Transcript
Jennifer Gulizia: Welcome back to the Backyard Bouquet podcast. I'm so glad you're here today. My guest today is Robin Blood. of B. Blumen in Godley, Texas, about 40 minutes south of Fort Worth. Robin grows flowers on 11 acres of limestone and sand in a climate where the summer deserts... best to kill everything you plant.
Jennifer Gulizia: And yet she still grows dahlias there. I am so excited about this conversation because... One of the questions I get asked so often is how do dahlias grow in the heat?
Jennifer Gulizia: And so much of the advice out there comes from people growing in much milder climates than Texas. Robin is successfully growing dahlias in the Texas heat.
Jennifer Gulizia: And here's part of her story that I keep thinking about that I'm so excited to talk about today. When she first sent her soil off to Texas A and &M to be tested, it came back with a sticky note on it that said,
Jennifer Gulizia: Is this the surface of the moon? Her husband Jeff broke up the limestone by hand and made six inches of workable soil. They started with about an eighth of an acre.
Jennifer Gulizia: and a Friday drive -thru bouquet stand. Today, B. Blumen is a wedding floral studio with a team serving weddings all over the Dallas -Fort Worth area. And I'm so excited for you to hear Robin's story today.
Jennifer Gulizia: So without further ado, Robin, welcome to the Backyard Bouquet podcast.
Robin Blood: Oh, thank you so much for having me, Jen. I'm so excited.
Jennifer Gulizia: I'm so excited too. I can't believe that I get to talk to a grower in Texas who can actually shed some light on what it's truly like to grow in the heat. I think. For us in the Pacific Northwest, we have no idea what.
Jennifer Gulizia: It really means to. have to deal with the heat.
Robin Blood: it's ah It's a different experience down here, for sure. You're very, very tan down here.
Jennifer Gulizia: I bet. Well, before we dive into your story, can you, in your own words, share with my listeners who you are? and a little bit about your business.
Robin Blood: Yes, absolutely. I feel like I and my business have evolved so much. um started off. as director of sales. I love business. I've been a part of small businesses since I was probably 15 years old. So I love that growth process. And then got into... farming. That was my first, my business of my very own.
Robin Blood: and realized in that process that I love. community and specifically I love other women. working together towards like a common goal and so I knew that I wanted to develop a team. off of that business and so we I'm a very good floral designer. Just naturally, I just.
Robin Blood: Thank goodness it happened that way. And so we got into weddings and events and designing and I kind of built a team around that. So yeah. business owner, farmer, floral designer. That's me.
Jennifer Gulizia: Amazing. You shared with me that your mom called you Bloomin' when you were a little girl, and that's now the name of your business. Can you tell me about your mom? and what How?
Jennifer Gulizia: how her gardening influenced your business today.
Robin Blood: ah Yes, absolutely. So my mom's name is Nagas. She is German, like born in Germany, half Turkish, half German. um My grandfather actually immigrated from Turkey to Germany and became a surgeon. And so she was raised there. And then my my father was military. So he met her over there. They fell in love um and he brought her back to the States. So I was raised, you know, in Texas, kind of army brat around Fort Hood. but in a traditionally very German household, which meant, um you know, structure. We had chores. We had we had a lot of rules um in the best way. It was a great childhood. But part of that also meant...
Robin Blood: There was a lot of gardening because. If you know Germans, they love to garden and not just like aesthetic gardens, but also functional gardens. So we had.
Jennifer Gulizia: oh
Robin Blood: cut flowers for the table and we had vegetables and we had a lot of herbs. And so, um, my nickname kind of came about it's Blume which is flower in German and that was kind of like it's a more of a common um nickname that you give, like a little girl.
Jennifer Gulizia: oh
Robin Blood: And then little boys, they generally get called Stanschen, which is like a little star. And so that was my brother and I was I was the flower. And um yeah, so. I just grew up around gardens, helping my mom take care of gardens. One of my first chores was picking snails off of all of her plants for a penny a piece.
Jennifer Gulizia: Oh my gosh.
Robin Blood: and Yeah. Yeah, it was, um it was great though. I had my own garden, you know, that she kind of gave me to take care of and manage. There are a lot of weeds in that garden, but. yeah i i just i kind of i loved getting my hands in the dirt even at that time and we lived in the middle of nowhere i mean there was not much to do other than like taking care of the property so
Jennifer Gulizia: That's amazing. So at what point did you go from... enjoying gardening as a child to deciding this could be a career.
Robin Blood: Yeah, so i I definitely skipped a few years in there. Like we, we i you know, always had gardens growing up. but I think. it kind of being my mom's thing, I felt like it was more her.
Robin Blood: you know, her responsibility, it was always a chore on my end. So it wasn't that I just, you know, it was like, oh, I want to do this for the rest of my life. um My family is more like. kind of go down the academic route and so i was fully prepared i was going to have a career um you know went to school started going to college kind of liked working too much like i like i said i've worked for a lot of small businesses kind of starting at 15 and i've only ever worked for small businesses so
Robin Blood: I was like, man, I could go to class or I could get a second job and kind of be a part of this small business. And I felt like I. picked up so much um every time i got a new job and so i actually ended up dropping out of college to work more.
Robin Blood: Which was a fine...
Jennifer Gulizia: Oh my goodness.
Robin Blood: Yeah, I know, which was a financial decision, too. I mean, college got expensive and I didn't want to do loans, but.
Jennifer Gulizia: Sure.
Robin Blood: um That kind of hit the family hard, you know, because. academics and immigrants and you know you just kind of think that's the next step. But I knew I would have a career. I just didn't know where it would be.
Robin Blood: and then um was kind of presented. a lot of opportunities. I got ah the director of sales position when I was 20 years old. So I was very young.
Jennifer Gulizia: wow
Robin Blood: But I... was good at what I did, you know, I could go around and and pitch a company and kind of tell the company's story. And um I love talking to people and I love like kind of like building clientele. And so It was a great job. I enjoyed it.
Robin Blood: but At that point, I had met my now husband, Jeffrey, and he was building this little cabin kind of like out in the middle of I again ended up in the middle of nowhere in Godley. And his pickup line to me was, you know, I'm basically retired. He had just gotten out of the Air Force and he was.
Robin Blood: going to school and building the house as he had money and once the house was built he was like i'm gonna I don't have to work for the rest of my life, basically. um And so because he was building it as he had money, you know what I mean? No mortgage. so I was like, well, this probably isn't going to work out because you're in the middle of nowhere. I want a career. I'm going to be a big, bad businesswoman. I don't.
Robin Blood: need all of that. and He's like, that's fine. I'll be on the land. And then I just fell in love with the property. So. we I ended up moving out here with them. And then the the traveling with the director of sales position started to get.
Robin Blood: starting to get more taxing. It felt like every time I left, it was it was taking more out of me.
Jennifer Gulizia: one
Robin Blood: And I think anybody who's kind of been in a position like that, where you just feel like it takes a little bit of your soul every time, every day, you just, it slowly eats away at you.
Jennifer Gulizia: Totally.
Robin Blood: And especially so young, I was like, oh my gosh, is this what? this career thing is like looks like am i going just going to be miserable for 20 30 years and um so we at that point I kind of started my own little garden as you do when you live in the country, you know, you.
Robin Blood: you start growing stuff because that's what you see on Instagram and Pinterest. And I started with cherry tomatoes. My mom actually gave me the little seeds for it and but It's actually so funny thinking back, like the cherry tomatoes grew amazing.
Jennifer Gulizia: uh -huh
Robin Blood: Go figure. They're cherry tomatoes. They grow amazing anywhere you put them. They're so tough. um But I thought I was just. amazing at growing. Like... a natural my goodness i barely did anything to these guys and were pulling cherry tomatoes off of the bushels like crazy and so i just thought i was a natural and so i loved gardening
Jennifer Gulizia: They gave you a good boost of courage and confidence.
Robin Blood: Babe. Confidence. Yes.
Jennifer Gulizia: I love it. so So you were still working when you planted those cherry tomato seeds.
Robin Blood: Yes. Yes, I was. kind It was kind of like a i so I guess it developed as a hobby. Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: Sure. I think a lot of us. In the flower industry, it starts out as that hobby. And I think what you said resonates probably with so many people feeling that. Your soul is being sucked out of you.
Jennifer Gulizia: You're 20 something years old.
Robin Blood: a
Jennifer Gulizia: and you're giving your life All of your time. I mean, time is our only... Thing that we can't ever get back. I mean it's so limited and precious that that corporate hustle really can be taxing so early on and I think our generation is maybe more in tune with it.
