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Cut Flowers In Kentucky
176 Plays2 years ago
In this episode, we're going to explore the cut flower industry in Kentucky, where farmers are producing beautiful blooms for local markets and beyond. We'll learn about the challenges and rewards of growing flowers in this region, and get some tips on growing and marketing. Tune in and let's get floral!
Center For Crop Diversification Cut Flower Resources
Kentucky Commercial Cut Flower Grower Directory
Kentucky Horticulture Council Cut Flower Resources
Questions/Comments/Feedback/Suggestions for Topics: hortculturepodcast@l.uky.edu
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Hort Culture Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to Hort Culture, where a group of extension professionals and plant people talk about the business, production, and joy of planting seeds and helping them grow.
00:00:11
Speaker
Join us as we explore the culture of horticulture.
00:00:18
Speaker
Hello everybody, welcome to another episode.
00:00:21
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If I sound a little froggy, I apologize.
00:00:23
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I got those good, good Kentucky allergies going on right now.
00:00:29
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I like to think I'm more like Phoebe and she's got that like, you know, like her sexy voice she plays guitar with when she's six, but it's more of a frog.
00:00:38
Speaker
Smelly cat.
00:00:39
Speaker
Smelly cat.
00:00:40
Speaker
Smelly cat.
00:00:41
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Smelly cat.
00:00:43
Speaker
So yeah, how's everybody doing today?
00:00:46
Speaker
Good.
00:00:47
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Good.
00:00:48
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Strong.
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Strong.
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Not seasonal allergies.
00:00:52
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They're for the weak.
00:00:54
Speaker
Not weak.
00:00:55
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We don't have allergies.
00:00:57
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We're not nasally.
00:01:00
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Thanks, guys.
00:01:00
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I really appreciate you all.
00:01:02
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They would save me during the apocalypse.
Celebrating Kentucky Cut Flower Month
00:01:05
Speaker
Well, I am extra excited because we are kicking off a kind of month of some cut flower episodes.
00:01:14
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And if you've listened to any episodes so far, I usually find a way to work in something about cut flowers because that's who I am as a person.
00:01:25
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And I'm just really excited to kick off Kentucky Cut Flower Month.
The Benefits of Flowers - A Harvard Study
00:01:29
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And we're going to have some cool guests on this month.
00:01:31
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So I'm just overall really jazzed about this.
00:01:35
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I'm pretty excited as well.
00:01:37
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I have a couple little facts here for you.
00:01:40
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A little bit of information that came out of this study that a psychologist from the University of Harvard Medical School- I'm sorry, where?
00:01:50
Speaker
Never heard of it.
00:01:51
Speaker
Never heard of it.
00:01:52
Speaker
Never heard of it.
00:01:54
Speaker
I normally don't intellectually slum it with Harvard material, but in this case, I'll make an exception.
00:02:01
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They did this thing where they assessed people with and without the presence of cut flowers in their rooms or in their houses, and they did it in a couple of different environments.
00:02:10
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And they found from their studies, you can read more about this in a couple of different places, including I think the Harvard blog and about flowers from the specialty cut flower association, I believe.
00:02:23
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But they found that when there are presence, in the presence of flowers, flowers feed compassion.
00:02:28
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Flowers can chase away anxieties, worries, and the blues at home.
00:02:33
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Living with flowers can provide a boost of energy, happiness, and enthusiasm at work.
00:02:38
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And a quote here from the, the,
00:02:40
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principal investigator.
00:02:42
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As a psychologist, I'm particularly intrigued to find that people who live with flowers report fewer episodes of anxiety and depressed feelings.
00:02:50
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Our results suggest that flowers have a positive impact on our well-being.
00:02:55
Speaker
So what better reason to celebrate for a whole month of cut flowers and, you know, even if you don't cut them, just grow them in the ground and love on them.
00:03:04
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This month, July, cut flower month, I'm also very excited.
00:03:09
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Yeah.
00:03:09
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It's actually also American-grown flower month.
00:03:13
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So we claim it as Kentucky, and you all know that that's where we're at.
00:03:16
Speaker
So we also claim it as Kentucky cut
American-grown Flower Month
00:03:18
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flower month.
00:03:18
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But it is American-grown cut flower month.
00:03:20
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And that is because July is the only month out of the year that every single U.S. state has cut flowers available.
00:03:29
Speaker
So even Alaska.
00:03:30
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So the Alaska peony season has started.
00:03:34
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So I just, I find that fascinating when you think about it because you're like, oh, okay.
00:03:37
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And then you're like, oh, wait, Alaska.
00:03:40
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Is Alaska kind of like known for peony production?
00:03:45
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So more recently, like it's not something that's been always there, but in the last 10 or 15 years, they've really done a good job of that.
00:03:53
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And so there are lots of peony farmers and they supply the world in these late or in the summer and late summer peonies now.
00:04:02
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They're pretty much one of the only places that grow them this time of year.
00:04:07
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So it's pretty impressive.
00:04:09
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That's awesome.
00:04:11
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Yeah, and I think we're celebrating the whole gamut of cut flower grower, cut flower types, cut flowers in different contexts.
00:04:19
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So that could be for sale.
00:04:21
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That could be for just picking for your home or giving to a
00:04:26
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somebody you think is cute on a date or something or bringing them to somebody who's a friend of yours or family member, that type of celebration as well.
00:04:37
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It's not just, we tend to sometimes focus on more of the home side or more of the commercial side, but it's kind of a blend of all those.
00:04:45
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I think we want to give a shout out, but like in the last few years, we've seen like crazy growth in the number of cut flower growers,
00:04:56
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In the state of Kentucky, we keep track of those because, you know, we're here.
00:05:00
Speaker
But Josh, Alexis, whoever, we have some numbers on that, right?
00:05:07
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Yeah, I can give numbers for people who have volunteered to be in the Kentucky, I believe it's the Kentucky Commercial Cut Flower Grower Association.
00:05:16
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So people who are looking to sell flowers.
00:05:20
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And I believe the foundation year was 2019, right?
00:05:24
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The first year we put this together, we had 35 people that were listed in the directory.
00:05:34
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And as of this year, actually, as of today, we are up to, let me make sure I get this exactly right, 117.
00:05:45
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So that's been in the last four years that it's grown pretty significantly.
00:05:49
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And it's grown by about...
00:05:51
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that kind of similar size each year like we're just getting like it doubled and then doubled and then you know moved on yeah there i've got some data from the ag census for kentucky and so what josh is talking about is um so there's a map we'll have a link to it in the show notes there is a map that uh actually josh put together but it is
00:06:14
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locations of farms.
00:06:15
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So if you're looking for a farm close to you in the state of Kentucky that you can buy flowers from in some capacity, you can get on this map and it'll tell you the farm, how to contact them, their website, whatever, as well as how they sell.
00:06:30
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So if you're looking for someone close to you who does farmer's markets, if you're looking for someone who does roadside stand, whatever that is.
00:06:36
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So it kind of lists those and it's a phenomenal map Josh has created.
00:06:41
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And so...
00:06:42
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But those are the people who, like he said, have like volunteered to give that information and want to be on that map.
00:06:48
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So I've the data I've got from the ag census, which, of course, is more about just general farm info.
00:06:54
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So not everybody wants to be on the map, those kinds of things.
00:06:57
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And the stuff I have.
00:06:58
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So in 2017.
00:07:00
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There were 68 people that were saying that they were growing cut flowers as a farm, going back to kind of that commercial profitability.
00:07:10
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So they're growing and selling cut flowers, either just cut flowers or they're selling it as part of another operation.
00:07:17
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And then now what that census is indicating is that there are 103.
00:07:23
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150 across Kentucky.
00:07:24
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So really not super far off from what Josh is saying.
00:07:26
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We're still seeing that same level of growth.
00:07:29
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But anytime I can throw a bigger number about how many cut flower farmers there are, I will.
00:07:33
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I will trump it with a bigger number if the data says that there is one.
00:07:38
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And that might be – the 150 might be people who grow cut flowers in addition
The Rise of American-grown Flowers
00:07:42
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to another bunch of other stuff and they're just saying they grow that.
00:07:44
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And so maybe they don't think of themselves as cut flower growers enough to be part of the association even though they could be.
00:07:50
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Um, that's pretty, that's pretty wild.
00:07:52
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Ray, have you, have you seen like an uptick in interest both locally and statewide and from your perspective?
