Episode 761: Growing Flower Seedlings for Profit, with Kate Skelton of Gratitude Flowers, Carol Wetzel of The Little Farm on Olga Road, and Fawn Rueckert of Sego Lily Flower Farm and Snuck Flowers

This is Slow Flowers.

The theme of today's episode is

straight from our 2022 Slow Flowers

floral insights and industry forecast,

an insight that identifies cutting-garden plants

as an important business channel.

Flower farmers are translating their expertise

into new revenue streams by growing

and selling cut-flower seedlings

and starts to flower lovers and fellow growers.

Last fall, we produced a report

for Johnny Seed's newsletter

on this trend, and today,

three of the growers featured in that story

share more about their cutting-garden plant collections.

As the idea of gardening

like a flower farmer has taken off,

and as home gardeners and floral enthusiasts

ask for the unique cultivars that the pros grow,

we're thrilled that more gardeners

want to jumpstart their cutting gardens

with flowers sewn by someone else.

For the consumer, this means having

a cut-flower garden without the grit

and grind of farming.

This means when you have a flower farmer's

and farmer florist, it means trading your time

and knowledge for a rewarding new revenue stream.

We started snuck flowers,

which grows for whole-cell flower farmers,

and then retail backyard growers.

We've now had about 120 people

come through that class,

and we have this great community of people

that come back and bite plugs now.

So we've taught them how to grow them,

and now they're coming back and buying their plants from us.

Hello again and welcome back to the Slow Flowers podcast. I'm Deborah Prinsing and this is

episode 761. This is the weekly podcast about Slow Flowers and the people who grow and

design with them. It's all about making a conscious choice and I invite you to join the

conversation and the creative community as we discuss the vital topics of saving our domestic

flower farms and supporting a floral industry that relies on a safe, seasonal and local supply

of flowers and foliage. This show is brought to you by SlowFlowers.com, the free online directory

to more than 700 florist shops and studios who design with local, seasonal and sustainable

flowers and to the farms that grow those blooms. It's the conscious choice for buying and sending

flowers. And thank you to our lead sponsor flowerbulb.eu and their US lily bulb vendors.

One of the most recognizable flowers in the world, the lily is a top selling cut flower,

offering long-lasting blooms, year-round availability and a dazzling petal palette. Flowerbulb.eu

has partnered with SlowFlowers to provide beautiful lily inspiration and farming resources

to help growers and florists connect their customers with more lilies. Learn more at flowerbulb.eu.

Well, it's the season for plant sales and for encouraging customers to grow cutting gardens.

Today, you'll learn from three SlowFlowers members as they discuss the market potential of

growing and selling cut flower seedlings. For flower farmers, learn how you can translate your

expertise into a revenue stream when you grow and sell cutting garden plants to flower lovers

and fellow growers. For florists, you can get in on the act and offer locally grown cut flower seedlings

as an add-on for workshops and special events. A special thank you to our expert panelists,

Kate Skeleton of Edgewood, Washington-based gratitude flowers, to Carol Wetzel of the little farm

on Olga Road in East Sound, Washington, on Orcas Island, and to Fawn Rookert of Sego lily flower

farm in Jordan, Utah, who is also the resident flower farmer and educator at Snuck Farm.

This is a follow-up to our November 2025 feature article in Johnny Seeds,

JSS Advantage newsletter, as we chat with these three flower farmers who contributed to that

inspiring report. This session was recorded as part of our March SlowFlowers member meetup and

we want to share it today for our viewers and listeners. Let's dive into cutting garden plants

and learn new ways you can profit from your farming expertise.

Welcome everyone. I'm so excited that you are all interested in this amazing topic,

which is basically growing your seedlings for profit, taking your expertise as a flower farmer or

farmer florist or nursery owner and bringing it to the enthusiastic cutting garden owner,

home gardener, people who really want to basically garden like the pros and be like a flower farmer.

So that is today's topic and we have three presenters, also flowers members,

all with slightly different operations. So I think you'll have a lot to learn,

so first I want to introduce Kate Skeleton of Gratitude Flowers, our first speaker. Hi Kate.

Good morning everyone. I'm going to be here. I first met Kate at a farmer meetup in the Pacific

Northwest a couple years ago at Jody Loach's house at Loach's house and she owns a matter and

moss flower farm and she just was having these coffee and pie meetups for farmers and she invited

me and Kate and I just started chatting and I was so fascinated with Kate's story, a plant grower.

Yeah, so I was really intrigued and invited myself over to see what you're doing since we lived

really close to each other and now I've purchased seedlings from you. You've participated in the

ultimate cutting garden plant sale that we had last spring and you'll be spending at that again

on May 3rd and so like Carol and Fawn, I invited you and the two of them plus some other people

to be part of this Johnny seeds article that ran last fall about this very topic. But sometimes when

you have it more in a conversation mode with animated with human beings rather than just reading it

online, you can get your questions answered. Well, good morning everyone. Thank you for having me

Deborah and all of our co-presenters today. I'm excited to learn from you all as well. So I'm

Kate Skeleton of Gratitude Flowers and I'm located in Edgewood, Washington, which is just south of

Seattle and east of Tacoma for those of you familiar with the area and actually I'll even put in

there a little side note right by Milton, which everyone knows but not my little city.

