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Episode 79: How Janniebird Farm Thrives in Zone 4 with Flower Farmer Annie Amrich
1.2k Plays4 days ago
How do you grow flowers in a region known for long winters, short seasons, and frequent frosts?
In this episode, we are joined by Annie Amrich of Janniebird Farm, a Zone 4 flower farmer thriving in the high-altitude climate of Gunnison, Colorado. Annie shares how she forces thousands of tulips each year, grows without greenhouses, and keeps flowers blooming nearly year-round in a place where frost can arrive any month of the year.
Annie’s journey — from athletic training and medical sales back to the creativity she grew up with — is a beautiful reminder that it’s never too late to follow what feels true. She opens up about leaning into hardy crops, building community in a small mountain town, and developing a new perennial field designed for workshops, gatherings, and connection.
What You’ll Learn in Episode 79:
- How Annie grows successfully in Zone 4 without tunnels or greenhouses
- What it takes to force thousands of tulips for winter and holiday blooms
- How she markets flowers in a small town and builds loyal community support
- Lessons from rehabilitating new soil and planning a perennial-focused expansion
- Encouragement for anyone growing — or dreaming of growing in a cold climate
Connect with Annie:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jannybirdfarm
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/janniebirdfarm
- Website: https://www.jannybirdfarm.com
Connect with Jennifer, Host of The Backyard Bouquet Podcast:
- Website: https://thefloweringfarmhouse.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefloweringfarmhouse/
- Follow the Podcast: https://www.instagram.com/thebackyardbouquetpodcast/
Sign up for our newsletter: https://bit.ly/thefloweringfarmhousenewsletter
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Transcript
Intro
Annie's Journey to Flower Farming
00:00:57
Jennifer Gulizia
On today's episode, I'm welcoming Annie Amrick of Jannie Bird Farm, a Zone 4 flower farmer whose journey back to flowers is as beautiful as the blooms she grows. Annie didn't set out to become a flower farmer. She followed twists and turns through waitressing, athletic training, and medical sales before reconnecting with the little girl who used to spend her days weaving flower crowns and making up stories in her grandmother's garden. Today, she grows flowers at high altitude in Gunnison, Colorado, where cold nights, short seasons, and unpredictable weather shape everything she does.
00:01:37
Jennifer Gulizia
What I love about Annie's story is the tenderness and courage it took to say, It's time and leap into a life that feels true to who she's
Challenges of High Altitude Farming
00:01:46
Jennifer Gulizia
always been. Today, we're going to talk about growing in cold climates, bringing joy to her community and the inner voice that finally bloomed into a full-time flower farm. I know you're going to love today's conversation.
00:02:01
Jennifer Gulizia
Annie, thanks so much for joining me on the podcast today.
00:02:04
Annie Amrich
Hi, Jennifer. Thanks so much for having me. I'm really looking forward to talking.
00:02:08
Jennifer Gulizia
It's going to be so fun. So Annie and i were part of a mastermind this last year together. And so I've had a chance to get to know Annie. And I love that Annie's story is in a cold climate. I've been having a lot of listeners lately say, winter's coming. My season's getting short. I'm growing in a cold climate. So I instantly thought that she would be the perfect guest for today's episode.
Winter Preparations and Techniques
00:02:31
Jennifer Gulizia
It's the beginning of December. And Annie, paint a picture for us. What's it like in Gunnison, Colorado right now?
00:02:38
Annie Amrich
Well, we just got back from Thanksgiving and last year when we got back from Thanksgiving, we were snowed in and couldn't even get in our driveway. So was super grateful.
00:02:45
Jennifer Gulizia
my gosh
00:02:46
Annie Amrich
yeah I was super grateful this year that we had a, cause it's a three and a half hour drive to the airport that we had a nice dry drive home. And then the next night, last night it snowed about six inches.
00:02:58
Annie Amrich
So I got my last minute things done yesterday morning and then tucked in. And so we've got about six six inches of snow. It's a, It's a little warmer cause it snowed. so it's probably 30 degrees today, but we're going to get down to about five degrees tonight.
00:03:12
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh my gosh, burr.
00:03:14
Annie Amrich
Yes.
00:03:14
Jennifer Gulizia
I was woke up this morning and I thought we were to be 32 for low last night. And we had our first really hard frost of the season. It was 27. And I ran out to my greenhouse thinking, oh, no, I didn't have a heater on because all of my scented geranium are tucked inside there.
00:03:29
Annie Amrich
Oh,
00:03:31
Jennifer Gulizia
And I was thinking, oh, no, I've probably lost all of them. And thankfully, the greenhouse was at 31.9 and the geraniums were like, oh, thank you.
00:03:36
Annie Amrich
Oh my gosh.
00:03:39
Jennifer Gulizia
know But it's that time of year where it's stressful worrying about the cold. But you're probably a pro.
00:03:45
Annie Amrich
I don't know about a pro, but this is my, i just finished my fourth growing season here. And so I am learning what needs to be done and the dates it needs to be done by. So I have my geraniums.
00:03:56
Annie Amrich
We have a, I have a lot of different areas around. I have a, we live in an 1894 Victorian. So we have a cellar that stays in the forties.
00:04:04
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, wow.
00:04:06
Annie Amrich
Yeah. And then I have a heated garage that I can, I keep it at about 50, which is great for, that was my cat. That's great for starting paper whites, anemones, ranunculas, and our early hydroponic tulips.
00:04:21
Annie Amrich
And then i have an upstairs growing area that I can make super hot. That's where we put our amaryllis and where I do my seed starting. So we have lots of different areas. So my geraniums are out in the in the heated garage at about 50 degrees.
00:04:34
Annie Amrich
But yeah, so learning... where I need to tuck stuff and i have to have everything done before Thanksgiving. I try to do it by November 1st, but we have, I force tulips.
00:04:46
Annie Amrich
And so the hardest thing is getting all those tulips planted into the crates before Thanksgiving so they can get their winter hardiness done.
00:04:57
Jennifer Gulizia
How many tulips are you growing?
00:04:59
Annie Amrich
I force about 9,000 tulips. i've I've kind of ramped it up year after year, but I think 9,000 is sort of that hard mark for us because that's about what we have space for. I do i rent a space that has a cooler in it.
00:05:09
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:05:12
Annie Amrich
And so i put about 3,500 that will fit into the cooler. It's probably an 8 by 10, something like that. It's pretty old. And then the rest of of them actually go under my house. So we put about...
00:05:25
Annie Amrich
I don't know, 4,000 under there. And then we do about 900 to 1,000 hydroponically for Christmas. So
00:05:34
Jennifer Gulizia
You grow tulips for Christmas also.
00:05:36
Annie Amrich
yeah. Yep.
00:05:38
Jennifer Gulizia
How early are you starting those?
00:05:38
Annie Amrich
So we just, we We, I started, uh, a week before Thanksgiving. So they rooted out for two weeks. So I just moved them from their rooting out space in our heated garage over to the space that I rent.
00:05:51
Annie Amrich
We have like three, six foot tables with lights, led lights, and that's where they go to, It's pretty fascinating.
Community and Marketing Strategies
00:05:59
Jennifer Gulizia
That's amazing. Okay, I want to backtrack here for a minute. Paint a picture. Gunnison is a pretty small town, is that correct?
