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Ep. 49: Sustainable Flower Farming & Extending the Growing Season with Little Hollow Flowers
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In Episode 49 of The Backyard Bouquet Podcast, we sit down with Dustin Saunders of Little Hollow Flowers, a specialty cut flower farm nestled along Colorado’s Front Range. Dustin shares how a fallen ash tree unexpectedly led him and his partner, Kate, into flower farming, and how their diverse backgrounds in landscaping and biodynamic vegetable farming shaped their approach. We discuss season extension techniques, the challenges of farming in Colorado’s extreme climate, and their passion for growing dahlias, ranunculus, and unique perennials. Dustin also shares insights into building a thriving farmer’s market presence, working with the Colorado Flower Collective, and the importance of supporting local flowers over imports.
If you love growing flowers, sustainable farming, or supporting local blooms, this episode is a must-listen! 🎧
📍 Follow Dustin at Little Hollow Flowers: https://littlehollowflowers.com
📍 Instagram (@littlehollowflowers): https://www.instagram.com/littlehollowflowers/
Show Notes: https://thefloweringfarmhouse.com/2025/03/04/ep-49-little-hollow-flowers/
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Backyard Bouquet Podcast, where stories bloom from local flower fields and home gardens.
Heartfelt Journeys of Flower Farmers
00:00:08
Speaker
I'm your host, Jennifer Galizia of The Flowering Farmhouse. I'm a backyard gardener turned flower farmer located in Hood River, Oregon.
00:00:17
Speaker
Join us for heartfelt journeys shared by flower farmers and backyard gardeners. Each episode is like a vibrant garden, cultivating wisdom and joy through flowers. From growing your own backyard garden to supporting your local flower farmer,
00:00:32
Speaker
The Backyard Bouquet is your fertile ground for heartwarming tales and expert cut flower growing advice.
Guest Introduction: Dustin Saunders from Little Hollow Flowers
00:00:39
Speaker
All right, flower friends, grab your gardening gloves, garden snips, or your favorite vase because it's time to let your backyard bloom.
00:00:56
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of the Backyard Bouquet podcast.
The Beginnings of Little Hollow Flowers
00:01:00
Speaker
Joining us today is Dustin Saunders from Little Hollow Flowers, a specialty cut flower farm along Colorado's Front Range.
00:01:10
Speaker
Dustin brings a rich background in farm operations while his business partner, Kate, a landscape architect by day, blends their passions to cultivate unique and sustainable floral offerings for their customers.
00:01:22
Speaker
Little Hollow Flowers is dedicated to enriching the local flower market with diverse, sustainable, and environmentally conscious farming practices. From their organic growing methods to their commitment to their regional climate, they ensure every bloom is not only beautiful, but also beneficial for the earth.
00:01:41
Speaker
On today's episode, we'll dive into how their personal journeys and professional expertise influence both Little Hollow's flowers, mission, and operations.
00:01:52
Speaker
Dustin, welcome to the podcast. Hey, thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. Yeah, we appreciate you joining us today. It's so great to be able to chat with you and learn more about you and your farm. So if you don't mind just kind of taking us back to the beginning, i always love to ask our guests, how did you get started with flower farming?
00:02:12
Speaker
Yeah. So my partner and I, Kate, we both have been interested in plants for a long time. And we're those people with perennials and kind of vegetables. And there was a year that we were living in Boulder where actually this big ash tree fell, hit our house. Ooh.
00:02:29
Speaker
opened up about 40 feet of new garden space. And at the time we hadn't really grown a lot of cut flowers per se, but Kate bought a bunch of dahlia tubers and we kind of just like started in this funny little patch on the sidewalk. And it kind of grew
Finding the Perfect Farm
00:02:45
Speaker
from there. it really like radicalized us on dahlias, especially in,
00:02:49
Speaker
slowly started to kind of consider like doing this for a living and look for farms for two years until we kind of found the perfect spot that had a big existing greenhouse. And it all kind of happened just by chance. But we always joke, it's all thankfully from that one ash that fell and kind of smashed into our house.
00:03:08
Speaker
Wow. isn't The earth or the universe was really trying to send you a message. It's true. How long ago was that? um That was about eight years ago. So we had about, we had a winter and a fall to really prep and we really kind of hit the ground running where we bought the farm.
00:03:27
Speaker
We laid out a bunch of rows and did a ton of broad forking and built three hoop houses all that first fall before it froze. And We knew if we were going to do it, we wanted to kind of go into it with a good amount of infrastructure ready, just given our climate.
00:03:41
Speaker
So we had that one fall to really just kind of like prepare and get some things in place. And we continue. We've learned more every single season since, obviously. And it was kind of a cool first way to get going.
00:03:55
Speaker
Sure. So were you already farming or did you have a farming background before buying your farm? I did not. I had worked in landscaping some and my partner had worked at some biodynamic vegetable farms. So she had a little bit more of a background in like kind of classical farming, but kind of our combined experience put us in a pretty good spot to kind of jump in and try to take on all the things we had to learn that were new to us.
00:04:25
Speaker
There's a lot of growers in your area. I'd say probably more vegetable growers. What made you dive into flowers? um I think just an interest in plants. You know, there, it's one thing I love about flowers is it's very intricate and there's so many special little rules and, you know, the diversity within the crop selection in flowers is really, forever kind of a puzzle and you can always improve on it. And I think just the challenge and the idea of like how, you know, how many different things you get to interact with botanically was really kind of the, and you know,
00:04:58
Speaker
It was really kind of the inspiring thing about flowers for us.