Yeah, and so yeah, I'm a local nursery and flower farm. I focus mainly on plant starts as well

as some seasonal blooms and some artisan bouquet subscriptions as we have our local flowers in season

when we get past our winter storm here. So focusing on that as you're getting started, I've had

or actually I should take a step back here talking about the article that Deborah had written for

Johnny's. I actually had a lot of people around the country reaching out to me asking a lot of

questions and like how'd you get started and so I want to share some of that with you. As you're

getting started, you know, being if you're doing flower farming, this is really a natural extension

of things because you're already going plants and stuff and it allows you to extend your season

beyond when our flowers are actually blooming, which definitely is helpful as you're growing your

business and trying to create more income revenues. The beautiful thing that I really like about

selling plants locally is the connection that I'm starting to see with local gardeners and farmers.

The community really is, you know, discussing what are the local natives, what things grow well

in the area and that's a really positive thing for our community that seems to have been lacking

somewhat in the nursery, the big box stores and the general dig nursery trade.

You know, because we're able to we have experience growing and we're able to share that with our

community whereas when you're dealing with the big box stores, you know, their ship and stuff in,

is it really going to be great in the area? Is it coming in at the right time when things should be

planted? And so we have a great opportunity here in our flower community to really help people,

people be successful with growing in our local communities because we know when things should be

planted and, you know, again, what goes well in our area. So as you are getting started, I would

really consider just starting with what you already have. You're probably growing extra seedlings.

If you're doing plant cuttings and divisions, those can be really great things to start potting

up for customers. Another thing is working with seedlings that are difficult for most people to

start with. I actually started with Lizzy Anthus. That was kind of the start of my business. I'm

originally used to grow down in Southern California and you could buy Lizzy Anthus at the local

nurseries and moved up here. Didn't see him for years and one day ran into a manitaho and I was

like, I haven't seen those in years and I love them. I was like, and found out there's a community

of people that wanted him as well and that's what started my business. So that's something to

really consider as you're getting started out, what are your customers saying that if you're a

flower farmer, what are they interested in? Are they interested in growing certain things that

they're buying from you? Have those conversations to find out what might be a good area to get started

in? Like I said, you really want to start with what you have because working with plants and getting

started out, you know, thinking about the costs, start with what you already have. I have a nursery

that I do on site at my home that is seasonal that will be opening up in April and I also do curated

plant collections thinking about my different audience, which getting into that I want to share

that we have gardeners that like to come in and they just want to go pick the plants that they want.

But you also will have customers that are newer to growing that are going to have a lot of questions

on what should they grow? What's easy to grow? What should they try? And what I have found is doing

curated plant collections really starts to target both of those group customers as you're starting

to build your customers, your customer base. Selecting things that grow well together, you know,

things that grow obviously all in sun or maybe a collection where it's part shade can be really

beneficial for a newer grower. Having curated collections also makes it easier for the grower to

not have to think too much about stuff that simplifies the decisions on their part as they're

learning to grow because you've already created a collection for them. Thinking about, you know,

as I mentioned, I wrote Louisiana, this is one example that's real niche collection and that's

something to consider as you're working with your customers of are they looking for certain types

of plants that you can't find elsewhere? The nursery trade talking with my customers in my local

area, they feel it's really changing in regards to you don't see tall cutting garden varieties.

Most things are focused on betting varieties, but people want more cutting garden variety plants.

Also, I would say in addition container plant or basket stuffers as they typically call them.

I'm hearing that's an area that we're just not seeing the varieties that we used to see in the

stores and the local, you know, the big box stores. And so I think there's a need there as well

that we can start to fill for our customers because it seems these other places are no longer doing

it, just less variety. Cutting garden type collections are really popular. I started out with one and

just kind of was like, hey, I'm going to throw in some extra plants that I have, maybe some that I

had a limited variety of. So it was a special collection. If you got this, you got this type of plant.

Thinking about some of the popular seedling collections that are coming out from some local growers

around our country for creating collections around some of these specialty seedlings that not

everybody necessarily is easy to get their hands on are really popular. As I've gone through the

years, I'm finding perennial collections are popular. Thinking about starting to garden these days,

it is quite expensive. And so offering seedlings of perennials really is popular for newer homeowners.

And somebody that just moved to new home that didn't have much landscaping. So those have been

really popular. I don't focus too much on vegetables except for chilies, which is kind of my husband's

little niche. And so you might have a local community that's really interested in a certain heirloom

variety tomatoes or, you know, this goes on and on so you can consider vegetables as well.

Native collections can be really great. You definitely will have customers that are thinking about

wanting to support, you know, their beneficial insects and bring more birds and things into their

gardens. So, you know, natives can be really good. Also, container gardens are really popular

because there's a lot of people growing on either they're living in apartments or condos and they

want to be able to grow some things or they have small lots and want to be able to do things. So

thinking about some container type arrangements that you could do could be great as well. So,

there's just some ideas that I've heard others talking about that have been that they have been

trying and we're finding work for them as well, some of the things I've been trying.

Yeah. And so, as you get into this, there's one thing that a lot of people don't think about that I

do want to mention is if you're a flower farmer and you start adding plants to your sales,

you do need to look at your state and what their licensing requirements are.

