Celebrating Flower Farmers of The Flower Podcast

"We have neglected the truth that a good farmer is a craftsman of the highest order, a kind of artist." Wendell Berry

 
Florals by @twigandvine | Photo by @ryleahfoehlphoto

Florals by @twigandvine | Photo by @ryleahfoehlphoto

 

I don’t recall ever thinking of a farmer as a “kind of artist’, but I am loving this! A colorful flower field is truly the working palette of our flower growers. Stunning, fresh blooms may be the beginning of a florist’s creation, but these blooming treasures are the result of meticulously, planned color selections, trial and error planted varieties, and seasons of hope, sweat, tears, and celebration.

I’ve always been grateful to share the stories and insights from flower growers in our industry.  They pour so much into these wonderful blooms, and I believe it is important for us to acknowledge and understand the challenges and obstacles they overcome every day.  Every July, I’m thrilled to highlight the flower heroes featured on The Flower Podcast over the last 12 months!! If you’re a grower I hope you find encouragement and helpful tips from the experiences of past guests.  If you’re a floral designer or enthusiast, I hope you find inspiration with each farm-fresh bloom.

Let’s celebrate the flower growers as they tirelessly supplied the floral community when trucks were late, inventories were limited, and continued to bring joy to their local communities through difficult times. Our floral industry is stronger when we all work together and show our support for one another. We have had amazing stories this year, and I believe you will be touched by their journeys.

Jennie Love

Love N’ Fresh Flowers

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Jennie Love is the Creative Director of Love N’ Fresh Flowers and President of the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers. A Certified Naturally Grown urban flower farm and a premier wedding florist in Philadelphia, Jennie’s story will inspire you to think outside the box, get your hands in the dirt, and revaluate what you can do to grow your business. With a passion for educating florists and future farmers, Jennie is sharing her knowledge and experience from both perspectives. Jennie also shares her Guiding Beliefs of why she created Love N’ Fresh Flowers.

Natasha McCrary

1818 Farms

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Natasha McCrary, of Mooresville, Alabama, owns and operates 1818 Farms. She started the business in 2013 when her son fell in love with Southdown Babydoll Sheep. She had no experience raising the sheep, let alone running a farm, but she had an idea of how she could make it work: combine a farm with a small business that would help cover the cost of food for the animals. The result was 1818 Farms: a working flower farm, event venue, Babydoll sheep, and a hand crafted line of bath and lifestyle products. Besides being featured in several magazines, in 2019 Natasha won Amazon’s Woman-Owned Small Business of the Year award, thanks to these best-selling products.

Melanie Harrington

Dahlia May Flower Farm

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Dahlia May Flower Farm, founded in 2014, is a small family farm specializing in growing specialty cut flowers. Melanie brings a background in art and horticulture to her work in building community through locally grown flowers on her family’s third generation farm. Melanie is a tremendous source of information and I’m excited about her suggestions for extending your season and finding new streams of income. After speaking with her, it was very clear why she’s won so many awards for entrepreneurship.

 

Jonathan Leiss

Spring Forth Farm

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Jonathan Leiss, along with his wife Megan, have settled their small, family farm in Hurdle Mills, NC. and are committed to drawing from a wide range of ecologically-friendly farming practices, including no-till, to grow outstanding cut flowers. Members of The Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers and  Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, they are passionate about learning and teaching others about their farm and no-till practices. 

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Lisa Ziegler

The Gardeners Workshop

It all started in 1998 and a desire to make working in her garden a career. Lisa's business, The Gardener's Workshop began as a small market farm but grew into so much more. Please join Lisa and me as she share's her floral journey through the world of gardening. A leader with the ASCFG, author of several books, an online store, Lisa helps others grow their own love of flowers.
With new workshops coming soon with topics covering the basics of flower farming, florist-farmers wedding process, growing in structures, local flower sourcing and more, Lisa is truly sharing her passion and love of flowers with us this week.

Kara Jamison

Blooming Joy Flower Company

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After suffering a family loss, Kara Jamison and her family embarked on a life changing adventure from city life to farming. That adventure flourished into the Blooming Joy Flower Company located in Murfreesboro, TN. Kara began this heart project with the desire to grow and share flowers for spreading joy. She now grows flowers, does custom designs, hosts floral workshops, and farm events. Kara shares her flower journey, her approach to social media with Instagram, and a few of her farm favorites. She juggles a lot, but always finds time for her “Flower Friends” that she connects with regularly on her IG feed @bloomingjoyflowerco .