Robin Blood: yeah
Jennifer Gulizia: than past generations.
Robin Blood: and Yes. I think there was a... christmas i had to go down to austin to and my my brother's military to go figure a lot of military people right and he got to come home for christmas and i had already committed to leaving to go to austin to work and so i missed christmas with him And I was like, this sucks.
Robin Blood: this Like... You know, even me who wants the career and all of the fun, you know. I'm like, I It's not worth that. It's not worth family. Like, what is this even? We don't have kids yet, but like, what does this look like when we have kids?
Robin Blood: constant sacrifice. It was just not. I don't know. and And something about, I feel like being on a beautiful piece of property where it's quiet and you enjoy the person that you're with, you're like.
Jennifer Gulizia: man
Robin Blood: I feel like I should be present more. And that corporate hustle always puts you like out in front of people and impressing people and all of that stuff that actually doesn't even matter.
Jennifer Gulizia: Right. So at what point did you realize that that hustle didn't matter anymore?
Robin Blood: Scary. So I was the Jeffrey and I kind of like we've. constantly flip -flopped being the the breadwinner for the household. And so at that point, I was the primary breadwinner. and I was, we were still, you know, the house wasn't quite done yet because we moved into the house before it was done.
Robin Blood: all you know it's 800 square feet so it's very small and like do you really need drywall to live in a house like not quite right and so it had insulation so we were still you know finishing the house um And I, you know. you kind of started hearing the whispers of COVID. And I have a little bit of an OCD thing about me anyway, with like germs and all of that. And it started to get to the point when I would travel and I would get on the planes and I would go to these hotel rooms that I would get to the hotel room.
Robin Blood: and And this was before COVID. like probably the months leading up. I would start like wiping down the entire hotel room, like cleaning off light switches and faucets. And it was just like so bad for my anxiety. And it was just getting worse. And then we hear about all of this stuff at the beginning of 2020.
Robin Blood: um And so I. I remember thinking, you know, like I know flowers are a high margin cash crop because I'm keeping in touch with.
Robin Blood: you know, other small businesses in the area. Also, just I'm always I've always kind of had this like thing of building out businesses in my head. And so I was like, Oh, well, you know, the numbers kind of make sense when you put the pen to paper, and I love gardening. And so I was sitting at the bedroom, like in my bedroom, looking out the window, like getting ready to pack for another trip. And I saw my little you know, four foot by four foot tomato bed outside looking so happy and healthy.
Robin Blood: And I was like, I just want to stay here. I want to take care of my plants. I want to stay with my you know husband. I want to just. be here and um i went up to him and i was like i want to be a flower farmer.
Robin Blood: can I be a flower farmer? Could we do that? And he was like, Yep. if that's what you want. Let's do it. And so there was like never any hesitation. There was never any, you know, well, I don't know if the numbers are going to work like he.
Robin Blood: trusted my judgment on it, which is a lot of responsibility, but he trusted. you know, my call on it. And I Quit. I gave my two weeks the next day. And then we just kind of jumped into it.
Jennifer Gulizia: Wow.
Robin Blood: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: And you were you were the breadwinner of the family because he was building the house.
Robin Blood: Yeah. Mm -hmm.
Jennifer Gulizia: You had no fears about just.
Robin Blood: Yep.
Jennifer Gulizia: Quitting.
Robin Blood: Oh! I mean... I think we were young. it's It's hard because like looking back now, I definitely wouldn't tell. anybody. to do it the way we did it necessarily. But I feel like we're both, you know, we both come from athletic backgrounds too. So I think we're both kind of like all or nothing people.
Robin Blood: And so the idea of continuing to work while building this thing. it would have just That would have been the worst thing ever. kind of a half like one foot in, one foot out. i just don't operate like that i'm like a Let's talk about it 24 seven. Let's think about it 24 seven.
Robin Blood: um So I just I obviously we had to make a little bit of money. And so I got a job at a local nursery down the road. making $9 or $10 an hour. And then that was our income for the year we were building the farm.
Jennifer Gulizia: wow
Robin Blood: Ha ha!
Jennifer Gulizia: So did you literally just like have this light bulb go off? You're traveling, cleaning these hotel rooms and you say. I want to be a flower farmer? Or was it like months leading up to this decision?
Robin Blood: Yes. Good question. So I had, we have wildflowers out here, right? Like Texas, you know, blue bonnets and, and all of these beautiful things.
Jennifer Gulizia: Okay.
Robin Blood: And so I had started cutting the wildflowers and whenever I would go see a friend, I would like bring them a little Mason jar of flowers and they would get so happy. And they're just wildflowers. I mean, they're outside my doorstep.
Robin Blood: yeah We didn't mow. So that's what we, that's what I did. And so I saw that like reaction that people had with getting flowers and I hadn't. I wasn't I'm not personally one of those girls that like wants flowers from her man or wants flowers. like given to me i loved giving them though that was like i was like oh this is my love language making little flower crowns um Same thing with the tomatoes. like giving, being able to feed people. and so
Robin Blood: It was where I think I found in those months leading up. where I was feeling fulfilled. And I wasn't feeling fulfilled in work. And so when I thought like, okay, what do I want to do every day? I want to feel fulfilled. I want to feel happy and like I'm contributing. and that.
Robin Blood: that's So that that feeling is kind of what faded into the decision.
Jennifer Gulizia: Gotcha. So you you were giving away wildflower bouquets. that gave you this feeling you were youre like, i want to I want to continue providing this for other people.
Robin Blood: Yes.
Jennifer Gulizia: So you just So you and Jeffrey... decided Let's do this. What was the next step like?
Robin Blood: Yep.
Jennifer Gulizia: How did you go from building a house, leaving a corporate job to building up your... farm while also working at nine to ten dollars an hour at a nursery i mean that's impressive
Robin Blood: yeah It was it was a lot of work. I um my my first thing is always learning. I'm very grateful for like the structure that my mom implemented in my life. So I realized I don't know anything about flower farming. This is before AI and chat GPT. Right. So I don't know. and I don't know how to do this. I don't know what crops to grow, when to grow them. um And so I knew I needed to learn.
Jennifer Gulizia: mm -hmm
Robin Blood: So the first thing I was like, okay. We need to pick where we're going to do the farm. And... jeff was like he was just ready i i can't even his ability to just be like, what do we need next?
Robin Blood: He was so bought in, even though I mean, he's 6 '3", 280, like. He knew he was going to be. a lot of the labor for the farm and just never even hesitated. And he's also six years older than me. So it's not like.
Robin Blood: You know what I mean? He was just this, you know, early 20s, whatever. Like he he was just he was bought in immediately. I'm super grateful for that. And so I was what needs to happen right now in the farm.
Robin Blood: And then what do I need to know to do this successfully? So which is why I got the job at the nursery, because I didn't know much about plants. And I realized that.
Jennifer Gulizia: Uh -huh.
Robin Blood: So I was like, what am I going to do? I'm going to surround myself by plant people. I'm just going to talk plants every day, all day while I'm at work. And on my breaks, I'm going to read books about plants. We went to Half Price Books and I cleared out the shelf on flower farming.
Jennifer Gulizia: I love it.
Robin Blood: um Yeah. and And I started journaling and just kind of like putting a game plan together on, okay, what is this going to look like? and so we broke ground.
Robin Blood: clear We didn't even have a mower at the time, Jen, literally. like We couldn't afford one.
Jennifer Gulizia: Oh, my.
Robin Blood: So we had a yo -yo. Do you know what that is?
Jennifer Gulizia: No, what is a yo -yo?
Robin Blood: can you see those It's like a stick with a U shaped. metal serrated thing on the end and you swing it back and forth with your arm and that's how you cut grass.
Robin Blood: And so...
Jennifer Gulizia: Oh my gosh.
Robin Blood: Yeah, sweet.
Jennifer Gulizia: With 11 acres.
Robin Blood: Right. Well, we did and we did the acre for the farm. That that's that was our first day.
Jennifer Gulizia: Okay.
Robin Blood: Yes. And so we cleared all of which is it it it was insane. I still have a video of Jeff swinging this yo -yo. and we cleared that area and oh my gosh I picked the area for the farm.
Robin Blood: based off of the view. i was like where because i was i'm in my idealistic i want to love my life era and so I was like, okay, what do I want to be looking at while I'm working at my beautiful field of flowers?