Different states obviously are going to have different requirements. I think Washington,

it's still if you are going to if you make at least a hundred dollars in plant sales, you actually

do have to have a nursery license. Also, some states might require certain type of insurance

outside of regular business insurance. So definitely look into that as you're getting started.

I'll also mention flower farmers sometimes don't have people coming on site,

so that's another consideration as you start to open up having plant sales and things on properties.

You might need some sort of insurance for that. Also, you need to look into your local

codes and ordinances. I hear people start up and they're like, oh, I didn't know I couldn't even have

have people come on my property to sell or to buy things. You might not be able to put it

signage out. So these are things to consider before you get started because you don't want to get

halfway through it and then find out, oh, you can't even do this in your city because I've heard

that happen to some people. There also can be codes related to things like parking and stuff. So

I'll mention that again, as you're getting into this, you need to get into all these considerations

that start to crop up because sometimes those things can start to tie into you need extra funding

to tie into some study that's being done and proving that yeah, you're not changing the traffic

patterns. And last thing I want to mention as you get into starting to sell plants is we all get

really excited. I love this plant and oh, I think others will love it. Pay attention to what you're

selling and see how what others are having experiences growing these things in your area. So you

want to consider invasives. All states definitely will have invasive plant lists. But go beyond that

because what I'm finding in my state is there's a good number of things that are not listed on our

invasive species. Yet when I do the research, there's some very invasive plants in our local

area that a lot of gardeners have commented on. And so as I'm buying seeds, I've researched before

I start bringing things into my area and also being able to, you know, can I actually sell it in my

area. And that's also something to consider if you get into shipping. I don't ship, I'm going to

stay only local, but if you get into shipping, you definitely want to think about some of those things.

And licensing obviously related to it. So that's really, you know, as I've got started things,

I've been thinking about and things I've had some luck with and, you know, thinking about my

customers. One last thing I actually also want to mention here is you will find every market is

different. So it really pays as you're, you know, if you're going to sell at different markets to

start to talk with people and find out what the clientele is, because that will help you determine

what might sell better at different markets. Like I said, you know, container collection or more

niche collection, like Lucy Anthos plugs or something like that. This was so helpful. Thank you so

much. I have a few questions and if anybody has them and put them in the chat and we'll collect them

if we run out of time. Now before we move on to Carol, we'll, we'll circle back.

Tell us about your schedule here. We're laughing before everyone. You don't realize this, but it's

March 13th and Kate and I are experiencing a snowfall here and outside the Seattle area.

When is your first open day? So I will be opening the first Saturday and April. So that's April

4th and then I'm open seasonally typically till mid-June when our area starts getting really warm

and people are not interested in planting. So you've, we've got about three weeks, but this is,

it'll all, it'll be ready for us at the first weekend of April. I hope to come shop from you.

What is your, what inventory will you have? What are your first plants that you'll be offering to

people in that early sale? So I focus and actually did not share this. I focus, I grow most of my

things in soil blocks as I've been really trying to reduce plastic, single plastic usage and be

quite sustainable. So most of my starts are sold in two inch soil blocks and I start out the season

with the cool season plants and perennials. So lots of things for the cutting gardens like

snap dragons are always really popular. So I start out with a group two and group three

snapped dragons earlier at the beginning of the season and then I'll shift to the group four

like the Potomac and some of the Madame Butterfly ones more often. So lots of cutting garden things,

annuals, cut and come again, Liseanthus all. I sell those pre-order and plugs and then I'll have

some potted up as individual plants. Rootbeckia is really popular so I usually have a few variety.

Those Craspedia is a popular one that you rarely see sold anywhere. So that's a good one to mention

because people really like that one. Scabiosa, I've got quite a bit of perennial and so I've

got the Fama this year. I think I've both colors this year, the blue and the white and then the

Black Knight Scabiosa is always really popular. I've actually eliminated some of the other colors

because they're not popular. If people go to gratitude-flowers.com, you do have a newsletter

mailing list sign up. So that's a good way for people to track what and when you're promoting

your collections and your sales. Well, welcome to the little farm at Olga Road, Kate. I really

appreciated your presentation. There was so much that you said that I also want to relate and a

little try not to repeat. Also, thank you, Deborah. I mean, you've got such a community and I

can't thank you enough for how much you bring us together because farming is an interesting

practice. It's really hard work and there's so many things that don't go well and having a

community and just listening to you, Kate, I was like, wow, yeah, been there. So it's really nice.

It's quite lovely and I really appreciate what you do. So we are the little farm on Olga Road. We

are out on Orcas Island, you know, about two hours north of Seattle, six miles away from Canada,

thankfully. And we're on three acres. We bought this property four years ago and what you're

looking at is a drone shot that my husband took. And I just want you to know when we got here,

there was nothing there. It was all along. It was all Balo Hayfield. So Alan and I were a little

nutty, very project oriented. I plant everything. Alan puts in all the infrastructure. He literally

builds everything fence, electrical plumbing, hoop houses, greenhouses. You name it. And then

we've had a couple community members adopt us. One who really helped us with our pond,

which we dug. And it was a nightmare. But we needed water. We needed to capture water. We also

dug a well, but obviously we didn't physically dig the well ourselves. But any who an excavator

guy adopted us and a pond guy adopted us. And it's just been, we've just been going gangbusters

ever since. So I'm Carol owner, grower have gardened all my life, come from a long lineage of

gardens. Garden is a passion for me. Gardening is a passion for me. I never thought I'd own a flower

farm. But Alan and I looked out over this Balo Hayfield and thought, well, we could do better than

that. Love perennials. I haven't met a perennial. I didn't love. But Alan and I also, the reality is

we own a software company. It's a small, little niche software company that we have grown

bootstraps from the very beginning. And with the advent of AI, I have to tell you, Alan and I are

learning everything we can possibly learn about AI and a little frightening this world. So

that's impacting how I am treating the farm going forward. So you'll hear me talk about that.

