The Quandaries and Insecurities of a Part-Time Flower Grower and Would-Be Flower Seller

And how about those cherry tomatoes?

A bucket of 100 flower stems. Four pints of cherry tomatoes. A bunch of green coriander seed. Sold. I got back in the car, cash in hand, and felt giddy.

Not sure if it was the energy of the buzzing café, the thrill of the sale, the connection with the chef, or the simple act of delivering to a wholesale client I had pitched the day before. But something shifted. I felt immediately like Farmer Susie again, reclaiming a part of myself I set aside six years ago. It was kind of shocking how satisfying it was to feel that missing piece click back into place.

It was also a great relief. With one simple sale, I overcame my fear of imposing on people and found a way to start generating a little bit of income for the farm.

I am not a good salesperson; my upbringing and personality are antithetical to asking people to spend money. There was a reason I always had a (self-serve) farm stand. I could display my lovely veggies and flowers without ever having to feel I was pressuring anyone to buy them. They could stop at the farm stand or not, buy something or not. And at the end of the day, I could open the cash box and happily count up the dollars, satisfied that my customers got what they wanted and that I was succeeding at my job. The farm stand was open seven days a week until sunset, so it had the added advantage (over most other outlets) of maximum sales opportunity.

But a farm stand won’t work for us this summer. For one thing, I’m not growing enough to supply a farm stand. Secondly, just exactly where that farm stand might be is a conundrum. I have considered once-a-week popups here (private so that we are not inviting the public onto our property without permits or notifying the neighbors) or somewhere else, but that idea has issues that need to be worked out.

I’ve considered asking friends with retail businesses if they could take some things wholesale and resell them. That might work for cherry tomatoes, but flowers have complicated care needs, so that would have to be a place that is already selling flowers.

I’ve dabbled in making (and selling) custom flower arrangements, mostly for small events and a few friends who’ve asked for them, but they are time consuming to make – and  subsequently hard to fit into my work schedule. They’re also tricky to hold and transport (unless you are a fully equipped flower farmer with a cooler and a van).

And lastly, I have confidence issues with them. I’ve never worked for a florist or a floral designer, so I don’t know all the tricks to making professional looking arrangements that will also last for what I consider a reasonable amount of time. (Though I do know some of the tricks – just enough to be dangerous!) So, I always wind up undercharging for what, given the materials and time involved, should command a higher price.

Ultimately, I don’t really want to be in the flower arranging business anyway, because I think the return on time spent (for me at least) combined with the investment in more infrastructure isn’t worth it. 

But I do want to sell flowers (that I have grown myself, obviously!), so that leaves me with two choices – sell them as bouquets or in bulk buckets.

If my main goals for this summer are a) not to waste what I’m growing, b) make a little income for the farm and c) be as efficient as possible with the time I spend on this, then selling bulk stems to people who will do their own arranging is the way to go. 

That’s how I finally got up the nerve to text (much easier/less confrontational than picking up the phone!) a restaurant chef I know to see if she might be in the market for the small quantities of what I had to sell. 

She said yes!

Hey Susie, that wasn’t so hard, was it? (I said to myself.)

It’s that same old problem we all have – reaching out. It makes you feel so vulnerable. But in truth, you have to be willing to hear “no,” or “not now” or to hear feedback on what you’re doing if you want to find a market for whatever you’re selling. It’s scary. But if you don’t ask, you’ll never hear “yes” either.

I want to find my niche. Every day I look out at the field where we’re planning to create the big garden and wonder what direction I should go. Should I plant perennial flowers like peonies? Should it be half flowers and half vegetables? Is it entirely a market garden, or mostly a home garden? (Even that we haven’t completely decided).

Poking into the flower market a little this year will no doubt be good for my planning. The Island has a wealth of talented flower farmers and designers. (When I was off-Island, the bouquets at other farmers’ markets weren’t anything like what I see up here.) But right now, there’s also a nearly insatiable demand for flowers, especially this time of year when there are hundreds of events going on across the Island.

Yet, because I don’t know when the flower market will be saturated, and since I grew vegetables for many years, I’m leaning towards keeping one foot in both. We’ll see!

In the meantime, the cherry tomatoes are happy in the hoop house this summer – and there’s room for more next year.

🌸