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Summit Speaker Series: Heather Cain on Selling Dahlias to Florists
1.3k Plays21 days ago
In this bonus episode, I'm sharing my Instagram Live conversation with Heather Cain of Petal Pink Flower Farm. We talked all about selling dahlias to florists and she shared so much that I know you're going to want to hear her full session at the summit.
Have you ever thought about selling your dahlias to florists but weren't sure where to start? What do they actually expect? How do you price for wholesale? How do you even approach them?
Heather is answering all of it at the Profitable Dahlia Summit. From what florists look for when they buy dahlias, to how to scale your operation, price your blooms, and pack them like a pro.
If you're looking for a consistent, reliable revenue stream for your dahlias, selling to florists could be the game changer. And Heather is the person to learn from.
Heather is speaking at the Profitable Dahlia Summit on March 3rd at 2:15 PM PST where she's going even deeper on this topic.
The Profitable Dahlia Summit is March 3-5 with 13+ speakers covering every path to profitable dahlias. Tickets start at $99.
Grab your ticket at the link in the show notes: https://thefloweringfarmhouse.mykajabi.com/theprofitabledahliaschedule
Connect with Heather of Petal Pink Flowers: https://www.instagram.com/petalpinkflowers/
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Transcript
Introduction and Instagram Conversations
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey there, welcome to a special bonus episode of the Backyard Bouquet podcast. I've been going live on Instagram with some of the speakers from the Profitable Dahlia Summit, and the conversations have been so good that I didn't want our podcast community to miss out.
00:00:18
Speaker
These are short, casual chats that we had on Instagram where we get to know our speakers and hear a little bit about what they'll be teaching at the Profitable Dahlia Summit.
Profitable Dahlia Summit Overview
00:00:29
Speaker
I wanted to make sure you got to be part of these conversations too, even if you missed them live on Instagram. The Profitable Dahlia Summit is happening March 3rd through 4th with a bonus session on March 5th to help you pull everything together.
Replay of Speaker Conversation
00:00:43
Speaker
If you want to learn from these amazing speakers and join hundreds of other Dahlia growers who are focused on making their Dahlias profitable, you can grab your ticket at the link in today's show notes.
00:00:54
Speaker
Tickets start at $99. right, here's the replay. all right here's the replay Hello. Hi. How are you? go Good, Jen. It's good to see you. I am so close. whoa I am too. I'm going to skip back. white Why does that happen?
00:01:10
Speaker
I know. How is your day going? You've been out in the field planting. Yes, we're getting the sweet peas in So I had just enough time to like, you know, do this. So um good. How about you? Good. I've been dividing and packing up Dahlia tubers back in storage. So it's that time of year. I know I should be. It's like, like, how do you choose what to do? I should be doing that too. Yeah.
00:01:35
Speaker
It's so hard to choose the priorities. It's like, okay, what's the first thing that needs to be done today? Like what will die first if I don't get to it? That's kind of like my, like the emergency room. Yeah,
Journey to Dahlia Success
00:01:46
Speaker
totally. And today we've got a priority because in less than two weeks, the Profitable Dahlia Summit is happening and you are one of our speakers. so you and I'm so happy that you said yes. ah Thank you. I'm grateful that you're going joining us because I started following you years ago Because I saw that you were so successful selling to florists.
00:02:09
Speaker
And i was like, oh, I got to see what this farmer is doing. And you always had those big, beautiful buckets full in the back of your gator with your flowers. So you're joining us to talk about how you sell dahlias to florists.
00:02:23
Speaker
Yes. And I was so ah flattered, I guess, when you asked me because I just kind of didn't realize that I had been doing it for so long. And just because you just get your nose down, you know, and i was like, why would she ask me that? And then I thought, well, I actually have a lot to say about this. So yeah, I'm i'm really excited.
00:02:42
Speaker
Well, we're excited too. And I love it because yesterday on Instagram, you shared a post that said you almost quit dahlias six years ago. Can you tell us about that? Yeah. I mean, I i was growing, I grew dahlias for myself for fun. And so naturally when I started farming, I was, I grew dahlias, but as you know, there's so much work.
00:03:03
Speaker
And when I would run my numbers, I mean, the florists loved them, but I just was losing money because I wasn't really, i was
Understanding Costs and Profitability
00:03:11
Speaker
doing it. I was growing flowers like I was a flower lover, not like a business owner.