Challenges and Opportunities in Colorado's Climate
00:05:03
Speaker
Sure. They are very intriguing to so many of us. um When you found your farm, is this also in Boulder? Because you mentioned that the ash tree fell on your place in Boulder. Is that where you're located now?
00:05:17
Speaker
No, we had to move about 30 minutes north. We're actually in Larimer County by about 40 feet. But yeah, we moved just outside a little town kind of in between Fort Collins and Longmont that's called Berthid.
00:05:29
Speaker
Okay. We're tucked away kind of off a little back road and there's a bunch of cottonwoods and it's kind of a secret little spot. So it was quiet and perfect for what we wanted to do. have family in that area. It's so pretty out there, but also cold. It's January. We're speaking right now. What's your weather like?
00:05:48
Speaker
Today, thankfully a little bit warmer, but we just went through a pretty real cold snap where it was negative 15 at night. And Colorado is kind of like trademarked by the extremes. I think that's part of why the climate is kind of tricky for plants in general is it's, you know, by July, it's 100 degrees and very dry.
00:06:07
Speaker
But in the winter, we can see as low as 20 below and it just makes it all kind of little bit of a tricky challenge to plan and plant things and deal with the ever kind of shifting conditions.
00:06:20
Speaker
Those are some extreme temperature changes. We're about 22 degrees today and I'm freezing outside. I can't even wrap my head around negative 22 degrees. That's just so cold.
00:06:31
Speaker
And we get into the hundreds here too. So, um, I think think as climate the climate warms, we're all getting or having to get used to those swings and temperatures.
00:06:42
Speaker
Can you help us paint us a picture? What does your farm look like? What's the environment? What's your growing zone? Help us understand your farm a little bit better. Yeah, so we're zone now.
00:06:55
Speaker
I know they're kind of redesignating, but I think as of now, we're still 5B. And it's cool. The land itself is five acres and we live on the farm. And rather than a big kind of one flat piece of acreage, there's a lot of small kind of satellite zones where there's an upper acre that has winter water access.
00:07:17
Speaker
And up here we have a ton of, we have one big heated greenhouse, which we do early rounds of ranunculus and then start all our seeds. And then we have five cold frame farmer friend ah cat tunnels.
00:07:32
Speaker
Okay. And so most of the spring and kind of late winter, the season kind of starts in the upper area and then works down. And kind of down the hill is there's two and half acres of field grown annuals and dahlias.
00:07:47
Speaker
And in between is this really interesting, cool, unique part of the farm that is these massive drifts of woodies and native shrubs and fruit trees. And we call it an orchard, even though I don't know if it's defined as such, but it's pretty cool. So each zone kind of has its own character and there's a lot of topography within the farm, which kind of breaks it up and makes it kind of neat and have some personality.
00:08:11
Speaker
That sounds awesome. You're at the base of the Rocky Mountains, is that correct? We are, yeah. Pretty much any day we look west, if it's clear, we're looking right, undisturbed, straight at Longs Peak. So it's an amazing view, and we're on that classic kind of like step area where we're right at the foothills of the mountains.
00:08:31
Speaker
I'm always amazed at how many sunny days you guys get. I feel like every time I come to Colorado to visit family, it's a bluebird day in the middle of winter, and I can't believe it. Yeah, it's definitely, we're we're grateful for all the sun. It's nice.
00:08:45
Speaker
Does that help your growing? Are you able to extend your growing season because of the sun, even though it's so cold? Or how does that work? I think, yeah, it definitely does. Like we get a lot of winter light. The days are a little bit shorter, but given just the extremes in climate, you know, we want to grow a lot of this stuff that really does better with a cold start.
00:09:05
Speaker
And our season four, those things like ranunculus and anemones and some of the sought after spring stuff kind of comes on in a flash and is gone as quick because by mid June, it's getting so hot. They kind of shut down.
00:09:20
Speaker
So being able to grow in the winter and like utilize a lot of season extension has been super fundamental
Season Extension Techniques
00:09:26
Speaker
for our business. And we do so much covered, protected growing, because it allows us to really make use of that sun and some of that heat exchange and tunnels in this cold winter period.
00:09:37
Speaker
So that's definitely the name of the game here is like extending that season on either side in any way you can. So how are you extending those seasons? Do you have to have heated hoop houses or just the sun warms them up enough? How are you managing to grow in these cold temperatures? so kind of in every way from the higher tech. like Our big greenhouse is double poly walls with inflation fans, and we do have a natural gas heater.
00:10:06
Speaker
But the hoop houses are just single layer poly. We do a ton of frost cloth. And really, it's it's that season where you listen to a lot of books on tape, and you uncover and cover every night and every morning. And It's kind of amazing what these plants can go through with one layer of frost cloth.
00:10:23
Speaker
think every year we get a little bit more confident and a little less worried and we're sleeping better without as much anxiety as we see them go through these cold snaps and make it. you know The plants are on our team and they're definitely tougher than I think sometimes we give them credit for. Yeah.
00:10:40
Speaker
Totally. I remember my first year growing ranunculus in Oregon and I put up just the small caterpillar tunnels. And I was so worried when we were dropping into the 20s and I have my thermometer in there and it's like 20 degrees and I'm thinking they're going to all die.
00:10:56
Speaker
and they made it and every year since they've been fine. But we had when we moved our farm this last year. I guess it was about two years ago when we lost our main growing space. Now, I didn't have time to do anything with my ranunculus other than I had already planted some, but i never got caterpillar tunnels up.
00:11:13
Speaker
They made it through almost negative 10 degrees with zero cover, not even snow cover, and still came back. And I'm thinking, I put so much time and energy to covering these and uncovering them.
