2019 will be my fourth season of seriously growing and selling cut flowers from the farm. My little flower field is part of On the Vine at Richmond Farms, a small veggie farm in the heart of Fort Collins, Colorado. I am obsessed with growing flowers! I grow beautiful flowers and love the process of starting with miniscule seeds in the greenhouse and transplanting to the field and filling the beds with riots of color. But this year it was time to take a look at the business side of flower farming and take steps to grow the business so more can share in the bounty and the beauty of locally grown flowers.
It started with completing the Floret Online Workshop. Each module looked at a different aspect of flower farming, and I found it so valuable to reflect on why I love growing flowers and how I want to share that with the community. I will be trying some new growing techniques and felt validated on the ones I was already incorporating into my flower farming.
I also put together a flower plan to scale. Every hole that will be planted in my field has been identified by variety of flower and all my seed starting dates are outlined. This was a huge task covering many days, and real estate, in the front room of the house. Post its, graph paper, colored pencils, glue sticks everywhere, and days spent repositioning plantings from one bed to another. Are all my spacings the same in a row? Are all my netted flowers together in a bed? Do I have room for succession planting and perennials? So many details involved in the planning, but now that I have a visual map I know exactly where everything will go and when.
The most daunting task came in the last couple of weeks – building a website. Not only is it technically challenging, but also scary to put your heart on a page for others to see. Determined to grow and learn, I jumped in with both feet! I wanted to make sure that visitors to my website left with a feeling of being welcomed to the farm and wanting to enjoy the flowers as much as I do.
My goal is to bring you to my farm so you can enjoy the beauty of local flowers – up close and personal. Learn about flowers that are new to you, and revel in the ones you’ve always loved. Smell the sweet peas growing on the vine and watch the butterflies dance among the zinnias. If visiting this website makes you want to stop by the farm, then I have achieved my goal.
See you at the flower farm!