All right. So five ways we deliver island beauty. We are a tourist destination. So lots of

weddings. So I do a lot of wedding floral. But I will tell you, I really lean into DIY, come and

pick your flowers, make it accessible, drive down the price of these weddings, which are insane,

just went through one with my own daughter. And it's like for the love. So I really want to make

wedding floral, floral flowers accessible. The you pick opened our farm to you pick three years

ago and have never looked back. It has been such a positive experience. Also offer the nursery

plants. I'll tell you the evolution of that. And I do private workshops and we do events at the

farm. So we do like people will come and do their proposals here. It's very picturesque.

And then we rent the farm for like wedding welcome parties and small, small things. We're only

three acres. So these have to be small events. And then we have our farm stand and I do the

farmers market and then I sell online as well. So two audiences, one mission. This is a passion

project. Alan and I are very involved in the community. He runs, he's the president of the

Workers Aviation Association. So he runs all the mercy flights off the island. And then I

do at least five events a year where I provide all the flowers. So, you know, the old folk

tone, the animal shelter, you name it. If they're raising funds, I dive in with the flowers.

And we also use our farm as a model for other gardeners. So the garden club is

intimately involved with the work that we do. And then we have these visitors from all over the

world that come to the farm and they're looking for an experience and a place just to breathe,

a place just to come and go, oh my god. And then take a piece of that experience home with them.

They really have a strong desire to take a piece of that experience home. So whether it's a you pick

or picking up a bouquet, I do a lot of other crazy things, engage in a workshop or just chat with me

out on the farm. It's amazing. And I am exhausted by the end of the day because I just just talking all day

long. Okay, so year one, three years ago. So we've been on this property for four years. It was all

we dove in with some actually a couple permits culture guys to design the initial farm, not thinking

about doing a flower farm, got involved with the garden club, took the floor at course and never

looked back. I had never grown an annual in my life. I'm a perennial girl. So this was all a real

experiment for me. But Hammett Poppy starts, I don't know if any of you know her. She was like,

Carol's gadget Hort is going out of business. And you need to go pick up a bunch of their plugs.

So I did. And she's like, you need to start a nursery. And mainly because our local nursery,

a gal that had owned it before retired. And so we had no nursery on the island. So there was this

big vacuum that needed to be filled. So you can see that. That's my large hoop house down by the

street. And we started selling. I planted up plugs. I planted from seed. My garden club friends

jumped in and brought in all these unique vegetables and natives. And it was a hit. I mean, it was,

it was a raucous theme. So year two, the full service nursery opened back up in town. And I was

like, well, I'm not going to compete with that. So I stepped back from doing nursery stock. I

mean, I did easy things that I could grow like nestershems. I really focused in on florals. My

granules were getting established. I was getting better at growing annuals. And then I started

making this skin care line here on the farm that's tallow based. And started selling it at the

farmers market. The co-op picked it up. I saw it nationally. It's a sweet little line. And it

was a nice little way to fill that gap of not having the nursery plants. But I still had people

that said, Hey, I want to buy from you. I want to buy veg starts. I want to buy herb starts. I want

to buy some of the perennials, the specialty perennials that you're growing out there. Do you have any

snap dragons? So pivoting forward now to year three. So I am facing some challenges. And this

is where Kate really leaned into this. We have seven parking spaces. We do have the in-it ship

Bay across the street with loads of parking. So it's just getting people to not cluster right in

my parking lot and make sure I have really good signage so they go to the overflow.

County use restrictions. Oh boy, howdy. Kate, my god. You can't have a sign bigger than this.

You can't have people in your hoop house. At one point they told me I couldn't sell flowers in

my farm stamp. So I have been battling our county with, okay, there's obviously a lot of confusion

about what the codes are, but I am restricted to what I can sell in my farm stand. And I have to

grow or significantly change. For instance, I can't just go buy nursery plants and bring them

over wholesale and sell them retail. I have to grow them myself or, and I do have a nursery license,

or I have to go ahead and get their seedlings, alter them, you know, and grow them so that they're

three times bigger. And then I can sell them. So I've got some restrictions that I'm dealing with.

And Kate, you gave me the idea of that dedicated outdoor table and just put it under a tent.

I just call it a day. I mean, sometimes you just, you're just like, let's just move forward.

Labeling, my God, I hate labeling stuff. And then half the time I don't know what it is,

or what the price is. I'm like, no, just bear whatever you want to pay. So don't do that. Label,

price, everything. So commercial label systems for nurseries are really expensive. It's like a $5,000

expense that, at least the ones I was researching. So we have a laser printer.