00:08:00
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Yeah, absolutely.
00:08:01
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I was just, um, talking with some folks, um, from our garden club and I was related to an experience that I had, um, at a spring meeting that we had here in Kentucky, uh, the fruit and vegetable producers association.
00:08:15
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And it was an amazing that one of the breakout sessions or tracks of, um,
00:08:21
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information there at the meeting was related to flowers and flower production, all things flowers.
00:08:27
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Alexis was the host and she kept everybody well in line.
00:08:30
Speaker
By any means necessary.
00:08:33
Speaker
Yes, by corporal punishment, I believe.
00:08:38
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Listen, we can learn all about how to compost dead things.
00:08:43
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One example really sets the tone.
00:08:45
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It was needed in that room.
00:08:47
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I tell you why, because the energy in the room was really through the roof and it was a standing room only kind of thing.
00:08:53
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They had to bring chairs in.
00:08:54
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It was a big crowd.
00:08:55
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So they were very lucky to have Alexis in there running crowd control over that bunch.
00:09:00
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But yeah, I've seen, um, just the interest.
00:09:03
Speaker
It kind of reflects what you guys are saying.
00:09:05
Speaker
I'm seeing the same thing on the field side with a local interest and on a statewide, um,
00:09:11
Speaker
kind of scope too, but is, is this just unique to Kentucky, uh, Alexis, you guys that are tuned into this, Josh, or is this a U S thing kind of what's going on?
00:09:20
Speaker
Is it regional?
00:09:20
Speaker
What's happening?
00:09:22
Speaker
Well, 80% of the flowers that, you know, let me just throw some more data at you.
00:09:28
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80% of the flowers that are sold in the flower market are imported.
00:09:33
Speaker
So that's mostly South America, but we also have of course, Holland and places like that.
00:09:38
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And so,
00:09:40
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there has been a resurgence.
00:09:41
Speaker
And that was something that happened in, I think it was like started happening in the 60s and kind of got to that full 80% around the early 80s.
00:09:49
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If you're listening and know those dates are wrong, I know I'm pretty close.
00:09:53
Speaker
Okay.
00:09:53
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I've given myself a 20 year window.
00:09:54
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All right.
00:09:55
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But anyway, I might not be right, but I'll fight you.
00:09:57
Speaker
But I'm pretty dang close.
00:09:59
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It's not going to be wrong if you make your specificity loud enough.
00:10:04
Speaker
So that kind of, there was a lot of farms and
00:10:07
Speaker
in the U.S. I mean farms for all kinds of stuff, vegetables, all that.
00:10:11
Speaker
Same with cut flowers and then of course you know cheaper labor or all of those things go out of the U.S. So I think that there has been a resurgence and I think I know I don't have those numbers because I'm only concerned with Kentucky numbers at the moment but
00:10:27
Speaker
We've seen that same jump kind of all over the U.S. with people kind of picking up to fill in those markets again because try to bring that 80% number down.
00:10:37
Speaker
And I think that that shows that there is enough room for people to fill if we can fill in with American-grown markets.
00:10:46
Speaker
You know, flowers, there's 80 percent that we can fill and keep it local.
00:10:51
Speaker
Right.
00:10:51
Speaker
I have the potential to education needed there because you're mentioning flowers produced in countries that could probably not.
00:11:00
Speaker
feasibly be produced here in an environment that they, you know, that is different than our own.
00:11:05
Speaker
Is there any education that had, that's kind of been taking place to get people more accustomed to purchasing things that can be grown locally?
00:11:13
Speaker
Are you seeing that?
00:11:14
Speaker
I think we kind of almost have to think of, it's the same in the vegetable world, but maybe to a higher extent in the floral world, because there is such a diversity that of things that in the floral world.
00:11:26
Speaker
But I think
00:11:28
Speaker
We're talking American grown.
00:11:30
Speaker
So what can be grown in Columbia can be grown in California, can be grown in Florida.
00:11:35
Speaker
And so moving those places and, you know, the times that you can get them to the States is possible, but it still is something, you know,
00:11:47
Speaker
It is something to think – you're right.
00:11:48
Speaker
It is something to think about whether or not those places can do the large quantities that is required.
00:11:54
Speaker
Yes, there is some things.
00:11:56
Speaker
In Holland, there's a reason.
00:11:57
Speaker
They grow a lot of tulips.
00:11:58
Speaker
Their soils are great for it.
00:12:00
Speaker
We don't necessarily have the land space here for that because a lot of that is taken up in food production, which –
00:12:05
Speaker
no shame in that.
00:12:08
Speaker
That's fine.
00:12:09
Speaker
But the 80% is a lot.
00:12:11
Speaker
I mean, when you really think about how high that number is, to think that 80% of flowers are imported into the United States, that's a big number that we can significantly reduce and I think still have pretty much everything that we want.
00:12:26
Speaker
It just might be more of like a time of the year thing.
00:12:29
Speaker
Like you're not going to have peonies in
00:12:33
Speaker
the middle of winter because there's nowhere in the U S we can do that.
00:12:36
Speaker
Um, but right.
00:12:38
Speaker
Well, aren't there, there are certain species I'm probably going to show how I don't know very much about cut flowers here, but one of the things that I remember learning, I don't remember where I learned it.
00:12:49
Speaker
That's why I'm not sure if it's likely, um, is that, uh, there are certain advantages to, uh, purchasing cut flowers locally beyond, you know, how,
00:13:01
Speaker
fresh, they stay quote unquote, because you're getting them so soon after they're cut.
00:13:04
Speaker
But like snap grab dragons, I remember standing out as ones that don't ship well because they can't lay flat.
00:13:11
Speaker
They want to like after they've been cut and laid on their side, they'll like the plant hormone like oxen or whatever will
00:13:18
Speaker
put a curve in them to try to make them stand up straight.
00:13:21
Speaker
Is that right?
00:13:22
Speaker
They're geotropic.
00:13:23
Speaker
So yeah, that's right.
00:13:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:25
Speaker
What class was that?
00:13:28
Speaker
I mean that they're like chase rocks.
00:13:32
Speaker
They respond to gravity.
00:13:34
Speaker
So there's geotropic and phototropic, and some plants are one or the other, and some are both.
00:13:40
Speaker
So I know snapdragons are geotropic.
00:13:46
Speaker
I think gladiolias are geo and photo, so they both go against gravity and towards the light if they can, so it's like double.
00:13:56
Speaker
But yeah, so snapdragons are...
00:13:58
Speaker
something that they can be hard harder to ship because of that now they have done some ways of like the special wraps that they do that they're they can't they can't bend so they're they're a kind of middle of the road version but like one that we see a lot that is not a good there's two that i'm thinking of that you know florists and people in general you know whether it's weddings or you're buying from a grocery store
00:14:23
Speaker
whatever love that are really hard to get from a big wholesaler shipped in are Dahlias and Cosmos because neither of them ship well.
00:14:34
Speaker
They have to be in water, which is much more expensive to ship.
00:14:38
Speaker
They already have short vase lives as it is even if you were to pick one fresh out of your garden and put it immediately in.
00:14:45
Speaker
Inside, it has a short face life in comparison to most things.
00:14:49
Speaker
So they're just – they never come in good.
00:14:51
Speaker
When I've talked to florists, I know that when they order dahlias because they might have a bride or something that has to have them.
00:14:58
Speaker
When they order them, they order two or three times the amount that they actually need because they know they're going to throw away that many.
00:15:04
Speaker
Wow.
00:15:05
Speaker
Which is just crazy when you think about it and like think about how much then they have to charge that bride or that client to –
00:15:14
Speaker
get that flower in versus if they were to buy it from a local grower.
00:15:18
Speaker
Granted, it has to be in season.
00:15:19
Speaker
They can't just order out a season.
00:15:21
Speaker
But if they bought that from a local grower, they're not going to throw anything away because that grower is going to want to make a good relationship.
00:15:28
Speaker
So they're only going to bring them essentially the best.
00:15:32
Speaker
So in theory, they're not going to throw anything away.
00:15:34
Speaker
So how much cheaper it would be for that client even if you think about it.
00:15:39
Speaker
It might be more expensive to buy it from local, but is it
00:15:43
Speaker
really more expensive per stem if you're not buying three times the amount.
00:15:47
Speaker
So, um, but yeah, those are two that there's so many aspects of it.
00:15:52
Speaker
It's not just vase life is better when you buy local, you know, the same thing as we say, like local tomatoes taste better, right?