00:06:08
Annie Amrich
Gannison is a very rural, small mountain town. So we are about a half an hour from Crested Butte, which is a big ski area and a big, you know, a lot of people come, you know, for skiing and all kinds of, even in the summer, in the winter, they come for different things. And Gannison a pretty like ranch, ranch driven town where there's a lot of ranching. There's the longest road, the longest running rodeo in Colorado is here. So lots of different things going on in the area.
00:06:43
Jennifer Gulizia
How many people live in Gunnison?
00:06:46
Annie Amrich
I think we have about 7000 and maybe seven or 8000 up in Crested Butte. I think the total is about 15 to 16,000 people for the the two towns. And then of course we have some extraneous smaller towns around. So Gunnison County, I think is about 18,000.
00:07:04
Annie Amrich
So it's pretty small.
00:07:04
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay. You're not that much smaller than us. We're about, I think our county is about 22,000.
00:07:06
Annie Amrich
Yeah.
00:07:09
Annie Amrich
Okay. Yeah.
00:07:10
Jennifer Gulizia
So I always pictured your town even smaller, but
00:07:10
Annie Amrich
It's definitely a change. Well, Gunnison, yeah, Gunnison is pretty small, but yes, it's definitely a change because we were up in the Boulder area. And so it's been a big change in adjustment.
00:07:21
Annie Amrich
Just the, the, learning how to like market and grow and, and kind of get involved in the community.
00:07:30
Jennifer Gulizia
So I'm just trying to figure this out here with your with your tulips and your Christmas tulips. You have a small town. Tell us, how do you move your product?
00:07:43
Annie Amrich
it's been interest It's been an interesting journey. i never From the time I started Growing Flowers, I never really worried about the marketing piece because I was in marketing. I was in sales and marketing for medical sales. And so I felt pretty confident in that. But when I was up in the Boulder area, it was...
00:08:00
Annie Amrich
Really easy. As soon as you find, i mean, because there's such a huge population, you could post it on Facebook and then everyone would buy your flowers.
00:08:10
Annie Amrich
Here, Facebook just does not work. It's such a different story. So you really have to get creative. So I started just going into the local shops and seeing if I could partner and collaborate with anyone. And there was a little market who did all local food and artisan items and stuff like that. And so I partnered with her and had a little space there and we did some pop-ups. And then I went into the coffee shops and just kind of felt out like who my people were. And that's how we kind of got started here. And still, Facebook here doesn't work. So you really do have to get a little bit creative. And now that we have a bit of a following, it's a little bit easier.
00:08:53
Jennifer Gulizia
I love that you literally put your boots on the ground and went and found, I like the the exact wording you use was you found your people. And I think that's so important because I know in my town, there's so many flower growers, but there's still plenty to go around for everyone because everyone kind of gravitates to someone different. So finding your right audience is such a key piece of that. And it sounds like you found that with that little market. Is that correct?
00:09:21
Annie Amrich
Yeah, with the little market, it's no longer in business, but now we have different areas. We still work with two of the coffee shops in town. Like I'll have my CSA pick up at one for half of the year at one of the coffee shops and for half of the year at the other. And I like it because it's a different crowd, different people find us.
00:09:37
Annie Amrich
And then we have a cooler at one of the boutiques in town that we just opened up this past year for people to do some grab and go stuff. And so gradually more and more people are finding us. And one of the things that i love about a small town is that everybody reads the small town paper. you know So if you get an article in the paper or an article in in a small publication that's around, people start to find you.
00:09:59
Annie Amrich
And the word of mouth spreads really quickly. We have a really good following of flower people here in Gunnison, and then a really good following of people up in Crested Butte. So I will cater to both places.
00:10:13
Jennifer Gulizia
That's amazing. Okay, because you are a shorter growing season, it doesn't sound like that stops you from offering flowers for a longer stretch of time.
00:10:14
Annie Amrich
Yeah.
00:10:22
Jennifer Gulizia
Just tell us what are the products that you sell and offer? i'm keep saying products, I should be saying flowers here. What flowers do you provide your community with? And talk about seasonality and how you manage that with the weather.
00:10:36
Annie Amrich
Yes, I think because we have a such a short runway for our our summer growing season, I really had to figure out if I was going to grow here, what it was going to look like. And i just really decided i had always been interested in forcing tulips. And so forcing the tulips had kind of opened up the idea to me that maybe I could provide flowers all year long. and although i've done that mostly for the past couple years i am taking a little bit of step back because i realized then i still do need like some rest period and and some time to plan and all that kind of stuff so we start offering flowers in uh valentine's day we've i'll force the tulips from valentine's day through mother's day And then for the past couple of years, we've done the Lily Club. So we've had, I forced lilies in that interim season.
00:11:30
Annie Amrich
And then I have a flower farmer friend at the Fresh Herb Company. His name is Calvin. And I will go and buy, he grows peonies. so I'll go and buy peonies from him. So we do a peony interlude that we'll offer. And then after that is over, typically is when our summer season is starting up.
00:11:49
Annie Amrich
So we'll do that. And then we go back into the fall. We'll often, we do a lily club again, and then we go straight into our
Seasonal Flower Offerings and Events
00:11:55
Annie Amrich
holidays. We do wreaths, paper whites, amaryllis, and some just odds and ends, but that's what sort of what the season has looked like. And then Christmas tulips.
00:12:05
Annie Amrich
But I think it's, it's, it's a a little much. So what we offer right now are CSAs for sure. That's what we do. We do four, we do winter, spring, summer, and fall.
00:12:16
Annie Amrich
We've done the lily club and the peony interlude. And then we do weddings, galas. We have a gala season here, you can imagine that. And what else do we offer? Workshops, lots of workshops and you picks and then things that we're going to offer in the new year. We have a lot of new things coming up, but we want to do some yoga with some flowers and perhaps a farm to table dinner series. So lots of things on the horizon, too.
00:12:44
Jennifer Gulizia
That's amazing. So even though you're in zone four, you provide your community with flowers from February through December.
00:12:53
Annie Amrich
Yeah, yeah. There's a local coffee shop that we do flowers for.
00:12:56
Jennifer Gulizia
That's...
00:12:58
Annie Amrich
And last week was the first week that I had to put dried flowers in there. And so they'll have dried flowers for about three weeks and then we'll go back to fresh.
00:13:07
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, that's amazing. So you also dry flowers.
00:13:08
Annie Amrich
Yeah. yeah Yeah, we do that because we do a dried flower workshop and then we use the dried flowers, of course, for our holiday wreath workshops as well. And we want to do some more and more so we want do more and more stuff with the dried flowers, offer more workshops with those in the coming years.
00:13:25
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay, so we are in the holiday season right now. For those listening as this episode comes out, it's December.
00:13:29
Annie Amrich
Yeah.
00:13:32
Jennifer Gulizia
Tell us what are you doing this holiday season? You said wreath workshops, you have some paper whites, some amaryllis. Talk to us about your holiday season. What does that look like?