I bought some plant tags. Alan and I are battling how to get them to print.

But we'll figure it out. All I can just say is label, label, label, price, price, price.

And time, we're running a whole other company. So I'm building a self-serve model. We tried it out

in October. We have a completely different clientele in October than we do in July.

But I just haven't had people do crazy stuff. I haven't had anybody take advantage.

I haven't had anybody steal anything. I'm just going to go for it and just stock and be out there

and have volunteers out there and do the best I can and forget the rest. We have Wi-Fi.

And so free guest Wi-Fi because if they're trying to pay my Venmo,

they need to get on the Wi-Fi. So we have free Wi-Fi. And we're installing all these bird

perches all over our farm that have QR codes on them so they can say, oh, what's growing here?

Is it offered in the farm stand or on my nursery tables? How do I grow that?

So I'm really leaning into this bird perch idea with QR codes on it so people can get

information out on the farm. We are, we have honor boxes. You would not believe how many people

donate to the farm and everything goes towards weeding. And I'm just like we pay a living wage

and everything goes towards weeding. Price tags on everything on the farm stand. I talked about that.

We really look at our farm as a demonstration farm. So one of the things I haven't talked about

yet is I've made an investment in Terranovas, um,

perennial plug offering for flowering perennials. And I'm doing a demonstration

field, um, an incredible selection of perennials. Just incredible. Like I'm so excited.

That's so cool. I mean, penstem and salveys, you name it. I mean, just really crazy flowering

perennials that will eventually evolve into my, a new type of cutting garden.

So, um, just to wrap it all up, I think one other point I haven't really talked about is fake

it till you make it. There's, um, I mean, I do grow a lot from seed, but Kate leaned on this too.

Lean into your community. There's people growing stuff on your community that don't have a way

to sell it. So invite them to bring their starts to you and, and mark them up and resell them. It's,

it's a win-win, um, lean into these plugs. Um, plugs are really interesting because you can get them

into four inch pots and you can, you can get them established. And then when you have that downtime

in July, when it is getting hot, there's loads of perennials that want to be planted in the fall.

In fact, that's the optimal time to plant. Plant them in the fall when they can get their root

game on. They got plenty of water and then they just take off early spring. So, um, fake it till you

make it. I think I haven't mentioned our garden to go boxes because I was looking at Kate's offerings

and people want to grab and go. So I have these, um, I found these drink container things. You can

just plug in your four inch pots and, um, and then that way they can, you know, choose their own

adventure, um, with the kinds of plants and put them in these little containers or take a collection

that I've put together. Garden to go. That's awesome for you. Hi, Fawn. Hey, Deborah, how are you?

I'm great. I'm so delighted you're here. You have so much that you're doing and you're kind of

juggling two farms. Yeah, I'd love to talk about it. First, I wanted to tell Carol and Kate,

they did such a great job. And I loved hearing about the beautiful businesses that they've,

they've grown and created and provided for their community. It's just really inspiring. So thank

you for that. Um, so I'm Fawn Rupert. I have my own farm that I started in 2017 called Sego

Lily Flower Farm. Um, that's our state flower here in Utah. I live in South Jordan and just have

a very small suburban farm. Um, it was larger at one point I leased land. Um, but back in 2019,

myself and a few other new growers started the Utah Cut Flower Farm Association. And, um,

having that little community has really helped what I've done since then. And at our very first,

welcome event, I met a hydroponic farmer down in Pleasant Grove, Utah. And she had this space next

to their farm shop. And that's what you see right now on the screen is that's their land. The first

year I think they had it. They, um, grew vegetable garden there. And, um, they were just looking for

something that was going to be a little bit easier to maintain. And maybe something unique. And so

she floated the idea of me teaching a season long course where we grew cut flowers. And so each

person has a row. They learn hands on. And of course, as part of this, we're growing the plugs for

the class. And, um, during that class, uh, one of the students, we had our night on seed starting.

We were starting seeds talking about it. And she said, this is really great. But where can I grow,

where can I go by cut flower plants? And this is back in 2020. I said, well, you know, sometimes you

can find the state fairs and you know, or you can find some rocket snap dragons at your local

nursery. But really, you can't find very much else. Um, so you need to learn how to start them.

And she said, well, I don't want to. Why don't you do it for me? And, um, I said, you know what?

That's a great idea. Um, snuck farm has their hydroponic greenhouse. And then they had what they

called the dirt house. And it's a 6,000 square foot greenhouse that they were using for crops like

radishes. And, and to be honest, they, it wasn't the most productive, um, or profitable crops.

You know, those root crops over the winter, there's only so many radishes that you can sell.

And so that night after the class, I floated it to page west over who's the owner of snuck farm.

And, um, said, you know, what do you think of this? What if we start more plugs when we're

starting plugs for the class? And, um, she was fully on board. And at the same time, I, as a flower

farmer was looking for a local producer of Lizzy Ampest plugs. And they had talked to maybe four or

five nurseries in my immediate area. And, um, kind of just got the brush off. They'd say, they just

didn't get what I was trying to do. You know, they're like, oh, it takes a long time to get them to

bloom. And I was like, no, I don't want them blooming when I pick them up. I need the starts.