00:11:25
Speaker
And yet, Here they are blooming with nothing. are they The stems didn't get as long without the hoop house or without the caterpillar tunnel, but they survived the cold temperatures with nothing. No no care for them at all. I mean, they were just thrown out to survive.
00:11:42
Speaker
We always joke there's that like Dahlia tuber you forget to dig that comes right back up. And it's a joke that if you do that intentionally, it will never work. But if it's accidental, it'll ah happen every time.
00:11:55
Speaker
Totally. Isn't that funny how that works? I had a poo dahlia. Like that was one of the first that were ever given to me that I kept around for so long until I got rid of all my open center dahlias and I would never dig it. And every year it just kept coming back and back until I finally dug it up. And the tubers were like the size of a giant tire because it had just managed to survive for so long.
00:12:19
Speaker
So I wish I could leave all of mine in the ground. You probably have to dig all of yours every year. We do, yeah. But that's it's kind of nice. It's the final part of the season. i think I like that sense of seasonality and like it's a good final kind of chore.
00:12:35
Speaker
And it like really marks the end of the growing season. And you can kind of like take your time and really like feel the cold and that this season has come to an end. So it's a good like period at the end of each season.
00:12:48
Speaker
i like that mindset. it It is nice when they're finally put to bed and you're like, I can rest for this season.
Winter Income through Dahlia Tubers
00:12:55
Speaker
And we do, we, um we sell a lot of Dahlia tubers as well, which has been a really great way to like make money in the winter and share the varieties that we're excited about. And it's been kind of cool. Some of the first tubers we ever got at the farm started from three to five and,
00:13:12
Speaker
We're dividing them now and inventorying. Our sale will be in March. And I think some of them now we have over a thousand tubers that all came from three. So it's cool to see them multiply and like continue the story and build your own stock and feel secure that, you know, they're not imported. They don't have disease. And like you've cared for them in ways that you feel good about and happy to share with people.
00:13:36
Speaker
Absolutely. I always say that Dahlia math is my favorite kind of math. Yeah. It's always so exciting to dig them up and see how many have multiplied from the previous year. It's amazing how that works.
00:13:48
Speaker
For sure. So how many dahlias do you guys grow? um We grow about 3,000. Okay. And we've scaled down just a little bit and we're kind of streamlining a little bit of, I know you mentioned you kind of phased out singles, but I think the further you go, especially if you do a lot of wholesale sales, you kind of like begin to grow more of less things and we've really kind of,
00:14:10
Speaker
We're very interested in the ball forms. They work really well. They're really like long lasting. We do a farmer's market. So that's a big part that's important to us. And think we have about 15 varieties. We're growing in pretty big mass, like up to 300 per variety that we really like and have really performed well for us. So kind of fine tuning.
00:14:32
Speaker
That is a lot of certain varieties, 300. Can I ask, what are some of your top varieties that grow for market? um We grow a lot of kind of classic stuff. Cornell bronze, I personally believe, is like you know God's gift of Vidalia. It makes a million flowers. The color is really like in vogue. It works really well. We really like rock-run Ashley.
00:14:55
Speaker
It's like... dusty pink kind of nude color works well for floral work and for markets. You have a really cool white that is Ferncliff Pearl.
00:15:06
Speaker
That's from Ferncliff Gardens in Canada. And it's a great white ball with like just a little hint of blush in the center. And it's kind of become our single white ball we're throwing at this point.
00:15:18
Speaker
Uh-huh. It's so much nicer to have just a few. Like for a while, I was over 100 varieties. And I think other than what I'm breeding myself, I think I'm down to about 30 varieties because I would rather grow quantities since I wholesale my flowers.
00:15:33
Speaker
It's a lot easier to say, oh, I can give you 100 Cornell Bronze than I can give you ah mixture of five here and three of this and perhaps and whatnot. Always sad to phase out old favorites though.
00:15:46
Speaker
I always have them in their loss. Yes, I know. So what are your personal favorites? Do you have any? I really like some of the interesting mauvey ones, like Jowy Winnie.
00:15:59
Speaker
and We've been growing this one called Cecil that is a little bit more of like a kind of rust mauve hybrid. It's very neat and kind of a great color, like a bridging kind of bicolor.
00:16:11
Speaker
And Kate loves singles. She still is on the single team and she loves Totally Tangerine and Apple Blossom and Sandia Brocade and some of these really special kind of, you know, really floral like design forward singles.
00:16:28
Speaker
They are really beautiful. It depends on what your market is. If you have the market where you can do those for floral designs, they're such beautiful ones to grow as well. For sure. So let's talk about your market. Where do you send your flowers?
00:16:42
Speaker
So yeah. um so um Yeah.
Local Sales at Boulder County Farmers Market
00:16:46
Speaker
So we do kind of a breakdown where we're about 75% wholesale and then everything else, we go to the Boulder County Farmers Market.
00:16:56
Speaker
And so we're at the Boulder County Farmers Market in Boulder every Saturday. And we just moved to that market last year. And it was um an amazing transition, really great experience.
00:17:07
Speaker
It's cool. It's producer-only farmer-focused market. And so the application in getting accepted is pretty specific. They're very diligent about submitting crop lists and everyone growing everything they sell.
00:17:23
Speaker
And there's food and flowers and mushrooms, and it's just really centered on farmers and agriculture. And it's really unique in that aspect. And we've been really grateful to be a part of it. The people that run it are amazing and the customers are amazing and they really want to support local growers and It's been a really cool reaffirming experience to get to bring these kind of fancy wedding flowers to the public and you know make them available to people at the local market.