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Deanna Kitchen

Twig and Vine/ The Growing Kindness Project

 
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Image by @ryleafoehlphotos

Image by @ryleafoehlphotos

Deanna Kitchen, flower farmer, designer, and educator, along with her family started Twig and Vine Farm, a micro cut flower farm specializing in dahlias.
Deana shares a little about her floral story, the family farm, and her heart for gathering, teaching and community service that ultimately led her to founding The Growing Kindness Project. The Growing Kindness Project now leads a team of gardeners and growers across the world on a mission to change the world, one stem at a time.
Deanna quickly learned the joy and power of giving flowers freely in her community and she set out to find ways to support, encourage, and assist others to do the same.

Eric Tanouye

Green Point Nurseries

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Entering their 3rd generation of the family business, Eric Tanouye, President of Green Point Nurseries, continues his father's legacy growing gorgeous tropicals and foliages and connecting clients to the beauty and romance of Hawaii.
Eric continues to study farming methods of ancient Hawaiians, developing customer relationships, and leadership involvement in trade and flower associations. We discuss connecting with the land and protecting the natural resources along with sustainable improvement to flower farming.

Amelia Ihlo

Rooted Farmers

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From her personal experience as a flower farmer, Amelia Ihlo saw the need to improve the process of actually selling the harvested flowers. So the research began, and the end result was the creation of Rooted Farmers. An online marketplace that connects local flower farmers and floral designers, Rooted Farmers Simplifies the process of purchasing local and seasonal blooms, Saves you time to focus more on the crucial areas of your business, and Connects farmers with wholesale and retail buyers to sell flowers more efficiently. We were excited to sit down with Amelia and record this tutorial demonstrating all of the features and benefits of Rooted Farmers. Amelia also demonstrated the buyer side, allowing florists to shop from all the farmers in a given area.

Janis Harris

Harris Flower Farm

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Following in the footsteps of her parents as organic farmers and passing that love of growing to her children,  Janis Harris, owner of Harris Flower Farm, operates her mulitgenerational farm in southwestern Ontario.  Janis discusses flower production, working with local farmers, and how she approaches cracking the code of flower farming. As regional director for Canada’s branch of ASCFG, Janis also shares her personal experience as a member and the benefits of membership in this great organization for cut flower growers.

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Ed Coughlin

Southern Eucs

Some may have a like/dislike relationship with the continued trend of eucalyptus but there is no mistake it is among one of the most requested greeneries still. I am actually a fan but perhaps that may be because I have had the opportunity to explore the numerous varieties. Most are familiar with a few varieties but did you know there are other eucs besides 'Silver Dollar' and Seeded? And this tree is a wonderful choice for your landscape design too! Ed Coughlin, owner of Southern Eucs. Ed has been seeking species of eucalyptus that have a resilience to colder temperatures allowing for more production in these regions.

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Sarah Daken & Tom Precht

Grateful Gardeners

 Sarah Daken and Tom Precht, Founders of Grateful Gardeners were disenchanted with their corporate careers and desired to go back to the basics and be stewards of the environment. Committing themselves to farming beautiful flowers through sustainable practices such as no-till farming, cover crops, worm and compost tea fertigation, and hydroponics, Sarah and Tom are also committed to serving their own local community and sharing their knowledge of flower growing.

Kimberley Hautau

Hautau and Sons, LLC

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'Kerry Patel of the Flowery realized the economic impact that was facing the floral industry. Seeing an opportunity to help ease this economic impact more locally, Kerry reached out to Kimberley Hautau and the two joined forces to begin selling bouquets of gorgeous greenhouse-grown flowers within their community - donating the proceeds from the sales to local charities that helped both struggling restaurants feed front line workers and the furloughed employees of the community YMCA.' A beautiful story of what is possible when we embrace friendship, flowers, and life's challenges.

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We at The Flower Podcast are thankful to be a part of the floral industry and delighted to have the opportunities to share with others. Thank you again to all of our guests and listeners in allowing us to spread flower goodness throughout the world. As we begin a new season, we are looking forward to more exciting guests and hopefully more personal interactions with all of you. As always, please feel free to contact me with your thoughts, suggestions, and requests.