And they're like, well, come back in November and we'll talk about it. But it was kind of just,

you know, they're busy. They didn't see the vision. And so we started, um, snuck flowers,

which grows for whole cell flower farmers. Um, and then retail backyard growers.

The, the picture on the one side is page and eye. I'm in the overalls. And then, um,

uh, the other one is our class from last year having our bouquet making night. They've harvested

flowers. I teach them how to wrap and make bouquets. It's really fun. And most of these people,

we've now had, um, about 120 people come through that class. And we have this great community of

people that come back and buy plugs out. So we've taught them how to grow them. And now they're

coming back and buying their plants from us. And, um, it's like my favorite thing is seeing these

people that I spend a summer with. And then they come back for the plant sales. We have two plant

sales. Um, and, uh, it's, it's just really, really fun. So those are kind of our backyard

growers. We create, collecturated collections for them that they can pre-order. Um, we do a

pre-ordered day, October 1st. And so we have six collections. They can actually, seven,

seven collections they can order. And you can see those on snuckfarm.com. Um, and then we have a

variety of just 72 cell trays that they can just buy in quantity for those backyard growers that

want one kind of liziantis. So we just have a handful of varieties that we offer in bulk for them.

And then on the same day, we open it up for our farmers for wholesale. And they have to submit a

TC721 form. It's tax, it's not taxed. Um, we're very careful about who orders those so that we're

making sure we're not breaking any laws or committing tax fraud or whatever, you know. So, um,

but it's really, it's really great to, um, be able to provide that service for farmers.

Um, I just got an email last night from a woman who has had to move her farm. She's got four

little kids. She had a baby last year, and she sent the sweetest note that said, thank you so much

for growing because I don't know that I'd be farming this year if you didn't provide plugs.

And so for me, even though I'm working like crazy hours this time of year, it just feels my cup to

know that I'm helping other, um, mostly women's, be honest, um, but other business, small businesses

succeed and have a, a way forward, um, when things get tough. Because farming is freaking hard,

right? Like, it's hard. So, um, those are kind of our two, the two things are backyard growers

really want to grow what the farmers are growing. And, um, they want to get the specialty

renunculus. And they want to see all the lousy anthus varieties. And, you know, um, I love,

I have this thought of like, it's like a candy store at these, um, plant cells. Like, they can come

and find all the fun little weird things that they've seen on social media or read about in books.

And, um, I just, I love being able to provide that for people. When we first started, we had, um,

um, they had for a long time, snuck farm sold, did a plant cell around the last frost, um,

that's around Mother's Day here in Utah. And so, um, they'd have veggies and some flowers and some

herbs and all kinds of things, um, around that date. So it was not a new thing for snuck farms to

be having a plant cell. But what I'd introduced was doing a, um, cool season plant cell. So it's

all the things. And we really, we, um, we have another farm that'll bring in some vegetables.

But in my greenhouse, if it's not a cut flower, it's really not in there. Like, people know we

would really specialize. People know if they're coming to us and I'm selling it and it's a cut flower,

or it's a flower, it's a cut flower. So there's lots of nurseries in the area and they can go get

their bedding plants, um, at those places. So, um, we had to really educate our community that you

could plant cool season flowers before that last frost date. And, um, we had, we've been doing the

plant cell, the early plant cell. I think for four years, this might be our fifth year. And after

one of them, we had a snowstorm and people lost their freaking lines. Like, they were just like,

you sold me these plants. I planted them. You said it was going to be okay. I was getting angry,

Instagram messages. And, um, you, I just like, I was like, it's going to be okay. It's like,

trust me, they're going to make it through. And, you know, I never heard back from the really

angry being ones like they, they never said, hey, I'm sorry, but they did live, you know. But I know

they did because mine did. And, um, so I think we have to educate our communities. But now we've

got this thriving community that it's so excited for the spring plant cell. It's now way bigger than

our warm season plant cell because it has those things like Kate was talking about the lousy

ant this and the vernacular and all those things that they can't get anywhere else. And, um, I

love perennials like Carol was saying, like, those cut flower perennials are just so fun. And when

you share that enthusiasm for them, people get excited. And, and people show up and bias out

every year. Um, the picture on with the hoops is my little farm. I think something that's very

relatable is that I'm just growing my farm in my backyard. And so lots of backyard growers can

relate to like, oh, fun doesn't have a huge acreage. It's just this little backyard that's very

productive. And I kind of test everything out. I, I don't sell things that don't do well here.

And so people can feel, um, confident that it's not like going to some of the big box stores and

they're selling things that really don't grow in your zone and they're going to die over the winter.

But, um, they can feel confident that we are only selling the things that really do well here in our

climate. And then, um, the greenhouse that's our 6,000 square foot dirt house, which is not

called the dirt house any longer. It's now the flower house. It's been recristened on

everything. So, um, we were having the biggest year we've ever had. And, uh, we grew 120,000

losing antists this year. And we're almost sick of them, which I would have never

thought before. But it's really great. So you can find me on Instagram at Segal Lili Flower Farm

and at Snuck Flowers. Um, and then those are the two websites that you can check out here. We have

a flower tab at Snuck Farm that kind of shows our offerings, um, for the backyard growers,

and then our wholesale. We kind of keep a little more closed off. But if anyone wants to reach out

and we, we grow a lot of things there, we want to make sure one of the things we really try to do

for the farmers too is meet their needs with having different pickup dates. So we have four pickup

dates so that these farmers can succession plant there. So we've got snap dragons and March and April

and Zinnia is in May and early June. And so that we're, you know, I was a flower farmer. So I want,

I thought, what do I want? And that's what I created. This, this is my mind is spinning. I just love

all that you're doing. And I'm going to bring Carol and Kate into the mix so that we can maybe do

a last minute Q&A here. There are some questions and how do you wrap the soil block seedlings?