00:17:54
Speaker
That's awesome. We've talked about the fact that you grow dahlias and ranunculus. Are you growing a wide mix of flowers that you're using to make arrangements for, are you selling just bulk flowers at the market?
00:18:07
Speaker
um A little bit of both, but we definitely do a lot of, we used to do a lot of weddings. So we definitely kind of do some fussy farmer's market design work where we do a big bouquet, a mixed bouquet, and then a small kind of petite one.
00:18:22
Speaker
And we're still like hand spiraling European hand tied style, you know, pretty painstaking with each one gets wrapped in brown paper and our sticker and Kate is really good and has a really great kind of vision for each week she picks two different color palettes.
00:18:41
Speaker
And so we kind of offer a little bit more of a soft kind of like whimsical romantic one. And then one that's a little bit more colorful and edgy, but she does a great job of like writing the lists for harvest and really kind of envisioning these two palettes. And think people really enjoy the kind of options and this curated look.
00:19:00
Speaker
That's awesome. And you probably have a very niche market there in Boulder County. We definitely do. People, they know a lot of flowers and they really, they're so committed to local and farmers that you see people with just huge wagons full of food and mushrooms that want to do the same for flowers. And it's been cool to see people put flowers in that same camp as food and kind of just validate this idea that like,
00:19:27
Speaker
Each industry has room to improve and like, have less of an impact and like what worked with food and wine is working with flowers and it's people are right there with you. So it's been really cool to see.
00:19:39
Speaker
That's awesome. Do you see more of a local presence at your farmers market? Or is it tourism based? Would you say? Definitely pretty local. ah Okay. You get some visiting. It's a university town, so you definitely see some people, their parents, and but you see a lot of the same people that have been coming there for 35 years and you know have been a part of the market as customers since you know the 70s or 80s.
00:20:05
Speaker
It's cool. There's some real loyal local advocates in the city.
Storytelling through Seasonal Flowers
00:20:10
Speaker
What would you say has helped build the loyal following that you have at the farmer's market? How have you built that customer base over time?
00:20:21
Speaker
I think one thing that has really helped is kind of really driving home that idea of seasonality. And the whole show starts at the market opens in May.
00:20:32
Speaker
And we just have loads of ranunculus and anemones. And people love those flowers. They last really well. And they really are excited about them. They're not as typically available. But as the season goes on, that's where we grow ton of perennials and a ton of kind of like untraditional cut flower stuff.
00:20:53
Speaker
And I think people really have come to really value and enjoy that kind of like story we're bringing them along of the season. I know this year we had this huge crop we'd been really excited about of these columbines, these double flowering pink petticoat.
00:21:09
Speaker
And they're biennial, so we'd been waiting whole year to see them. And they're amazing. And we were as excited about them as anybody. But to the response at the market was amazing. People were, they had never seen them. They were so excited about them. And I think that kind of like returning week after week to see like, what does this kind of small snapshot of July or August look like?
00:21:33
Speaker
It's kind of a big thing for people because they're You know, you get to see such a wide range of flowers within a season and it's pretty fun for us. And it seems like people share that excitement to kind of go on the journey with you.
00:21:47
Speaker
That's awesome because you don't get that if you go to the supermarket, you're going to find the same roses, the same daisies, same baby's breath week after week. Absolutely. So you mentioned that you grow some specialty cut flowers and perennials. Can you mention a few of those?
00:22:04
Speaker
I think in general, the farm is moving more towards like, it's moving more towards kind of like an incubator where we can experiment with different plants. And with Kate's background in landscape architect, she comes from a lot more garden based.
00:22:20
Speaker
And so she has this this wealth of knowledge of perennials. So we're always growing new perennials and trying new shrubs to see like what could functionally be good as a cut flower and like what's application is low water or low maintenance and like how does it fit into the farm.
00:22:39
Speaker
And some things we've discovered that were new to us that aren't as typically celebrated, Sanguissorba has been a really great kind of whimsical perennial for us.
00:22:52
Speaker
What is it called? Sanguissorba. And people, the common name people call it burn it. But we all joke that it's like raspberry on a stick.
00:23:03
Speaker
But it's these little almost kind of like raspberry balls on these whimsical kind of witchy stems. And it's great. And we've been growing a lot of grasses.
00:23:15
Speaker
We're really into the like Calamacrostis, the Korean feather reed grass. Sea oats has been really cool. Penstemon is one we really love. It's like native to Colorado.
00:23:26
Speaker
Super tough, needs very little water. There's a lot of varieties that are really cool. And shrub-wise, we love ninebark and smokebush, mock orange.
00:23:37
Speaker
We're doing a lot of ah Apache plume, the Fallujah paradoxa. And it's almost like a mini smokebush plume on stems. And it's a plant that I'm obsessed with, threatening to just turn the whole farm into Apache plume world.
00:23:52
Speaker
So cool. You might have trouble moving that many stems. It's true. It's true. Can you dry any of those perennials? Yeah, you can grow ah or dry a lot of them.
00:24:03
Speaker
So it's kind of cool. We do a lot of wreaths at the end of the market and it definitely works really well for dried stuff as well, especially a lot of the foliage, which is kind of a little bit of a surprise, but a lot of, especially the woody shrubs, dry really well for fall wreaths and stuff like that.
00:24:19
Speaker
That's awesome. And that probably extends your season because in Colorado, your season can end very quickly, it seems. Usually that first week of October. So definitely kind of that same story on the other end, trying to extend in any way you can.
00:24:34
Speaker
When does your market season end? um We're through, they actually go through the third week of November, but we go till the third week of October. And we just kind plan that last one will be this big wreath event. And we've been slowly making wreaths for the last month or two. And we kind of bring them and it's this big fun last market.