Scott Shepherd

Sunflowers: Exploring the Sunshine of the Summer

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows. It’s what the sunflowers do. – Helen Keller

Flowers and Photo by Basecamp Farms

Flowers and Photo by Basecamp Farms

Sunflowers have been a staple in the floral industry for as long as I can remember. They have been the shinning star of the summer season, the sunshine of flower field, and I can’t help but smile when I see a sunflower! Over 20 years ago I was asked by a customer if I thought sunflowers would be a fleeting fad or would they endure as a long lasting favorite. I thought back then, as I do now, that sunflowers were here to stay and stay they have. They have only grown in popularity which has led the breeders to develop more and more varieties and styles.

I hope to share some of the names and faces so you can ask for them by name. With every season there is a shift in certain types of flowers and colors. Why not include sunflowers in that transition from spring through fall. There is so much variety within this flower group, we will never have to look at sunflowers as a one trick pony.

This variety is Starburst Lemon Aura, grown by Sapelo Farms.

This variety is Starburst Lemon Aura, grown by Sapelo Farms.

As a grower, there are several determining factors when deciding to grow sunflowers and then which variety to grow. Do you have enough space to grow successions of sunflowers? Is your season long enough? (and most are.) How are you selling them and when are you selling them? Many of the varieties grown for cut production are single cut flowers/plants and the size of growing space and timing plays an important role in profitability.

When we write a blog post, especially about flowers, it’s usually to help you grow in awarenesses of all the varieties or choices that are out in the world of flowers. Well, the family of sunflowers is quite extensive so I hope to scale this information down to the top choices in the family of sunflowers.

I want to also add that all the varieties that I’ll be sharing are considered pollen-less. Your customers will appreciate this more than you’ll ever know. No matter if you make market bouquets or bridal bouquets, pollen gets messy. I’ve seen it happen several times, especially with new growers, if you don’t pay attention and check the varieties you’re going to grow, you may have unhappy customers with yellow stained dresses and tableclothes, or worse.

Vincent’s® Sunflower Series

I have to admit that I was surprised that these three sunflower varieties above are so popular. As I learned more about them, I can totally understand. This series meets all the regular criteria for growing sunflowers. They have a high germination rate and are pollenless. When growing a flower that only produces a single cut flower, days to maturity is key factor for turning the land and increasing your total production. Vincent’s® Sunflower Series is perfect for cut flower production and has become a favorite among flower farmers. Being day length neutral gives more flexibility and is a wonderful choice for succession planting to provide sunflowers through your seasons.  Vincent’s® Choice and Vincent’s® Deep Orange have traditional brown eye centers while Vincent’s®Fresh brings a refreshing pale green center. With its extra layering of golden petals, its appearance boasts a double flowered and fabulous look while also being perfect for bouquets with its bloom facing more upward.

ProCut® Sunflowers

If there is one series that I hear discussed time and time again, it is the tried and true ProCut® series of sunflowers. I’ve heard from several people that the first ProCut® Orange is one of the favorites for strength of stem and brightness of the traditional coloring we’ve all come to love in sunflowers. The second variety is ProCut® Gold. Again, great stems and with the absence of the brown center the brightness of color is bold and beautiful. Last, but not least, ProCut® Horizon has all of the great qualities of this series, however the flower tends to be directed more upward when compared to its cousins. Horizon, refers to the orientation of the flower, which by the way, only enhances this wonderful flowers curb appeal in bouquets or bunches.

I have heard it said that sometimes their flowers are too large. However, these varieties as many of them, are directly affected by temperature, day length, and especially spacing. If you want smaller size flowers with thinner stems, spacing them 6” x 6” or closer will accomplish this. For larger blooms and bigger stems, planting the sunflowers 9” x 9” or more will help give them the space and sun to produce more substantial flowers. You may be surprised that there is a market and uses for both sizes.

The Many colors of Sunflowers

When I read that it could take up to 6-10 years to hybridize a new variety of sunflower I was amazed. I don’t believe any of us will ever grow weary in anticipation of new colors or new varieties in any flower, but sunflower colors will always fascinate me. One of the reasons I get so excited about additional colors is the extension of the growing season providing us with seasonal palettes of beauty. For example, some of the yellow varieties with green centers are very popular in the early spring while the darker chocolates and plums are stunning in the fall. The traditional varieties with the yellow/orange petals and brown/dark centers are in demand year round.