Robin Blood: So I picked a hillside. with nothing but cactus and yucca growing there. It should have been a clue.
Jennifer Gulizia: oh yeah
Robin Blood: Mhm. Nope. Already picked it. Yep. Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: Is that where your flowers still are?
Robin Blood: Oh yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, we dug out the limestone for it. So we we sunk the telephone. It was so funny, like how we jumped in. There were. um There's an electric company. like redoing the telephone poles on our road.
Robin Blood: And I would say that first year, like that's a big piece of advice. Look around for free materials and trading labor for. stuff, right? Like like manure. And can I clean out your barns and take some manure? Like we did so much of that the first year. And so they they were replacing the.
Robin Blood: polls on our street.
Jennifer Gulizia: ah
Robin Blood: And we asked the guys if we could have the old telephone poles. And then we sunk those into the ground around our farm because there's cows on our property because we have to have them for our.
Robin Blood: ah ag exemption? And so. I knew my flowers were gonna be eaten if we didn't have a fence. And so the first thing we did was dig these. two foot, three foot holes in the ground and lift up these telephone poles.
Robin Blood: so we could use that for our fencing. around the property
Jennifer Gulizia: Oh my gosh.
Robin Blood: yeah but we were in it at that point like you're not going to move telephone poles you know it doesn't matter once you realize there's limestone there it's like well Looks like we have to handle the limestone now. Shh.
Jennifer Gulizia: Okay, so you cleared, you said yucca and cactus.
Robin Blood: Yes.
Jennifer Gulizia: Oh my gosh. Did you do that with the yo -yo too?
Robin Blood: Yes. We, well, we did all of the grass. There was like prairie grass and just stuff growing in between. So we did that with the yo -yo first and then we dug out all of the the roots. for the yucca and the cactus was just like. honestly more of a rock bar than anything.
Jennifer Gulizia: Oh. My goodness.
Robin Blood: Crazy. Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: Okay. At any time while you were doing this, did you start to think? do i really want to do this am i crazy or was your vision so clear that you were just like i'm all in
Robin Blood: All in. Zero doubt. Like... and And I think it's... Part - Like... In our conversations, like we just there was never even like, are we going down the right path? It was more our conversations would be more like we really need to develop sales channels with wholesalers before.
Robin Blood: a plant is in the ground before i know the difference between a ranunculus and anemone like we were we were like, oh yeah. And then how are we going to figure out? Cause. It was like we had that. everyday work of building the farm.
Robin Blood: And then at work itself, I would learn about plants and growing and gardening.
Jennifer Gulizia: You too.
Robin Blood: And at night we would kind of plan like, what is a business doing this actually look like? Like what kind of income can we expect? um Yeah. So it was just all encompassing. There was not even any time to talk about what if it didn't work.
Jennifer Gulizia: I love that. And I love that you actually from the very beginning talked about how do you make it a viable business? Because I think so often... It's... A hobby. that starts to get out of control. And then it's like, how do I move?
Jennifer Gulizia: all of these flowers, which I think is a harder transition than if you start it with the intention.
Robin Blood: Yes.
Jennifer Gulizia: of making it profitable.
Robin Blood: a Yeah, absolutely. I think it it out here, it's too much work. to have it as you know i mean if it's small enough scale of course a hobby i had little raised beds that i grew flowers in still definitely a hobby um But.
Robin Blood: the the actually farming, getting things in the ground here is so hard. It's really hard to have it as just a hobby. It kind of has to make has to be feeding your family or making your family money.
Jennifer Gulizia: Absolutely. Okay. So in my intro. I shared that you did a soil test. Can you tell us about that soil test?
Robin Blood: so Yes. So I got some book from half price or yes, I got some book from half price books and. in that they said you have to get a soil test and i was like oh that makes sense like I need to know what kind of soil I have um And I've read in another book that, you know, we want that like 6, 6 .5 pH for flowers.
Robin Blood: That's what they prefer. That's what I probably have. but Let's send it off, you know, just to, just to do it. i when i was collecting the soil sample you know how you're supposed to like dig down a little bit
Jennifer Gulizia: Mhm.
Robin Blood: I remember digging down with my trowel and I hit like an inch down. I just hit limestone. I was like, Hmph! Okay, not a good spot. next. foot over, tried it again, hit limestone. I was like, ew. Okay? I guess this is so I just kind of use the surface soil. sent it off, and when I got it back, the...
Robin Blood: guy like i assume i don't know whoever did the test was like i do not recommend growing here Like. this is, there's nothing. I had no organic matter. I had no phosphorus. I had a ton of calcium, of course, because of the limestone. And the pH, I think it was 7 .9.
Robin Blood: that first that first test we got back. So. It was brutal. It was brutal. I had to then kind of figure out like... I knew what that meant. At that point I had learned enough. I was like, oof.
Robin Blood: No organic. you know matter i know i don't have a healthy microbiome then i'm Starting with. sand, basically. Sand probably had more.
Jennifer Gulizia: oh my goodness So.
Robin Blood: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: What did you do next? You got that soil test back. Had you already broken the ground open or was that when you then had to break open the ground?
Robin Blood: Yeah.
Robin Blood: So I realized with the trowel situation that okay, we're going to have to get this limestone out of here. And so we found a farmer up the road, Leonard, love him. And he had one of those.
Robin Blood: big old tractors and so we asked him to come out you know we I paid him for it. He came out, he put the tines in the ground. He actually ended up breaking two of his tines on one of those big tractors.
Robin Blood: Yeah. But he drug it through the ground and just broke the line. Cause you know, limestone breaks relatively easily. So it. broke the rock up and then you know for the next month the task on the farm was just getting wheelbarrows of rock out of out of there because we did know we need we need some soil to plant into um And that's when I kind of discovered no -till farming. so
Robin Blood: I was like, okay, I know I need a healthy microbiome because we understand that relationship of you know getting all of the nutrients to the plants.
Jennifer Gulizia: mm -hmm
Robin Blood: And I don't have any of that. And so how do we. develop that and So I got myself the broad fork and I was like, OK, if we're going to do this, though, I need to inject my soil with nutrients. And so I did a lot of, you know, different research on manures. Cow manure is.
Robin Blood: doable in my area, but it's kind of expensive. and Everything was expensive then, so I was always kind of trying to look. alternative ways to do things.
Jennifer Gulizia: mm -hmm
Robin Blood: um I found a horse farmer who was willing to give us horse manure, but then I had a friend in the area and I feel like this is just amazing advice. she She basically told me, you need have to be so careful with horse manure. it's free 10 you know most of the time they just want it gone But if they're...
Robin Blood: the horses have eaten hay that has the herbicides and the pesticides and everything into it you're just bringing that back to your farm And I very much had this idea of like the property being so sacred and I just wanted to protect it. It was so beautiful before we even showed up.
Robin Blood: And so I just was very protective of keeping it that way.
Jennifer Gulizia: uh -huh
Robin Blood: um And then I found this wonderful woman on Facebook marketplace, Mallory, who is selling rabbit manure. Have you ever worked with rabbit manure?
Jennifer Gulizia: oh No.
Robin Blood: Okay. Now, Jen, it's the biggest secret. i We got to tell everybody. So Rabbit Manure is a... cold manure. Coming straight from the rabbit so there's no kind of you know You don't have to let it sit for a month or three months. It can go straight from under the rabbit cage to the the garden, and it's not going to burn your plants. I mean, maybe if there's a little bit of something for a couple of days, it would, but...
Robin Blood: It's so gentle and it has such a good NPK ratio compared to all of these other manures. The hard part is finding someone that has enough of it, you know, because little Betty has a rabbit, but that's not enough for your garden.
Robin Blood: Um.
Jennifer Gulizia: That's what I was thinking. I'm like, how do you possibly get enough?
Robin Blood: How do you find... In Alvarado, Texas, there is this wonderful woman and she has a rabbitry that she raises rabbits. It's her business model for pet stores. and She just raises rabbits, so she has barns of...
Robin Blood: rabbits that she's, you know, raising from little babies to grownups, and then they go to um people. And I saw the ad on Facebook marketplace rabbit manure for $100, like a truckload.
Robin Blood: I was like, okay, this is doable. I did some research. It's really good for the farm.
Jennifer Gulizia: ah
Robin Blood: And I was imagining. because the idea i mean basically the description was like yep you come you load up the rabbit manure give me the one hundred dollars and we move on And so I thought. big red barn we're gonna back a truck up it's gonna be this pile we're just gonna shovel it into the back of the truck No.