00:03:16
Speaker
And I think like the rubber really meets the road when you're selling to florists as a special select group of people that have special, ah like, I don't know, like different needs. And so i just had to change everything. I was glad. I mean, I really, I really did just say, we're not doing this anymore. We're not.
00:03:35
Speaker
Like I can't justify much work this is. We're losing money, but I i managed to save it. So um I'm glad because, you know, it's it's one of the most requested flowers from florists for sure. You know that. I mean, you also call the florists.
00:03:50
Speaker
It's a big part of my business. I mean, dahlias don't ship well. And we're in a prime growing spot for it. So there's some flowers that I've cut out of my crop mix because the florists can get them so cheap imported in or from wholesale markets.
00:04:06
Speaker
But the wholesale dahlias often don't compare to a fresh cut dahlia. Yeah, you're right. And they don't have a very long base life, even the best of dahlias. So they're not going to survive like a long trip in a box or even a bucket.
Strategic Decisions for Profitability
00:04:19
Speaker
So yeah, you're right.
00:04:20
Speaker
So what was the moment that you realized that you could be profitable selling dahlias to florists? The moment, I think it was the, year it was that year where I was like, we're either not doing it or I'm going to like be really honest with myself about like what I'm doing wrong. Cause again, it was that like, I, am I a flower lover or am I a business owner? Like you have to make some decisions that a flower lover maybe wouldn't and like get rid of some varieties or ah even organize your field in a different way sometimes. And so I think when I made all those hard decisions and then I just saw like, whoa,
00:04:55
Speaker
we made money this year, like just a few like simple tweaks. And then from there we were able to like really fine tune our processes. Once I really was like, I'm selling dahlias to florists. We, you know, then we brought in all the other, um you know, post-harvest itty nitty gritties and stuff like that.
00:05:13
Speaker
i love that you had to get honest with yourself and realize, okay, if I want to take this seriously, I have to do these certain steps. Yeah. And I think that's so important because it's so easy to just go through the motions, but if you don't truly know your numbers and get honest with yourself and ask those hard questions of yourself, you kind of stay stuck.
Summit Sessions and Cultivation Strategies
00:05:35
Speaker
Yeah, it's true. And you can kind of be in la-la land a little bit. You can not realize that you're not making money if you're growing more than one crop, especially. And um you're just like, it's like you have an internal bleed. You're just slowly, it's just bad for you, but you don't realize it. So it is really important. That's why there's, who is speaking at the summit? Who's talking about like knowing your numbers and that's, I'm excited for that class.
00:05:59
Speaker
Jenny Marks from trademark flower farms is coming on. i think her session, well, you're on, you're on Thursday, correct? I think so. Yeah. um And just should know. Yeah.
00:06:13
Speaker
Jenny is talking on Wednesday 1130 AM Pacific Standard Time about beyond beautiful blooms and knowing your numbers. So important.
00:06:24
Speaker
So important. Okay. Heather, how many dahlias you grow today? I do not grow very many for what people would think. I think I knew you were going to ask me that. I think I grow between like 1,200 and 1,500 plants.
00:06:35
Speaker
And part of my getting real with myself was like, I guess I could just grow more acres. Like I could grow more dahlias, but that's more work. Like how can I... maximize the space that I have dedicated. It didn't make sense to expand when we were losing money. It made more sense to make money of what existed. And that has actually kind of been a sweet spot for me. Like we have eight, uh, 75 foot rows.
00:07:01
Speaker
That's not very much. You grow a lot more than I do. But I love that because you didn't have to expand. You just got clear with what you had. And so many people think that you have to grow 10,000 5,000 dahlias be palpable, but you just have to know your market. Yeah, you have to know market. And then you also, again, like like I had to cut out some really beautiful dahlias that weren't giving me enough flowers per plant. Like it's just put it in the yard, you know?
00:07:30
Speaker
If you really want it, but I just couldn't be part of our production because I need every plant to be like workhorse for me out there. You have to be kind of ruthless with some of those varieties. It's hard sometimes. Yeah. I like can't tell the girls like who work for me. I'll be like, I'm not even going to tell them that we're not growing that next year. They don't need to know.
00:07:49
Speaker
Don't be sad. As I've been dividing, I have some of my seedlings and I'm looking at my spreadsheets. And one of the varieties that I divided today, I was like, okay, i had, it was a second going on to its third year. And it had after the first year. So from one tuber,
00:08:05
Speaker
or maybe it's third going on to fourth, excuse me. It had, it went from like one to five and then it went to 10. And this last year I lost all but three. And I said, I didn't even look at the picture. I just tossed it. i was like, yeah okay, so it's going to that much work storing it.
