2022 is my first official season as a cut flower farmer. I grew a variety of plants this year, sold bouquets at the local farmer’s market, and enjoyed my flower garden.
Spring Flower Garden
The year began with building and using the new grow stand that I built, with some help from my husband. I used the grow lights that I had, along with buying some clearance grow lights from Lowe’s. I started a variety of seeds in a variety of methods. Some were under grow lights while others were started outdoors in the gallon jug winter sowing method or in a small greenhouse.
April came. My daffodils I planted in the Fall of 2021 were blooming. I harvested about 30 stems from the garden from a 10’ x 3’ space. I had others planted behind the master suite for landscape purposes.
Late May and Early June. My two Iris patches with Stairway to Heaven variety were blooming. I tried advertising these to sell to family and friends, but it was not the marketing I was needing. I made my own bouquets for my own house. They’re tall and sturdy flowers that can knock over its own vase. But their fragrance is divine. I absolutely love their smell.
June, Late Spring
In early June, I always make sure I take a trip down to my mom’s farm. I don’t have many established peonies, but she does. Most of the time, I load my arms up with peonies and more peonies. I’ll try to save some, wrapping them in plastic wrap to store in the refrigerator. This method works okay, but sometimes I’ll save them and the petals will fall off. I’ll be looking for another method for 2023. The trip I made to my mom’s, though, I used a variety of flowers. Festiva Maxima Peony. Sarah Bernhardt Peony. A single pink peony. White Dill Ammi. American Legion Poppy. White Rhododendron. Fern leaves.
We bought a variety of roses, which arrived in April, potted up, and then planted in mid-May. April’s season was just a swamp and mud hole in the flower garden, so we didn’t get much planted in mid-spring. We had to wait until we had better conditions. We bought two David Austin Roses- Tranquility and Olivia Rose. Lowe’s had hybrid tea roses on clearance, so we bought about seven, but one did die. We rototilled a new section, amended the soil with bone meal, laid down 6’ wide landscape fabric, held it down with cinder blocks, and burnt the holes to lay down above the roses.
For the first time, I used 6’ wide plastic landscape fabric, held down with cinder blocks. In some I used 6 rows, 8” apart, for snapdragons, lisianthus, and dianthus, while in other ones for zinnias and marigolds, I used 5 rows, 9” apart. I may have burnt the holes too big, because the weeds grew up through the holes. Nonetheless, it cut back on weeding tremendously and created a more enjoyable garden. Laying down landscape fabric is much easier than laying down newspaper, Preen landscape fabric, or mulch. It cut the time for my weed preventive measures in half.
In June, I entered some hanging baskets and cut flowers into a local town fair. It was a small fair, so I did receive plenty of 1’st place wins. Although it was an early fair, it was less stressful being outside of peak flower season. The greatest lesson that I learned was that although I was still learning with my cut flowers, I was still on the right path to growing flowers and creating beautiful arrangements. That may if I did sell flowers at the local market, that it might work.
Summer Flowers
In Early July, yellow Asiatic lilies and Cherokee Sunset Rudbeckia were blooming in the front flower beds. Lilies were planted the previous summer. Rudbeckia seeds were sown there as well, but these rudbeckia did not bloom last season.
Near the fourth of July, I created a small arrangement with a Scarlet Peony Poppy, Covent Garden Baby’s Breath, and Blue Monday Sage Salvia.
My front porch had one theme with its flower garden.
Petunias. In containers. Hanging baskets. Petunias everywhere.
I began Balcony Mix from Baker Creek from seeds, starting indoors. I did create a video on how I did this. The germination rate was crazy. I gave loads away and planted a lot myself. The one thing I wish I did different was pinching when the plants were young to encourage branching. Not pinching created more of a tall stem, which I did use in some cut flower arrangements. I did save these seeds, so I am hoping to plant more again this coming season. I also had double petunias in every hanging basket. These were the same flower as the hanging basket that I gave to my grandmother in 2021.
In early summer, I arranged my first vase arrangement for the 2022 season. I did this for my own home. I loved it. Going against the norm of flower farming, I don’t treat my cut lilies as annuals. I let them grow the first year, and then I’ll begin harvesting the second. This yellow Asiatic lily is a second year. The bouquet also has blue Monday sage salvia, Johnny’s Potomac snapdragon, and baby’s breath.