Robin Blood: That is not the situation. We had to rake. We cleaned out the barns.
Jennifer Gulizia: oh Oh my gosh!
Robin Blood: Yeah. We like are raking under the rabbit cages and like.
Jennifer Gulizia: No way.
Robin Blood: wheeling it into wheelers. Uh -huh. But I will say this. Rabbit manure is very light. Like it's not a heavy.
Jennifer Gulizia: Right.
Robin Blood: at all. You know, it's not. So, like, as far as manure goes, it's not very gross. um And earthworms. love it so then you get like a little earthworm in the shovel with the rabbit manure and you're like huh perk free um And so, yeah, we did. I want to say in that first year, we probably did eight to 10 truckloads of rabbit manure that we would just.
Robin Blood: bring back to the farm and get onto the beds to just get some orchid. Because I started training with her.
Jennifer Gulizia: oh
Robin Blood: I was like, hey, can I landscape for the front of your house a little bit and your garden? Can I just weed everything? I'll bring plants because I worked at the nursery. Can I bring plants and I'll plant your you know fall annuals?
Robin Blood: um And so we started trading the rabbit manure. four. you know, just working at our property. And so. It was... If there's anything, you know, we got a little bit of compost and a little bit of, e you know, a little bit of different stuff, but a sulfur. to help with the alkalinity of the soil. But the rabbit manure, I still think that was because now.
Robin Blood: it's gorgeous i mean we have earthworms everywhere i can stick my hand into the ground up to my elbow and it's dark, rich, gorgeous. soil.
Jennifer Gulizia: Amazing. Someone listening to this podcast is probably searching. for rabbits now i'm gonna start a rabbit farm
Robin Blood: Literally. yeah Mhm.
Jennifer Gulizia: I'm like, gosh, does everyone need rabbits? If we didn't have so many coyotes, I'm like. How do I get some rabbits on the farm?
Robin Blood: now We have coyotes too.
Jennifer Gulizia: They're so destructive.
Robin Blood: They are. Yeah, it's brutal.
Jennifer Gulizia: End. We haven't tried to to keep them out yet because we're not living on our farm yet. And we have so many voles that I know they're catching the voles. So I'm like, I'm going to let them keep catching the voles for now.
Robin Blood: but
Jennifer Gulizia: But the trade -off is that they keep ripping up our irrigation and they will like drag it across the property.
Robin Blood: ah
Jennifer Gulizia: You're like. Okay, the irrigation is ripped off, but where is the rest of the drip line? and
Robin Blood: Damn! are they trying to get into like Get the water or something, you think?
Jennifer Gulizia: 200.
Jennifer Gulizia: I think they're trying to get the water, but I think it's the pups that are just having fun.
Robin Blood: ah
Jennifer Gulizia: Playing with the lines.
Robin Blood: Just playing.
Jennifer Gulizia: It's like something to tug on and pull on. in
Robin Blood: Amen. Telephone poles, I'm telling you, for defense.
Jennifer Gulizia: Our whole property is fenced but they still. Find a way, yeah, to get in.
Robin Blood: Oh, dang.
Jennifer Gulizia: I mean, they they'll dig underneath the fence or... I think, I don't know if they can climb the fence.
Robin Blood: ye
Jennifer Gulizia: I've never seen how they get in. We're still trying to figure that piece out.
Robin Blood: Mm -hmm.
Jennifer Gulizia: So, okay. So you built this really beautiful soil. I'm guessing that didn't happen overnight.
Robin Blood: Oh no. No. um You know, I think Because we were doing the no -till, we would. We put all of, you know, we put all of the rat manure on top and then we would broad fork over it. And so it was so funny because you would see, you know, for the first year when we finally got. little babies in the ground.
Robin Blood: you we would plant them and they would be doing so well and i was like i see i told you guys i can grow cherry tomatoes i'm a farmer And then you would see them hit that native soil, you know, when their roots probably got to like four or five inches and they would just stagnate.
Robin Blood: you know and it was like dang it, like it the it hasn't leached yet.
Jennifer Gulizia: Mm hmm.
Robin Blood: It definitely took a couple of years to get the soil. um to get the soil to like feel like it had incorporated and everything had been I mean I was even going And this is why.
Robin Blood: I'm grateful for, you know, the internet and everything and the way I know how to use it now. But I was just like, but I need earthworms. I need it to be healthier. And so I would go. I would have like a little bit of my check and I would go to the gas station. and get you know the the fishing earthworms.
Robin Blood: literally that you get a little box, literally.
Jennifer Gulizia: No way.
Robin Blood: And I was like, this is my little injection of earthworms into this bed. And so instead of like going to get a Starbucks, I would go get earthworms and then bring them back to the farm. like You guys go do your work. Have fun.
Robin Blood: Ha ha! thats
Jennifer Gulizia: That's when you know you're really into the farming, when you will trade your coffee for earthworms.
Robin Blood: Yeah! yes
Jennifer Gulizia: I love that.
Robin Blood: Crazy. but
Jennifer Gulizia: Oh my goodness. Okay. So. You got the rabbit. manure. Your first season?
Robin Blood: First season, yes. Like when we're building the farm so early.
Jennifer Gulizia: Okay. And then you planted, how did you decide what to plant? I mean, You are in Texas.
Robin Blood: I am in Texas. Yeah. And it's it's funny because when you do, when you read a lot of the books and you do a lot of the research, it is. coming from people who are growing in other regions than this one. You know, this is just not the most common It's just you don don't have a super dense population of farmers, especially like specialty farmers. You know, we know we can grow cotton. We know we can grow corn. And so a lot of people are doing that down here. When you start growing these.
Robin Blood: you know i feel like texans are just these like hardened people where you're like you know what if it dies it dies leave it alone um it basically roses i'm a a brand ambassador for Heirloom Roses, great company.
Robin Blood: And I'm like passionate about it down here because. Everybody uses knockout roses. Do you know what a knockout rose? Do you guys have those?
Jennifer Gulizia: I've heard of them. Can you?
Robin Blood: Yeah. They're kind of ugly.
Jennifer Gulizia: Clarify.
Robin Blood: yeah they're just kind of a landscaping rose they're really tough they like can handle sun and they can handle drought and all of this stuff and um people down here they barely even grow like grandma's garden roses anymore because they're just like ah knockouts they survive we'll just plant those and so You don't see, I would say out of a hundred yards, you'll see one yard that has a rose that isn't a knockout rose in it.
Robin Blood: Um, So there's like this lack of diversity. in growing because there's not a lot of knowledge.
Jennifer Gulizia: uh -huh
Robin Blood: down here.
Jennifer Gulizia: Yeah.
Robin Blood: four So I knew that when I realized that when I was like learning what we were going to grow, I was like, eventually I'm going to teach people. what to grow. how to grow it. because this is way too hard to get this information right now. I want to make this concise. and ah My first employee ever was someone who. She...
Robin Blood: side Side tangent, but. when she did her interview she was like i think i want to be a flower farmer and i feel like especially in In floral design at least like there is like a this very gatekeepy type mentality.
Robin Blood: I think farming is better, but I told her, I was like, that's fabulous. you're going to be very invested while you're here i'll teach you everything i know and she now has super blooms um in hillsborough and is an amazing flower farmer in texas another one you know
Jennifer Gulizia: Awesome.
Robin Blood: So yeah, it's great. But I honestly. picking what I was going to grow. I talked to a lot of the older people that would come into the nursery. that. kind of had their growing happening in that 70s, 80s timeframe, because there was like this.
Robin Blood: People really loved growing. during that you know 70s 80s and 90s like there was like this garden Like it was very popular. Um, And so I would talk to them about like, oh, have you do you grow cut flowers? Have you ever grown cut flowers? Like while I'm helping them pick out their landscaping bushes or whatever.
Robin Blood: And they would be like, oh yeah, Celosia. Oh yeah, Amaranthus. And so, and then I would go back and I would like write them in my little book and I would look them up. Um. And i that's all actually where I found dahlias is because someone was mentioning dahlias. And I was like, oh, they grow in South America. yeah I can grow dahlias no problem and so yeah just kind of talking to people and I put this literally in a journal, this master list together and tried to, cause you know, if the back of the seed packet is from Johnny's selected seeds.
Robin Blood: it's coming mostly for for like you know those northern areas there's just not you know texas so i
Jennifer Gulizia: Mm -hmm.
Robin Blood: I tried to move the dates back a little bit, thinking you know last frost date, first frost date. guessing honestly the first time we planted. It was a lot of guesswork.