00:24:55
Speaker
And so you grow even the branches for those wreaths? Yeah, they everything. Yeah. So it's been great. Awesome. And then your clients can have flowers until the market reopens again.
00:25:06
Speaker
Exactly. And we do do, um in the heated greenhouse, the last couple of years, it's been ah fan favorite from everyone on the team. We've started to grow these amazing heirloom mums.
00:25:17
Speaker
Oh, right. Mums in, I think in the first couple of years we had this idea of mums or stigma of mums, but heirloom mums have like fully opened our eyes to like, they're absolutely incredible.
00:25:30
Speaker
And i look forward to them as much as I look forward to like dahlias or lisianthus or anything during the season. And they come pretty late in November, but they're the last big display of flowers we'll have. And they've really blown our minds. They're absolutely incredible.
00:25:47
Speaker
So are you able to keep those in the ground year after year or do you have to propagate them and start fresh every year in Colorado? We do. we ah We're on the cutting, the big cutting mission. So we store the mother stock and then kind of late winter, we pull them out and start forcing rooted cuttings.
00:26:06
Speaker
Okay. How do you store them? um We wrap them in frost cloth and put them in this root cellar. It's remarkably less fussy than dahlias or something that traditionally takes a little bit more kind of work to store. They seem to store pretty well.
00:26:21
Speaker
So we don't overthink it. We just kind of wrap them in crates in frost cloth and then pull them out and they come back from dormancy and start putting on new growth. That's amazing. Do you have any favorite chrysanthemums?
00:26:34
Speaker
there's a There's one that's called River City that is one of the irregular incurves that is just massive and the color is incredible. And I think that's the one that really blew my mind and fully made me a mom person.
00:26:49
Speaker
I had the opportunity to go to Japan in November. And in Tokyo, they had this display going on at this garden of chrysanthemums. And I've never really been that into chrysanthemums until I walked row after row after row.
00:27:04
Speaker
And I just kept thinking, oh my gosh. And I went down this rabbit hole of looking and River City is one of them that's on my wishlist now. So now I might just have to buy it now that you've mentioned it's your favorite. You should give it a go. it's It's pretty astounding.
00:27:17
Speaker
They, yeah, I, well, my problem is we don't have a hoop house yet to keep them. And we usually, well, we've had a frost as early as end of September, but as late as November. So it's one of those things without cover.
00:27:30
Speaker
It's a really hard investment around here. can I think that's the tricky thing. like If we didn't have a heated space in this climate, I don't think that we would be... I think you could risk going right up to bloom and then just getting torched. So it works really fun. We've always been trying to figure out what to flip the ranunculus into in our heated tunnel, because the summer it can be 100 degrees every single day in there. And We've grown celosia and stuff like that, but like what the real high dollar use of that tunnel was, we never really could figure out. And then we gave mums a try, not even knowing whether they would tolerate that type of heat or not.
00:28:09
Speaker
And they did great. So it was just kind of one of those happy accidents that like now we grow mums after ranunculus in the greenhouse. So in the same tunnel, you can flip the bed when the ranunculus are done and then put the chrysanthemums in.
00:28:23
Speaker
Yeah. And the timing works pretty great. Do you save your corms for the ranunculus or do you start fresh each year? um We generally start fresh each year. um We definitely, we love growing a lot of the elegance and the stuff from owning.
00:28:39
Speaker
and So we tend to just set our clock and order when they open and try to get what we know we love and try a couple new things. It's always fun to see the new varieties.
00:28:50
Speaker
They've made so many advancements on the different varieties. They're just incredible these days. Yeah, it's it's super fun, I think, as a grower to like try the new things and change things up. and We grow a ton of ranunculus. I think this year we'll grow between butterfly and standard ranunculus, close to 10,000. Oh, wow.
00:29:11
Speaker
We grow a great deal of them. So it's it's fun to have those ones you know, like the elegant salmon. Absolute winner. We love it. The color's great. We can depend on it.
00:29:22
Speaker
But then there's new things. We're growing some... ah Edney bulbs this year, this wedding pastel I've yet to see. I'm quite excited to see. We're growing a new butterfly, this Aris that's kind of a double kind of coral color.
00:29:37
Speaker
So it's those those little things and changes that keep it interesting and keep you excited to see them when they bloom. Absolutely. So that's a lot of ranunculus. You mentioned you wholesale your flowers, ah big chunk of your flowers. so Are you selling to florists or to a collective? Where do you sell those?
00:29:56
Speaker
Yeah, so we do a little bit of both. We kind of started... In the way most people do, we brought flowers around and kind of cold-called florists and said, this is what we're growing, this is who we are.
00:30:08
Speaker
And thankfully, Colorado, we feel so lucky to be in a place where there's just a huge amount of event, where there's a massive amount of weddings. The local florists are really interested in local flowers and really committed.
00:30:21
Speaker
like We feel so grateful that The plants that we get to grow are the ones they're often interested in as well. And we're just really tracking with like colors and interest. And it's a really great place to grow cut flowers right now. There's just a ton of energy for local flowers.
00:30:40
Speaker
And so now we do kind of direct sales to a handful of florists that we've worked with since the beginning. Some of it's standing orders where it's just kind of pick what's best or some of them shop from an online shop we run. And then the rest we bring to the Colorado Flower Collective, which is an amazing ah co-op that's run by this woman, Stephanie.
00:31:02
Speaker
And she's a grower and she's worked as a florist and she kind of just understands both worlds. And I think now they have 165 buyers in the Denver area. Wow.
