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June 26th 2014

Resources

Written by
Floret

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There’s nothing I love more than sharing what I know and demystifying things that seem complicated but are actually really simple once you know the basics. From growing techniques, to planning and strategy, to creating natural looking arrangement without the use of flower foam…the resource section is my pride and joy!

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In it you’ll find two bouquet how-to’s, three flower growing articles and two heartfelt essays. This is only the beginning!

As we go forward there will be many, many more resources created just for you including some short how-to videos, more floral demos, growing articles and anything else we can dream up to help you on your flower filled quest. So, keep your eyes peeled for future additions.

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Now, I’d like to hear from YOU!

What kinds of resources would you like to see in the near future? What are you dying to know or needing more help with? How do you want the information delivered? Through videos, articles, step by step how-to’s?

Here’s your chance to put in a request. Let me know in the comment section below what you’d love to see in the resource area in the coming months!!!

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36 Comments

  1. rebekah on

    I love your blogs and everything you write trying to aspire others! It’s beautiful you wanna share your gift!!

    I for sure wanna learn more about planning a growing season (when to grow what and when to start more batches of flowers and what flowers don’t need to be planted more than once ect) I didn’t know to start them in the winter and which will bloom earliest and stuff. I definitely need to learn to plan a growing season and to keep it up and going until the next winter :) your how to’s are easiest for me! Thanks so much!!!

    Reply
  2. anton on

    good website,I’d love to see more video tutorials of table arrangement and bouquets

    Reply
  3. Abbie, Door Blooms Flower Farm on

    Pinching! This is one thing I feel like a dumb dumb with. What Varieties, how to pinch, when to pinch…pinch pinch pinch. I feel like I need to be pinched awake when I’m looking at your work, its dreamy. Love it.

    Reply
  4. Tracy on

    Inspiring and beautiful website. Amazing!
    Pricing- on bouquets and weddings, CSA, all of that, I really struggle with. I want everyone to enjoy and afford my flowers… But at what cost? This is so difficult for me, always a guessing game. Many thanks- you are such a gift.

    Reply
  5. Lennie Larkin on

    One question that is asked time and time again in the Facebook flower growers’ group as well as on the ASCFG bulletin board is what to pinch, when, and how hard. For myself, I don’t find it to be intuitive and have probably done the same searches a million times to see what others do with a particular flower. This might not be enough info for a whole blog post but more of a list or something, but could also include info on what to do if some varieties are blooming really short (people always ask if there’s anything to be done – if they can pinch at that point or if it’s too late, or what they can expect for regrowth/side shoots if they do pinch out the central bud).

    I’ve really enjoyed your posts on your favorite fillers, how-to’s for specific flowers (the low-down on snaps was particularly helpful), and trials you’ve done. Thanks so much!

    Reply
  6. Christine on

    Hi – I recently found your website and love everything about it. I just looked at one of your step by step guides. I love all the gorgeous pictures. I think videos are the best ways I learn how to do things if I can’t learn in person. Thank you!

    Reply
  7. cori on

    Love your blog and the help it gives a newbie, a retired 2nd career newbie. My biggest problem is when to pick flowers to give the customers the longest possible vase life. Also, love your how to grow intensively. Big thank you.

    Reply
  8. Catalina on

    Love your website, it’s such an inspiration! I’d love to see more video tutorials of table arrangement and bouquets.

    Reply
  9. Tanis Clifton on

    Wow Erin….you’ve gotten some great topics here. Looks like to me it is time to write a flower how to book for all of us! I can’t wait to learn all of this goodness from the expert!
    Thanks for all that you so willingly share.

    Reply
  10. Vera on

    Thank you, Erin, for sharing your experience through your clearly written posts rich in useful details. I am not a professional grower but I grow lots of cut flowers and have written several articles on flower growing for Dutch gardening magazines. Our climate is pretty similar and I find your articles very useful. One of the things I would like to know more about: how do you fertilize your flowers?

    Reply
  11. Website on

    Hello Erin! I just want to tell you that your passion inspires us all. The time and effort you put into your blog is amazing. Thanks!

    Reply
  12. Cathie on

    Hi Erin…

    I know that you have your beautiful flowers available at markets in Seattle… I live so very close to you on Camano Island and wondered if you would ever consider letting me come to the farm and purchase flowers there? I am designing the wedding florals for my nieces wedding in August and your flowers would be amazing in the bouquets!