00:15:58
Speaker
Like it's the same concept of that and that freshness.
00:16:01
Speaker
So yes, in theory, you should have longer vase life if you're with a grower knows what they're doing.
00:16:07
Speaker
Uh, but it's also that you're going to get stuff that you can't necessarily get everywhere.
00:16:11
Speaker
Um,
00:16:12
Speaker
So that's kind of the beauty of it.
00:16:15
Speaker
A little political, economic, political, ecological context to what you were talking about, Alexis, with that shift away from mostly domestic flowers to mostly international flowers.
00:16:28
Speaker
And in 1991…
00:16:31
Speaker
There was a law passed called the Andean, that's the Andean Mountain Range, Andean Trade Preference Act, which was, you know, the political line that was given was that it was an attempt to incentivize the development of, quote unquote, legitimate industries to try to combat the drug trade.
00:16:55
Speaker
And as part of that, it waived
00:16:58
Speaker
and or reduced tariffs for imports coming from South American countries, including on cut flowers.
00:17:05
Speaker
And so, excuse me, that was, it started in 1991.
00:17:09
Speaker
It was originally for 13 years, but I believe it was then extended as part of another thing.
00:17:14
Speaker
There's information on this from like the US Treasury, but that in essence created the pipeline for really inexpensive international flowers because
00:17:27
Speaker
The tariff would be the way that the relative labor difference, cost difference would be kind of like, even if you could get cheap labor elsewhere, it could be offset by the fact that they're going to have to pay a tariff when it comes to the United States.
00:17:43
Speaker
Interesting little intersection of politics, history, and cut flowers for you.
00:17:48
Speaker
Love it.
00:17:49
Speaker
As you're thinking about that.
00:17:50
Speaker
I forgot about that, yeah.
00:17:51
Speaker
Yeah, that was a big part of that.
00:17:52
Speaker
I think there is movement now to bring that tariff back.
00:17:55
Speaker
The circles I run in.
00:18:07
Speaker
No, anybody.
00:18:08
Speaker
The American Society of Cut Flower Growers.
00:18:11
Speaker
Alexis had lunch with the Bidens yesterday.
00:18:14
Speaker
Talk about the tariff.
00:18:17
Speaker
Cultural attaché to Columbia.
00:18:23
Speaker
I visit the Pentagon quite often.
00:18:25
Speaker
That's all we need to say.
00:18:27
Speaker
You're not allowed to say anymore.
00:18:29
Speaker
I get it.
00:18:30
Speaker
You're not allowed to talk about it.
00:18:31
Speaker
I can't talk about this further.
00:18:33
Speaker
The Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers is actually –
00:18:37
Speaker
Got some international growers in it, but primarily as American growers.
00:18:42
Speaker
They're heavily involved in bringing that tariff back.
00:18:48
Speaker
And I wish I had thought about looking up more about this because there's been lots of really good meetings and I've just essentially been reading the cliff notes of them.
00:18:57
Speaker
But there's movement.
00:18:59
Speaker
I don't know if it's gone through.
00:19:01
Speaker
I'm not sure where it lasts, but if you've heard anything about that.
00:19:05
Speaker
Let us know.
00:19:06
Speaker
I'm thinking of the president right now of that association was given some talks about what that looks like and just to support the local growers because there are enough large scale growers now in the United States to be able to say like this isn't fair.
00:19:25
Speaker
And we're growing locally.
Small Farms and Cut Flower Profitability
00:19:28
Speaker
And we think that, you know, we need to be given a fairer chance here because we can do what they're doing.
00:19:33
Speaker
And so there, you know, some really large, large ones as well as all this growth.
00:19:37
Speaker
Like, you know, we've talked about all these, this growth in flower farming operations.
00:19:40
Speaker
So even the small growers are having an impact.
00:19:45
Speaker
I think they're having an impact, but as far as voting was going, it was something around like $100,000 in sales, which I know seems like a lot.
00:19:54
Speaker
I mean, it is a lot, but that's kind of a standard number that's used for a lot of people.
00:20:00
Speaker
a lot of horticulture operations and when it comes to flowers it's not as big as if you were selling like lettuce or something like that because you have a much higher dollar amount you know one stem is a lot worth a lot more so anyways there's a lot of farms that would be considered small by like usda that's one of the craziest things about cut flowers is that people like the amount the dollar per acre
00:20:23
Speaker
return or at least gross is like insane compared to a lot of, especially compared to like commodity crops, like forget about it.
00:20:33
Speaker
But even compared to other direct marketing crops, it's pretty wild and cool.
00:20:37
Speaker
And like the idea of like intensive small production fits in a lot of places.
00:20:43
Speaker
I think that's why it's grown so quickly.
00:20:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:46
Speaker
So the American specialty cut flower grow association,
00:20:50
Speaker
grower association reported that their membership in the last four years has doubled.
00:20:56
Speaker
So yeah, your question, Josh, about the like growth elsewhere.
00:21:01
Speaker
Yeah, I think that ours, we're probably, Kentucky's probably growing faster than the country as a whole, but there is still tremendous growth.
00:21:08
Speaker
And I think that's another interesting like intersection of
00:21:11
Speaker
And that's just their membership, right?
00:21:12
Speaker
That's right.
00:21:13
Speaker
That doesn't count for the people who can't afford to pay $200 or don't want to pay $200 to join that association.
00:21:19
Speaker
Totally.
00:21:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:20
Speaker
And it doesn't count for the fact that some of those members have probably grown in size and they still just count as one even though they've doubled their sales.
00:21:28
Speaker
And this is another example of like from what the culture of horticulture, the broader cultural impacts of the pandemic and what it had on both local foods but also on cut flowers that people had –
00:21:40
Speaker
They couldn't go places and they had some money that they were using for not going places or that they had been using to go places that they weren't using to go places.
00:21:51
Speaker
And they were spending a lot of time in their spaces.
00:21:53
Speaker
Many of them, not I'm a homebody.
00:21:55
Speaker
It didn't, I mean, it changed some for me, but some people, it was like the first time that they had spent long hours within their own house and then realizing, oh, this space is like,
00:22:06
Speaker
improved by these cut flowers.
Pandemic's Impact on Local Flowers
00:22:09
Speaker
This is really nice.
00:22:10
Speaker
My anxiety is somehow lower when I look at that.
00:22:13
Speaker
As I stare into these snapdragons, I forget the world seeming to crumble outside my window.
00:22:20
Speaker
Yeah, so they had more or they grew more.
00:22:23
Speaker
The seeds, I think Johnny's, I saw something Johnny's was saying how much, how their seed, vegetables, everything, herbs, all that,
00:22:35
Speaker
Their sales increased so exponentially from COVID because people had time and were home and were looking for something to do at home.
00:22:43
Speaker
I think a lot of our cut flower – It was already growing before that.
00:22:47
Speaker
We have numbers from 2017, but it grew so much faster that year from people who just wanted – Then they were like, oh, I enjoy this or –
00:22:59
Speaker
you know, it's a good support.
00:23:01
Speaker
Maybe, you know, they're still working full time, but it's their teachers.
00:23:04
Speaker
So it's nice for them something to do in the summer and they sell to their teacher friends.
00:23:08
Speaker
And, you know, some, for some people it is supplemental income and that's wonderful.
00:23:13
Speaker
And for some people it is, you know, a full-time job.
00:23:15
Speaker
And we do have several large farms across Kentucky that I'm not sure if like
00:23:21
Speaker
people knew that like their full-time job is to farm and they farm cut flowers and that's it.
00:23:26
Speaker
And now we have some who farm vegetables and they also have
00:23:30
Speaker
they, you know, focus on one or two cut flowers, they either bring to market or I know a big, huge vegetable CSA that has decided they wanted to do wholesale sunflowers because it just fit their model and they need a rotational crop.
00:23:46
Speaker
And so they don't want to do retail, even though they do like retails.
00:23:50
Speaker
And, you know, they may throw it into a CSA box as a thank you or something, but like they want to
00:23:57
Speaker
add this into their operation to help build their soil and their ecosystem and all that jazz.
00:24:02
Speaker
And then they're going to sell those wholesale.
00:24:04
Speaker
So, and you know, they're full-time farmers, but we have some people who are full-time flower farmers and they pretty much only do flowers.
00:24:12
Speaker
And I think that's really cool.