00:13:43
Annie Amrich
I love the holiday season. I've always loved it. My mom has, she's always worked with flowers her whole life. And so i just have always been around that. And so she forced bulbs when I was you know younger. And then I think I've just always listened to Martha Stewart or been doing everything she's been doing. and i So from the very time I was in on my own, I force paper whites, which are very, very easy. You put them in a bowl of water and they grow. And so it's just always been for me a thing that I need to do during the holidays. And so as a flower farmer, i thought, well, might as well extend my season offer this. So I'll you know get 100 to 200 paper whites. And then I get about 30 to 50 amaryllis and pot those up and put them into nice vessels and make them look pretty. And then we do an early holiday pop-up with a local winery here.
00:14:41
Annie Amrich
And then after that, we people will just contact me based off of my marketing on social media, and they'll come and get holiday items for over December.
00:14:52
Jennifer Gulizia
So are you making wreaths now?
00:14:55
Annie Amrich
Yes. So we just got back from Thanksgiving vacation and actually I was out foraging today. i got some pine cones and a few extra greenery items and I'm going to start.
00:15:06
Annie Amrich
i I was supposed to start today because I have several businesses that have ordered wreaths, but I'll be starting tomorrow. And I did last year invest in the wreath table.
00:15:16
Annie Amrich
I don can't remember. It's Mitchell, Mitchell wreath table. and it makes it so much easier.
00:15:20
Jennifer Gulizia
okay
00:15:21
Annie Amrich
So we're doing that. And then we have two wreath workshops coming up this week that I'm pretty excited about too.
00:15:29
Jennifer Gulizia
And tell us about those
00:15:29
Annie Amrich
And those will be, those are by hand. Those, those we teach by hand to do the wreaths. And so we have a space that the space that my cooler is in and where I force the tulips.
00:15:35
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:15:40
Annie Amrich
It's old abandoned building, old abandoned house that's owned by the hospital here. And rented out and they let us do a couple of workshops there. And so it's a good empty space that we can make a mess in And we have all the accoutrements, the bells and the pine cones and the ribbons, and we just have a good time.
00:15:59
Jennifer Gulizia
So do you forage all of the materials for your reefs?
00:16:02
Annie Amrich
No, I don't forge all of them because there's so many beautiful items that I want that that don't that we don't have here. So we do some blue spruce and some juniper and the pine cones and stuff here, but I'll get some items from the wholesaler in Denver for the rest of it. Yeah.
00:16:21
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay. And talk to us about foraging. I'm sure there's some people that are thinking, oh, I'd love to go out and forage. Can anyone just go out into the woods and take anything or there certain rules about foraging for greenery?
00:16:34
Annie Amrich
Oh, my kids would love this because they're always like, mom, you're stealing. And I'm like, no, you're allowed to forage. Foraging is open to anyone. of course, you need to be careful of where you're foraging from. You can't forage from someone's yard or from you know a public park or something like that. You should go out to natural areas. And when I forage, like today, i always... Thank Mother Nature for the gift that she's giving me. I make sure to take little pockets from everywhere and not forage one big bunch from one big area. You know, you spread it out and then you just make sure that you're not taking anything invasive that's going to seed wherever you're going. And yeah, it's it's a great thing to do. And we do that a lot.
00:17:26
Jennifer Gulizia
That's awesome. You probably have a lot of open space around you to go do that too.
00:17:30
Annie Amrich
We have a lot of open space. And i've after being here for four years, I found my little, you know, you when we're out mountain biking or hiking, you run across. I'm always, I'm the worst person to go mountain biking with because I stopped so many times to look and take pictures of stuff and and know that I'm going to come back here in the winter. I'm going to come back here in the summer to grab some of this or that. But yes, foraging is a fantastic way to get some items for your Christmas wreath.
00:17:57
Jennifer Gulizia
I love that you mentioned asking mother nature or thanking her for what you take. One of my favorite books I read this year was breeding sweetgrass.
00:18:05
Annie Amrich
Oh, I haven't read that. I've had it on my list for two years. And so this year is the year I'm going to read it.
00:18:11
Jennifer Gulizia
I pretty much only do audiobooks for those kind of books while I'm working out in the field. I'll listen to them. As I was telling you before we so hit record today, I go back and forth from podcasts and audiobooks. But Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin, who's the author of the book, Robin Kilmore, I think is...
00:18:29
Jennifer Gulizia
Maybe butchering her last name here. I'll put the link in the show notes for the actual book. But Robin's voice is so excellent in the book. And it's on my list to go back and re-listen to.
00:18:39
Jennifer Gulizia
But she talks about anytime you take something from the forest, you always ask for permission. And we we went for a hike on Thanksgiving. And I've never foraged before, but we found on our way back to the parking lot, up about 15 feet high, there was a lion's mane mushroom growing on this decaying tree.
00:18:52
Annie Amrich
Oh, I saw that.
00:18:56
Annie Amrich
That is so cool.
00:18:58
Jennifer Gulizia
And so we we thanked Mother Nature for what we found. And we had a, we're pescatarian, so we don't eat turkey. So we cooked it up with our Thanksgiving dinner and
00:19:07
Annie Amrich
Oh, I love it.
00:19:08
Jennifer Gulizia
It was delicious. We've grown them before from spores, but never, never, ever seen lion's mane mushroom in nature before.
00:19:14
Annie Amrich
One, yeah. I think that's so cool. I saw your post on that. Yeah. Yeah. I thought if anyone saw me today, they probably would have thought I was crazy because I was out cutting red dogwood branches. We have a ton of dogwood, which is so beautiful. And I was like, thank you so much for this red dogwood during Christmas time.
00:19:34
Jennifer Gulizia
That's awesome. I'm excited. We don't have space to do holiday workshops or anything like that right now, but it's, I love this time of year and seeing what other farms are doing. And I can't wait till we have space because our property backs up to the forest. So we have some of the most amazing foraging right there.
00:19:53
Jennifer Gulizia
So thank you for sharing about that. Before we hit record, you had to check on something in the oven. Can you share with our listeners, what are you doing with your forage stuff today?
00:20:03
Annie Amrich
Yes, I forage some pine cones. there's I have like 600 foot trees outside my house. They drop a certain kind of pine cone, but there's I don't know what this type of pine cone is that I got today, but I went to this other area to get these pine cones and a lot of them are closed. And so you can bake your pine cones at about 200 to 250 degrees for half an hour to an hour and it will help them open up.
00:20:30
Annie Amrich
It will kill any little critters that are in there and help with drip off any sap. So it's a really great way if you're going to use pine cones to kind of open them up and make them beautiful for your wreath.
00:20:42
Jennifer Gulizia
So you mentioned it drops any sap. I imagine you probably need to put some kind of like paper down, like parchment paper.
00:20:47
Annie Amrich
Oh yeah, like parch parchment paper. yeah, yeah for sure.
00:20:50
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay. And I bet your house, I bet that smells amazing.
00:20:51
Annie Amrich
And it smells really good. It smells so good.
00:20:55
Jennifer Gulizia
I wonder if you could put it in the oven with like some cinnamon sticks and have your own little potpourri smell in the house.
00:21:00
Annie Amrich
Oh yeah, probably. yeah
00:21:05
Jennifer Gulizia
Can you tell us what are some of the biggest challenges you face growing cut flowers in a cold growing zone like Gunnison?
