The worst thing about starting a flower farm might be planting flowers you regret. We planted our first cut flower garden in 2015. It has been a steep upward trajectory since then, as any beginning flower farmer can tell you.
Well, what I mean to say is that it has been a steep upward trajectory followed by several slides into midsummer apathy as we avoided our weed gnarled garden. We followed that up with procrastination and outright ignored fall cleanup while we opted to hold the couch down and binge “Call the Midwife” instead. We joke about things like flower PTSD, but it’s no joke. Not the flowers, and certainly not PTSD.
Sure, there are the luscious roses and velvety tulips. But when you are getting started with flower farming, they don’t always tell you about soil amendments, landscape fabric, cooler storage, greenhouses, and all the other expensive things you’ll need to do it right. It all flies at you at a rather dizzying speed.
But the worst thing about starting a flower farm might be planting flowers you regret. As you might imagine, we’ve collected unto ourselves quite a DO NOT GROW list in the last five years. Our reasons may be shrouded in personal prejudices and may not apply to you, but we’ll share them anyway. Shall we begin?
The Flowers We Are Not Growing In 2020
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While this is a popular flower with florists and we actually love it, there are several reasons we aren’t growing it this year. 1. They are difficult to germinate from seed and buying in plugs gets expensive. 2. We never have time to harvest and sell it because it blooms when we are in the thick of spring planting. 3. It is not a cut and come again flower in our zone.
Sweet Peas
Sweet peas are simply not suited to our zone, or our microclimate, or our Guernsey soil, or MAYBE JUST OUR GARDEN. We’ve tried. We’ve given them time. And they aren’t worth the effort anymore. (Sob) That being said, we ARE trying a variety this year that is bred for our zone. One last chance, guys.
China Asters
We were fooled by a dreamy Floret picture on this one, but we are older and wiser now. We’ve learned to google images of new-to-us varieties in order to see them in another, less favorable light. These may also be the victim of a difficult growing season a couple years back, but the memory of them stirs no joy in my heart.
Trailing Amaranth
Lit for a couple years, but who actually uses those creepy finger-like flowers? Our answer would be not us. Dad nicknamed them donkey tails. We think it fits.
Dusty Miller
We haven’t planted this one since our disastrous first garden. It takes forever to grow as tall as you need it to for arrangements, and as a spring greenery, that’s a deal breaker.
Scoop Scabiosa
This simply was not worth its weight in plug gold. We planted it one year for a June 30 wedding, and it bloomed 11 days after the wedding. Smooth, guys. I resented it and hardly used it the rest of the year. Admittedly a ME problem. One thing I love about scabiosa is that it produces a lovely seed pod to be used in fall wreaths, etc. This variety produces no such pod. It’s a travesty.
Poppies
See the sweet pea reasons.
Strawflower
I really wanted to love this one, but until we do more wreaths or get a lot more serious about drying flowers, this one is on hold.
Dahlias
We tried two new varieties last year that promptly got eliminated from our grow list this year: Black Satin and Cream De Cassis. The Black Satin dahlias produced terribly, and the Cream De Cassis we hardly used at all.
Zinderella Zinnias
Ya’ll, this is the prettiest little flower when it blooms like the pictures, but in a pack of 25 seeds you might get ONE plant that is as advertised while the rest have large brown cones in the center. It’s disappointing, and frankly not worth the effort.
Feathertop Grass
Seeing the dried grasses of October may have changed my mind about this one, but we didn’t care for it’s growing habits in the summer. We were after the seed heads, but the plants generously gave long, thick, path-obscuring fronds that were impossible to keep trimmed. And the truth is, when we planted it, we thought it would look more like bunny tail grasses. I suppose we should have just planted bunny tail grass, huh?
Truth is, if you’re not planting flowers you regret, how will you find the ones you love?
And even though we have culled and honed and curated our TO GROW list for 2020, there will likely be duds this year, too. Life is a continual process of learning, and if we aren’t trying new things and failing at least a little bit, we’re probably playing it too safe.
Here’s to planting lots of risky flowers in 2020!
-LaRonda