00:24:14
Speaker
And a lot of people don't necessarily know that about Kentucky and we have a great climate for growing cuts here.
00:24:22
Speaker
Is that what they call them in the biz?
00:24:23
Speaker
You just call them cuts?
00:24:23
Speaker
Yeah, we just call them cuts.
00:24:24
Speaker
That was some sweet slang right there.
00:24:26
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:24:27
Speaker
It could be either flower farming or mafia.
00:24:29
Speaker
I mean, it works for either.
00:24:30
Speaker
I know you all are not seeing this.
00:24:32
Speaker
You're not seeing the video.
00:24:33
Speaker
You're just hearing, but Alexis has a leather jacket and has her hair styled like John Travolta in Greece, and she just said cuts.
00:24:40
Speaker
Cuts.
00:24:42
Speaker
And she has M&Ms in the background.
00:24:43
Speaker
I whipped out my knife out of my tool belt that I wear, and I whipped my little knife out.
00:24:48
Speaker
Is that a switchboard?
00:24:49
Speaker
Yeah, you know.
00:24:50
Speaker
I'm intimidated.
00:24:52
Speaker
We call this an assisted opening.
00:24:56
Speaker
We call it a switchblade rumble.
00:24:59
Speaker
It depends on your intentions, Brett.
00:25:03
Speaker
I do harvest with a knife personally.
00:25:05
Speaker
Machete.
00:25:06
Speaker
It's not a sickle.
00:25:12
Speaker
Do I have a sickle?
00:25:13
Speaker
I forget.
00:25:14
Speaker
There's like a handheld version.
00:25:16
Speaker
It's the same.
00:25:16
Speaker
And then there's like the one the Grim Reaper carries.
00:25:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:19
Speaker
I think the side is the Grim Reaper and the sickle is the hand.
00:25:22
Speaker
The curve.
00:25:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:23
Speaker
I think so.
00:25:24
Speaker
I have a sickle that I use to harvest as well.
00:25:26
Speaker
So yeah.
00:25:29
Speaker
I have some fancy, really sharp tools that I carry around.
00:25:32
Speaker
Don't ever come up on me in a field because I have 18 different things I could stab you with in arm's length.
00:25:39
Speaker
Yeah, she might not sell you a cut, but she'll give you one for free.
00:25:45
Speaker
Free of charge.
00:25:47
Speaker
Anyways, yeah.
00:25:49
Speaker
I was wondering if maybe, you know, we talked a little bit about the context of
00:25:53
Speaker
Josh, do you want to maybe just give a little bit of a download on some of the resources and anything else as far as some of the short courses that have been published?
00:26:02
Speaker
Sure, sure.
00:26:03
Speaker
I think there's going to be a lot of content coming out.
00:26:06
Speaker
Maybe we could collectively brainstorm who people should be following to make sure that they get the social media and other downloads on Cut Flower Month here in Kentucky and otherwise talk about that.
00:26:17
Speaker
And then maybe in the last little bit, we can talk about the...
00:26:21
Speaker
if you wanted to have a cut flower garden or shop for cut flowers or look for, you know, get a bucket of flowers and do some arranging, maybe we could talk about that in the last little bit.
00:26:29
Speaker
Love it.
00:26:30
Speaker
Sure.
00:26:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:30
Speaker
To speak to the resources, we'll have a link for it, but the, the CCD has like kind of a landing page that has a collection of a lot of different cut flower resources, how to videos, crop profiles, and the kind of reference sheets.
00:26:46
Speaker
One that Alexis and I put together about like kind of,
00:26:49
Speaker
what flower species need as far as like post harvest, you know, do they need cooling?
00:26:55
Speaker
Are they room temperature?
00:26:56
Speaker
What's the story with kind of dips and like hydrating solutions?
00:26:59
Speaker
Like it's a nice little breakdown of what species require what that might help somebody kind of streamline and sort of grow things that have a similar process.
00:27:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:10
Speaker
as well as a couple of cut flower budgets, things of that nature.
00:27:15
Speaker
Oh, and I wanted to bring up that cut flower track that was at the fruit and vegetable conference.
00:27:22
Speaker
That was all recorded.
00:27:23
Speaker
There was, let's see, about eight or nine different topics that we ran through on that day.
00:27:30
Speaker
And those are all recorded and they're now available online at that same kind of landing page.
00:27:35
Speaker
So you can
00:27:36
Speaker
Even including listen to Alexis get people under control.
00:27:40
Speaker
But listen to a lot of experts talk about different topics.
00:27:43
Speaker
These are YouTube videos?
00:27:46
Speaker
Yes.
00:27:46
Speaker
And they're like things about marketing, but also things about like the Cut Flower market, is that what it's called?
00:27:55
Speaker
Yeah, the cut flower, the Kentucky cut flower market.
00:27:57
Speaker
We talked about that.
00:27:59
Speaker
But yeah, there's people talking about drying cut flowers, record keeping, evaluating profitability, stuff about florist surveys, do's and don'ts, things like that.
00:28:12
Speaker
Yeah, I'll just take a brief moment to shout out Alexis and Kristen and Josh and the folks at the Dakota and Cindy at the Horticulture Council.
00:28:23
Speaker
Bethany.
00:28:24
Speaker
Bethany at the Horticulture Council has done a really great job of responding to the need and the clear demand for information about cut flower stuff.
00:28:38
Speaker
My colleague Savannah presented some stuff about marketing related and...
00:28:44
Speaker
I just think that was something, we do see it from some extension systems or some other groups, but I'm really proud and excited to see all the stuff that you all have put together and put out there to support people.
00:28:56
Speaker
Because as you're talking through this, this is a lot of really good information.
00:28:59
Speaker
I can understand why people in the room were so amped to do it.
00:29:02
Speaker
So anyway, that's just my brief.
00:29:04
Speaker
Cool, yeah.
00:29:05
Speaker
Well, and in addition to that, that short course track that has a lot of nice stuff there ongoing for the last, I guess, about four years has been the virtual Cut Flower short course that, you know, similarly, like I want to say it started out quarterly and has maintained a similar sort of four a year tempo.
00:29:25
Speaker
Yeah, it's the goal.
00:29:27
Speaker
Sorry, like I interrupted here.
00:29:30
Speaker
It's kind of like four a year, but it's quarterly.
00:29:33
Speaker
For the flower farmer.
00:29:34
Speaker
So the goal is to, number one, get you the info that you need before you need it.
00:29:39
Speaker
Like actually have to put it into action and also get you when you are less busy.
00:29:44
Speaker
So you're not going to see them in like a true quarterly fashion.
00:29:47
Speaker
They're kind of going to be crammed more, you know, late fall.
00:29:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:51
Speaker
Into late winter like timeline.
00:29:54
Speaker
Average quarterly but they're not evenly spaced.
00:29:56
Speaker
Right.
00:29:56
Speaker
Exactly.
00:29:57
Speaker
Just to make sure that it's something that you can attend and ask questions if you want to and that you have that information available to you before you have to put it into like actual work.
00:30:08
Speaker
Right.
00:30:09
Speaker
Yeah.
Resources for Kentucky Flower Growers
00:30:10
Speaker
And that is an ongoing thing that people can express interest in and find out about, you know, when, when those are occurring, but all the ones that have occurred in the past have also been recorded and are available online.
00:30:22
Speaker
So you can kind of, you know, go through some of these topics, even though they, we talked about them, you know, years ago, still relevant stuff there.
00:30:31
Speaker
And I think,
00:30:34
Speaker
Oh, and at that same page, there's also the map we've been talking about, the cut flower growers and where they are, where to find them, connect to their social media and stuff like that.
00:30:45
Speaker
And that's kind of what we have compiled together from like a resource standpoint to assist cut flower growers with production and
00:30:53
Speaker
and marketing and things like that can i brag on a few of those courses like really quick just because sure sure no i'm just yeah i think that's i'm sorry whose podcast is yours ma'am it's not it's all of ours okay if you say so if you say so so it's collectively owned singularly run yeah we got a lot of sickles you know what i'm saying
00:31:19
Speaker
Sorry, I just ate a peanut butter cup and now it's stuck in my throat.
00:31:24
Speaker
So just a few in case you're like, I wonder what's on there.
00:31:27
Speaker
Just to entice you a little bit more with those.
00:31:30
Speaker
A couple that are – they're all, in my opinion, really great.
