Starting a flower farm (part 2)

Thank you for following along on this “starting a flower farm journey”.  You will hopefully be getting a farm update every month! Seed starting, soil amending, sprouting, failures they all will be documented for you.  Starting a flower farm has been….interesting.

Lots of beautiful pictures out there on line, of armloads of flowers, beautiful farm stands and lush farmers market set ups. Not so many of the mud, bugs, sunburns, sore backs, dead plants and early mornings and rejections. Rejections? Yes!!! Florists a little Leary of a small grower.
I think I am now considered a flower farmer and not just a massive flower gardener…Why? Well this year I plan to have…40 20 ft beds of annuals, 5 20 ft beds of dahlias and a 40 ft by 40 ft heirloom pumpkin patch!
While drawing out my plots and going through my seeds…..I am thinking” yikes I did it!” Year 3 and more then quadrupled in size.
You will find flowers at 2 new outlets this year. In one of those lush farmers market set ups (more information soon)…and participating in the Twin Cities Flower Exchange. Wahoo! They will still be local at Red Rooster Soaps and at the road side stand.  On top of that you will be able to buy my dried flowers (sustain-ably grown and chemical free) from my Etsy shop.

Ordering seeds and planning

Ordering seeds and planning when to start and plant them has been huge for me. I try to keep notes on when I started and planted them from year to year. This year I took a flower farming school online course and it was so helpful. Lisa, dives into the ins and outs of growing flowers. I would highly recommend taking this course.

Ordering and buying seeds.

Where your order or buy your seeds, is a matter of preference. There are a lot of good seed companies out there. If you are just buying a few packages of seeds any box or hardware store will have the basic flower seeds. Reading the back of the package will let you know if this is a good cut flower.
I have been buying my seeds from Johnny’s selected seeds  for a number of years and have been really happy with them. The variety of flowers seeds that Johnny’s has to offer keeps growing every year. Johnny’s website also is a great place for information on how to grow and when to harvest different varities.

Planning

Starting seeds is not all cut and dried. Different varieties have different germination times. On the back of your seed package you will find important information like, how long to start the seeds before your last frost, do you cover the seed or not? How deep to plant the seed. What kind of light it needs to germinate.
Find out when your last frost date is and circle the date on a calendar. You can count back from that date to find out when you should start your specific seeds.
I draw out my plots on graph paper.  This way I know how many plants I can fit into my prepared spaces.

What flower seeds are started so far

I have started a few seed already. Lisianthus is the slowest to grow. A lot of flower farmers buy the plugs because they take so long to grow. Have I had luck with them……well not super good luck. A lot of seedlings have been lost. We are hoping to end up with at least 40 plants this year…cross your fingers…to many seasoned farmers this sounds like a piddly amount but hey!

The eucalyptus seedlings are doing great. This is my first try at growing eucalyptus. So far so good.

Seed Starting

Here is some information on how I start my flower seeds. This way has worked great for me.
I have gotten amazing information from floret. From seed starting to what cut flowers are the best to grow. This website is a great resource.