Managing Environmental Challenges
00:21:13
Annie Amrich
Let me see. The biggest challenges would be frost a frost anytime. We can... I mean, the second year I was here, I was in Europe with my son and we got back on June 18th. And that night, I didn't realize that I needed to be checking the weather every single day of the year that I was growing. But that night we had gotten a light frost and all of my dahlias that were coming up beautifully were just nipped. And so that's the biggest challenge is is the frost anytime. We don't
00:21:47
Annie Amrich
I'll always get a summer frost, but it is possible all the time. The area where I currently grow is in a very, it's off of the main main street. And so it gets a lot of ambient heat, I think, from the sidewalks and the roads. And so we do stay a little warmer there. a lot of the other areas, you know, you can get into these dips and valleys and get some pretty cold temps.
00:22:11
Annie Amrich
But that's the biggest thing. The other big, big obstacle I have is deer here. There's a lot of deer. I mean, through my yard, I live right on Main Street.
00:22:21
Annie Amrich
And so walking through my yard every single day are deer. And so...
00:22:26
Jennifer Gulizia
They come through town.
00:22:28
Annie Amrich
Oh, they, yes, yes. I call the deer down here the South Main Gang. they're tear I mean, they will there will be just herds of buck that just come through and they just eat everything.
00:22:37
Jennifer Gulizia
Wow.
00:22:39
Annie Amrich
So those are the two main things that I've had to learn to deal with. Obviously for the deer, we have fencing down at the main field. In my yard, I have this thing called the yard enforcer, which is a Godson because we don't have fencing around half of the yard. And so it is a a motion detector water sprayer and you can get that on Amazon. It's called the Yard Enforcer and I highly recommend. And it is really also quite entertaining to grab a cup of coffee at the beginning of the season when you hook it up before they know it's there and just sit out there and wait for that first deer to come by. It's a good, you get a good laugh out of that first time they get sprayed and go running across the street.
00:23:21
Jennifer Gulizia
Does that keep them out of the garden the rest of the season?
00:23:24
Annie Amrich
Yeah, pretty pretty good, yeah.
00:23:27
Jennifer Gulizia
That's amazing. I've heard about that. One of our neighbors down the street from our new farm, they said they have one of those to keep more of the cougars and bears off their property because they don't have a fence.
00:23:37
Annie Amrich
Oh.
00:23:37
Jennifer Gulizia
They said they use that as their fence. And I was like, oh, I'm going to stick with my deer fence. i feel a little bit safer. But it's interesting.
00:23:46
Annie Amrich
They are they are yeah, they are ruthless here. I mean, they, if I'll go out to scare them away and I can get super, super, I mean, I don't, I just wave my hands, but they, they just look at you and go, whatever, you know?
00:24:00
Jennifer Gulizia
Wow. So has that impacted what you're able to grow?
00:24:05
Annie Amrich
at the farm, no, because we do have fencing around everything. Although the first year, i think it's really, it's really fascinating because you do find out exactly what is deer resistant and what isn't. I mean, like the first year we didn't have fencing, I was growing snapdragons down there and and they didn't bother them or the cosmos. I was really surprised. so sometimes I experiment just to see, you know, i'll plant certain things and see if they like it or not. But,
00:24:32
Annie Amrich
yeah, it's been, it's been pretty interesting, pretty challenging.
00:24:34
Jennifer Gulizia
what about What about the cold you mentioned, which I can't believe that you have to worry about a frost any day of the year. Has that limited your ability to grow things like dahlias?
00:24:42
Annie Amrich
Yeah.
00:24:46
Annie Amrich
Yes, for sure. i actually have reevaluated my dahlia growing this year. And I think I mentioned that to you because I was asking you about it. We, because of our climate, I have really leaned into a lot. of I'm leaning more and more into perennials and and hardy annuals and that type of thing. The dahlias, I love them. They are the best, as you know, because you love them so much too. I just...
00:25:12
Annie Amrich
i I am fighting and fighting and every year is such a, it's a hard season every year. And I only grow 85 foot row. So what do I have? Like 170 plants.
00:25:23
Annie Amrich
And every year it's just, it's really hard. This year we did learn that if, We cover them. So we used two layers of Johnny's heaviest row cover, which is an Ag 70. And that really, really helped them They did love that. And they just, after we did that, they just really took off.
00:25:45
Annie Amrich
But as soon as we got below 30 at night, then that was it. they Even the double row cover didn't help. So, yeah, the cold weather definitely affects the doll. I think it's it's mostly just the dahlias. Everything else, even the cosmos with a row cover do pretty well.
00:26:14
Jennifer Gulizia
Uh-huh.
00:26:15
Annie Amrich
But everything else, we're really leaning into more perennials and a lot of like what people start with in the spring, the hardy annuals, you know, those are the ones that we really, that thrive here.
00:26:27
Annie Amrich
But the thing that I do love about our climate, even though, you know, it's hard for some things is that once stuff starts blooming, we are so lucky that we can have all the flowers all summer long.
00:26:41
Annie Amrich
So we can have sweet peas and ranunculus and anemones and dahlias and snapdragons and rudbeckia and everything all at the same time.
00:26:51
Annie Amrich
So I love when a bride calls me and says, well, what's in season in August? I'm like, everything. Like from spring to fall, everything is blooming. And it's it's fantastic to have it all to play with together.
00:27:04
Jennifer Gulizia
That's amazing because my ranunculus are always done before my dahlias because they don't like anything hot. So you must not get above 80 something degrees in the summer.
00:27:14
Annie Amrich
Yeah, we get, i mean, very, very few days since we've lived here, has it hit 90? I mean, typically it's 80 to 88 during the day. And then at night, that's the harder part. That's where we're really dialing in what we can grow
00:27:31
Annie Amrich
When it gets up to about 49 or 50, that's like the sweet spot, but it's pretty short. Typically, it'll be in the 40s and the 80s. So that's that's the majority of the summer.
00:27:39
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:27:42
Annie Amrich
And i remember the first year was here, I was really excited to try and grow some tomatoes, and I had them in some pots on my back porch. And I think I got like two or three cherry tomatoes the whole season.
00:27:53
Jennifer Gulizia
So I take it you no longer grow tomatoes.
00:27:56
Annie Amrich
No, but we did just put up this year yardistry greenhouse from Costco. And so I am going to grow some tomatoes in there this year.
00:28:04
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, nice. Do you have any hoop houses or tunnels or anything to grow?
00:28:09
Annie Amrich
Nope, none of that, which is great. It's so funny. Like the, the first question when people say, what do you do? And I say, I'm a flower farmer. They say, Oh, how many, how many greenhouses do you have? And I say none.
00:28:19
Annie Amrich
And they're like, what? But I think what people don't realize is that Crested Butte is the wildflower capital of Colorado. And there is wildflower season here, which is why we have so many weddings and, and stuff here.
00:28:27
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh,
00:28:32
Annie Amrich
So, if you think about it being even colder, so Crested Butte is even, i think it's zone three up there. If you think all the wildflowers can grow up there, why can't we grow stuff here?