Within a week, I was contacting the local farmer’s market to start selling cut flowers. My bouquets consisted of lilies, baby’s breath, snapdragons, poppies, and ferns. I didn’t know how well they would sell, especially the ones that only had one lily in bloom with the other ones just waiting. They all sold! I couldn’t believe it. I was ecstatic. And soon was selling bouquets weekly.
My second week, I had more variety of blooms available. Indian Summer Rudbeckia. Johnny’s Potomac and Madame Butterfly Snapdragons. White Dill Ammi. Double Dutch Rose Cosmos. Pacific Mix Statice. Ivory Princess Calendula. Blue Monday Sage Salvia.
At this point in the third week of selling, I began wrapping bouquets and advertising on Facebook to the local marketplaces. I sold $10 mixed bouquets and $5 pro-cut sunflower bunches. This also began when customers would share how long their flowers had lasted and would send me pictures of their bouquets at home. Selling at the farmer’s market began teaching a huge lesson, especially after the government shut downs the two years before. Socializing with your neighbor loves your neighbor and it helps your spiritual health. Even for an introvert where socializing can drain any energy I had, having one on one conversations with customers was enjoyable.
As to growing sunflowers, I love growing heirloom to attract pollinators and how many volunteers I get from them. But for cut flowers, pro-cut varieties are absolutely beautiful. I grew Orange and White Nite.
Near the end of July, the flowers would bloom beautifully. The flower garden itself was an oasis to visit. Most of the time picking flowers for bouquets, I just loved the time being with the flowers.
August, Mid to Late Summer
By the time I was prepping for the Farmer’s Market in August, my cats became part of the process for making bouquets. Did the help? No. Did they provide moral support? Ha, maybe. Did they provide supervision? Yes. Of course they did. My process includes laying stems on the table and having buckets of flowers on the chairs. And losing chair space to my supervisor.
In a hanging basket, I also grew an apple blossom double impatiens. I love impatiens for one, but any bloom with double the amount of petals, even more beautiful.
In late July, I hosted a bouquet making class. We used peony stems for the base greenery, sunflowers and zinnias for focal flowers, and dahlias zinnias, cosmos, and marigolds for supporting flowers.
By late August, the days were becoming shorter, but the flowers kept up in their blooming season. Some of my favorite stems were in bloom at this time in the flower garden.
By September, the summer blooms were still thriving. We didn’t have any extra early frosts and the weather was still summer-like. Warm sunshine with many sunny days. Dahlias were in full swing for a couple of weeks and I was getting my late summer flush of roses.
Fall Flower Garden
I refuse to call the beginning and middle of September fall. The weather is still relatively warm. My summer flowers are still blooming amazingly. And it is technically still summer. I wait until the end September to admit that it is officially the fall season. In 2022, fall began on September 22. A week into the fall season, I was mainly left with zinnias, marigolds, and dahlias.
The roses were blooming in early October in shades of peach and red. I love the peach ones. I love the color, and oooh, the scent. It is beautiful.
Some cool flowers that bloom in the late spring or early summer season were blooming in the warmer, frost free fall. Iris. Snapdragons. Calendula. Baby’s Breath
Sometimes though the beauty of the fall garden is not the growth of new plants, but how the plants are coming to an end at the right time in the right season.
The container arrangement I planted in the spring consisted of a pink, purple, and yellow petunia with a white Superbell. By the end of the season, the Supertunia Vista Bubblegum from Proven Winners overtook all the other plants. Definitely a vigorous plant.
I kept thinking it would frost after I made my last bouquet. But my last bouquet kept coming and coming. The heavy frost never destroyed my cool hardy flower quite yet. My final last bouquet was made from snapdragons in November 2022.
Ending the year, we started building a greenhouse for spring. We planned for it to take a weekend and maybe and extra day. We worked on it the Sunday after Early Muzzleloader season in what felt like summer or early fall weather. Then the next weekend, and the next. The cold, rainy season started around Veteran’s Day, and we were still working on the roof. We could have worked on it again during our false spring, but after having negative degree weather with ice and snow, we took a rest and decided to continue building it during spring.