Jennifer Gulizia: Because there wasn't data, right? Is that?
Robin Blood: No, there wasn't data. Exactly. I knew.
Jennifer Gulizia: So...
Robin Blood: Good.
Jennifer Gulizia: Oh no, sorry.
Robin Blood: No, I just I knew I was gonna have to experiment a lot I like went into it with the mindset of you know what? We're just going to be, it's going to be okay. We don't know what we're doing. We're just going to experiment. I'm going to be ready to start them this week.
Robin Blood: And then this week, like I did, like I planned the succession planting. earlier in the season to kind of be like, okay, let's see which one does the best and let's look at the data.
Jennifer Gulizia: I love that. You have such a great mindset going into this. I mean.
Robin Blood: ah
Jennifer Gulizia: Little story I just love. So... Did you... When you were planting that first garden, were you thinking also because you said at nighttime you were planning? for how you were going to make money? Were you planting intentionally to meet a certain business model?
Robin Blood: that's so funny yeah i thought i was i mean i was like you know we're gonna plant more zinnias I mean, looking back, it's just, it was so much energy. i'm I'm older now. I can barely even remember like what that energy felt like, like to. Because it was like, okay, yeah, I know dahlias, you know, they, I can sell them for even more sunflowers, the single stem sunflowers, but they're going to take up a little bit more space, you know, one flower per plant.
Robin Blood: um i thought i was kind of planning it turned i mean when you actually get to it it's like the seeds that are germinating are the seeds that are germinating and that's what we're going to put in the ground um and it was a lot of i think especially that first year it was a lot of like what can even grow here you know does Does status grow here or not?
Jennifer Gulizia: Mm hmm.
Robin Blood: just trying trying different things.
Jennifer Gulizia: What things did you find did not grow for you?
Robin Blood: You know, I a lot of the perennials i had a hard time with like um Columbine, Yarrow, my first year was really hard, but I kind of attribute a lot of that to timing being wrong.
Jennifer Gulizia: mm -hmm
Robin Blood: You know, we we. generally instead of Starting. things. I started things early, early spring, like February and I should have started them in November. Just so that.
Jennifer Gulizia: Oh wow.
Robin Blood: Yeah. Yeah. just just to get them established and in the ground because especially things like Columbine like they don't have a we don't have a long enough time of nice weather. for them to establish their roots and bloom. So it was like things would always get timed out. The heat would come and they would shut down.
Robin Blood: And so. anything that had a longer growing season, it was like, we just never felt like we had enough time, but our growing season is really. Long. It was just, I was starting them too late, if that makes sense.
Jennifer Gulizia: Absolutely. So. How long is your growing season? Is it year round?
Robin Blood: it's It's so funny. I... I don't know what you know Google says about it, but basically how I look at the growing season is. Our spring is more of like everyone else's general summer.
Robin Blood: Right.
Jennifer Gulizia: Wow.
Robin Blood: I summer is what I kind of consider our off season. Like if the the field is going to be empty or it's going to look the worst, it's going to happen probably mid summer when it's the hottest. like that's when we kind of reset and what are we what are going to be our fall crops um fall is another good season but the heat you never quite know how long it's gonna it's gonna
Jennifer Gulizia: uh -huh
Robin Blood: Trail. Right. So. I look at, I would say my two like big growing seasons is fall into winter because December is beautiful here. January is usually really great. And then probably in February, we get this one cold snap.
Robin Blood: that if you don't have you know cold tunnels or something, you're going to lose everything. So i I try to use those as my growing seasons, kind of like no. you know, October.
Robin Blood: through January and then March through July.
Jennifer Gulizia: Okay.
Robin Blood: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: So pretty much all year minus like a month.
Robin Blood: So long. Pretty much.
Jennifer Gulizia: But you can get a frost.
Robin Blood: Yeah. ah but barely like it's it's the winters are so funny because we get like you know touch and go where you can definitely still you know you know water the plants down in the morning and then the frost damage isn't too bad and you can definitely do a lot of that but there's always this one cold snap that If you try to ignore. The fact that it was winter, it would kill everything.
Robin Blood: So you have to still like respect the winter.
Jennifer Gulizia: Okay. Let's talk about dahlias.
Robin Blood: yes
Jennifer Gulizia: Because I think that's the one that everyone's sitting here waiting to hear.
Robin Blood: Let's do it.
Jennifer Gulizia: How do you grow dahlias in Texas?
Robin Blood: ha
Jennifer Gulizia: Was it hard at first?
Robin Blood: You know, so our first year I was spoiled because we had more of a mild year. And so. I did them like everybody else where I put them in the ground in the spring, you know, after the first frost or the last frost date. They grew and they were six foot tall and they were gorgeous.
Robin Blood: And I was just like. wow, why why is no one doing this? You know, but our. I would say we probably only got up to like 95 degrees that summer. So it just wasn't. It just wasn't as super hot.
Robin Blood: aggressive summer. And then the next year. we had a it was crazy and I did it the same I mean I'm a data person right so I was like okay planting them on the same day and None of them made it.
Robin Blood: All of them just got completely fried, didn't bloom, pests all over them. I was like, What? in the world and it was probably you know we were getting into the 105s That year.
Jennifer Gulizia: You lost all of them.
Robin Blood: Okay. Basically. I think a couple of like the ball Dahlia. But literally a couple, like three. Survived. It was brutal because also the whenever we get really hot here we get just grasshoppers like crazy you know and so that that second season, the first season was relatively easy looking back at it. I mean, it was our first season, but.
Robin Blood: The nature worked with us and then the second season it was like, oh you think you're farmers? Get ready. because it's about to get hot. And yeah, it was like. It just felt like one of those plagues, you know? where Oh my gosh. And I used to harvest flowers at night. Because, it cool you know, one of the coolest parts of the day. um And so I would go out and I would harvest and the grasshoppers would just like be sitting on top of the zinnias, just eating them.
Robin Blood: And or on the doll, you know, just.
Jennifer Gulizia: mm -hmm
Robin Blood: eat Oh my gosh, and I would just cut them in half, which is a little psychopath behavior. I get that, but I hated them so much that year. Um.
Jennifer Gulizia: i
Robin Blood: Go ahead.
Jennifer Gulizia: I'm smiling here because we're in our second year of our new space that we're now stewarding. And it was 20 acres of fallow land. And it was all hay in the past. So the amount of grasshoppers is like nothing I've ever seen. Last year, they were pretty mild. And everyone was like, oh, your first year is a honeymoon phase.
Robin Blood: like so
Jennifer Gulizia: And then the next year is when they get really bad. And I was literally, it was. Two days ago, I was... sitting there. And, or I was wasn't sitting there, I was harvesting flowers and I look.
Jennifer Gulizia: at the next pedal and I had had so many decimated that day and I was convinced it was earwigs
Robin Blood: oh
Jennifer Gulizia: And so here I am, I'm like, okay, I'm going to. Deal with these earwigs. And then. There's the grasshopper. And I'm not kidding you. It was like. three inches big.
Jennifer Gulizia: I pulled out my camera.
Robin Blood: oh
Jennifer Gulizia: And I took a video of it and the thing's just sitting there and it's using its paws, just like looking, not paws, whatever you want to call it.
Robin Blood: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: Front. feet. And it's just looking at me like.
Robin Blood: Horrible.
Jennifer Gulizia: And it just is. Keeps taking a bite after bite of the dahlia and it's like.
Robin Blood: Hmm.
Jennifer Gulizia: what you gonna do about it and i was just like i smacked that thing with my scissors too
Robin Blood: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: um I didn't cut it in half, but I definitely knocked it off.
Robin Blood: Yep.
Jennifer Gulizia: And I'm just like. I went home and I ordered. So much garlic spray. to put on them
Robin Blood: Yes. Ciao.
Jennifer Gulizia: So.
Robin Blood: Tell me. How the, yeah. The... For some reason here, and I don't know if it's because like everything. Evaporates so quick. I don't know a lot of those we started doing foliar sprays to help with it as well And it did help, you know, just making it
Jennifer Gulizia: uh -huh
Robin Blood: making the plant smell terrible for the grasshoppers. um It did help, but it just felt like the pressure was so brutal. at night they don't move and they're very easy to cut in half that's my advice and it's a little bit therapeutic Your listeners are probably like, she's crazy, but it is the only thing that made me feel better.
Jennifer Gulizia: no
Robin Blood: It was, it was that year was. brutal especially like you You go into it with expectations in that second year.
