What I Wish I Knew Before Starting a Micro Flower Farm
In early 2020, I added some sunflowers and zinnias to my vegetable garden, and it changed everything.
My Instagram feed became full of flower farms, and by the next growing season, I was obsessed.
Looking back, I realize it was really a distraction. My dad was in the final years of his battle with cancer, and I was looking for something to take my mind off of it. So I dove headfirst into all things flowers.
And as a homeschooling mom, it gave me something to focus on and kept me busy in the summer.
It seemed perfect… at the time.
Every year, I expanded a little more. I put tarps down on the front lawn, hand-dug pathways, and made flower rows until eventually I had a quarter acre in cultivation, a weekly spot at the farmers market, a bouquet subscription, event flowers, a little greenhouse, a grow room in my basement, and a big farm stand in our front yard.
I was determined to make it more than just a side hustle.
I took flower farming and business courses, read the books, listened to the podcasts, took social media courses, posted every day, and grew an email list.
All the things they said to do.
Photo: This was 2023 expanding our cut flower garden.
And then, in my third season, I started to realize the reality of it.
As a one-woman show growing a quarter acre, there is only so much you can make in a 12-week selling season, no matter how hard you work or how much you hustle.
Sure, I sold out at a couple of farmers' markets early on, had loyal weekly customers, and did some beautiful event flowers.
And that was SO exciting!
Until I started adding up how much time and money actually went into making those sales.
Because the work starts long before you sell the flowers.
I was starting seeds in my basement in January and February, growing lisianthus, eucalyptus, snapdragons, and all the other flowers months before I was selling anything.
Then there was the planting, weeding, harvesting, conditioning, making bouquets, selling at market and cleaning all the buckets.
And the business side too: the website, newsletter, social media, insurance, market fees, seeds, supplies, and all the other little expenses that add up.
So much work.
And that’s when I realized something that was hard to admit…
You can have people buying your flowers and telling you how beautiful they are, while quietly doing the math and realizing that, after all the hours you’ve put into it, you might have only made $3 an hour…
Because there is a huge difference between selling a lot of flowers and actually making a profit selling flowers.
And that matters.
