Personal Notes
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We are in full bloom season! This means that most of our time has been spent cutting, with little energy to do much else. I’ve been using a lot of what I learned last week about cutting. Now that my site host is back from her convention, she was able to show me the areas where I can improve. I’ve learned that I’ve been cutting some stems too long. While long stems are desirable, too tall of a stem can be difficult to store. It is better to cut slightly shorter and to leave more foliage on the plant. She showed me that a good rule of thumb is to cut no longer than slightly above your elbow. This is the rule of thumb I’ve been using as I continue to cut.
She also showed me a more efficient way of recording the stems I cut. She likes to lay out sticky notes on the workbench with names of all the varieties we are currently cutting. As we bring in stems to process, we count the amount we cut and add it to the designated sticky note. We do this until we are done cutting for the day. Then, we add up the total of each variety we cut and record it on a printed-out Excel sheet. This allows my host to estimate how many stems of each variety are available at what times. This helps her plan the “bouquet recipes” she distributes to her clients. For the coffee shops she sells to, she uses bunches of five, usually using one of each of the varieties that have been in the cooler the longest. She taught me how to wrap the bunches. I learned that clients prefer wrapped flowers over unwrapped flowers, which is a good trick for increasing sales. First, you gather the stems in a rubber band and place the bouquet in the center of the wrap. You bring one end over the stems and tightly roll it until it’s in a tight, cone shape, and seal it with the brand sticker. There is definitely room for improvement in the quality of my wrapping!
Besides learning from hands-on experience, I’m finding a lot of my learning happens through the conversations I have with my host. I’ve been learning a lot about marketing through these conversations. She told me that having a successful business is contingent on knowing who your clientele is, who your competition is, and what personal values you want to hang on to. My host started building her clientele by walking into local businesses and asking if she could leave some of her flowers there, free of charge. This showed customers what she has to offer and built knowledge about her farm. I know very little about business, so it helps to see how other successful flower farms began.
I want to challenge the traditional idea of business. It seems like business people have to be competitive and cunning to have a successful business, which turns me away from the idea. However, I know competition is essential, especially to make a profit. I think back to what my site host said about finding my “personal notes”. For me, those would be staying local, small-scale, and sustainable. I want to hold onto my values when I step into business and marketing.
This brings me to one of the questions I have been thinking of lately: How do you make a living in the floral industry, whether it’s a flower farm or floral design? What licenses and taxes are involved, if any? There is also a lot of networking involved in this career field, so how do you make connections with clients and other flower farmers? On a much sillier note, my site host likes to sell things besides flowers at her pop-up shop and has toyed with the idea of making jelly from the peony petals, as peonies are edible. Naturally, this leads us to ask which peony varieties taste the best. Hopefully, we will have an answer to this next week.
Going forward, I haven’t learned anything too different from the past weeks. Instead, everything is building on each other. I am better at cutting peonies than I was two weeks ago. I know more about business and marketing than I did, as well. I know how to wrap flowers (though there is a lot of room to grow!). My site host has encouraged me to start jotting down ideas of what I would want my future flower operation to look like. This will be one of my projects over the summer, to take notes and observe what I like about my site-hosts operations and other operations I see. This will help me get a clearer idea of what I want my “personal notes” to be in the future.
Submitted by: Emzie Coop
Edits by: GrowinG Internship Team