00:31:34
Speaker
But if you're wanting to know maybe what to start, like if you've just been dabbling and you're wanting to expand or you're just wanting to start in general –
00:31:43
Speaker
Growing cut flowers.
00:31:44
Speaker
We have a cut flower grower, Riverbend Farm, going over their top five favorites.
00:31:52
Speaker
We have the cut flower calendar.
00:31:55
Speaker
So if you're trying to figure out how this might work in your schedule or what you should be doing every month, there's some stuff on that.
00:32:00
Speaker
Recently, this year, we had...
00:32:03
Speaker
Those of you who are in the flower world have probably heard of Farmer Bailey.
00:32:07
Speaker
Bailey Hale went to UK, so shout out.
00:32:10
Speaker
He talked all about Lisianthus.
00:32:13
Speaker
That was huge.
00:32:14
Speaker
We had 700 people live on that course and four countries represented a lot in addition to the US.
00:32:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:26
Speaker
But Kentucky was awesome as part of that.
00:32:29
Speaker
And then if you're having trouble with social media, how do you do this with cut flowers?
00:32:36
Speaker
If you're new to that, figuring that out.
00:32:39
Speaker
We did one on farm design and layout.
00:32:41
Speaker
So again, if you're kind of new or you're looking to buy a farm,
00:32:44
Speaker
Just thinking through some really basic things, which they seem basic, like where to lay your water out, how to organize your fields.
00:32:51
Speaker
But sometimes it's really nice.
00:32:53
Speaker
So we have Dr. Higgins talked about that.
00:32:56
Speaker
But the upcoming one that we have is going to be in November, and it's going to be with Lindsay Beal.
00:33:01
Speaker
So she owns Wild Root Flower Co.
00:33:03
Speaker
So shout out to The Dirt on Flowers.
00:33:06
Speaker
That is another podcast.
00:33:07
Speaker
If you're a flower person, go check them out.
00:33:10
Speaker
So Bloom Hill and Wild Root Flower Co.
00:33:13
Speaker
do that.
00:33:13
Speaker
And so she is doing our next one and she's going to talk about budgeting and financial analysis, but specifically for cut flower growers.
00:33:22
Speaker
So I don't think we get enough of that and just, you know, how she kind of does that in a realistic way.
00:33:29
Speaker
specifically for flowers.
00:33:31
Speaker
And I don't think cut flower growers get a ton of that.
00:33:33
Speaker
So I'm really excited to have Lindsay and she's super fun and awesome.
00:33:36
Speaker
So I'm just, I'm shouting them out right
Upcoming Course by Lindsay Beal
00:33:39
Speaker
now.
00:33:39
Speaker
So that is, and it's free.
00:33:41
Speaker
I'm glad you mentioned that one, the Dr. Steve Higgins talking about the farm layout and design.
00:33:46
Speaker
That was awesome.
00:33:48
Speaker
You know, it's like you say there, it's like some simple concepts, but a lot of times when we, you know, have a farm or step into a farm, it's already laid out in a way that, you know, according to the way somebody else set it up.
00:34:01
Speaker
Right.
00:34:02
Speaker
And so you're kind of inheriting that.
00:34:04
Speaker
system and his way of talking about it and getting you to kind of like question some of those things and you know make some adaptations to kind of or in the reverse it can be just as challenging if you have a blank slate so like that's kind of what i had and it's it's funny so it's like i farm right but i'm an extension agent so it in my in my office where i'm sitting i'm the person people call with questions right i'm the quote-unquote expert and there are
00:34:31
Speaker
Other people I go to, including people on this podcast who know a lot more about different things, but people are calling me.
00:34:36
Speaker
So it's like when I'm at my own farm, I'm like, I need to call somebody.
00:34:39
Speaker
And I'm like, I'm supposed to be the person I call.
00:34:42
Speaker
So I have to ask myself.
00:34:44
Speaker
I have to like ask Extension Alexis.
00:34:46
Speaker
I have to like switch hats and ask Extension Alexis questions and how she would respond.
00:34:52
Speaker
But blank slates can be just as challenging.
00:34:55
Speaker
And that was super helpful to know like what I've been doing lately.
00:35:00
Speaker
what I've set up that was right so far and what was wrong.
00:35:03
Speaker
It's funny because he's not a cut flower person, but he's really good at farm design layout and I think he did an excellent job.
00:35:10
Speaker
Shout out, Dr. Higgins.
00:35:13
Speaker
As far as the July cut flower month celebration slash highlights, I think a couple people you might want to follow if you're on Insta and let's just be real, if we're doing cut flowers, probably on Insta, not
00:35:28
Speaker
as much on Facebook or I mean, am I speaking out of turn on that Alexis?
00:35:33
Speaker
I think that if you're in it for the pretty pictures and inspiration, then go to Instagram.
00:35:38
Speaker
If you are in it for you want to follow a local farm because maybe you want to purchase for them.
00:35:44
Speaker
I mean, still you like pictures and stuff.
00:35:46
Speaker
Most of them also have Facebook pages.
00:35:48
Speaker
So it just kind of depends what you're into.
00:35:50
Speaker
If you just really want to feel inspired, if you just like to scroll and see pretty inspiring things, then Instagram is a good way.
00:35:56
Speaker
But most of them also have a Facebook.
00:35:58
Speaker
So I think it just the audience is very different there.
00:36:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:04
Speaker
I'd imagine a lot of independent websites as well for folks with contact information.
00:36:10
Speaker
But anyway, Kentucky Horticulture Councils will be doing a lot of stuff.
00:36:15
Speaker
I gave them a shout out earlier for the collaborative work that all these different people have done to develop this cut flower stuff.
00:36:21
Speaker
There are KY Horticulture on Instagram, a couple of other places.
00:36:25
Speaker
They're on Facebook as well.
00:36:26
Speaker
But
00:36:29
Speaker
I guess who else, who else is far, we do occasionally have stuff on the CCD Instagram and other places.
00:36:35
Speaker
That's CCD UKY is our handle there.
00:36:39
Speaker
Alexis, anybody, any others as far as like the cut flower month content specifically, because they'll be highlighting a bunch of farm farms and stuff during that, that month, which is a good way to, if you're looking to increase your follows of, of Kentucky cut flower people, that'd be a good place to go.
00:36:57
Speaker
Yeah, I would say that.
00:36:59
Speaker
And, you know, you can follow Kentucky Proud, Kentucky Department of Ag.
00:37:03
Speaker
I think we'll have some specials or they better.
00:37:06
Speaker
They better.
00:37:07
Speaker
We're surely sending them things.
00:37:08
Speaker
But on that.
00:37:10
Speaker
There won't just be flowers getting cut.
00:37:12
Speaker
You know what I'm saying?
00:37:14
Speaker
I will come for you.
00:37:17
Speaker
So they'll have some stuff as well.
00:37:19
Speaker
And then use that map that Josh has been talking about.
00:37:22
Speaker
If you're just like, I want to know about more cut flower farms in my area.
00:37:26
Speaker
So go on that map.
00:37:27
Speaker
That will, again, link and see who's close by.
00:37:32
Speaker
And you can click the farm and follow their farm through social media or check out their website or something like that and create some community, right?
00:37:42
Speaker
Because horticulture, we talk the culture, right?
00:37:45
Speaker
A lot of that culture is forming that community.
00:37:48
Speaker
So if you are a new grower, find a community.
00:37:52
Speaker
And so sometimes those people are
00:37:54
Speaker
really close by to you.
00:37:55
Speaker
They're down the road and they're another flower farmer.
00:37:58
Speaker
Sometimes they are just the woman who has been growing, you know, peonies and she has a hundred peony plants that she just enjoys.
00:38:07
Speaker
She will give you more information than probably any cut flower official, you know, publication that I can give you on peonies.
00:38:16
Speaker
She will probably top all of that, make friends with her, eventually ask her to dig some of her peonies.
00:38:22
Speaker
But anyways, learn from her.
00:38:25
Speaker
But it might be somebody like, I think some of,
00:38:28
Speaker
my own personal closest like cut flower community aren't even in my state, but they're similar to me in some way, but like when they started their size of their operation, their humor, maybe, uh, are very similar to mine.
00:38:42
Speaker
And so, uh, a lot of them are from totally different, uh, places.
00:38:47
Speaker
And, uh, so I encourage that.
00:38:49
Speaker
And also, um,
00:38:52
Speaker
Be aware that I feel like I have to say this because we're pushing social media.
