Cut Flower Production 90 minutes I. Introduction a.

So one main reason why you should incorporate cut flowers into your small farm is because it is the number 3 top commodity in North Carolina, generating about 900,000 a year. b. Cut flowers on your farm allow you to diversify what you are currently doing. Consumers like variety. When you go to the farmers market, bringing fresh cut flowers helps draw more attention to your stalls. The tremendous variety of plants that can be grown as cut flowers allows growers to choose those which are well-adapted to the farm site and grown without large offsite inputs plus it can help increase your farm income. What are specialty cut flowers? a. Specialty cut flowers, also known as old fashion garden flowers originally refers to species other than carnations, chrysanthemums, and roses. b. These include annuals, perennials, bulbous plants, and woody plant c. These specialty cut flowers can be grown in the field, in unheated hoop house, and in heated greenhouse. Before you can start, a tremendous number of choices must be made. Consider the following before you start planting a. Ease of Cultivation i. Some flowers need more care like Lisanthus whereas some are easier to plant such as sunflowers. This may be especially important if you are a beginner. b. Ease of handling i. Some flowers bruise or shatter easily, you will need to consider what kinds of flowers are easier to work with or transport. If you are taking the flowers to the market, will the flowers last while transporting? c. Color i. Consider the question, what is more popular at your market? What kind of colors mixes well? It has always been very good to consider colors fitting for the season. Take for example, yellow sunflowers work well in the summer, so you would want to be able to harvest in June or July whereas you would need to harvest red, oranges, and yellow color flowers in the fall. d. Vase life i. Some flowers have a short vase life. To get the most of your cut flowers production, you want to choose flowers that you know will for a long time and consumers love flowers that last a long time. e. Stem length i. Florist loves long stemmed flowers but some flowers are just naturally short. For example lily of the valley only grows to be about 12 inches and less. Choose flowers that you know you can work with. f. Local growing condition i. Consider the fact that some flowers don t grow well in our climate. Diversify slowly and test some new choices each growing season. Some might do super well where as some just won t work.

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g. Flowering Season i. Do you want year-round or season blooms? For flowers through the growing season, identify an early bloomer to start blooming in sync with of your market opening day or plant flowers that you will have until the market close. Also consider that some flowers are one-time cut flowers whereas some flowers can be cut multiple times. h. Demand i. There will be some flowers that sell really well at one market but not too good at another. Test new choices and focus on those that do better with the markets. i. Market i. How will you be selling the flowers? Will you sell it at your market in bunches or bouquets? Do you want to sell to local wholesalers or local florist? On the internet, or in CSA? Also consider the pricing would you get a better value if you sold to Wholesalers or florist? You can sell to wholesalers at a reduce rate if you produce too much and cannot sell all. 1. Subscriptions and CSA-subscriptions offer upfront payment for scheduled delivery of flowers but make sure you plan according. If you promise the consumer to have flowers until November, make sure you have flowers until November. 2. Cut-Your-Own/Roadside production Flowers are naturally attractive. If you do decide to do a cut-your-own production, make sure you meet the right requirements to reduce your liability risk. Pricing the flowers in a way that the consumer can easily understood. You will need to provide supplies for the consumer such as buckets or other containers with water, scissors for cutting the stem, and wrapping materials. 3. Retail Florist Florist will want flowers that are just beginning to open unlike farmer s market consumers, who prefer fully open blossoms. Most florists know exactly what they want and may need a fairly large quantity of a certain flowers. Some tips to sell to retail florist is to deliver in bunches of 10, so that it s easier to pull the flowers out of bucket without destroying other blooms; Use bucket with your name/label so you can leave them and pick up the following trip. 4. Wholesale florists the wholesale florist market is the most demanding as far as grading, uniformity, consistency and packaging. Wholesale florists assemble and make available high-quality flowers for retail florist. j. It might sound quiet tedious and troublesome to be making all these choices, but they will help you plan and develop a better crop production. A lot of the types of flower you grow are trial and error and you just need to focus on those that do best for you. IV. Before you start planting, make sure you do a soil test. a. Soil ph Flowers tend to like a little more acidic soil compared to vegetables. b. Maintain high yields (growth) By doing a soil test, you will be able to maximize your cut flowers and maintain higher yields. Routine monitoring can spot nutrient problems before they become nutrient deficiencies or toxicities