Can you just address that again, Kate a little bit? Um, so I actually grow most of my stuff in soil

blocks and with that, um, different clientele, different people that come to my property. Most of them

perfectly fine. Let me just grab a plant, put it on a tray, you know, just like we would shop

at a nursery that has plants and pots. Um, newer growers don't necessarily want to get their

hands dirty. I'm always there to help. And oh, what would you like me to select for you? Which plant

do you want to pick? Um, when I go to markets, I have tried that and I'm finding night for most

of the markets except the cutting garden sale. Everyone was great grabbing plants, um, at the Seattle

growers sale coming up. Um, but other places I'm finding having them more pre-packaged, um,

are beneficial for the customers. They want to come in and be able to look at a quick collection

and it's already in a little box or a big box and be able to grab and go. So I do package differently

for different groups. Um, and I, I saw that Carol, Carol had, um, she talked about the drink

caddy. Is it sort of like a something that you'd get like four lattes in from Starbucks? That's

sort of thing. Yeah, from, um, you line. Uh, yeah, we were at a case of them and I opened it up and

I was like, gosh, I could totally put a garden to go stamp on this and a little farm and then they

could put their little four inch pots in there. I, you know, I've, I've struggled with this with

the plastic pots too. Um, but what I always say is if you bring back my, my four inch pots,

I will take them. Do not. And I am like, serious as I'll get out. Do not bring me other people's

pots because that's bringing disease and I can't process them. And I don't have time for that.

So I'm like, let help me help you. I'm happy to take them, but they've got to be mine. And I'll know

if they're mine. How about you, Faun? Do you have anything of, uh, you want to mention about

packaging? Are you talked about people pre-ordering when they pick up their pre-order? Is it on a

tray or how do I really, I wish we could do less plastic. We definitely recycle as much as we can

and reuse. Um, but it's like a standard 72, a 10 by 20 tray that they pick up and we do offer

the collections in that size. So it's really easy for us to like, here's your tray and, um, go. So

that's how we design them. But I wish we could do soil blocks. I think that's so awesome. Yeah,

I think at the volume you're doing, that might be kind of a challenge. I'm going to run through

some of these questions as I've been, uh, neglecting them. And maybe we have, we just have time

for each of you to address this, uh, talking about community and your customer base. Um, I think,

you know, it sounds like you're all wildly successful, but it didn't happen overnight,

because you had to find the customers. And I know that that's a challenge. So maybe we each can talk

about like one, one surprise of how you developed community. Maybe Carol, you start and then we'll go

to Fawn and then Kate. Um, we are uniquely located on a major road out to Moran State Park.

And all you have to do is swivel your head and you're like, holy cow, what is that?

I mean, I'm shocked that there haven't been reruns on our street. I can to test to that. It's

right in your face. Yeah. Yeah. So that just and everybody was watching in the community and

saying, oh, what's going on there? What's going on there? So when we opened, the community showed

up first because they were dying to know what was happening. Yeah. But then again, you know,

Alan and I are so inextricably linked to the community through mercy flights that people knew

us from that. But yeah, we're just strategically located. Okay. Fawn, how about you?

I think my work with the Utah Cut Flower Farm Association, you know, we had been working there

a couple of years kind of networking with other farmers really helped us kind of have

a first place to at least for our wholesale to say, hey, we're providing the service.

And that's been really great. And then the class kind of, it was just like a natural continuation,

like they were customers of this workshop. And then just, you know, come back every year for that.

And then they tell all their friends. And it just kind of has spread word of mouth more than

anything else. Sometimes we're like, stop telling people. There's only so much we can grow.

And Fawn, do you or Snuck Farms maintain that mailing list? And can people sign up for a

newsletter to get those announcements? So I have my own mailing list. And I write a lot of my

garden like thoughts like I did a Lizzy Antis trial. And a lot of that information is on my website.

Snuck Farm will mostly send out things like, hey, the plant sales coming up.

So it's kind of brief. Okay. Kate, how about you?

So I actually started a little bit different of really just starting as a nursery and trying

started with, you know, the social media. And it really was having a website set up

when I before I started anything. And as soon as people started seeing a couple posts and I was

really kidding on, you know, the cutting garden plants and Lizzy Antis, immediately people

signed up for my newsletter. And so that's how I created community. I have a kind of a

personal writing style that people started. Yeah, we became pen pals. And then as that has built,

you have the community, you know, that has come along with it for the opening mornings of the

sales and whatnot. So I'd say having a website is really important with the newsletter. And

social media can, you have some limitations there I've found, especially being quite small,

but that's a definite place to start connecting with customers. Okay, this is great. There's

so many other good questions. I think I'm going to try to synthesize a few for, I promise,

this is our last question. We want to honor the time. For those of you who are selling

cut flowers and our farmer florists and doing design in terms of bouquets or even wedding work,

do you find that selling cut flowers is cannibalizing or drawing away from that business or can they

co-exist and compliment each other? And if you want to go first and then we'll go to Carol and Kate.