    Reply
  13. Kirsten on

    Love this blog as is…but, since you asked, I would love to now varieties and planting how tos, and how to prepare flowers for longevity in arrangements. Videos would be cool too. I think everyone above covered the gamut of everything else. Can’t wait!

    Reply
  14. Beth S on

    Erin, thank you so much for everything you do! You are the hugest inspiration, and when I start my farm next season flowers will be a part of it because of you.

    I just want to echo the interest in the small details: plating schedules, harvest & post harvest handling… all of the little things that it’s hard to know about until you’re deep in it.

    Thank you for growing so much beauty & inspiring us all to do so as well!

    Reply
  15. Angela on

    Thank you Erin for everything you do and for all of the effort you put into sharing. As a farmer myself, I can’t imagine how you find the time!! Since you’re asking…

    I’d love to hear the nitty gritty about your harvest systems, from your bucket washing set up, to how many people you have and what each person is doing, are you grading as you harvest for various outlets, or you harvest everything and grade later, how the flow of flowers and buckets happens, does everything go right into the cooler or into the shade first, then a few other steps before in the cooler, what gets harvested on certain days and why, are you bunching everything into 10 stem bu and they breaking apart anything you decide goes to your own bouquets, or are you harvesting your bouquet/wedding work a different day or separate from your florist sales…everything. And anything you have figured out about efficiency!

    I’d would also like to have more information on how long things are holding in the cooler (w/ or w/o adding anything to the water, whatever you practice). This is one of the biggest questions I have as a new flower grower.

    I would love to have all of your growing for market articles in one place, and be searchable!!! Are you allowed to re-publish those on your website? I spend so much time going back through each magazine looking for the one little detail I can’t quite remember.

    What you are pinching, when and how hard.

    Some financials – if you are willing to share. Pricing and standard for various outlets and different crops/products, what you’re grossing, how many people work with you, how you are pulling it off and making this profitable, how would you do it differently financially if you could (invest in different infrastructure sooner or later, take out big momma loans or not, hire staff sooner, but a better delivery vehicle sooner, etc)

    Reply
  16. Julie F on

    I am writing up my business plan for a more earth friendly floral shop. I would love ideas on earth friendly techniques. From designing to sterilizing reused containers for my vase recycling program. You guys are so awsome. You have been a huge inspiration.

    Reply
  17. Lindsay S. on

    Wow! Where to begin…First, thank you for your continued generosity. I would not be where I am today with my flower farm without you. My immediate need is in regards to weddings. I was scheduled to provide flowers for my first wedding this Saturday only to find out a two weeks ago the client decided to use silk flowers (my heart is broken). Anyway, do you have some sort of contract for your clients?

    Thank you again for your generosity and time.

    Reply
  18. Rachel on

    How about planting biennials? When, what, field/hoop house prep, varieties, sources, spacing etc. Same for must have perennials and woodies.

    Reply
  19. Marga on

    I love your new website and what you do. Thank you for being willing to share with us all. What I would really like to see are step-by-step instructions for growing specific plants – like you gave us with the sweet peas. “How to grow (insert flower type)” instructions for each of the beautiful flowers that you grow and we want to grow – especially which varieties you use, when you start them, how you succession plant them, what you feed them and how to harvest and post-harvest treat them. That would be wonderful.

    Reply
  20. Sharon on

    I’d love to have a conditioning segment on principles of how to condition flowers before making arrangements. I know that different flowers require different kinds of conditioning…are they any across-the-board generalities that hold true?

    Reply
  21. Evangeline M on

    I would like to know how you make a market bouquet in just seconds!

    Reply
  22. Terri Todd on

    What we need is “boots on the ground” management know-how.

    Planting schedules, crop rotation schedules, field and HH layouts for super-high efficiency.

    Your best-kept secret seed and bulb sources :). Have you found the bulb seller with the $20 tulip bulbs? OMG – such sweet obsession!

    How do you do it when everything needs to be transplanted out, rows need to be prepared, flowers need to be harvested, flats sowed, seed and bulbs ordered, ALL IN THE SAME 16 HOURS OF DAYLIGHT, by one person?