Jennifer Gulizia: yeah
Robin Blood: You know what I mean? You're like, OK, you know, this is what how we're going to grow this year is how we're going to be better. And then there's just certain parts of it that you have no control over.
Jennifer Gulizia: Absolutely.
Robin Blood: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: So you lost the second year, you lost most of your dahlias, you battled grasshoppers.
Robin Blood: Yes.
Jennifer Gulizia: At any point then did you think like I'm throwing in the towel or were you still fully committed and all in?
Robin Blood: End.
Robin Blood: Hmm. i it it was it's interesting because I feel like mentally That was the hardest year because. When you farm and when you garden, you do give so much of yourself into.
Robin Blood: like preparation so much love too you know like Dead.
Jennifer Gulizia: Uh huh.
Robin Blood: bed one in the winter you're planning and this is what we're going to succession plant into this bed and there's just so much love goes into it so then to have something come. into the farm that I had no control over. I didn't even expect.
Robin Blood: a farm to start to look sad. It just like breaks your heart a little bit every day.
Jennifer Gulizia: Mm -hmm.
Robin Blood: Um, So I didn't... I didn't think like throwing in the towel. I think because we were just so into it. Like at that point we were farmers. I had stickers that said be blooming like we were. this is I had started a farmer's market at that point. I was like, This is who we are by definition now.
Robin Blood: How are we going to handle this going forward? And so we started with beneficial insects and and things to try to. give us hope for the future on you know them eating the nymphs earlier. um But. But the dahlias. I did figure out the dahlias.
Robin Blood: So I realized, yes, the grasshopper pressure is going to. um is is having a huge effect, but they're not doing well anyway. And I kind of learned about this whole thing of the.
Robin Blood: when the plants are stressed, they are more attractive. to these um these pests that are you know gonna eat them and and stress them out and so then i started really focusing on okay plant health is going to be my number one i'm going to make my plants super strong from an immunity standpoint so that all of these pests, they can want to eat them. They're not going to be able to.
Robin Blood: um And so I. started doing weekly foliar sprays. I got into... i Now I just buy the bottles. But for a little while, I was making my own foliar spray, you know, with the whole aerobic system. And we had a little fish pump.
Robin Blood: pumping oxygen into it. And it was so fun, but. That always felt really good because I was like, okay, you know what? I'm just giving, it felt like giving them a little like. vitamin shot. you know. um So I knew we would do that the rest of that year and then going into the next. But I also realized that with the heat, the dahlias were getting stressed.
Robin Blood: And so you put as many nutrients as you want on them.
Jennifer Gulizia: ah
Robin Blood: If they're gonna be stressed, they're gonna be stressed. And so I realized that they needed some sort of break from. the heat. with where we have them planted. And I.
Robin Blood: you know we live we don't live in an area with trees we have juniper trees so no part of the field is shaded no part of the property is shaded that's just not something that that we have here. um So.
Robin Blood: I planted a... Or I put a trellis up. on the right side, which is the west side of where I had the dahlias planted, and I planted hyacinth bean. on that chalice because my thought was
Jennifer Gulizia: Hmm.
Robin Blood: Okay, I know in the spring the dahlias are happy and go lucky. I just need them to survive. the summer so I can get blooms by fall. right because at that point too we were starting to do weddings and events and that's like fall it's peak season that's what i actually need the dahlias to be blooming and so i'm just going to keep them deadheaded in the summer if they try to push up a bloom i'm going to keep them just conserving their little energy. and shade them completely on that west side with the hyacinth bean.
Robin Blood: And that worked. It worked really well.
Jennifer Gulizia: oh
Robin Blood: like keeping them. protected To now where I have, we put our new building like for the shop and and our designers and everything on the west side of where the dahlias get planted. Because now the hyacinth, if they're a little bit lagging. no big deal. They still get shaded from the West. And so that whole afternoon sun, they just, they get a break from. basically.
Jennifer Gulizia: So you've created a shade protection for them. How many are you growing? of dahlias.
Robin Blood: Me. Yes, so it depends on the year. Right. Because it depends on like kind of what I'm projecting, because I really am someone who like I don't want to fight nature the whole time.
Jennifer Gulizia: one
Robin Blood: And because I can kind of pick what we're going to design with the following year, I will look at, OK, what is what is the season going to look like based off of all of the estimations that we can do? So it fluctuates probably between, you know, 100 if I know it's going to be a really hot year up to like 250.
Jennifer Gulizia: Okay. So you grow a relatively small number of dahlias.
Robin Blood: Yeah.
Robin Blood: Yes, because we still have to grow our other crops for it.
Jennifer Gulizia: on your
Robin Blood: you know the
Jennifer Gulizia: Sure.
Robin Blood: we grow zinnias amaranthus is like so popular right now especially the trailing varieties Um, So we grow, we were growing a lot of those Emerald tassels and all of that is super fun.
Robin Blood: celosias i try to grow things that from a floral design perspective are really fun but as a florist you can't really get your hands on very easily.
Jennifer Gulizia: Okay.
Robin Blood: so that our florals, it's kind of a separator.
Jennifer Gulizia: Gotcha. And you mentioned zinnias.
Robin Blood: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: You grow a lot of zinnias too.
Robin Blood: Yes. Yes, I'm... following in um trying to breed some of my own varieties, like very loosely. But I.
Jennifer Gulizia: So exciting.
Robin Blood: Very. Yeah, very. There's one I... um I'm calling it Tequila Sunrise. It has like this beautiful gradient from like a yellow to a pink to an orange. Like it has three colors happening. um But yeah, we grow a lot of like the Queenie series and those specialty zinnias.
Jennifer Gulizia: Oh wow.
Jennifer Gulizia: Amazing.
Robin Blood: Hmm.
Jennifer Gulizia: And so you have two parts to your business now you have. the flowers, and then you also have a design studio.
Robin Blood: Yes. Yes.
Jennifer Gulizia: Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Robin Blood: That. was such a fun progression when when we first started the farm I designed everything in the well shed because i couldn't get approved like for an actual like building to design in. And at that point we had our little 800 square foot house.
Robin Blood: and then the well shed that the well pump is in. um And so.
Jennifer Gulizia: Bye.
Robin Blood: I know. So we put a mini split in the well shed and I said, okay, this is where I'm going to design for market bouquets. And we did. um like drive through because we needed, I needed more people to come to the farm. I wanted to get the name out there. And so we didn't charge like a ticket price or anything for the farm tours. We just said, come out, I'll give you a 45 minute. tour of the farm kind of teaching again that concept of like teaching how to grow in texas when we started these plants we had master gardeners come through
Robin Blood: And so and then if you want to buy a bouquet at the end of the tour, that's great, but you don't have to. Like it was very little pressure because this was also still during kind of like that COVID time frame. And so people were trying to get outside to.
Robin Blood: do things with the family.
Jennifer Gulizia: mm -hmm
Robin Blood: you know And there's not much to do outside in Texas. So yeah, we had thousands of people come through the farm. and and that I gave farm tours to. People still will come up to me in the grocery store and be like, or do you have farm tours happening this year? And it's like, the sweetest thing. ever. um But I, we started in the well shed and I started putting these bouquets together and I was like.
Robin Blood: kind of you're noticing a pattern a little bit of overconfidence i like i think i'm kind of good at this like these are pretty i like these and so then someone would ask for a you know a birthday arrangement for someone. And I...
Robin Blood: new, you know, small business like customer service. So I always answered the phone. And so we got this little like side. floral florist type business and got everything from the farm and so i was like wow these margins are rate with actual arrangements, right? Like you get a vase and you spend some artistry on it. And then all of a sudden the same flowers that were.
Robin Blood: you know a 20 market bouquet are 45 and all i had to do was deliver it like What? And so I kind of started realizing that the better I got as a designer, the more my flowers from the farm would be worth.
Robin Blood: I was like, oh, well, this seems like a worthwhile skill to develop.
Jennifer Gulizia: who
Robin Blood: And so we. we upgraded from the well shed eventually to a shipping container, which is now my office. That's what I'm sitting in. and we
Jennifer Gulizia: Amazing.
Robin Blood: Yeah, that was so I was like, we've made it. I mean, it's a 20 foot shipping container. And we built a wall and put a cool bot and mini split on that other side. And so that was my first little cooler area. And then this was the this was the design studio eight foot by eight foot.
