Cut Flower Farming

Cut flower farmers grow fresh flowers for bouquets, weddings, events, and subscriptions, serving the growing locally-grown flower movement.

Unlike imported flowers dominating grocery stores, local flowers are fresher, more unique varieties, seasonal, and support local agriculture.

Popular crops include zinnias, sunflowers, dahlias, cosmos, lisianthus, ranunculus, and specialty foliage.

Success requires flower growing knowledge and succession planting, post-harvest handling and conditioning, understanding floral design basics, building florist and event planner relationships, and direct sales abilities.

Pricing varies by season and variety—mixed bouquets $25-50 retail, bulk stems $1-5 each wholesale, wedding flowers $500-3,000+ per event.

Successful flower farms can generate $30,000-80,000 per acre with intensive production.

Startup costs include land or field access, flower seeds and bulbs ($500-2,000 annually), basic farming equipment and tools, irrigation system, cooler or cold storage ($1,000-5,000), wash and processing station, farmers market setup or wedding display materials, delivery vehicle, and potentially hoophouses for season extension totaling $5,000-20,000.

Building customer base involves farmers markets with gorgeous displays, wedding and event florists buying locally, flower CSA subscriptions (weekly bouquets), u-pick flower fields for agritourism, wholesale to florists and grocery stores, social media showing beautiful blooms, DIY wedding flower packages, and workshops teaching flower arranging.

Revenue comes from farmers market bouquet sales, wedding and event flowers (premium pricing), flower subscriptions, wholesale to florists, u-pick fees, potentially dried flowers and wreaths, or workshops and classes.

Operating costs include seeds and bulbs annually, irrigation water, cooler electricity, equipment maintenance, market fees, fuel for deliveries, packaging and sleeves, potentially hired labor for weddings and harvest, and significant farmer time.

Challenges include weather dramatically affects blooms, physically demanding planting and harvesting, timing crops for peak wedding season, shelf life only 5-10 days requiring frequent harvest, competitive with cheap imported flowers, and seasonal income in many climates.

Success requires succession planting for continuous blooms, perfect post-harvest conditioning (extends vase life), growing unique varieties unavailable imported, targeting weddings and events (premium pricing), potentially season extension with hoophouses, building loyal subscription base, emphasizing local and sustainable, and creating stunning visual marketing.

Cut flower farming serves growing demand for locally-grown seasonal flowers.