00:28:45
Annie Amrich
Then, you know, It's, you don't really, we just, you don't need a greenhouse. You can, you know, I'm excited to have a small greenhouse this year, but there are so many flowers that love the cold weather. and I think, again, just leaning into our climate, leaning into what grows well here. i think if people do that, that's the best thing ever. when i When I moved here, I think when anyone moves anywhere, right? Like, what do you do? You go around and you look at landscaping in people's yards and you see what grows. When we first moved here, like,
00:29:17
Annie Amrich
there's not a lot that people, a lot of diversity in people's yards. And so I was like, what, what the heck? And so I think that's one of my other goals is to like, let people know, like, there's so many more things that we can grow than, than what, than what we see, like, just keep trying and branching out and trying some new things.
00:29:37
Jennifer Gulizia
I think that's one of the things that set us apart as flower farmers is we're always pushing the boundaries of what you can grow in zones. So I'm curious about your ranunculus. You don't have any hoop houses or tunnels even for your ranunculus and anemones.
00:29:53
Annie Amrich
No, this is the first year though, that I did put up, a low tunnel for the ranunculus. Cause I thought I've been experimenting, experimenting with the ranunculus. Cause I wanted to see, and I keep pushing the boundaries every year this year, I'll plant them even earlier. You know, I want to see how early I can get them. What are their temperature? What are their low temperatures and how long can I have them? And the one question with ranunculus that I don't know yet is does the corm sort of run out of energy?
00:30:23
Annie Amrich
Or is it the weather that makes it stop? Or what's what's the thing there? So I did get ranunculus all year, but probably every farmer would if they left them in the ground, right? But they definitely go down in stem count. So this year, with cutting we're going to cut the dahlia field down to 50 foot rows, so pretty small.
00:30:44
Annie Amrich
And then we're going to increase the ranunculus and anemones because the anemones 100%, they produce blooms all season long, lots of stems. And so definitely a' do more anemones, different varieties and stuff like that. But the ranunculus I'm still experimenting with. We did put shade cloth up because we do get into the 80s. So once the weather sort of switched, we did try shade cloth for a while. And I think that helped. We had tons of stems.
00:31:13
Jennifer Gulizia
Interesting. So do you have a problem with stem length without the tunnels? Because for me, when I've tried to grow them without a low tunnel, I don't have long enough stems to be able to put them in bouquets here. And maybe that's also a heat issue for us because ours tend to stop as soon as it gets to about 85 degrees. They'll just start to shut down and you can tell that the production is dwindling and the leaves start to die back.
00:31:36
Annie Amrich
Yeah, I definitely think there's a difference in stem length when I look at, you know, ranunculus we're growing here versus like Little Hollow Flower Farm in Berthet, or I think they're in Berthet. I mean, they grow beautifully long stems, but I also just, I, you know,
00:31:53
Annie Amrich
I'm again experimenting so we'll try the low tunnel again this year and see what that does but we just don't have the space for a tunnel, a big tunnel or anything like that so at least not at this point and as far as I am into you know I started flower farming when I was in my 40s so now like I'm I'm inching more and more towards retirement. And so I don't want to do a big investment like a tunnel or something like that with the time that I have left. And so I think we'll just kind of keep experimenting with with what we can do on the lower end.
00:32:25
Jennifer Gulizia
Sure. You mentioned retirement. Is that something that's on the horizon or is that long-term planning?
00:32:32
Annie Amrich
For sure on the horizon, but it's a bit it's a ways out yet. I'm 54. And so, you know, we'd love to consider retirement, you know, between 60 and 65. So we've got got lots of years left, but I would love if someone's in the area and want wants to take over and start start the flower farming, I'd love to teach them.
00:32:51
Jennifer Gulizia
That's awesome. Well, let's go back to the beginning and talk about your start with flowers, because in the intro I hinted that this is something that you kind of came back to. It's part of who you've always been. So can you tell us a little bit about how you got your start into flower farming?
Inspiration and Career Transition
00:33:08
Annie Amrich
Yeah, when I was very young, my grandmother grew African violets under lights in her in her house. And I thought that was really cool. And we lived way out in the country on five acres and my mom always grew like marigolds along the house and we had a huge vegetable garden and my mom and dad were just always very uh creative i mean honestly if they were born in this day and age they would have had their own construction and home interior company because my dad has built houses he does stained glass and turns wood and he can build anything and my mom
00:33:44
Annie Amrich
can arrange flowers. mean, she's always arranged flowers and been very crafty. And so I grew up in this just creative environment, always just creativeness being fed and watching it. And so i don't know, i you know,
00:34:00
Annie Amrich
Obviously, growing up in the day and age where I grew up, it's not like now where you can do anything you want, right? So, you know, you go to school, you get a job. So I was an athletic trainer at CU for eight years, and I worked with track and field cross country mostly and worked with USA.
00:34:17
Jennifer Gulizia
CU is Colorado University.
00:34:19
Annie Amrich
Oh, sorry, University of Colorado. Yeah, in Boulder.
00:34:22
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:34:22
Annie Amrich
I did my master's degree there and then i went was on staff there and worked with track and cross country mostly and ended up working with USA track and field and traveled with them, which was, it was the time of my life. It was the best, but I was making $28,000 with my master's degree. And so after a while,
00:34:44
Annie Amrich
I decided to branch out into medical sales so that I figured as hard as i worked, would be i would be compensated. And so I did that for 16 years, and that was really rewarding. And then it sort of changed again. you know Medicare changed its rules, and you know I went from making a lot of money to a fraction of what I was making, and the doctors didn't want to see us anymore. They were frustrated and all this stuff. so I just couldn't foresee myself doing it.
00:35:13
Annie Amrich
till retirement. And so i started just researching and thinking, what could I do
00:35:14
Jennifer Gulizia
Uh-huh.
00:35:19
Annie Amrich
what you know What can I do to get my hands my hands in the dirt? Can I make money doing that? Because we had purchased a house, and I had done all the landscaping with my husband, and I really loved it. And so I started getting online, and of course, I came across Erin Binzacaine with Florette. And this was, i mean, she was just starting her courses. So I think I was one of the earlier graduating courses. I don't remember what year she started, but I think maybe I was the class of 2020, I want to say.
00:35:46
Annie Amrich
want to say So yeah, I took the course and then i was very, very lucky in that I was in a situation where i had i was working with a company and I had an opportunity to leave and have a severance package.
00:36:05
Annie Amrich
And without that opportunity, I probably would have never started flower farming. So my severance package allowed sort of a year's cushion. And so my husband agreed that I could try it.
00:36:15
Annie Amrich
And so that's how i started out. And I remember like i had I had searched around in the Boulder area for a little piece of land to lease. And I had a piece all set and I was ready to go and it fell through.
00:36:29
Annie Amrich
And literally, this was probably, i mean, the year had already started.
00:36:30
Jennifer Gulizia
Mm-mm.
00:36:34
Annie Amrich
and so, you know, as a flower farmer, you have to have a plan and have seeds going. It was probably March and I had no land. And so, again, I was at at the drawing board reaching out to everyone and I ended up meeting This gentleman, i call him my flower farmer friend Frank, or my farmer friend Frank, because he's a vegetable farmer. And he is this guy who had been farming for so, organic farming for so long, vegetables. And he didn't have space for me at his place, but he knew this woman who had a little plot of land on an 80-acre farm that are 80 acre.
