Episode 766: Adding a flower farm and floral shop to a retail nursery center with Delisa Hiel of Gardenwerks in Helena, Montana

https://youtu.be/ng5wllVlQyU Back in 2018, we included Retail Garden Centers Adding Floral Design Services as one of our trends to watch in the annual Slow Flowers Floral Insights and Industry Forecast. I noted the early wave of retail nurseries and garden centers opening or reviving in-house floral shops with a distinctly local emphasis.As it turns out, that’s the year that Delisa Hiel joined Gardenwerks, an established retail nursery and landscape design business in Helena, Montana, founded by her father-in-law Michael Hiel. Gardenwerks is truly a family affair, with Delisa’s husband Peter Hiel serving as designer and foreman on the landscape side of the business. Delisa dreamed up, installed and now manages Gardenwerks flower farm, essentially creating a sister business that extends the nursery brand and provides a new suite of plants and design services to the community. I recently connected with Delisa to discuss her approach to flower farming and floral design, as she shares a fantastic model that brings together horticulture and floriculture with intentionality. Scenes from gardenwerks flower farm with Delisa Hiel (c) Kelly Van Dye Photography The flower farm at Gardenwerks grows more than 100 fresh cut flower varieties one important facet of the long-established full-service nursery, landscape design-build business. From the months of March through September, under the management of head flower farmer Delisa Hiel, Gardenwerks offers unique, seasonal fresh flowers and produces artisanal, natural designs for weddings and special events in Helena and the surrounding area. In the off season, customers can find beautiful dried flowers and increasingly, season-extention offerings like winter-forced tulips. The dahlia field at sunriset at Helena, Montana-based gardenwerks I recently spoke with Delisa about her family’s nursery business, as we touch on the “symbiosis” that brings together flowers and plants in harmony. The economics of growing cut flower crops and raising cutting garden plants under the same roof as a landscape nursery seems obvious to me, but I always question why more garden centers are missing out on the market potential of flowers. I think it boils down to personnel. You can’t just throw a talented landscaper onto the flower farm setting and expect them to magically grow and design blooms that resonate with the floral marketplace. Luckily for Gardenwerks, which has served Helena for decades, Delisa Hiel joined the family and brought her horticulture, design, and floriculture expertise to the company. I’m excited to share her story with you today. More dahlias! For floral designs and market bouquets (c) Kelly Van Dye Photography It’s so inspiring to see how a nursery and garden center like Gardenwerks has included flower farming and floral design services in the mix – I wish more independent garden centers would recognize the potential of this model. Thanks to Delisa for sharing her story and perhaps stimulating more conversation around flower-growing as a revenue center in the green industry. Find and follow Gardenwerks Nursery and Gardenwerks Flower Farm on Instagram and Gardenwerks on Facebook. Thank you to our Sponsors This show is brought to you by slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 700 florists, 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. Thank you to our lead sponsor, Flowerbulb.eu and their U.S. 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 Slow Flowers to provide beautiful lily inspiration and farming resources to help growers and florists connect their customers with more lilies. Learn more at Flowerbulb.eu. Thank you to Charles Little & Company for supplying our industry with some of the most beautiful and sustainably-grown design ingredients, available nationwide through their website at charleslittleandcompany.com. Based in Eugene, Oregon, the farmers at Charles Little & Company have been growing and drying flowers since 1986. New products and dried flower collections are added to their website at the first of each month. Check it out at charleslittleandcompany.com. Thank you to My Patio Tree: Expertly Grown Plants, Perfectly Designed to Elevate Your Garden. This second-generation family tree farm has curated the best-performing, cutting-edge, multi-zone varieties to enhance your garden, patio or special event. Every tree purchased supports Plant With Purpose, a nonprofit organization that restores hope by reversing global poverty and environmental damage. Learn more at mypatiotree.com. Thank you for joining me today! The Slow Flowers 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 and our long-running Podcast, check out all of our resources at SlowFlowersSociety.com. Thank you for listening! Sending love, from my cutting garden to you! (c) Missy Palacol Photography I'm Debra Prinzing, host and producer of the Slow Flowers Show & Podcast. The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brenlan. 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 Slow Flowers on the table, one stem, one vase at a time. Thanks so much for joining us today and I'll see you next week! Music credits: Drone Pine; Gaena; Golden Grassby Blue Dot Sessionshttp://www.sessions.blue Lovelyby Tryad http://tryad.bandcamp.com/album/instrumentalshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ In The Fieldaudionautix.com