00:38:59
Speaker
But regardless of what you're following through social media, follow people who inspire you to do better.
00:39:05
Speaker
If you're scrolling through and those beautiful pictures intimidate you and make you feel bad about what you're doing, it might have nothing to do with that person.
00:39:13
Speaker
That person's great.
00:39:15
Speaker
What they're doing is fantastic.
00:39:16
Speaker
But if they make you feel down about what you're doing, just like hide their posts.
00:39:21
Speaker
You can still go look at them and stuff.
00:39:23
Speaker
And it's not personal.
00:39:24
Speaker
But like I've had to do that because I see everybody else's highlight reel and their beautiful farm.
00:39:30
Speaker
And I'm like, well, I can tell you about the lamb's quarter that's eight foot tall in my bed right now.
00:39:35
Speaker
And I am not joking about that.
00:39:37
Speaker
I'm measuring it.
00:39:39
Speaker
It's edible.
00:39:40
Speaker
It's more of a lamb's half dollar at this point.
00:39:45
Speaker
Oh, man.
00:39:46
Speaker
There he is.
00:39:46
Speaker
There he is.
00:39:47
Speaker
There he is.
00:39:50
Speaker
Coming alive.
00:39:53
Speaker
Dozed off there for a second.
00:39:57
Speaker
He's back.
00:39:57
Speaker
He's back.
00:39:58
Speaker
All right.
00:39:59
Speaker
That's a danger in general with social media, both in our personal lives, but also more broad like it within or less broadly within the horticulture world.
00:40:09
Speaker
Is it part of what we're trying to do is sell some aspect of illusion?
00:40:14
Speaker
I mean, that's what marketing- I live in illusion.
00:40:17
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, marketing is like turn your back, turn 12 degrees so that all the weeds are out of the shot.
00:40:25
Speaker
Let me take this picture because I look cute because I just got out of the shower, not
00:40:31
Speaker
30 minutes ago when i was crying out in the field because the irrigation sprung another leak right like it's a different it's different the good beats up front that make people pull over and say i need to buy some beats yeah but the kanye beats up your money beats exactly and and like i think there is that is a good psa uh both in turn in terms of like yeah you hide it or like
00:40:54
Speaker
get it out of your face if it's causing you tension.
00:40:57
Speaker
But at the same time, realize that the people who are on the other end of pressing publish on that post probably had the same exact thing last week when they saw somebody else.
00:41:06
Speaker
Like it's this, and nobody's trying to do that.
00:41:09
Speaker
They're just trying to sell a really strong image and brand, but it does have the, sometimes the unintended consequence of destabilizing and inspiring insecurity.
00:41:20
Speaker
And nobody is really trying to do it.
00:41:22
Speaker
You know, it's not like Alexis is like, I know Brett's peonies look like shit this week.
00:41:27
Speaker
I'm going to I'm going to post this picture of mine.
00:41:30
Speaker
It's never like that.
00:41:32
Speaker
It's more like, oh, no.
00:41:35
Speaker
Actually, it's so funny that you bring up Brett's peonies because his wife has some peony plants and where they live in Lexington.
00:41:43
Speaker
Listen, he can say what he wants, but where they live in Lexington, they have a heat sink there, right?
00:41:47
Speaker
And I am another 45 minutes south, but out in the middle of a field, and I get some cold temperatures.
00:41:54
Speaker
So his peonies always bloom 10 to 14 days before mine, and I am always so mad.
00:42:00
Speaker
They do.
00:42:01
Speaker
They do.
00:42:01
Speaker
And I'm always like, Brett and Annie have peonies.
00:42:04
Speaker
Why aren't my peonies blooming yet?
00:42:05
Speaker
And I have to remember that climate.
00:42:07
Speaker
You need to get some kind of device that converts your anger into heat.
00:42:13
Speaker
And I mean, honestly, I get like two to three extra days because Annie makes me go and sleep curled up around them at night.
00:42:20
Speaker
So that just so you know, that is a tech.
00:42:22
Speaker
No, don't do that.
00:42:24
Speaker
You can absolutely do that.
00:42:26
Speaker
It's it's fine.
00:42:27
Speaker
But just I don't know.
00:42:29
Speaker
I feel like everybody says it, but just like another reminder to not compare yourself and
Social Media Comparison vs. Inspiration
00:42:35
Speaker
anything.
00:42:35
Speaker
In anything and farmers, don't compare yourself to other farmers because quite literally the soil five feet away from the soil you're standing on could be different, let alone a whole other farm.
00:42:47
Speaker
So, you know, do what you can with what you got.
00:42:51
Speaker
That's my PSA.
00:42:52
Speaker
And I got real sassy there.
00:42:53
Speaker
And if anybody watched, I'm doing like some hand motions.
00:42:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:57
Speaker
Got her switchblade back out.
00:42:58
Speaker
I got my switchblade back out.
00:43:00
Speaker
Is this like a dance fighting style?
00:43:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:05
Speaker
I'm like, hold my hoop.
00:43:06
Speaker
It's either sign language or a dance battle.
00:43:08
Speaker
I can't do it.
00:43:10
Speaker
It could be both.
00:43:11
Speaker
Does it have to be – can I communicate through my dance?
00:43:15
Speaker
I believe that's a thing people do.
00:43:17
Speaker
It says a lot.
00:43:17
Speaker
I never think.
00:43:18
Speaker
Yes, it says a lot.
00:43:20
Speaker
But anyway, we got way off topic.
00:43:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:22
Speaker
I mean, not off topic, but on a different side of it.
00:43:26
Speaker
We were off topic, but we were on one.
00:43:28
Speaker
You wanted to talk about Brett.
00:43:30
Speaker
On brand, for sure.
00:43:30
Speaker
Well, I just thought maybe we can wrap up with like –
00:43:36
Speaker
One thing I learned over COVID, I had my own awakening about horticulture and gardening and everything else.
00:43:43
Speaker
And it was really the realization or the acceptance or whatever that not every square inch of space that I'm going to be cultivating needs to be used for food production.
00:43:55
Speaker
And that there is this whole element of...
00:43:59
Speaker
other stuff and going beyond our podcast a couple, maybe a month or so ago about what's the things besides money that motivate you, but there's also not just- Food.
00:44:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:14
Speaker
Man or human cannot live by vegetables alone or by just food alone.
00:44:21
Speaker
reality that the cultivation and creation of a space that gives you this feedback that has all those things I was mentioning earlier about the effect on depression and anxiety and worry in a time where I was very
00:44:33
Speaker
very anxious and very, very worried, even more than usual about the world and everything else.
00:44:42
Speaker
As someone who eats their feelings, there are also edible flowers.
00:44:45
Speaker
So it all comes back.
00:44:47
Speaker
Yes, indeed there are.
00:44:49
Speaker
I was going through like four pounds of nasturtium a day.
00:44:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:54
Speaker
Yeah, lambsquarters.
00:44:55
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:44:56
Speaker
Is it a weed?
00:44:57
Speaker
Is it lunch?
00:44:58
Speaker
Is it spinach?
00:44:58
Speaker
Who knows?
00:45:00
Speaker
If you eat enough, it'll just get out before the toxins leach.
00:45:05
Speaker
No, but I realized like, oh, this is an aspect of this that I hadn't really explored before.
Beyond Aesthetics - How Flowers Improve Mood
00:45:12
Speaker
We had a big garden, but it was always like, it had a very industrial feel.
00:45:16
Speaker
It felt like a production field.
00:45:18
Speaker
And walking out into it was really stressful actually, because it would be really weedy.
00:45:22
Speaker
It would be really whatever.
00:45:23
Speaker
Yeah, it was a space of labor, right?
00:45:25
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:45:26
Speaker
And so we've shifted, but part of that was cut flowers.
00:45:29
Speaker
And then realizing I had not realized that like Alexis, others as well, and I've gotten them from a number of different places, do these DIY buckets where you can buy flowers and do the arranging yourself.
00:45:42
Speaker
So you don't have to grow the flowers.
00:45:44
Speaker
You don't have to buy a finished bouquet.
00:45:45
Speaker
There is a middle space there.
00:45:48
Speaker
And so I just thought like if somebody is interested and maybe they're not, maybe they're not the person who's going to get into commercial growing.
00:45:56
Speaker
Or maybe they're not even going to garden at all.
00:45:58
Speaker
Or maybe they are.
00:45:59
Speaker
They want to grow stuff.