00:37:15
Annie Amrich
Yeah. Like a, like a ranch, I guess, uh, like a horse farm. it was like a horse farm. And so he took me out there and they had done a little CSA vegetable farm on this little quarter acre plot, but it was grown over.
00:37:19
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:37:26
Annie Amrich
And my eyes lit up. I mean, the woman was probably like, you know how you go buy a car. should, you're not supposed to give yourself away. i was giving myself away. My eyes were huge.
00:37:36
Annie Amrich
I was like, before she even opened her mouth, I was like, can I please have it? So I had this quarter acre on this 80 acre farm and there are horses running running around.
00:37:47
Annie Amrich
I had this 180 degree view of the mountains and the sunset every day and it was perfection and the soil was like like perfect because they had been growing vegetables on it.
00:37:58
Annie Amrich
it was It was fantastic. So I leased that little piece of land. And honestly, I had never started a seed before in my life other than a direct sow into like for veggies.
00:38:10
Annie Amrich
I had never sown a seed. So i have no idea who looked down upon me and gave me a blessing. But I mean, I started 26, I think I had 26 50 foot rows that year and filled it.
00:38:26
Jennifer Gulizia
Wow.
00:38:27
Annie Amrich
And it was fantastic.
00:38:30
Jennifer Gulizia
From having never sown a seed to sowing seeds for 26 rows is incredible.
00:38:32
Annie Amrich
Never seen seat. Yeah. Yeah.
00:38:36
Jennifer Gulizia
Did you have a plan going into that first year of where you were going to sell your flowers?
00:38:42
Annie Amrich
No, I mean, because I started so late, right?
00:38:44
Jennifer Gulizia
Yeah.
00:38:44
Annie Amrich
So as soon as I...
00:38:46
Jennifer Gulizia
And that was COVID too, right?
00:38:48
Annie Amrich
No, that was oh that was the year... Yeah, I guess that was no COVID. Sorry. So COVID year. So I got my logo going in 2019.
00:38:59
Annie Amrich
In 2020, I was doing my full time job and doing flower arranging on the side. So I did build a small following.
00:39:06
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay. okay
00:39:08
Annie Amrich
Actually, COVID was really great for I don't know about other flower farmers, but it was great for me because didn't. would put stuff together one day a week and then I would deliver it like a contactless delivery. I would set it People would order on Facebook and then I would go deliver it to their doorstep. And I got a big following that year. And then 2021 is when we had the farm. So I did have a small following already. and yeah,
00:39:34
Annie Amrich
Other than that, you know, I had a few opportunities that popped up. I had our family photographer. She like got me my very first elopement wedding bouquet. I remember being so nervous. It was this tiny little thing, but it was great. You know, so I, you know, it's just like little by little, you know, i got a little wedding and I got an elopement and I got a party, you know, and so little by little, i had more and more people.
00:40:01
Jennifer Gulizia
How far was this original piece of land from where you were living at the time?
00:40:05
Annie Amrich
was about seven minutes.
00:40:07
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay, it's a pretty quick drive.
00:40:08
Annie Amrich
and It was a pretty quick drive, which was pretty crazy because we lived in a very suburban area, you know, and this farm was just, and now the, the, the land is sold. They're actually developing, which was really sad. Every time I go back, I still pop in and it's still there, but, parts of it are developed.
00:40:25
Annie Amrich
but yeah, it, it, uh, it was a great, great start. And then after like, We had put so much work into that field, brought in comp you know compost and all this stuff. And then we decided to move that summer. And so it was like, oh my gosh, I just got all of this started and now we're moving.
00:40:46
Jennifer Gulizia
So you had one season there and then you had to uproot and move.
00:40:48
Annie Amrich
one season. Yeah.
00:40:50
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh my goodness. That had to be so bittersweet.
00:40:51
Annie Amrich
And then we're, it was so bittersweet, but we were really sort of tired of, it was, It hit, the area was just developed. There were strip malls on every corner and the wildfires were going crazy. I mean, there were days where the ash was raining down in our neighborhood and it was just a lot. We were running crazy, like crazy. And so we just wanted to sort of slow down and look for a small, smaller community.
00:41:20
Annie Amrich
And so my husband found a job here in Gunnison that's when we decided to move. And I was like, oh my God, can I grow flowers in zone four? And i don't think I even thought twice about it. I just was like, yeah, sure. I'm going to try it. Why not?
00:41:35
Jennifer Gulizia
you have a can do, figure it out attitude, it seems like, which is awesome.
00:41:38
Annie Amrich
I think so. Yeah. I think it's just like, I don't know. i just have never, and never everything I venture into. I'm just like, I'll figure it out. I'm going to make it work. It'll, it'll, it'll happen.
00:41:52
Jennifer Gulizia
How do you think you develop that mindset for someone who's listening today that is thinking, gosh, I want to do what Annie did. I want to start that small little plot or I'm ready to take a leap into something new. How do you have that faith in just taking that first step?
00:42:08
Annie Amrich
i I ask myself that question all the time, having kids, because you know our kids are different. And i my husband and I are both very competitive. I'm like, is that innate or is that something that you foster?
00:42:19
Annie Amrich
you know i think my parents both work shift work and we were on our own a lot. And so you know i think I had two two brothers and a sister. So was I always like fighting for their attention the when we had it i don't I don't really know, but I just know that I've always been like...
00:42:35
Annie Amrich
a go-getter and just like figure it out, make it happen, set audacious, audacious goals, manifest. I just have always been that way. So I'm not sure if that's innate or that's something, something you can learn.
00:42:47
Annie Amrich
I think you could probably learn it.
00:42:50
Jennifer Gulizia
I believe you can learn it. I think so much of what we do, it's like, I've used this example before, but it's just the easiest one for me to come up with is our new farm. It's like, I have no clue how we're going to build it all out, but I know what I can do next. I know that I need to plant 700 peonies right now. So the first step I can do is prepare that section of the field and start amending that area. And so I think if you break it down into those little steps,
00:43:18
Jennifer Gulizia
it makes that bigger picture feel so much more manageable. And that was something that i personally had to learn is that everything is figureoutable. That's, I think, mark Marie Forleo's saying, figureoutable.
00:43:31
Jennifer Gulizia
And I love that term because especially as flower farmers, every year presents so many new challenges that we're always figuring out something new.
00:43:31
Annie Amrich
i love it.
00:43:41
Jennifer Gulizia
It's like, oh, well, that's not going as planned. So how am I gonna pivot and do this?
00:43:45
Annie Amrich
Yeah. Yeah, that's definitely it. And it's exactly, I mean, even going to the next phase. So I wanted to expand where we're growing right now, but it just wasn't possible with
Future Plans and Community Building
00:43:57
Annie Amrich
the space. And so, you know, was we're like, what can we do? What can we do? So there's a there's a concert venue that's also a big ranch in the area. It's five minutes from my house. I've also learned that you should never...
00:44:09
Annie Amrich
Well, for me, i never go more than five to 10 minutes to grow from my house because it's just, I find that I don't make it there if i if I'm too far away. Even five minutes is a long way. But we broke a new field this year, about 6,500 square feet down at Ibar Ranch. And it's going to be a big community area. We got a small grant from PPAN, which is the People and Pollinators Action Network, I think.