    We need techniques – how’s the best way to strip stems from various flowers? What’s the best way to set up the production line for mixed bouquet assembly? How do you get the rubber bands stretched out the length of stem? How do you keep the kraft sleeves from getting wet on the bottom?

    We need to know the 10,000,000 little, teeny things that you do to make it work so efficiently. This will probably include the things you don’t even consciously know that you know.

    MARKETING – there is an abysmal dearth of marketing information, other than social media marketing, in this business. This is so freaking valuable, it should be your next book – obviously, no one else has done it.

    I wish you could see, from out here, what you’ve done in the five years I’ve been following you. Thank you, Sweet Erin!

    Reply
  23. AMY on

    I love growing flowers etc in my own garden and arrange for family and friends. Could you share tips on how best to care for freshly cut flowers and foliage once cut. Morning v Evening cutting? Do you rest them in water for long before arranging? Do you make vertical cuts in woody stems? Do you make your own flower food? Sorry….better stop now!!

    Reply
  24. Amy on

    Wow, what a great opportunity for all us fans of your work!! One of the things I would like information on is when you think is the best time to pick, what you do to keep what you’ve picked in tip top condition before arranging i.e. do you do vertical cuts in woody stems and do you make up your own flower food….if so with what? This is just scratching the surface!!

    Reply
  25. Peggy Berkvam on

    I think your flowers are truly the loveliest I’ve ever seen.I can’t quite visualize the size of your flower farm . Do you devote one greenhouse to every type of flower you love? It appears you have many blooming in the fields as well. How are they so perfect? Just trying to get the big picture. I live in the Midwest and shade and clay are my frustrations as a gardener. I come to your site to find the overwhelming flower punch I need when it’s not in my garden!

    Reply
  26. Mikhaela on

    Hi Erin! Thank you for creating such a beautiful website for all of us to indulge in! Like many others, I would find a sowing calendar, ideas for how beds are laid out, and short how to videos beneficial. Thanks again!

    Reply
  27. Mandy! on

    Wow! This couldn’t come at a more perfect time! I’ve just finally flowers are where my future lies! I want to know everything! Especially how to start right from nothing, I’m very interested in starting a flower farm as well as floral design so please pass along everything you know! Whatever format you choose would be wonderful, but i love a good video! Thank you so much for offering up you invaluable knowledge!

    Reply
  28. Suzie on

    Hi Erin, how great to ask us! I would love to know how you created your business and what steps you took to grow it (pun intended!) when you were starting out. Love the new site

    Reply
  29. Taryn D. on

    I’ve got a complete blank slate of a field right now which is pretty intimidating. How did you come up with your layout? Why did you choose the size flower beds you did? Do you only use the hoop houses for added warmth or are their additional benefits? I’m in sunny california so I’m guessing I wouldn’t need hoop houses? I have SO MANY QUESTIONS! Sorry!

    Reply
  30. Leslie on

    I love the new site! You make it look like it’s always sunny up there!

    I’d love to learn more about growing greenery. I know you’ve mentioned you use cress and dock before. But I’d like to learn more about varieties, tips for growing, harvesting, etc. Also, I’m interested in what you do in terms of soil preparation/amendments, fertilizing and pest control.

    Reply
  31. Kelly Sullivan (Botanique) on

    Your new website is INCREDIBLE! I just read through all the articles in your resources sections, and am sure I will keep referencing them again and again. Thank you for all you do Erin- you are such an inspiration.

    Reply
  32. Rosemary on

    Hello Erin. Thanks for posting the arrangement how-tos — I had been admiring your beautiful, big compotes for some time — now planning to have a go. Would love to see more garden flower arrangement ‘recipes’.

    Reply
  33. Shari on

    Such a wonderful section! I can think of two things that I would find helpful (I’m a backyard gardener who grows flowers simply to make myself happy and spread cheer in the world. I give a lot of flowers and plants/starts away).

    1. Short little videos of you (or someone) building a small table arrangement.

    2. Information on where to buy footed containers for arrangements—both big and small.

    Reply
  34. Megan W on

    I would love to get an idea of your planting schedule. A sowing calendar would be a great resource!

    Reply
  35. Anin on

    Thank you for all you done. I love everything you do and every flower you are growing. It is inspiring me to grow my own one day!! I will keep reading every word and story you write !

    Reply

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