00:45:59
Speaker
Like do we have a top five or a handful of things that come to mind as the usual suspects of the cut flower experience and, um,
00:46:09
Speaker
Um, these things that are maybe easier to grow or whatever, like maybe we could throw that out there.
00:46:15
Speaker
I'll say one thing before I shut up is the thing that I did not realize or didn't think about before is that, okay, so we say cut flowers.
00:46:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:25
Speaker
Right.
00:46:26
Speaker
Greenery.
00:46:27
Speaker
Foliage.
00:46:28
Speaker
Greenery, foliage, fillers.
00:46:32
Speaker
that category makes the hugest difference in terms of your like arrangement and like a base to operate from.
00:46:40
Speaker
So that's something they know.
00:46:41
Speaker
Maybe we could talk about that as a whole other topic at some point.
00:46:44
Speaker
Maybe talk about the floral design or something.
00:46:47
Speaker
somebody who does it you know better than me um but that was that was a big one for me and so i'm starting to think about like okay can i grow some stuff that i can use as greenery or take stuff that i have and use it as greenery and i've used hydrangea leaves i've used elderberry leaves and like an ichabana minimalist arrangement was like with a lily with lilies that you grew um it was like so like very moving to me but so anyway
00:47:13
Speaker
But that's my little tidbit there.
00:47:15
Speaker
Last year, I had a couple of my friend, Sean, brought me several buckets of flowers for my birthday that we then arranged into like 10 or 12 pretty large displays or pretty large.
00:47:27
Speaker
It's fun.
00:47:28
Speaker
Extremely fun.
00:47:30
Speaker
But anyway, so do you all have some...
00:47:34
Speaker
Some thoughts?
00:47:35
Speaker
Yeah, some thoughts on any of that.
00:47:38
Speaker
So this question I am going to try to not overdo.
00:47:44
Speaker
I also have this little – these are a little on the back end of their life, but maybe there's some species in here that might spring to mind some things.
00:47:52
Speaker
Ooh, look, some Sir Wowie status.
00:47:55
Speaker
I love it.
00:47:56
Speaker
It's also called rat tail status, which I mean –
00:47:59
Speaker
It's pretty accurate, but it's unfortunate.
00:48:01
Speaker
It's harder to market that.
00:48:03
Speaker
Wow.
00:48:03
Speaker
That's the Latin, but it sounds fun.
00:48:06
Speaker
So, yeah, I think it depends on time of year.
00:48:09
Speaker
But let's just say for most people, they can handle like a summer kind of a warm weather garden.
00:48:16
Speaker
So –
00:48:20
Speaker
The first one has to be Xenias because everybody knows what they are.
00:48:24
Speaker
But for those of you who went, eh, like just now when I said that, and everybody knows the sound and face that I just made.
00:48:34
Speaker
There are so many...
00:48:36
Speaker
Xenia isn't like your grandma Xenia anymore.
00:48:39
Speaker
Not that there was anything wrong with grandma Xenias, but if you are a Xenia like hater and they're out there because you don't necessarily.
00:48:46
Speaker
So let's just let's just call it what it is.
00:48:48
Speaker
They're kind of like because they're easy to grow.
00:48:50
Speaker
They're kind of like basic.
00:48:52
Speaker
Right.
00:48:52
Speaker
yep yep they seem basic summer bouquet they're like i love them you're like i started with that's what i started down sunflower like right that's the the thumb in your nose at it but you're saying not all zinnia is not a zinnia is not a zinnia yeah so totally love them for who they are but realize that we've come a long way and uh zinnia breeding and so there are a lot of
00:49:17
Speaker
fantastic colors and even shapes and sizes now um so if you're very if you're one of those people that very boho muted feel look into the queen lime series um for those more muted queen of line queen queen queen lime queen lime yes queen lime orange queen lime red queen lime blush there's a bunch
00:49:39
Speaker
So look into that series.
00:49:42
Speaker
And, you know, then there's some really light pinks if you're more into that.
00:49:46
Speaker
I grow a huge range of them and love all of them, but understand that very like, I don't know.
00:49:54
Speaker
It's like some of them just are like, I think there's a mix called like circus and that is how they look and feel.
00:49:59
Speaker
And have you gone through, would you say you've gone through a period of like relationship change with Zinnias?
00:50:05
Speaker
Did you, did you used to thumb your nose at all?
00:50:08
Speaker
I don't know if I ever – I've always grown them, but I do not like certain varieties.
00:50:14
Speaker
Gotcha.
00:50:15
Speaker
I've really gone down in the colors and the types that I grow.
00:50:18
Speaker
I do throw my nose at some varieties, but not ever Xenias.
00:50:22
Speaker
The next one I would tell you is Celosia.
00:50:24
Speaker
Again, another one that everybody knows.
00:50:26
Speaker
That one's also called Coxco.
00:50:27
Speaker
But –
00:50:29
Speaker
Tons of shapes and sizes.
00:50:30
Speaker
You can have ones that look like brains, others that are more fan-shaped, a coral, others that are like pretty plumes of – they look like smoke or not smoke, like fire coming up.
00:50:42
Speaker
And they also come wide variety of colors.
00:50:45
Speaker
Those –
00:50:46
Speaker
nice burgundies all the way to those bright golds.
00:50:49
Speaker
And, you know, there's some greens and stuff now.
00:50:51
Speaker
So don't really explore, you know, kind of what shape and size.
00:50:55
Speaker
I grow an entire row of those of just different types of celosia because it's my favorite.
00:50:59
Speaker
I'm really excited.
00:51:01
Speaker
There's a variety that is called like Texas Vintage Rose Mix.
00:51:08
Speaker
And the foliage is beautiful.
00:51:10
Speaker
So the plant itself is like just beautiful before it even blooms.
00:51:13
Speaker
And it's these different shades of like
00:51:16
Speaker
Reds and like, or not reds, burgundies and golds and like dark greens and like, I don't know, real muted tones and I'm sandy colors, which Josh is like gross, but I love.
00:51:27
Speaker
Feels like you should listen to like some Willie Nelson while you pick that.
00:51:30
Speaker
It's just, I love it.
00:51:31
Speaker
Redheaded stranger, you know, with your vintage red Texas.
00:51:36
Speaker
What I was really laughing at was the editing where it was like the red, not red, burgundy.
00:51:41
Speaker
Burgundy, maroons, you know, just some vintage shades.
00:51:45
Speaker
The lesser mind would say red, but that's not what we're doing here.
00:51:48
Speaker
Red is basic.
00:51:49
Speaker
Don't go for that.
00:51:51
Speaker
So Celosia.
00:51:51
Speaker
Sort of a childish garnet.
00:51:55
Speaker
It's whimsical.
00:51:56
Speaker
And maroon.
00:52:00
Speaker
And then one that is great if you want to dry flowers.
00:52:03
Speaker
So you can also dry Celosia and it dries really well.
00:52:06
Speaker
But I like flowers when I'm telling people who want to just like have a nice garden for themselves.
00:52:11
Speaker
Like, hey, extend your season.
00:52:13
Speaker
Keep those flowers.
00:52:14
Speaker
You know, do an everlasting bouquet and enjoy them all winter.
00:52:17
Speaker
You can grow something like Gomphrina, which is also called Globe Amaranth.
00:52:22
Speaker
And it comes in lots of different shades.
00:52:23
Speaker
And it's just as cute as a button because it just kind of looks like a little button.
00:52:28
Speaker
And it dries exactly the way it looks.
00:52:30
Speaker
Holds its color phenomenal.
00:52:32
Speaker
Is wonderful.
00:52:33
Speaker
You can use it in wreaths.
00:52:34
Speaker
If you grow the red one, it's great in like Christmas wreaths and stuff.
00:52:38
Speaker
So I really like to tell people to do that one.
00:52:41
Speaker
And then, you know, sunflowers are one.
00:52:44
Speaker
And sunflowers are another one that like, I don't know.
00:52:47
Speaker
They're hit or miss.
00:52:47
Speaker
Like I don't grow a traditional sunflower anymore.
00:52:49
Speaker
I grow like –
00:52:51
Speaker
really, you know, white colors or the deep burgundies or the frilly fluffy ones because I feel like they're really boring, but that's me.
00:52:58
Speaker
And I know a lot of people just find so much happiness in just a beautiful yellow sunflower, whether they cut it or leave it in the garden for the birds.
