Planning ahead for flowers

Part of a flower farmer's job is to take fastidious notes and implement lessons learned for the following season. As strange as it may sound, the lessons I learn from spring take effect almost immediately. In North Texas, almost all my spring blooms come from fall plantings. And those seeds, corms, and plugs must be ordered now to arrive in the fall. Blooms for spring 2024 are ordered as spring 2023 winds down.

We've always sold to designers and florist shops from our very first day, but since deciding to expand our offerings to them, we've had to transition our crop plan. This means the crops we grow must be premium flowers which are hard to get via traditional wholesale shipments or are in high demand. Some flowers that are plentiful and inexpensive for florists to purchase (think bells of ireland, carnations, alstroemeria and even lilies) aren't very profitable for us to grow. We're also thinking less of a field that can grow all the elements of a bouquet and instead envision a field that grows only the special elements. Less foliage, more focal. So here's some varieties we're growing more of in 2024 and ones we're letting go from previous seasons.

Butterfly ranunculus. These beauties get beat up in shipping, so a fresh local product is nearly undeniable. They also fetch a nice wholesale price that helps us pay our bills. :p The cherry on top? They fare much better in the heat than traditional ranunculus. We're doubling our crop for 2024. T