00:08:20
Speaker
curious one don't And don't look at the picture. That's what I played. Don't even want to know. Yes. Can you tell us a little bit about what you're going to talk about at the summit? Yeah.
Florist Market Insights
00:08:31
Speaker
So I am thinking that I want to talk to people about like florist expectations. I think that um a lot of times what I heard going into selling to florists was like, listen, anything you grow is better than anything they've ever seen, which is absolutely not true because no they eating flowers from professional,
00:08:51
Speaker
growers and this not to intimidate anyone, but I think if you know what the expectations are from just the quality, the stem length and like packaging presentation, all of that, then you really, when you go to, you know, like market yourself, you look professional, right? So I think I really want people to know about that. And then kind of how we organize and think through what we're going to plant and and do our field post-harvest care for florists, thinking about knowing,
00:09:20
Speaker
When you are selling to florists, as you know, inventory management and like knowing and being able to predict. And I don't know if I've got this even 100% down, but just it's a huge, you have to be able to say, yes, I will have 275 stems of white dahlias on such and such date and then make it happen. Yeah.
00:09:41
Speaker
and So it's very stressful. And then I'm stressing myself out. But there's a lot that goes into it. So I just would love for at the end of my talk for people to feel like empowered, so they can know and then kind of like the pros of selling to florists why I think it's so great. That's why like, ah most of my business is that's what I focused on. I really love it.
00:10:02
Speaker
And so so people could really be like, Hey, I can make money doing this. This could be but you know, a route I want to take and feel confident, not like, you know, I don't know. So, yeah.
00:10:13
Speaker
Well, I'm really looking forward to your session because I think it's so important that people understand that what you sell at a CSA is so different than how you present to a florist that because yeah you're going into a place of business. There's higher expectations.
00:10:29
Speaker
And you're absolutely right. And pricing and everything is so different. It's all different. Yeah, it's crazy. It's all different. And then if, you know, depending on what type of florist it is, then your colors and your form and all the Dahlia choices that you, you know, what florists are you growing for? There's just so much to think about. It's very different from making your own bouquets where you're the florist and you can do whatever you want. Right. Right.
00:10:52
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I went from selling only to wedding florists because we're such a wedding destination to also selling to everyday florists now. And the dahlias that I have to grow for each of them is completely different because isn't one leaves longer lasting and one could care less if they last more than two days.
Florist Needs and Preferences
00:11:10
Speaker
It's so true. And even the color requests will be like different. or And yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, I had to add brights into my colors because I'm like, we don't want all these pale colors for everyday orders. We need the brights.
00:11:22
Speaker
I know. I kept getting requests for bright pink, and I was like, gross. But then i was like, fine. so is a woman who bright like Yes, I couldn't grow enough. I couldn't harvest enough bright pink dahlias this last summer. yeah it's so funny.
00:11:36
Speaker
Okay. um What do you hope attendees walk away with from your session? I know you kind of hinted at that. yeah I guess maybe like confidence would be my thing, confidence. I'm like an information gatherer. I will take a class on even something that I never need to use. Like I just love having the information. But I hope that they feel like even if they're not like maybe they joined the summit for like because they want to do tuber sales or they want to hybridize but hopefully from my talk they'll have the tools and if they decide hey I'm going to try selling to florists they'll have like that confidence to know what they're getting themselves into basically.
00:12:13
Speaker
Absolutely. And it's so important because if you're doing tuber sales or if you're hybridizing, if you're hybridizing, you want to know what the florists want. Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. And with tuber sales, you have all of these blooms that you're letting go to waste if you're not cutting them in the season.
00:12:28
Speaker
I know sometimes I see these beautiful fields and I'm like, who's... I mean, someone I hope someone's harvesting those. That'd be great in a wedding. Absolutely. Okay.
00:12:39
Speaker
um I want to respect your time today because I know I said this was going to quick live session. I've got a lightning round of questions that I'm asking our speakers on these. So what is your favorite Dahlia variety this year that you're looking forward to growing?