Sure, I've had a couple, I do a bouquet subscription for a sake of a little leaf flower farm and I have

had a couple people that have taken the class and now are customers of the curated collections,

but no longer by bouquets from me, but it's like, you know, 3%. Then someone else is going to

fill that slot then probably. Yes, yeah. And you're just opening a whole new market. Like it's

these people that wouldn't necessarily be your bouquet subscribers to begin with because they're

just a little more frugal or they love gardening and they think, I can do that. So you're just

kind of monetizing the different group of people. That's great. That's great. Carol,

how about you? Because you're doing design and cut flowers and you pick and weddings and nursery

plants. So I make bouquets, I put them in the farm stand. There's a glut of people growing flowers

on and selling at the grocery stores and, you know, I just, I'm like, I don't need to compete in this

space. I'm selling an experience. People come and it is an experience of cutting on this on this

farm. And then I provide workspace for them to put their bouquets together. That's kind of unique.

And at farmer's market, rather than selling bouquets, I'm primarily there to sell my skin care.

I have buckets of stems and they'll go buy a bouquet from somebody else and go, yeah,

this could really use some of those. And they'll come over to me and they'll buy, you know,

three dollas, you know, to stick in their bouquet or I'll rip the bouquet apart and put it back

together. I love it. That's great. So that's my, my adapt. Okay. I also will say, check out the

skin care line. If you go to Carol's website, she's gifted me some of the wonderful,

wonderful products. And it's so nice to know it's 100% local, the Talos local from Orcas Island.

It's like, you can't get more local than that. So, okay. Kate, how about you? Because you do have

a subscription as well, don't you? I do. I have some customers that started on one side, maybe

bouquet and then the next year, oh, I want to try growing some of these things and bought curated

collections. And then the following year, they know exactly what they want. So they're shopping

off the tables directly. And I've had people the other direction as well. And I would say offering

both, you know, having the flowers as well as the plants that you obviously get overlap,

but then you also get people that you might bring in on one side that never would have

shopped with you otherwise. I love it. I wish we had more time. I want to thank

Fawn and Carol and Kate for just their incredible generosity. And the only reason this works is

when members are willing to share their expertise with other members. And I'm just grateful

for all of you. I wish you all have fantastic season to come. It's the season. And if you're

interested in getting involved in the ultimate cutting garden plant sale, which is here in Seattle,

on May 3rd, Kate is going to be vending. It'll be all the farmers at the Seattle growers market

will participate. And a few other slow flowers members are vending and there's still space. So

check that out. Reach out to me if you need more information. And

Kate, you said it was really successful for you last year. So I'm thrilled that you're coming

back. Gardeners want these flowers.

Thanks so much for joining me today. You'll want to watch the replay video of this session under

episode 761 at slowflowerspodcast.com or on our YouTube channel. The replay invites you to watch

and see all of the information slides that Fawn, Carol and Kate shared during their portion

of the meet-up session. Also, I'll share links to each woman's past appearance as a guest of

the Slow Flowers podcast and social links so you can sign up for newsletters and more information.

And heads up if you're in the Seattle area on Sunday, May 3rd. Please attend the ultimate

cutting garden plant sale produced in partnership with the Seattle growers market. As you heard,

Kate's skeleton of gratitude flowers will be back with her soil block of cutting garden collections

as well as annuals, perennials, tubers, seeds and possibly a few ornamental woody plant surprises

that are going to be on offer from dozens of the markets member growers and more slowflowers members.

This is a free event. Just bring your wagon and boxes to transport your purchases.

You can find more details and the sign up RSVP link in today's show notes. I hope to see you there.

Now let's share some more sponsor love. Thank you to Longfield Gardens,

which provides home gardeners with high quality flower bulbs and perennials.

Their online store offers plants for every region and every season, from tulips and daffodils,

to dollyas, coladiums and amorellis. Check out the full catalog at longfield-gardons.com.

And thank you to Rooted Farmers. Rooted farmers works exclusively with local growers

to put the highest quality specialty cut flowers in floral customers' hands. When you partner

with Rooted Farmers, you are investing in your community and you can expect a commitment to

excellence in return. Learn more at RootedFarmers.com. Thank you for joining me today.

This Lothar's podcast is a member supported endeavor. Downloaded more than 1.5 million times by

listeners like you. Thank you for listening, commenting and sharing. It means so much. As our movement

gains more supporters and more passionate participants who believe in the importance of our domestic

cut flower industry, the momentum is contagious. I know you feel it too. If you're new to our weekly

show or a long-running podcast, check out all of our resources at www.slothourssociety.com.

I'm Debra Prinsing, host and producer of the Slothours Show and the Slothours Podcast.

The Slothours Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brinland. The content and opinions

expressed here are either mine alone or those of my guests alone independent of any podcast sponsor

or other person company or organization. Next week, you're invited to join me in putting more

Slothours on the table, one stem, one vase at a time. Thanks so much for joining us today,

and I'll see you next week.