Robin Blood: Um, it was perfect and and having a cooler because the well shed didn't have a cooler
Jennifer Gulizia: mm -hmm
Robin Blood: So anything I designed, it was just. You know, you prayed and you harvested. I would I had this because I've always had this thing about quality. And so. I would if I had an order for the next day, I would always harvest that night.
Robin Blood: So it was as fresh as possible because, again, not having a cooler, I can't slow anything down.
Jennifer Gulizia: Right.
Robin Blood: And so. having the cooler just allowed me to like not be so stressed. Right before we had to go to a market or something like that. And yeah, getting the, having the studio, having the cooler, we got more business, um got.
Robin Blood: even more into weddings i had my first couple of employees and kind of realized that like That development of women in business and. In.
Robin Blood: Like life. is the most fulfilling thing in the world to me like developing confidence in women from a design standpoint or a business standpoint i just i absolutely love it like one day when i'm retired all i'm going to do is put together retreats for women to come and like build community around that.
Robin Blood: And so really enjoyed having a team. And the the weddings allowed me to have the margins to then have a team. and to develop those people. And so it was a really natural. kind of growth step and so now we have both and everybody's we're so spoiled because we're like oh this palette needs a little bit more peach and so we just go out to the field and we grab some more peach zinnias or some peach celosia like it's it's amazing
Jennifer Gulizia: That's incredible. You said something that made me really. excited to hear you say and i don't know if you even know i'm hosting the yeah the Dahlia Design Summit this September 13th through 18th.
Robin Blood: Ooh!
Jennifer Gulizia: where we're bringing 14 floral designers and farmer florists together. to teach how to design and arrange with your dahlias. And one of the reasons that I'm doing this is because I think when we learn how to have that confidence that you just spoke about.
Jennifer Gulizia: You can charge more and you can. feel better about what you're doing, which...
Robin Blood: s
Jennifer Gulizia: ultimately impacts your bottom line and makes you a better business person as well.
Robin Blood: ah Absolutely. I love that you're doing that. That is um empowering people to be more confident in because so many farmers aren't coming from a design background. And so they think, oh, that's somebody else's job. Like that's.
Robin Blood: I just sell wholesale. And we all know the number comparisons between selling wholesale to selling a finished bouquet. it's astronomical. So. i I'm so excited. That's amazing.
Jennifer Gulizia: Well and it can make all the difference in your business of how profitable and successful you are, how many people you can employ, how big you can grow your business.
Robin Blood: yes
Jennifer Gulizia: So I love that that's what you're doing is that you've grown the flower site and now you can use your own flowers. to have an incredible floral studio.
Robin Blood: It's yes, and I mean we all we all know I mean the quality difference between when it's coming off of the farm like There is nothing better, you know, so. having like such high quality product all of the time is just the, I mean, I think that's one of the reasons why like our design, cause I still, I do bring in wholesale floral as well, or I bring in floral from other farms in the area. And.
Robin Blood: having that mindset though as first starting as a farmer I, the the quality of the product is always my number one priority. You know what I mean? like we're not just gonna like cut it and stick it in a cooler and then that's flowers like it's like no what do we need to do to get the delphinium to open so that they're the perfect stage whenever we're designing with them and there's this like care that comes with knowing. you started as a little baby seed and it was a lot of work to get you to this point so We're going to make sure you look your very best. I guess.
Jennifer Gulizia: I love that. So you're you're bringing the confidence with the design and also making sure. that you are delivering a really quality product with what you're growing.
Robin Blood: Has to. I tell that too to like my clients when whenever we're doing consultations and things. I'm like, look, I worked really hard for this flower that's about to sit at your at your wedding. so We want to make sure that it is.
Robin Blood: exactly what you want absolutely perfect in every way like it should feel Yeah. It should just feel, feel perfect. Literally.
Jennifer Gulizia: Amazing. I love that. Robin, this has been so much fun. I've learned so much about you and your business.
Robin Blood: ya
Jennifer Gulizia: Is there anything that I haven't asked you today. that you want to make sure our listeners know about you or your business or your story.
Robin Blood: ah Man, I... Think that. I think we touched on it, but My. biggest thing would be I hope that people take a chance on themselves, maybe not like, you know, quitting your job and it being your sole income to make it work in a six month period.
Robin Blood: but taking a chance on yourself and then... not being scared to evolve past that. you know like i i don't work in the farm as much anymore i'm i'm not out there we have you know we have a team and that was scary at first. And I think there was like a little bit of a loss of identity that happened with that.
Robin Blood: But... that has allowed me to grow the team further and grow the business further. And so kind of like stepping into something you really love and then being okay with evolving through it as well. It's part of the journey.
Jennifer Gulizia: I love that one of my mentors says there's always a next level. to your journey. And... The only way to get there is to remove the bottleneck. and usually We're the bottlenecks. So I love how you are such a great example of that, of how you've literally grown this business.
Jennifer Gulizia: And in not that much time, I mean, you talk about COVID being this long time ago, but that was six years ago. and You have built a thriving flower farm in Texas of all places, which is amazing.
Robin Blood: in Texas.
Jennifer Gulizia: um I actually love it because I found out from my aunt. At the end of last season, she called me. And I know that on my mom's side of the family, dahlias have always been a big part of it. I didn't realize that.
Jennifer Gulizia: My love for dahlias runs deep on both sides, and my aunt said, I have this picture of your grandma. And she was growing dahlias in Texas.
Robin Blood: What?
Jennifer Gulizia: And i never or it was my it would be my great -grandma. It was her grandma. So my great -grandma, who I never got to meet, grew dahlias in Texas. a long time ago. So I thought that was so cool. And then um i'm still trying to track down that photo But I love that you're growing them there too.
Robin Blood: you have to share it with me. When you find it, send it to me so we can figure out what variety it was.
Jennifer Gulizia: Yeah.
Robin Blood: Because variety is a very important part of it too. so
Jennifer Gulizia: Is it?
Robin Blood: Mhm. And. I guess that's important. The ball. ball varieties tend to do better in heat than a lot of the dinner plates there's there's exceptions um but yeah the the ball varieties are like i would tell anybody starting with Dahlia's in a hot climate, start with those guys because they're they're tough.
Jennifer Gulizia: We're not as hot as you, but we we have a lot of days in the 90s. Other than the dahlias that I hybridize, I've pretty much gotten rid of every variety but balls because my of my clientele ah with my wholesale orders.
Robin Blood: Yep.
Jennifer Gulizia: I... I was telling someone just this morning that I grow 200 Ferncliff Rusty. And they're like, that's a lot. but i have a bouquet i'm not kidding you sitting on my kitchen table this morning that I harvested.
Robin Blood: Ugh.
Jennifer Gulizia: Eight days ago. And I harvest my balls when they're two thirds of the way open.
Robin Blood: Yep.
Jennifer Gulizia: and this Ferncliff Rusty. Day 8 Never went in the cooler. Actually, I take that back. It went in the cooler for two hours and then went on my kitchen table. Good.
Jennifer Gulizia: does not show the slightest sign of fading. It's fully open now. Like someone told me, they're like, there's no way a Dahlia keeps opening. I'm like. Certain ball dahlias Continue to open.
Jennifer Gulizia: Day eight. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with the Stelia.
Robin Blood: wow
Robin Blood: you're We're gonna figure out how you can ship to Texas.
Jennifer Gulizia: um yeah That might be a little hard. I wish I could
Robin Blood: No, that's amazing That's amazing.
Jennifer Gulizia: ah Yeah. Um. Okay, this has been really fun. Can I ask you my quickfire questions that I've been asking all of our guests?
Robin Blood: Yes.
Jennifer Gulizia: Okay.
Robin Blood: Of course.
Jennifer Gulizia: So the first question I have for you with our rapid quick fire here before we say goodbye today is what is your favorite flower to grow or work with and why?
Robin Blood: o I would say my favorite flower to work with is... Probably the red spike amaranthus.
Jennifer Gulizia: oh Why is that?
Robin Blood: What I know I know. um She is. She grows great. where I am. I like the fact that it's also, I just like edible flowers too. I feel like they are, you know, they're feeding other things in my kind of area. And from a design standpoint, the texture is so much fun, especially in the fall.
Robin Blood: And you can't really get it wholesale. So it's like a... It's like a really perfect little medley. And they get huge. Like you're just, there's these big plants, amaranthus, larkspur, things like that, that I'm just like, oh my gosh, look at this. Look at this huge row of flowers.
Robin Blood: I feel so abundant.
Jennifer Gulizia: I love that they're so beautiful, especially in the heat of the summer.