00:44:35
Annie Amrich
and that will cover our irrigation and fencing. But we took a soil sample down there and the sodium level was sky high.
00:44:43
Annie Amrich
We had been waiting like a year to see if it was even gonna be possible. And so when we got the go ahead and got the soil sample, then we were kind of bummed because the sodium level was like at 900 or something.
00:44:55
Annie Amrich
It was off the charts. And so we took this whole year, we planted a cover crop. I i consulted with an agronomist. I use Bryant Mason with the, he's called the soil doctor.
00:45:08
Annie Amrich
and formulated a plan between Bryant and AI and the boots on the ground information.
00:45:08
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:45:17
Annie Amrich
you know we put all this information together and made a plan, planted a cover crop down there for the whole season. And did a lot of, we watered a ton to leach out the stuff. We added gypsum. We did a whole bunch of stuff. And our second soil sample was fantastic. So we're super excited to get that planted up next year. It's going to be all perennials because it's in a colder area, a little bit lower down.
00:45:43
Jennifer Gulizia
Amazing. Can I ask what kind of cover crop you planted?
00:45:47
Annie Amrich
I did, well, I wasn't sure. I'd never cover crop because our seasons are so short that we don't have time to rotate any beds. And so I, you know, I was doing all this research, like, you know, Googling all this stuff. And I was like, why don't I just put this into AI? So I took, again, all this information, put in my climate, put in my zone, put in my elevation, put in the location of the ranch and it recommended barley, peas and oats.
00:46:13
Annie Amrich
And so that's what we planted.
00:46:13
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:46:14
Annie Amrich
Yeah. And it was, it was great.
00:46:15
Jennifer Gulizia
Amazing.
00:46:16
Annie Amrich
Yeah.
00:46:17
Jennifer Gulizia
We had just the opposite problem. We had to add salt to our field.
00:46:21
Annie Amrich
Oh my gosh.
00:46:21
Jennifer Gulizia
So we we too bad we couldn't have just taken some of your salt for you.
00:46:24
Annie Amrich
Right?
00:46:25
Jennifer Gulizia
We brought in quite a bit of salt that seems to have helped. I mean, it's amazing when you listen to what the soil needs, how quickly it can respond.
00:46:34
Annie Amrich
Yeah.
00:46:34
Jennifer Gulizia
I mean, I didn't know if anything would grow this year. and We're working with a soil agronomist also, and we started with soil testing. And now that I'm digging my dahlias, it's like four, we went from zero worms this time last year to there's like four or five worms per clump of tubers.
00:46:48
Annie Amrich
Oh.
00:46:49
Jennifer Gulizia
I'm pulling out worms as I'm trying to dig up the dahlias and just seeing like, I am not and a soil expert by any means, but our soil agronomist was like, you want to look for so little nodules showing that nitrogen is being fixated in your soil and I'm digging things up.
00:47:05
Jennifer Gulizia
I'm like, oh, look at that. You can see that it's working.
00:47:06
Annie Amrich
Really? and
00:47:08
Jennifer Gulizia
So you it's sometimes that leap of faith where you're like, okay, these seeds that I'm literally sowing, are they are they doing it or not? And it's that taking that first step, I think, circling back to what we were talking about before, is figuring things out one step at a time or one seed at a time.
00:47:25
Annie Amrich
Yeah, I think soil is one of those really hard things to understand as a, I mean, I was a biology major, but it's still, there's so many complexities with soil and the two areas that we have are so different.
00:47:37
Annie Amrich
Like we just got our soil sample back for the the field up here and he called it light soil, which I had never heard of before. And it's just, it's a very sandy, silty soil.
00:47:48
Annie Amrich
It drains really easily and it doesn't hold nutrients. So we're learning that we have to do those soil samples every year. And really we have to amend every once to twice a year.
00:47:59
Annie Amrich
we have to add into that. So learning a lot, learning a lot about the soil and what it takes.
00:48:01
Jennifer Gulizia
wow
00:48:05
Annie Amrich
And that's that's that's a really fun new challenge for me, I think, because, you know, after you have so many years under your belt, you know, it's nice to have something new to challenge you.
00:48:16
Annie Amrich
And I think soil is very challenging.
00:48:19
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely. And such a key piece of what we do. we We need to work in harmony with it all the time.
00:48:22
Annie Amrich
Yes.
00:48:25
Annie Amrich
I am surprised though.
00:48:25
Jennifer Gulizia
So what are you planting? Oh, go ahead.
00:48:27
Annie Amrich
Oh, I'm surprised that even with terrible soil, stuff will grow. Things want to grow, I think is the, yeah.
00:48:34
Jennifer Gulizia
Totally with a little bit of water.
00:48:35
Annie Amrich
What am I? Yeah. What am I growing?
00:48:38
Jennifer Gulizia
i mean, it's amazing what's growing.
00:48:40
Annie Amrich
Sorry, I keep interrupting you.
00:48:42
Jennifer Gulizia
You're good. and We're both excited. i was going to say that it's amazing with water. We tilled up our whole field and then amended the soil and added our nutrients. And some of the things I am so amazed, they must've been in the seedbed for years because I planted dahlias and we had verbascum growing all throughout the dahlias this year.
00:49:05
Annie Amrich
Oh, that's cool.
00:49:05
Jennifer Gulizia
yeah, I mean, i definitely didn't grow any of it this year. It was not something that I sowed. So to know that it had been in the seedbed in a fallow field for over 20 years, it's like it was just waiting for a little bit of water to start growing.
00:49:17
Annie Amrich
That's pretty cool.
00:49:21
Annie Amrich
Yeah, that's really cool.
00:49:23
Jennifer Gulizia
So what are you going to grow in your new field this next year?
00:49:26
Annie Amrich
Oh, the new field is is very, I'm very excited because we are going to a pretty big chunk of peonies, which I haven't ever had the opportunity. I may have some here and there, but we're going to do some peonies. It's going to be all perennials. the first This first spring season, there may be a few annuals just because some of the stuff we can't plant till fall.
00:49:46
Annie Amrich
but we'll do a lot of Allium. We'll do Iris. We're going to do, i just listened to your interview with Julio and, learned about Sanguasorba from, from something that he posted and I want to grow that. So we're going to do that. Echinacea, some, a lot of native stuff too, blanket flower,
00:50:06
Annie Amrich
Off the top of my head, I can't think of all the stuff we're growing, but I'm excited. I do have a sort of a plan laid out already, but it's ever evolving and changing as I research more and more stuff. I'm like, oh, I need to add that. Where can I put it? So lots of different things down there.
00:50:23
Jennifer Gulizia
And how much space is that?
00:50:25
Annie Amrich
6,500 square feet. And i do, it there is it is a wedding venue down there as well. so I'm excited to do what I'd like to do in the entrance is to put up a larger walkway row with and some arches where I can clematis.
00:50:41
Annie Amrich
I think down there, yeah, because that grows really well here.
00:50:41
Jennifer Gulizia
beautiful.