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c. Increase profit by maintaining a higher yield, you ll be able to increase your profit better. d. Unnecessary fertilizers just increase costs you don t want to overuse your fertilizer because it would just add more cost and take away from your profit. e. Soil Beds some flowers, like blubs or tuber need to be planted deeper than some flowers. Consider raising the beds for some certain lowers. By raising the bed, it would help with drainage and flowers like dahlias and tulips need a good area. Before you make your soil bed, you want to clean or take up the weeds in the area. It would be better if you could spray it with Glyphosate (Round up), this will help with reducing weeds in your flower bed. If you do not want to spray, you can cover the rows with mulch or plastic. During bed preparation, add organic matter at a rate of about 25-30 percent by volume of soil. This translates to adding about 3-4 inches of organic matter on top of the bed and working it into about 10-12 inches of soil. Fertilize a. Fertilize according to the recommendation of your soil test. Generally, the fertilizer requirements for new beds consist of adding about two pounds of 5-10-5 fertilizer per 100 square feet of garden bed area. Till this in at the time of bed preparation. Generally, the way, I ve always done it is to side dress it when the plants get a little taller, generally about 3 weeks after initial planting and once more before it blooms. Make sure you don t get the fertilizer on the leaves of the plant because it can damage the plant. Choose varieties that do better for you. a. There are many choices to choose from. You have annuals, perennials, and biannual. i. Annuals are plants that perform their entire life cycle from seed to flower within a single growing season. All roots, stems, and leaves of the plant die annually. 1. Sunflowers Long stemmed and long vase life, not hard to grow and cost to grow is relatively low. Great sell at local market for summer and fall. 2. Zinnias Allow for multiple cuts and comes in many different colors. Can be transplant or direct sow. If you do transplant, you have to start in March so that you can harvest the first crop as early as the end of May 3. Lisanthus--Big seller with wholesalers. Lisanthus have very long vase life and the stem can get long. Generally not a lot of different colors. The shades are usually pink, purples, and white. 4. Cosmos Don t last quite as long. Generally easy to grow. Consumers like this because it adds a natural touch to the arrangement. 5. Celosias/Cox Comb Long stem and long vase life. Easy to grow and very vibrant colors; the problem with this is that it sheds it s seeds easily 6. Amaranths ii. Perennials are plants that persist for many growing seasons. Generally the top portion of the plant dies back each winter and re-grows the following spring. When planting perennial plants from seed, blooms will be observe in either the spring or summer of the second and third year. 1. Black-eyed Susan substitute as sunflowers; some variety have a long vase life but most people generally like black-eyed Susan because it s easier to manage than Sunflowers

2. False Indigo/Baptisia comes in purple, white, and yellow; the foliage last very and makes very good greens. 3. Sedum long vase life, comes in shade of pink and red 4. Euphorbia gorgeous foliage, long vase life but it can cause some individual to have rash due to the milky substances that it release. 5. Echinacea-wild, natural look 6. Dianthus Early bloomer, long vase life, iii. Biennials are plant which require two years to complete their life cycle iv. Bulbs, tubers, and true rhizomes 1. Bulbs a. Tulip: plant in October, harvest in Late March, early April i. Comes in many different colors ii. Suggest planting new bulbs every year to get the good quality needed for cut flowers iii. Average length 18 in -24 in iv. Tulips are consider ever growing, after cutting the flower still continue to grow in the water stem continues to lengthen v. One time harvest b. Iris: plant in October, harvest in Mid April i. Two variety 1. Bearded (Rhizomes) This variety doesn t last quite as long for cut flowers 2. Dutch ii. Harvest when you see the first tip iii. Be aware of late frost; if the iris has already form the bloom, a late frost can ruin the bloom iv. Iris does not need to be dug up and replanted, plant will rebloom again with more the next year. v. One time harvest c. Lily i. Long lasting as a cut flowers ii. Can have multiple planting session 1. Plant in Early March for Late Spring Harvest 2. Plant in Early August for October Harvest iii. Varieties 1. Asiatic petals tend to me more delicate than oriental varieties 2. Oriental a. Fragrant-Some consumers might not like the smell; some are allergic to this smell iv. One time harvest 2. Tubers a. Tuberoses i. Popular with Customers ii. Should be dug up and replanted again

iii. Plant in Late April Harvest in August iv. Fragrant-Some consumers might not like the smell; some are allergic to this smell. v. Can be harvest until frost b. Dahlias i. Multiple colors, shape, and sizes ii. Popular Fall plant iii. Plant after frost iv. Bulbs Harvest Multiple times 3. True Rhizomes a. Peonies v. Wood cuts those that comes from bushes and trees 1. Hydrangeas 2. Bittersweets 3. Peach Blossoms 4. Virburnums