One of my favorites is the first image, ProCut® Plum. Over the years of selling locally grown sunflowers, or for that matter any sunflower, the traditional coloring of the yellow/orange sunflower is always popular throughout the summer and the fall. This traditional flower however, isn’t always popular for weddings and events and tends to be more theme specific. . ProCut® Plum lends itself to bridging so many of the stunning color palettes of the fall wedding and event season and easy to incorporate with the more muted tones of cocoas, blush, and golds. This sunflower definitely makes its presence known.

ProCut® Red is nothing short of rich lushness. Over the years I’ve been asked for red varieties, and I have to admit that I would have never thought of this as “red,” but as this deep rust-colored flower opens, it unfurls to hints of red wine and crimson extending from a chocolate center. Not a traditional red, but a beautiful rustish red, perfect for the late summer into the fall season.

The third image is ProCut® White Nite, one of the newer varieties of “White” sunflowers. Haven’t we all longed for a white sunflower? Our wait is over. This lovely cream fades to ivory and continues to grow lighter and more beautiful. Be sure to check out the ProCut® White Lite as another option. The difference of two being their lovely centers. White Nite with its traditional brown center compared to the yellow honey colored center of White Lite . These varieties of ProCut® sunflowers have increased the marketability and range of colors within the world of sunflowers, and I am eagerly anticipating future varieties!

Branching Sunflowers

Branching sunflowers are something that I’ve recently started exploring. Many years ago, I would have local flower farmers bring me selections of branching sunflowers much to both of our disappointment. Their stems were too short and the shelf life was less than favorable. Recently, I visited a flower farm in North Georgia, Sapelo Farms. Gabe and B.A., a wonderful mother/daughter team have experienced a great level of success growing these varieties above and refreshed my interest to look at them again. We took these images while we were visiting, and I was very impressed. Gabe said the stem length and flower size work great for their market bouquets. The shelf life was greater than 7+ days, while each plant continues to produce several stems increasing the production in each row. All three provided clean pretty flowers on nice stems, of course shorter than single stem varieties, but still beautiful flowers for smaller spaces.

Fan Favorites

Recently we conducted a very informal survey through Instagram and many of the varieties above were included, however these three I felt needed to be mentioned.

The first image is of what many call the Teddybear Sunflower. With it’s apparent lack of a center and abundant petal count, there are now several hybridized varieties that fall into this category. I’ve seen Teddybear Sunflowers large and small, both have always been popular among the novelty sunflower connoisseurs.

The next two varieties have definitely paved the way to a pale lemon shade of yellow, Sunflower Jade and Sunflower Limoncello. Limoncello was a popular variety that we were able to source from California from time to time. It’s lighter yellow would sometimes clash with other yellow shades, but the novelty, size, and clarity of color, made it a true favorite for florists.

ProCut® Plum grown, designed, and photographed by Jennie Love, Love ‘N Fresh Flowers.

ProCut® Plum grown, designed, and photographed by Jennie Love, Love ‘N Fresh Flowers.

If you’re new to sunflower growing and processing, I might add that these pillars of the summer cutting garden need a good clean cut and LOTS of water. I was regularly accused of putting too much water in a sunflower bucket, only to return to it the next day half empty. These thirsty giants will perform well for you and your customers all summer long, so prepare to plant almost weekly successions.

Sunflowers are the main attraction of summer. If you’re part of a busy weekend farmers market and you sell sunflowers, I’m sure you’ve seen it time and time again… Someone across the crowded distance sees those big happy faces of yellow and brown smiling brilliantly and they make a bee line straight to your table or booth! These beauties ooze sunshine and spark a sense of joy and delight just waiting to be scooped up and taken home.

It’s so tempting to stick with the tried and true, but with all of the new varieties available now, I encourage you to explore these incredible selections. So whether you are the florist or the farmer, I believe you will be delighted with the new color innovations in the world of sunflowers.

This is but a taste of the world of sunflowers. With over 70+ cultivars of sunflowers, we’ve only scratched the surface of an ever-growing family of flowers that bring so much joy and happiness from a single bouquet to changing the face of a large event. There is sunflower for every occasion! If you haven’t grown sunflowers before now, it’s probably not too late to add this incredible addition to your garden or cut flower farm. Find your favorite variety, explore the offerings, and most importantly give your feedback to a local wholesaler or local flower source.