00:50:46
Annie Amrich
Maybe some hops or something like that. but And then I'd love to have like an old vintage velvet, like love seat in the middle there. I don't know, that's my vision, but yeah. And then some hardy, i we'll do some woodies maybe around the fencing because i I don't have a lot of space for woodies.
00:51:04
Annie Amrich
And so I really want to add that.
00:51:07
Jennifer Gulizia
Do you have a long-term lease on this or did you buy this land?
00:51:11
Annie Amrich
I don't have a long-term lease. I have a very good deal with the with the owner. it's And the water is free. So that is really nice. And I think it could be sold at any time. There is a, the gentleman that that runs the concert venue leases it as well. And so, you know, I don't, it's a pretty big part of the community. i don't think that they would want to sell it. Of course it can happen. And you know how that works. You know, if something sells, then
00:51:44
Annie Amrich
That's that. And it's a risk that we're going to take. I have talked with the the owners. There's a gentleman. He actually just passed away, but he has two daughters. And I talk with them and I'm kind of like, you know, you know, what do you think? How's it going? Because I'm going to put a lot of work into this. And I feel pretty confident that it's it's going to be there for a while. So we are going to move forward with it.
00:52:05
Jennifer Gulizia
Good. Well, that's exciting. I can't wait to see it come together.
00:52:09
Annie Amrich
Thank you.
00:52:09
Jennifer Gulizia
Is there anything I haven't asked you today that you want to share with our listeners?
00:52:15
Annie Amrich
I would say if you you're in a cold climate, don't be afraid to grow something. Try it. i think failure is one of our greatest rewards. It's just if if if you try and it fails, then you've learned something and you can take it and move forward with the next step. and Or yeah you can try something new. I think just because you're in a cold area, don't let that hinder you or don't let that stop you. And and just like Grow what you want to grow and find a way to do it.
00:52:48
Jennifer Gulizia
I love that advice. That's great advice. What are you most excited about for 2026?
00:52:57
Annie Amrich
For 2026, I am most excited probably about the new field because we want to do a lot of community events down there. One of my mission statement in my mission statement has always been to build community built community through flowers. And I feel like since we've been here, we have done that.
00:53:14
Annie Amrich
But like this past year, we did a lot of weddings and that kind of took time away from that. I think we want to we're going to step away from a lot of the weddings and we're going to really put more energy back into the community with this big field down at the Ibar Ranch, you know, perhaps a farm to table dinner series, maybe some yoga, like at yoga and flowers, you know, having kids out in the fields, doing some more you picks, doing some more flower arranging and just having it a more community feel.
00:53:46
Annie Amrich
am excited about that. And I'm pretty excited. Just we have, you know, some, I'm dabbling into some digital courses. so I'm excited to also, again, taking some time away from the wedding. So I have some time to invest into some of the other things that I want to do I'm excited for some of the launches that we might do in 2026.
00:54:11
Jennifer Gulizia
Sounds like you're working on a lot. Those dinner, and did you say dinner in the garden or dinner in the flowers or it's a farm to table dinner?
00:54:13
Annie Amrich
yeah
00:54:17
Annie Amrich
ye Yeah, like a farm to table dinner. i think because you know when you work with weddings, like this is a huge area for weddings and elopements especially. like I could fill up my calendar with weddings elopements all day long. But I think when you do the weddings, you are really taking on whatever the bride or whatever the they want, right? you You're designing for them. And I think with like a farm to table dinner series, ideally I'd love to do a spring, a summer, and a fall.
00:54:45
Annie Amrich
Maybe this next year we start with one and see how it goes. But you, I could choose how I want to design this farm to table dinner with the florals.
00:54:56
Annie Amrich
You know, of course we would hire a chef and whatnot, but like I can, I can make it what I want. And I think that's kind of exciting to dip into the creativity and the creative side of flowers to like do it the way I want it, like present it the way I want it.
00:55:12
Annie Amrich
Yeah. So I think that's kind of exciting.
00:55:14
Jennifer Gulizia
That is very exciting. Well, I can't wait to see it all come together. I've had so much fun talking with you today, Annie, and thank you for sharing your story about how you fell back into flowers and how you are cultivating flowers in zone four up in the mountains in Gunnison, Colorado. Before we say goodbye today, I've got just a couple quick questions for you. And the first one is how can our listeners stay connected with you?
00:55:44
Annie Amrich
They can find me.
Connecting with Annie and Her Farm
00:55:45
Annie Amrich
I'm on Instagram a lot. I'm probably the one that isn't afraid to dance a time or two on on my Instagram reels, but they can find me on Instagram at jannybirdfarm. My website is, of course, the same, www.jannybirdfarm.com.
00:56:00
Annie Amrich
Those are the two main places. I am on Facebook as well.
00:56:05
Jennifer Gulizia
And I should have asked this earlier, how did the name Jannie Bird come to be for your farm?
00:56:05
Annie Amrich
Yeah.
00:56:11
Annie Amrich
when i was dating my husband probably even before we were married we had always dreamed of owning some land and we thought it would be my husband's nickname is jaybird and my name is annie and so putting it together it was janny bird farm we thought if we ever owned a piece of land or a ranch we would name it janny bird farm it was sort of this silly little thing that we had talked about But when I decided to start the flower farm, I was like, well, I think it would it would be cool to bring that in as part of it, part of a little symbolization of what we had dreamed and, you know, sort of manifested into the flower farm. So that's where it came from.
00:56:52
Annie Amrich
So people people will say, people will say, hi, Jannie. how are you, Jannie? And I'm like, no, it's Annie. But yeah, so thank you for asking because people people ask all the time.
00:57:04
Jennifer Gulizia
Well, I thought that was your name. i thought Janie was your name when I first met you. And then I realized, no, it's Annie.
00:57:08
Annie Amrich
Yeah.
00:57:09
Jennifer Gulizia
But I love that. I love that that started as a seed that you sowed years and years ago with your, at the time, significant other who's now your husband.
00:57:14
Annie Amrich
Yep. Here's a go.
00:57:19
Jennifer Gulizia
I think that's really special.
00:57:22
Annie Amrich
Yeah.
00:57:22
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay, I think this is my last question for today. What is your favorite cold zone flower to grow?
00:57:30
Annie Amrich
Easy Rudbeckia.
00:57:32
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, that's a good one.
00:57:32
Annie Amrich
It's my favorite because it is, there are so many different varieties. Triloba is probably my all-time favorite. It's just the cutest little sprays of like joy.
00:57:44
Annie Amrich
But I think it it grows so easily. It's it's pretty easy to start. There are so many different varieties. It lasts for so long and has great base life. It dries well.
00:57:55
Annie Amrich
It makes me happy. i think Rudbeckia is the answer. Yeah.
00:58:00
Jennifer Gulizia
I love it. I enjoy growing that as well. So this conversation has been so fun. Thank you, Annie, for joining me and happy holidays to you. And I can't wait to see some photos from your wreath workshops that you have coming up.
00:58:14
Annie Amrich
Thank you, Jennifer.
00:58:15
Jennifer Gulizia
We'll talk to you soon.
00:58:15
Annie Amrich
I appreciate it so much.
00:58:17
Jennifer Gulizia
Bye-bye.
00:58:18
Annie Amrich
Bye.