00:31:14
Speaker
And there's 24 farms, kind of all sizes and interests. And it's been amazing. It's like a really great local wholesaler that the quality is really high. And it's been ah really great experience to kind of see it grow and grow with it.
00:31:30
Speaker
So have you been with the collective since the beginning of it? ah We started the second year. So the first year that she started was really kind of small. And that second year was kind of really the year she went in big and since has moved locations a couple times and built bigger coolers, brought on more farms, but always kind of stayed true to that real quality.
00:31:53
Speaker
above quantity and that little kind of special stuff you can't get at wholesalers. You know, these special varieties and those perennials that are there for two weeks that are just kind of like a real small, real special moment in the season.
00:32:08
Speaker
That's awesome that she can get you to Denver because Denver is just far enough away from you that it's not like you could spend your day driving a van from shop to shop in Denver. But if you have someone else that's promoting your flowers, you can be outgrowing your flowers or harvesting them and continuing to sell more.
00:32:27
Speaker
but sure. It's about an hour or so it is. It's nice to bring the bulk up. once a week, Tuesday drop-off. And Stephanie's like, she pre-sells the majority of it.
00:32:38
Speaker
And then you can bring extras. So that part is neat because if there's something that just started blooming or came on real hard, you can bring extras. And then for the folks that go and shop, they get to shop the extra cooler, which every time I drop off, I go and look at the extra cooler myself just to look at flowers, see what's in there. You know, it's super fun.
00:33:00
Speaker
That's awesome. So people actually come to the collective and can shop what's available there versus ordering online. Yep. She does. She has an online store. So you pre-order and you can up at the collective. But when you arrive, there is this huge amount of extra stuff to shop from. So they offer delivery, but it's definitely like advantageous to go yourself and get to see all the special little stuff that's available.
00:33:26
Speaker
That's amazing. So do you personally know the other farms? Is there like a outside of the collective? Do you collaborate together for your area?
Collaboration Among Colorado Flower Growers
00:33:35
Speaker
We do. that's That's a really cool thing about this region is like there's a ton of flower farmers and there isn't a huge amount of competition or you know you don't feel like it's them versus me. It's more like It's this local flower kind of energy and it's the option opposed to the wholesaler.
00:33:56
Speaker
And we personally are friends with like almost all the growers and we make a big point to get together and hang out. And most people are a part of the ASCFG.
00:34:07
Speaker
We've got a... Helen from Artemis is now the regional director for the Southwest region of the ASCFG. So it's great. It's a really accepting, supportive community. People are happy to share information. and it's such a unique, specific climate that That's one of the things, especially early, that was really helpful was, you know, not all 5B is created equal and getting to talk to people that had a little more experience in this field than us. And people were happy to share info and we've kind of followed suit. Just make it more about community than competition.
00:34:42
Speaker
I love that. I think that's awesome. Helen was a recent guest on the podcast. So awesome from Artemis. Yeah, she was full of knowledge. Great person, great grower. Yes. um I was supposed to go visit her farm a few weeks ago, and unfortunately, illness fell through our family and we had to postpone our Colorado trip. So maybe now that I'm talking to you this time, when we come back to Colorado, the next time I can go visit both of your farms and up do a follow up for the podcast with both farms.
00:35:12
Speaker
That'd be awesome. And we're about 15 minutes apart. So you can... Okay. Super close. yeah Totally. That's awesome. I think you guys are on each side of but my family that lives in Colorado. One thing that I think is super neat that I was just having a conversation this morning with someone in the flower industry is so often ah hear newer growers say,
00:35:33
Speaker
They'll reach out to me and say, oh, i'm not I've got a question, but I'm not trying to take business away from you or they're nervous that like I'm going to look at them as competition. And I think that we still have this mindset shift in most of the country that needs to take place that really are other local growers are in our competition, our competition is that import market because we only represent about 20% of all flower sales in the U.S. and 80%.
00:36:01
Speaker
I don't know the exact number, but it's close to 80%. I've heard it's between 78% and 80% of all sales of flowers in the U.S. are from imported flowers. So if we collectively work together, we can increase our presence of flowers. So I love that that's what you guys are doing in Colorado.
00:36:19
Speaker
Absolutely. I think um it really blew my mind early on. We had like a evening with a bunch of wedding designers that did really big, high budget weddings.
00:36:30
Speaker
And a lot of the farms were still kind of early and in smaller renditions or iterations of their size. And I remember one of the designers saying like, you know, during peony season, we would need so many bunches of peonies that we would buy everything you have and still need a hundred more.
00:36:50
Speaker
and i think it really opened my eyes to this idea of like how much ground we still have and can cover, you know, like there's so much traction and room to improve on the local flower, like, and move that percentage in the right direction.
00:37:06
Speaker
Absolutely. Well, was talking with a friend who works on the import side of the business, and she was just talking about that full volume where it's hard for them to even source from some local farms, local U.S. farms, because we don't produce the volume.
00:37:21
Speaker
But that's where a collective like yours works. can really come in is because if you can pull your dahlias together, if someone needs 2,000 dahlias for some grandiose wedding, you might not have 2,000, but I bet your collective together could fulfill one of those orders.
00:37:38
Speaker
For sure. It's cool to see. i mean, that everyone contributing to those big orders and then later getting to see some of the event photographs of this is where those 350 white dahlia bunches went. It's pretty cool to see.
00:37:54
Speaker
That's really awesome. I love that Colorado is doing that. It's such forward thinking, which I feel like is also the case with sustainability. i feel like Colorado really leads the charge on supporting local businesses, but also sustainability, which is another key aspect of your business. Is that correct?