00:12:56
Speaker
Okay. um propp ah Well, you know, I always say Blizzard pays the bills. Like that's the, I mean,
Personal Stories and Farming Chaos
00:13:03
Speaker
for if we're not having fun, that was perfect white, yeah. But I'm really excited about, I grew just a couple last year, the River Merle, Hannah Jo. I don't know if you know that.
00:13:14
Speaker
No. Purple, like lavender. Like it's the perfect pastel lavender and is super prolific. And it's that color that's like showing up in weddings lately. Anyways, I'm excited to have more of that this year.
00:13:29
Speaker
I'm go to have to check that one out. yeah Okay. Are you a coffee or tea gal? I'm tea. I do three cups of green tea every morning. Every morning. Wow.
00:13:39
Speaker
i tried' do i I tried to like coffee and I just can't do it. I go coffee venti.
00:13:49
Speaker
Okay. Your most chaotic Dahlia moment you've had. Oh, it feels like it's all chaos, but it's actually okay. So I remember before I knew how to store my tubers properly. So this is a lot of years ago.
00:14:05
Speaker
And I thought that I could just dig them out and put them all in my tiny little cooler. And I just closed the door and walked away. So I'm going to say a month and a half later, I opened the door and it was all like going moldy and it was terrible so my poor young son Titus I was like Titus get out here and we just had to haul all those crates and we had the hose and we had the air compressor and we were like frantically you know just trying to save what we could Titus was like my mom's crazy but and we really I lost a lot of tubers that year I think that was like maybe five or six years ago but that sticks out
00:14:40
Speaker
The losses seem to hit harder than others. It's so bad. It's so sad. Now, I love that said he thought you were probably crazy. I would have to guess or have to predict or what's the right word? Now i'm blanking on the correct word here.
00:14:55
Speaker
i would assume that probably every flower farmer's child has said that their parent is crazy. Right? Does your daughter think you're crazy? At some time. Yeah. Hands down.
00:15:07
Speaker
my God. Okay. Tuber sales. Love them or dread them?
00:15:12
Speaker
I do kind of, I mean, my physiologically, I obviously dread them because I get, I'm like sitting there and I'm sweating because, you know, I, I mean, I've done my own, but I just dabble
Tools and Technology in Farming
00:15:22
Speaker
in it. I usually just replant my tubers or whatever. Um, but when I really want a tuber, I get sweaty. So yeah.
00:15:30
Speaker
and I do too. It's like, I have to get it. But I've just learned, like, it's just like any other collection. Like sometimes it's hard to add something to your collection. So I just try to be give like at every sale, just have one that I'm like, I'm just going to get that one and check out.
00:15:44
Speaker
And then I'll go back and see if I can get anything else. I don't know. That's what I do too. It's like, okay, quickly get the most priced one yeah and then go back and I can usually get a couple of the other ones. on the Yeah. Yeah.
00:15:56
Speaker
True. Yeah. What about, do you have a favorite tool or farming hack?
00:16:04
Speaker
I mean, honestly, it's kind of, I think it's a lame answer, but like my tractor and or my gator that I just like, cause I'm just, that has saved my old lady body. Now I'm 45, you know, i don't know if I didn't have a tractor these days and i was like still wheel bearing my compost. It would be bad.
00:16:22
Speaker
Absolutely. We got a side by this last year for driving because we have 900 foot driveway. And i listened to Jenny Marks talk about knowing your numbers. And I did the math on how much time it takes me to walk from the top to the bottom of my driveway. i would have spent 80 hours this summer walking the driveway.
00:16:44
Speaker
had I not had the gator and I was like, okay, that's hands down the easiest decision I made this summer. Yeah. And it's so, and then you'll have it for so many years. You're going to more than eight hours. Who knows? Yeah. It's awesome.
Closing Remarks and Invitation
00:16:56
Speaker
That like, man, if you can mechanize it, especially in flower farming where you have to do almost everything by hand. So yeah, I think that's one of our safety nets is that everyone's worried about AI taking over their jobs, but it's going be a long time before our jobs are compromised.
00:17:13
Speaker
That's true. Okay. Well, this has been really fun, Heather. If you are still listening to this and you want to go deeper or you want to hear Heather's session at the Profitable Dahlia Summit taking place March 3rd and 4th, you can visit the link in our bios and grab a ticket. We would love to have you join us.
00:17:32
Speaker
And Heather, thanks so much for joining us today. And we'll see you at the summit. Yeah. Thanks, Jen. Thanks. Have a great afternoon. You too. Bye-bye. Bye.