Robin Blood: Yes.
Jennifer Gulizia: You mentioned, I'm um'm deviating for a second from my quick fire. You mentioned that you like edible flowers.
Robin Blood: ah
Jennifer Gulizia: Do you know dahlias are edible?
Robin Blood: They are, aren't they?
Jennifer Gulizia: Yes, I learned.
Robin Blood: I've always said they are.
Jennifer Gulizia: I learned that from Laura Lee.
Robin Blood: oh
Jennifer Gulizia: Merton of Floralee in Australia. She was a guest on the podcast. And... One of our speakers at the Dahlia Design Summit, Danny Inala, runs Danny's Kitchen, which is a bakery.
Jennifer Gulizia: And she's teaching how to make candied dahlia petals. And she just made my husband and I an anniversary cake. And she has a candied dahlia petal on the top of it.
Jennifer Gulizia: So it was my first time ever eating a dahlia, but they're actually really interesting. It was, I mean, it was just so beautiful. on the cake.
Robin Blood: Mmm.
Jennifer Gulizia: And then we were taste testing different dahlias at the farm yesterday. It was really fun. So I just had to throw that in there.
Robin Blood: I love that. That was like, we don't use any like pesticides or insecticides or anything on the farm. it's you know organic not registered or anything like that but we i'm just very we don't use any of that kind of stuff and so one of the little short phases of the business was supplying edible flowers to chefs in our area And there's a lot of edible flowers out there.
Jennifer Gulizia: Amazing.
Robin Blood: Like. They're fun. I'll try anything.
Jennifer Gulizia: Okay, this isn't on my rapid quickfire, so I apologize for everyone that's like, where's the quickfire?
Robin Blood: Tell me.
Robin Blood: but
Jennifer Gulizia: What are your favorite? edible flowers then.
Robin Blood: Oof, I love this. Okay. Bachelor buttons are one of my absolute - are Sentara. whatever we call them.
Jennifer Gulizia: Uh huh.
Robin Blood: I know bachelor buttons has, there's a lot of different. ones out there um but yeah centaur love those zinnias are an edible flower and I'll grow the jazzy mix. which is like the itty bitty little miniature zinnias.
Jennifer Gulizia: uh -huh
Robin Blood: Those guys are perfect. And then... I don't really do pansies and violas. I feel like everybody does those when they do edible and... i don't know they're again too short for me i'm like ah Not interested.
Robin Blood: Um, And then I would say Amaranthus. That's probably my other my other favorite.
Jennifer Gulizia: With the Amaranthus, do you... keep it long or do you like break it up into chunks? How do you do that?
Robin Blood: Yes, so I'll we use it. We will break it up and like use it aesthetically on like a cake or on like charcuterie.
Jennifer Gulizia: oh
Robin Blood: I have a friend who owns a charcuterie business and so she'll like add it for a texture if it's like a fall or a Halloween type. type board.
Jennifer Gulizia: Oh, that's so cool. I love that. And I had no idea about zinnias.
Robin Blood: Yes. Yeah, they don't taste great. I don't like recommend, you know, it's not like a flavor thing, but they are.
Jennifer Gulizia: Okay.
Robin Blood: aesthetically. Gorgeous.
Jennifer Gulizia: Gotcha. Okay.
Robin Blood: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: My friends and I were trying to decide yesterday what the dahlias taste like and the closest thing that we decided on was that they were kind of like peppery, almost like a radish.
Robin Blood: Yes.
Jennifer Gulizia: We're like, oh, this would be really good on a salad, actually.
Robin Blood: On a salad, yes. and um what what is the the lettuce that is like peppery it's uh
Jennifer Gulizia: arugula?
Robin Blood: Yes, arugula. That's what I always said it was like.
Jennifer Gulizia: That's what I was looking for yesterday as I was like, I know it tastes like something.
Robin Blood: Yep.
Jennifer Gulizia: Yes. That is
Robin Blood: Yep.
Jennifer Gulizia: Oh my goodness.
Robin Blood: i't They're one of the best from a flavor standpoint to me. Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: It's so funny. I'm like, they're so beautiful. I can't eat them. But sometimes they're overly blue.
Robin Blood: but
Jennifer Gulizia: The bloom is too open. And so why not put them on a salad if they haven't been sprayed with chemicals?
Robin Blood: Exactly.
Jennifer Gulizia: Okay, thanks for humoring me with the... divergence there um okay the next question which is which ties in kind of to that is why do local flowers matter to you
Robin Blood: but but
Robin Blood: ah I think that. Something that I realized. when we were doing the farmers markets was it's very important to kind of develop. this local market and for people to maybe not even sell the flowers but grow them and gift them because there are flowers that people aren't seeing. Everything's so mainstream now.
Robin Blood: you see the same you know chrysanthemums and roses and everything at the grocery stores and people would have like an emotional response when they would see a coxcomb celosia in a bouquet because they hadn't seen one since their grandma grew them in their garden and so I feel like there are a lot of memories associated with flowers that
Jennifer Gulizia: the
Robin Blood: like society can forget if we stop growing them. So.
Jennifer Gulizia: Oh I love that.
Robin Blood: Hmm.
Jennifer Gulizia: What is one thing you wish more people understood about the floral industry?
Robin Blood: Ooh. i You know... My initial instinct. is Oh, I wish people knew how hard it was, but I kind of don't like that mindset because I feel like it kind of makes a little bit of like a.
Robin Blood: a woe is me scenario and we get we really do get to work with flowers like that is a privilege and and the fact that we're in a
Jennifer Gulizia: mm -hmm
Robin Blood: in a place where we get to do that um so maybe not people understand the amount of work that goes into it maybe just being
Robin Blood: ah knowing the, knowing what the process looks like, because I think it makes it more special. Like if you know what that rose went through to get to your table or that Zinnia or that, then like you maybe look at it a little bit more and you love it a little bit more because it's not just this disposable product that you're going to throw away in a week. It's something that a lot of like time and energy went into. which is another reason to buy local. Just saying.
Robin Blood: yeah
Jennifer Gulizia: That's really beautiful. I love how you describe that.
Robin Blood: Hmm.
Jennifer Gulizia: Okay, my last. quickfire question. What are you most grateful for that flowers have given you beyond the blooms?
Robin Blood: Whoa. I... And. most grateful for it gave me a team like it gave me I love I love my girls like I love my designers I love the career that this is turning into for them Um,
Robin Blood: Yeah, I love the, it gave me, it gave me community. It gave me a team. It gave me people, which at the end of the day. It's what it's about, you know? It's it's they're they're the family.
Jennifer Gulizia: that's beautiful Thank you. Okay, Robin, I have really enjoyed this conversation with you. For our listeners who want to learn more about you or stay connected with you, where can they find you?
Robin Blood: Yes, absolutely. so we are on All the social medias, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Be Bloomin' Flower Farm. And it is spelled B -B -L -U -M -E -N. Very German spelling.
Robin Blood: um so there or the bloom boss that's my like personal personal Instagram. And yeah, just. Following along on there, I do, you know, different like gardening tips and tricks, different designing things. It's very much just everything that we do thrown.
Robin Blood: thrown on there. So that's what I recommend following there.
Jennifer Gulizia: Amazing. Well, we will put links in today's show notes so people can head to the show notes and grab those links for you.
Robin Blood: oh
Robin Blood: right
Jennifer Gulizia: Thank you again for taking time out of the heat of your summer. And I know I made you turn off your air conditioning before we hit me records and you're probably melting.
Robin Blood: i know i like so My air conditioning, that you guys should know this, my air conditioning is making this weird buzzing sound and so it's been off the whole whole show. It's only like 89 degrees in here now, it's no big deal. ah
Jennifer Gulizia: Thank you for doing that for us. We appreciate it.
Robin Blood: Of course.
Jennifer Gulizia: and um I wish you a wonderful rest of your growing season. Thank you.
Robin Blood: Right back at you. Yeah, I'm excited but to hear about your class. That's going to be amazing.
Jennifer Gulizia: We'd love to have you join us. um And we'll put a link in the show notes for anyone who'd like to join us at the Dahlia Design Summit as well, taking place September. 13th through 18th. So thank you, Robin.
Robin Blood: love that
Jennifer Gulizia: Have a wonderful day.
Robin Blood: yes Thank you so much for having me.
Jennifer Gulizia: Bye bye.
Robin Blood: Bye.
Jennifer Gulizia: Absolutely. Bye -bye.