Sustainability and Adaptive Planting Practices
00:38:13
Speaker
It is. And I think there's a lot of people that have that mindset and are interested in that conversation. But I also think it's a byproduct environmentally of the conditions we grow in and just kind of the greater state of the American West in general, like the real score is water and there's less of it.
00:38:33
Speaker
And the growing is changing when there's less access to water and it's dry and it's hot and we want to keep doing this. We love this way of life. We love growing plants. We're forever intrigued by horticulture and growing cut flowers, but we have to kind of amend the ways we're doing it to suit these changing conditions. And how do you do that? is It's a tough question, but a really valuable, worthwhile question of how do we keep growing plants in a really dry, arid region with less and less access to water?
00:39:07
Speaker
So how are you doing that? I think part of it is the selection. i think that's where more and more this kind of interest in perennials and native or regionally adaptive plants comes in.
00:39:21
Speaker
know What can we grow that doesn't ask as much as some of the traditional water-heavy use cut flowers? you know And how can that limit our use of water so that we can take the water and put it at the things that really, really need it?
00:39:36
Speaker
But we can really plant some tough plants that really don't need to be babied in the same way because they're just regionally so much more inclined to these conditions. And that's been a big conversation we have here is, you know, how do we break what we're growing into these different categories of things that tread lighter, knowing that if you grow cut flowers, you're going to have to grow some things that, you know, need a lot more inputs.
00:40:01
Speaker
How do you balance it with plants and selections that are little more self-sustaining? Absolutely. We have a grant for our new farm. We're getting about a thousand trees and woody shrubs that are all native to Oregon.
00:40:16
Speaker
And when I was talking to our ah local conservation district, they were telling me that for about the first five years, we'll need to water. But then they said afterwards, these plants won't need any water. And I'm thinking even in a hundred degrees, like in the middle of summer, and they're like, no, they're root systems.
00:40:32
Speaker
They're designed to grow here. And I was thinking, wow, how amazing that I won't even have to worry about irrigation for this section of the field in five years because their roots will be deep enough and acclimated. They're they're meant to grow in this weather.
00:40:49
Speaker
so cool. Yeah. It's going to be a matter of just changing our mindsets because, like you said, I could plant something that I have to water every single day or I could plant something that's already capable of growing in this region without the need of extra water.
00:41:04
Speaker
I totally agree. I think that's where that kind of changing our mindsets is coming in. And there's a lot of room for experimenting. That's kind of the the marriage of the work Kate does as a landscape architect and growing cut flowers.
00:41:21
Speaker
We've kind of tried some new different approaches that were a little less traditional row crops. And we're doing a lot of these interplanted rows of perennials that We'll do a grass, a shrub, and like an herbaceous perennial where we did a row last year that was meadow rue, sanguasorba, Korean feather reed grass, northern oats with columbines on the exterior.
00:41:50
Speaker
And what we're seeing is that same kind of concept of a lot of gardens of that architecture and support within the root systems. And that kind of plant matrix has really strengthened those plants as opposed to monocropping rows of perennials.
00:42:06
Speaker
where we've seen rows of even native echinacea like palata that we rode out in a totally normal traditional farm way. And then we've seen ones we incorporated into more gardens and kind of xeric spaces.
00:42:20
Speaker
And almost every time the xeric garden ones that are supported by this matrix of plants have been taller bloomed more often. And there's really something there.
00:42:31
Speaker
I think there's really a lot to learn from you know these different aspects of horticulture, gardens and landscape design that can be incorporated within to our cut flower growing.
00:42:42
Speaker
That's really fascinating. It's almost like companion planting when you talk about and different things for pest control or ah like Lisa Mason Ziegler's book, Vegetables Love Flowers. um What do you think is causing that? Is it the way that their roots are weaving together? Or I'm probably not saying it in the right scientific way to ask the question, but what what do you think is contributing to the success of these rows?
00:43:10
Speaker
I think it is. I think it's kind of the support that's imparted by the diversity of roots. And kind of that architecture of plants, you know, some things provide a little more shade or protection from the wind.
00:43:24
Speaker
think it's almost like anything, you know, diversity is strengthening. It breeds a lot of strong qualities and you put different things together and you get a great result as opposed to a singular crop kind of asks the same question and is susceptible to the same kind of challenges where you put them together and you kind of create an entire new dialogue.
00:43:48
Speaker
I'm just thinking off the cusp of my head here. In terms of harvesting, does it take a lot longer to harvest when they're intermixed like that? It does a bit. But I will say it's a lot more kind of some of the most fun harvesting.
00:44:02
Speaker
It feels really whimsical. And there are these, we always call it experiential rows because you're kind of like, you're cutting a lot of things and it feels more like you're in like a botanic garden than, you know, like black landscape fabric zinnia row, you know? So it definitely slows down. It's not as efficient in the sense that you're just cutting and going, but I think it's well worth the added time just ah to have the diversity.
00:44:29
Speaker
So do you have that interspersed throughout your farm or is that like in one of those zones that you have created on the farm? It's kind of slowly seeping out everywhere where we have rows down in the bottom field of annuals. Now we have a couple of these interplanted rows.
00:44:47
Speaker
And then each year we add another kind of garden space that is pretty large. And generally we like grow all the perennials from seed and get excited about some plants that may not even function as cut flowers, but we like to say plants for plants sake, just plants to look at and for pollinators and habitats.
00:45:07
Speaker
and see what works. And if something works really well in a garden, then we'll consider to grow a bunch of it in a row. But more and more, there's we're just filling up as much of our ah farm with perennials as we can. We're often joked that we just want to start like a botanic theme park in the end of the story. And that's really what we're doing here.