00:53:07
Speaker
So there's lots of varieties there too if you're interested.
00:53:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:10
Speaker
Now, I have to point out – I'd be amiss if I didn't point out some things that pull double duty.
00:53:16
Speaker
So an example of this is thornless raspberries.
00:53:19
Speaker
So if you're looking to plant some raspberry plants, most people do thornless.
00:53:24
Speaker
Joan J is a really great variety, and she is great foliage.
00:53:30
Speaker
So speaking about foliage – and so I harvest it for foliage pretty much –
00:53:35
Speaker
All season, but early in the season, especially when there's not much else, but it's also what I snack on in the field.
00:53:41
Speaker
Like every morning I get raspberries for breakfast and then, you know, I might pick some greenery.
00:53:48
Speaker
Some other things that are great for double duty is blueberries are another really good one, but they're pretty slow.
00:53:54
Speaker
That's why the raspberries are so great because they're quick.
00:53:56
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:53:57
Speaker
And then like any of your mints, so apple mint, pineapple mint, even spearmint, all of those are great.
00:54:03
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:54:04
Speaker
Just be careful where you plant them because they're going to take over.
00:54:07
Speaker
They win.
00:54:08
Speaker
They will beat everyone.
00:54:10
Speaker
Okay.
00:54:11
Speaker
So an oregano is another really good one, like a traditional oregano has a beautiful purple flower, but it's also a good foliage.
00:54:18
Speaker
Are you familiar with Kent's Beauty oregano?
00:54:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:22
Speaker
Yes, I have some.
00:54:23
Speaker
I just got some?
00:54:25
Speaker
Wow.
00:54:26
Speaker
I know.
00:54:26
Speaker
It's a wow.
00:54:27
Speaker
It's a wow.
00:54:28
Speaker
So that one's more for like a hang, almost like a hanging basket.
00:54:30
Speaker
It's a dangler.
00:54:31
Speaker
Yeah, it's a dangler.
00:54:32
Speaker
And she's not, she doesn't look like oregano.
00:54:35
Speaker
Yeah, it looks kind of like oregano crossed with eucalyptus or something.
00:54:39
Speaker
Yes, I would agree with that.
00:54:40
Speaker
And like shrunken down.
00:54:41
Speaker
But the tips, before they flower flower, they look like,
00:54:44
Speaker
before they turned pink, they look like little cabbages on the tip of the stem kind of.
00:54:48
Speaker
And I said that when I picked it out and then I brought it home and without anything, Annie was like, oh look, they look like little cabbages.
00:54:54
Speaker
And I was like, oh God, we're hanging out too much.
00:54:57
Speaker
We need some space.
00:55:01
Speaker
But, uh, yes.
00:55:03
Speaker
And there's going like to throw back, if you're like, Alexis, you're going too fast.
00:55:07
Speaker
I cannot write all of these things down or whatever.
00:55:09
Speaker
There's a good, that good list, um, that, uh, Michelle Wheeler, I'm pretty sure is the one who did in her top five for kind of getting started.
00:55:18
Speaker
And she mentioned some that I don't mention and not because they're bad, just because we could talk for hours literally on this.
00:55:26
Speaker
Um,
00:55:26
Speaker
But so if you want to check that out, she go on that, follow the link on that page, her, her top five.
00:55:32
Speaker
And then she's throw some honorable mentions in there and they're the easy ones.
00:55:35
Speaker
And she's coming at it from a cut, a commercial cut flower perspective.
00:55:40
Speaker
But that doesn't mean that you can't grow it if you're growing one of one of each.
00:55:43
Speaker
Like you can, that's the beauty of it is you can grow one plant or you can grow 5,000 plants.
00:55:48
Speaker
Anything in between is fine.
00:55:51
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:55:53
Speaker
I'm so excited.
00:55:54
Speaker
So you're saying every rose has its thorn, but not every raspberry.
00:55:57
Speaker
You've been working on that one.
00:56:01
Speaker
That was the second.
00:56:03
Speaker
That's the second verse people forget about is the second part of the chorus.
00:56:07
Speaker
Well, that sounds like we could go on and on about this, obviously.
00:56:12
Speaker
And we will have more episodes about Cut Flowers this month with some other folks who are getting pulled in and we can talk with them.
00:56:19
Speaker
I know that I have explored one of the cool things about the cut flower growers that I have come across is that they tend to be very, very smart, very communicative, very multi-talented.
Growing Appreciation for Quality Flowers
00:56:33
Speaker
And as such, they've actually been either interviewed or they put out their own kind of blog materials and stuff, sharing some of this information.
00:56:40
Speaker
Honestly, I can say just like growing stuff in a garden makes you realize, oh, I have four tomatoes.
00:56:46
Speaker
I'm going to probably need more than that to eat this week.
00:56:50
Speaker
I'm going to go and buy from people who are doing this.
00:56:51
Speaker
It kind of gives you a real a reality check about what it takes to grow good stuff.
00:56:58
Speaker
I can say growing flowers has taught me.
00:57:01
Speaker
that the cuts, some of these people that Alexis has mentioned, the stuff that's coming from them, the quality and the vase life and all that other stuff is a really impressive feat.
00:57:12
Speaker
And so growing flowers has led me to buy more flowers.
00:57:15
Speaker
And I think that's part of your whole scheme that you've been up to.
00:57:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:19
Speaker
It's just like, give us just a little taster.
00:57:21
Speaker
There's a few people around the state who do grow kits.
00:57:24
Speaker
And so it's like the exact same stuff they're growing, the same colors, everything.
00:57:28
Speaker
And then that's how they get you because you're growing your own and you're like, this is so awesome.
00:57:33
Speaker
I'm on the more.
00:57:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:34
Speaker
I want to make a bouquet that's like large and makes an impact.
00:57:37
Speaker
So I'm going to need like 40 stems or more.
00:57:40
Speaker
But it's so exciting because like you grew part of it.
00:57:43
Speaker
So it's just – and then like – and then you get to arrange it all.
00:57:46
Speaker
But until like, yeah, those DIY buckets.
00:57:48
Speaker
And again, going back to that map that we've created.
00:57:50
Speaker
The DIY buckets are just – that is a slippery slope.
00:57:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:54
Speaker
And it makes you appreciate how much money you're spending on flowers because local flowers are more expensive than flowers you're going to get at Kroger and Walmart.
00:58:02
Speaker
Facts are facts.
00:58:03
Speaker
It's just the way it is.
00:58:05
Speaker
You're going to get a better quality product just like we always say with vegetables.
00:58:09
Speaker
But if you try – And just like when you grow your own tomato plant, you really appreciate how much you're spending when you go buy them from the farmer's market because you know how hot it is outside in July.
00:58:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:20
Speaker
You know what it takes.
00:58:21
Speaker
You know what it takes.
00:58:22
Speaker
Well, we've talked
Closing Remarks and Contact Information
00:58:24
Speaker
on and on here.
00:58:24
Speaker
I think I'm going to skip the traditional recap and just say we do have some resources that we've mentioned.
00:58:30
Speaker
And this is Cut Flower Month.
00:58:31
Speaker
July is Cut Flower Month.
00:58:33
Speaker
So get out there and celebrate with a DIY bucket or a bouquet or just noticing something and taking a nice picture and posting it to your, sending it to a friend or posting it on your social media.
00:58:42
Speaker
Yeah, I'm excited to talk more with some people we have coming up this month.
00:58:47
Speaker
And if anybody else have anything to add, we can take us on out, Alexis.
00:58:52
Speaker
Awesome.
00:58:53
Speaker
Well, I hope that I didn't dominate this too much, but I am uber excited about flowers.
00:58:59
Speaker
If you have any questions about flowers, about horticulture, whatever, please feel free to reach out to us.
00:59:06
Speaker
Our email is in the show notes.
00:59:08
Speaker
You can also follow us at
00:59:11
Speaker
hortculturepodcast on Instagram and you can comment or send us a message on there and we'll check that out if you have ideas for shows.
00:59:20
Speaker
You can also leave us a review on a show that you have liked.
00:59:24
Speaker
If you enjoyed this or have enjoyed any of them, please feel free to leave us a review so more people can find us.
00:59:30
Speaker
And with that, as we grow this podcast, we hope that you will grow with us.
00:59:35
Speaker
Join us next week.
00:59:36
Speaker
We're going to talk about some fall gardens with y'all.
00:59:38
Speaker
So thanks for being here today.