anyone growing flowers for market?

One of my 5 goals is to sell something at our tiny farmers' market this summer, as a practice run for when we have our fruit products. We have a "real" farmer who brings in veg and goat cheese; he started the market and I'm not going to compete with him. But no one sells flowers. I'm going to try it. Annuals, but if it works, it would be pretty easy to add things like echinacea, lilies, etc to the mainframe project. And our market is small, mostly weekend homeowners and retirees, so it's more of having a presence until the fruit comes in and it's not a huge investment to try it. Worst case scenario is that I get to hang out with my neighbors for a couple hours a week and fill my house with cut flowers.

Anyone done this? Tips?

I sold flowers at our small farmer's market and they did well...I made really small bouquets of marigolds, zinnias, echinacea, wild flowers, anise hysspo, small sunflowers...things I was growing anyway. At first I did it just to add something pretty to my table at the market. I found that buying really inexpensive small glasses and bottles at the thrift store worked well and helped sales...folks liked having them ready to go. I was surprised, because I thought my flowers were very 'common' and everyone grows them

Great idea on the containers! I need to check on my anise hyssop seedlings. I love that plant

It really depends on your market; if people have money for flowers they will buy them... We used to do a very large market in a wealthy university town and there were 4 or 5 large flower sellers that seemed to do brisk business. Compare that to our local market in a small, economically depressed, town; we tried to sell flowers but people were much more interested in bargain hunting for cucumbers and tomatoes. We would inevitably end up cutting the price by half or 3/4 and still taking them home with us. You just have to know your market I guess...

All that said, you don't have too much to lose. Flowers are pretty easy to grow and beautiful to see in the garden, even if no one is buying them. Plus you generally don't have the extra labor in cleaning and packaging as much as say, lettuce or the like.

One way of preserving a flower crops is drying the petals for confetti. People mail order petals for weddings and the like - great. Use for petals from blemished flowers, especially roses.

We dried our own for our wedding.

A few veggie vendors sell country bouquets at the local markets, and long-stem sunflowers. These aren't their main money makers, but they do add a good bit of cheer to the stalls until pumpkins come into season.

Their prices are low ($3-4), and the bouquets are full of classic and bizarre flowers. They're usually displayed in old canning jars, and I'm sure they'd sell the jar for an extra dollar or so. It's a simple, easy filler -- but I don't think a seller focusing on flowers would do well in the Mid-Michigan markets I frequent.

Good luck!

Ann Torrence wrote:One of my 5 goals is to sell something at our tiny farmers' market this summer, as a practice run for when we have our fruit products. We have a "real" farmer who brings in veg and goat cheese; he started the market and I'm not going to compete with him. But no one sells flowers. I'm going to try it. Annuals, but if it works, it would be pretty easy to add things like echinacea, lilies, etc to the mainframe project. And our market is small, mostly weekend homeowners and retirees, so it's more of having a presence until the fruit comes in and it's not a huge investment to try it. Worst case scenario is that I get to hang out with my neighbors for a couple hours a week and fill my house with cut flowers.

Had anyone done this? Tips?

did you end up selling something at the local farmers market?

if it didnt work think about this

this is left the field. I've started growing flowers like food base flowers and using them in salads and bouquets.  I sell the high-quality pictures of them on things on istock. it's not a huge money spinner but it's decent pocket change. If i was better at making bouquets I'd proudly do better. I've seen people show them off on Instagram that are super nice. think about combing the two. I've recently been looking into selling them local area only same day mail through the internet. to places like small biz so forth. or possibly setting up an arrangement to deliver them to restaurants regularly or small hotels or B&B's . I havent figured it all out only the istock part which has paid but you might want to think outside the box a bit more you might get suprise. it may not be a stall it might be something even better.

I am helping Teleflora flowers to market it's product on this holiday season all product with %40 discount. Order with us now.  alicia_lunsford@usa.com

Following!!
 We live in high desert 10,000 feet Colorado with a variable tourist summer, so I've kept flowers in jars at the local art shop.
 Local lilacs in season did well, sunflowers, and thistles .
I keep caraway which comes up early and flowers for weeks, hardy and dependable.  It's greens look pretty in a vase.
I've also discovered safflowers which flower for a long time, and I love Artemisia.  Sweet peas, but I do warn visitors with kids and pets to be careful.
 Each of these has talking points that intrigue visitors. Pineapple weed was very popular last summer!  I kept dried pieces in sachet which also was popular.
 My winter garden currently has as many flowering plants as I could find, hoping to give some to local bees which awaken just before Aspen katkins.  The beekeeper feeds them and they have their own honey, but I think flowers would really be welcome to the bees...
 So that's flax, chicory, safflowers, nicotiana, clover, courgettes

Our local flower shop doesn't look like more florists.

I like your list of flowers that you are growing.

Firewheel aka blanket flower is the one that makes our local flower shop stand out ...

We have a very dependable local flower greenhouse also.  They prefer to sell living plants, so I'm glad not to compete against their market share, except I do make money!!!
Artemisia does like to be sold as a whole plant...
 I'm looking up blanket flower RIGHT NOW!!!💚💚🌿
Mostly I want my winter garden to give local bees some flowers before Aspen catkins.
 One time years ago, I was hired to host bed/breakfast lodgings for 6 weeks in a summer horse racing season.
I got a guest driver to help me forage wildflowers
(Honeysuckle made a big splash), then I paid for greenhouse florals and made huge table arrangements for outdoor cocktails and occasional big barbecue or picnic parties.
 That was so successful, it's why I still love to mix foraged flowers with food garden flowers and florist items
  PHOTOS of these types of efforts can get you after market sales long after market day is over
 My second goal is to be succession planting, towards that after market sales niche
 Have you ever dried flowers for framing in picture frames?
Market shoppers might like those too

Thank you for having this topic!!  I love this topic!

Anne Miller wrote:Our local flower shop doesn't look like more florists.

I like your list of flowers that you are growing.

Firewheel aka blanket flower is the one that makes our local flower shop stand out ...

I didn't realize it's 3-4 AM!!!
RESONANCE🏵️
I'm not the only early bird in this group lol

The forum has several early birds.

Time change usually wrecks havoc with my internal clock....

Since we have folks from all over the world, the forum stay going at almost any hour.

For the folks in the Rockies, 10 am my times is when they are drinking their coffee.