00:45:26
Speaker
That would be beautiful. So you mentioned that each year you're adding something new. What is on the horizon for this year? We've been seeding a lot of Digitalis right now. We've been tons of foxglove.
00:45:41
Speaker
There's probably five new varieties of true biennial foxglove and actually a perennial one that is hardy down to zone, i think, four. Wow. It's Digitalis Obscura.
00:45:55
Speaker
And we will I think they say it's sunset is the one that we're growing, but it's a really beautiful kind of colorful foxglove that is hardy here, which is totally new and totally different. So we're really interested right now in foxglove and steepa grass is another new one that we're growing that I'm quite excited about.
00:46:19
Speaker
What does that look like? um They call it ponytails. it's It's almost like a smaller version of like a pompous grass. or huh But it's a cool, amazing kind of whimsical grass that we're yet to grow here, but I've seen at the local botanic garden and got really excited about.
00:46:39
Speaker
Fascinating. I love that you keep mentioning whimsical because one of my words for this year is whimsy, trying to add a little bit of fun. We've spent the last two years kind of tearing down and moving the farm. So now it's like, okay, let's add a little bit of fun.
00:46:52
Speaker
So I'm taking some notes here and might have to incorporate some of these into our farm. That's a great word. So you also have people come to your farm or are you strictly wholesale in the farmer's market?
Market Focus and Consumer Support
00:47:08
Speaker
Yeah, for right now, we are. We're just wholesale and farmer's market. kind of went through that trial and error and kind of said yes to everything in the beginning and found what worked for us. And we did a lot of weddings and bulk buckets. And that is one of the great things about being in a region with a lot of great growers is even now that we don't offer those services, we have a lot of friends who do.
00:47:32
Speaker
Mm-hmm. been able to kind of find what feels good and works for us and is kind of our lane and it's farmers markets and wholesale. That's great.
00:47:43
Speaker
And you're going into your eighth or ninth season this year? So it'll be eight. Yeah. Eight. Okay. So you've got some good experience under your belts. What advice would you give to our listeners that are just getting started this year?
00:47:58
Speaker
I would definitely say like reach out to other growers, even if they're not growers of flowers, if they're veggie growers or they grow fruit trees. like Get to know and communicate with people that grow plants in your region as often as you can because those relationships, are so they have so much impact on your skill and your business and just the camaraderie of dealing with the same conditions, the wins and the losses that you that come from forging local relationships. They're huge.
00:48:30
Speaker
ah That's great advice. We've talked lot about the importance of local flowers today. How do you think as flower growers or consumers listening to this podcast who just grow their own backyard gardens, how can we help advance the local flower movement?
00:48:49
Speaker
That's a great question. I think supporting local growers not only in the purchasing of their flowers, but if you're a local gardener or plant enthusiast, try to find those tuber sales or those seed sales or those plant starts.
00:49:08
Speaker
Try to find that veggie farm that's really trying to fund the early part of their season where they don't have a ton of money coming in selling those tomato starts. And think it's that classic, like we vote with our money and throw some money at the local folks and get great plants and knowledge, get to know them, talk about plants in the process. And rather than spend that money at somewhere like Home Depot or on plants that are brought in from California, like seek out those places. You can get that stuff locally in this kind of win-win scenario.
00:49:42
Speaker
That's great advice. I always find that plants or seeds that come from my local area always perform better also and it seem healthier and stronger because they haven't had to go through the stress, especially plants. They haven't had to go through the stress of being shipped through the mail and flipped upside down by UPS or FedEx.
00:50:00
Speaker
well They're tougher. They are tougher. The Western climate. Yeah, yes. Especially when they're deprived of water or they go through those cold temperatures.
00:50:12
Speaker
So I love
Connect with Little Hollow Flowers Online
00:50:13
Speaker
that advice. Thank you. So for our listeners that would like to learn more about little hollow flowers, where can they find you? So they can find us at littlehollowflowers.com and Instagram just at littlehollowflowers.
00:50:30
Speaker
And then every Saturday, come and say hello if you're from Colorado or happen to be visiting. We're the Boulder County Farmers Market and we'd love to chat about flowers with you. And that's May through end of October? Yeah, May through October.
00:50:44
Speaker
Awesome. Well, Dustin, thanks so much. Is there anything before we say goodbye that you'd like to leave our listeners with today? Yeah, just get excited about plants in general.
00:50:54
Speaker
I think those small kind of moments that are happening in the periphery that often we're moving a little too fast to see, like slow down a little and celebrate those moments when that two or three week period when the milkweed is really hitting and it's on the side of every road, pull over, check it out, celebrate that moment in plants. And that's important, cool stuff.
00:51:17
Speaker
Great. Thank you so much. I so appreciate you being on the podcast today. And we can't wait to watch as you grow out even more of your farm with these perennials and perennial gardens that you're creating that are different from the traditional rows. So that's really exciting. Awesome. And thanks for having me.
00:51:37
Speaker
Our pleasure. Thank you so much. You have a great day. Take care.
00:51:42
Speaker
Thank you, flower friends, for joining us on another episode of the Backyard Bouquet. I hope you've enjoyed the inspiring stories and valuable gardening insights we've shared today.
00:51:53
Speaker
Whether you're cultivating your own backyard blooms or supporting your local flower farmer, you're contributing to the local flower movement. And we're so happy to have you growing with us. If you'd like to stay connected and continue this blossoming journey with local flowers, don't forget to subscribe to the Backyard Bouquet podcast.
00:52:12
Speaker
I'd be so grateful if you would take a moment to leave us a review of this episode. And finally, please share this episode with your garden friends. Until next time, keep growing, keep blooming, and remember that every bouquet starts right here in the backyard.