop but fear 90% wouldn't grow here.
You should check out Roger's Gardens and Dana Point Nursery next time you're in Orange County!
Some suggestions for perennials: Astilbe (shadow loving, many colors and varieties) and which I love and flowers now: Campanula glomerata (both dark blue and white). Thank you for the wise insight of how to become more profitable.
Yes! I have some astilbe in my landscaping and can't wait to see them grow out even though the deer actually ripped them out. I'll check out campanula glomerta, thanks for the reco!
Perennials in my first bouquets, which just started yesterday - are rhododendrons and Itoh peonies (which bloom before the herbacious peonies do). Filler is a long needled pine branch for super interesting texture and the leaves on the rhodos, both are also perennial. Coming soon are the globe alliums (perennial), and the anemones and ranunculus - which I consider somewhat perennial as the corms are not only reused every year, but they multiply as well.
I do have columbine but I don't like using it.
I would say it takes more than 3yrs for every flower farmer to figure out what works best for them. Everyone's situation is different.
How do you find your rhodo's do vase life wise? My parents literally have like 100 of those. They put on a great show in the spring but I've heard they don't make a great cut flower? I'm also putting in some summer blooming alliums but would like to invest in some for the spring.
@@bareflowerfarm I find the pink ones I can use have terrible vase life. The deep red ones are on par with the peonies which are on par with dahlias. In other words, up to a week but definitely not longer. The red rhodo is our neighbours and hangs over our fence so much that it needs yearly pruning from me. I just wait til each stem blooms before I "prune" it.
Great video! I very lucky to be working in a place that already has perennials and I am steadily planting more. Flowers are a hobby for me but I'm trying to keep it as a "revenue positive hobby".
Thank you! I think you can absolutely keep it as a revenue positive hobby and even a good side cash hobby! One of my goals is to model for people who don’t want to do this full time, what the potential could look like because I have zero desire to take this full time 😅
Yes this is me! Just a hobby grower who wants to make money on the side. I find that there isn’t enough TH-cam content for us. Much of the flower farming content is geared towards large scale and isn’t helpful for me. Thank you!
Another great video! My issue too this year has been filler flowers. I didn’t grow enough sweet rocket or corn cockle. It will also impact my lilies because they will flower next and my Achillea hasn’t started flowering yet so again I have no filler to go with the lilies! 😕 constantly learning 🌸
Have you tried saponaria or bupleurum? Annuals, but good options! They bloomed before my achillea!
@@jordonsflowerfarm thank you. Yes I did grow some Saponaria but only a bit because I wasn’t sure I’d like it or have room for it. I love it so I’ve started more just hope I’m not too late! 🌸
I grew Sweet Rocket, but it was put in right before winter and it grew amazing! It has grown very tall so I really liked having it in early spring.
Straight bunches with lilies can work!
The 32mix are awesome! Except I bought some last year and never got them in the ground 😬😬😬
It happens to all of us!! 😅
Baptisia doesn't do well from plugs, so no worries. We use them in our designed landscape all the time from container plants. They are slow perennials, take a few years to establish. So get a bigger plants if you want to have them still!
That’s good to know! I have some coming in 32’s this week so hopefully big enough!!
Iris, lupine, peonies, alliums, currant and nine bark. Just a home gardener, but these perennials are early and easy.
yes! I have never had luck overwintering lupine for whatever reason! Except for currant, I have the rest you mentioned and can't wait!
Try Asparagus. Let it grow out and trim the stems every year. It has good vase life and is very durable. You can even get little orange berries. Beware, the deer love it. Maybe you can plant it around the perimeter of your yard as a trap crop for deer and harvest what is left.
I would love to grow asparagus just for our personal consumption! But to your point the deer love it and they take up quite a bit of space. I tried this trap crop idea for deer. There is no such thing as a trap crop for them. Basically, I just entice them to come back for more when I do that 😅
PS- my callas are finally sprouting and I'm sooo excited!!
They do take up space, but mostly vertical space. Deer are grazers, but I was picturing a border of asparagus to keep them near your property border since they are already in the area grazing.
I am still planting Roselilies. The Callas are next. If you have any questions on harvesting and storage of Callas, let me know.
Hi friend how do I get rid of devaluing or cutting back my fees cause I am unconfident people would want
Pricing theoretically is easy but hard to act on. A part of it is you believing in yourself. Would you pay for the price point you’d like to charge? Can you sleep at night based on the quality of the product? If yes, you have nothing to lose!
Great video thanks! I also sell market bouquets so this was helpful :)
Glad it was helpful!
100% ❤
Haha I know you know this!
Consider sedum too
Yes!! I have a couple and the deer already ate one 🤣
They wont eat hellebores or loosestrife hellebores take a few years to produce though.
@@rbrown2746 I love sedum plus it propagates really easy. You can also use it in bouquets as a filler during the growing season.