Farming is hard... but we can do hard things!
It is easy to romanticize flower farming and farming in general. Often times my farming is confused with gardening. Thought to be casually going about my day tending my land, playing with flowers and maybe dealing with a broken irrigation pipe. And I get it, it is easy to romanticize flowers. They by nature of existing are the epitome of romance. But flower farming is hard. It’s one of the hardest things I think I’ve ever tried to do. Mentally and physically.
You have to have a plan, otherwise you are 100% going to fail. Even having that plan doesn’t mean you’re going to have success. You better have a Plan B, C, D and maybe even E. Crops will fail, die because of an unseen hole in the irrigation, get rooted up by the neighbors pigs that break the fence or come into full glory just to be attacked and decimated by lygus bugs.
It’s not just dreamy field walks and harvesting gorgeous flowers. For every hour I spend out in the field planting, weeding, digging, cursing in the sun, I have to spend an equal amount of time sitting behind a computer screen figuring out how to actually sell the stuff that I hope grows, ordering, and planning.
When spring hit this year I thought I had a plan. I knew I had dramatically scaled the farm up and had over 5000 tulips, 600 anemones and around 1000 ranunculus in the ground just waiting to bloom. But when the ranunculus started blooming in March I couldn’t juggle all the balls. There’s marketing, harvesting, seed starting, weeding and planting that all needs to get done in a very short window in early spring in order to have a successful season. While working a full-time off farm job I only had time to successfully do a few of those necessary tasks. So planting and weeding fell to the wayside which means I’m here in May looking at a field full of basically just weeds, filler flowers and perennial greens. Not very exciting stuff and not really what I would call “romantic flower fields”.
Luckily, in Sacramento you’re guaranteed to find a small scale flower farm if you take a few minutes searching one of a few amazing data bases.
First is the Sacramento Valley Flower Collective at www.sacramentovalleyflowerective.com
Similar to Farm to Fork, there has been a growing trend of "Field to Vase" in the floral industry. That’s one of the key pillars of my business model, sharing and educating you about the amazing seasonal bounty that we can get from our local farms. Seeing a need for community and support amongst small scale flower farmers the Sacramento Valley Flower Collective was started. Now an organization of 40+ members that I have the honor and privilege of being the president of, this amazing group of humans has become my lifeline and will be for the next month or two. When I didn’t get plants in the ground in March it caused a big gap in my flower fields that I won’t recover from until late June when the lisianthus start to bloom. But luckily the Sacramento Valley Flower Collective has my back. It means I have to spend a Thursday morning at 5 AM driving a few hours and about 100 miles round trip to pick up flowers from another farmer friend but it’s a cost I’m willing to take on to ensure you get the best in season product I can give you.
By fostering and nurturing some amazing relationships over the last couple years I can easily fill gaps in my field plan by sourcing amazing flowers from some of my favorite people doing the same thing that I’m doing. I can buy amazing sunflowers from Pixie Dust farm just up the road in Yuba city. I can take a drive over to Rainwater Ranch in Winters to get some super adorable Gerber daisies when a friend wants a perfect pop of orange for their baby shower arrangements. And I can also call on Alcott Botanicals for whatever random goodness she wants to give me along with a big hug.
I can’t grow it all, all of the time but I do know who can and I will always make sure that I am promoting the best flowers around grown by the best people that I can find, keeping your money in our local economy. If I can't make your flower dreams come true the first place I will refer you too is someone from this amazing organization.
Other resources for finding local flowers near you include:
Floret's Farmer Florist Online Directory
If you are on the fence still about signing up for one of our monthly subscriptions just know that your money will never go further than I can drive in an hour and I will always know the person who grew the flowers!