I no longer grow what I love I grow what sells week-after-week with the least amount of fanfare. I have simplified my business model to better enjoy this journey of farming. Lisa, after nearly two decades as a flower farmer, can you summarize your philosophy?
The hardiest and the last to bloom, she notes, are the 'Rocket' snapdragons. The first snaps to bloom, in April in Lisa's Zone 7 garden, are those in the tall, sturdy 'Chantilly' Series. I recently conducted this Q&A to learn more from this successful SlowFlowers member. And for flower farmers, that means you can bring beautiful flowers to market (and thereby generate income) just as early.Īny time of year is a good time to start planning your "cool flowers," Lisa says.
As Lisa points out, once their needs are met, this diverse, easy-to-grow group of flowers will bloom weeks earlier than typical spring-planted annuals. Lisa turned one of her favorite lecture topics - planting hardy annual flowers in the fall - into a book titled Cool Flowers, and has also published Vegetables Love Flowers, which is all about creating harmony between cut-flower gardens and organic vegetable gardens.Ĭool Flowers explains how and when to plant hardy annuals successfully, either in fall or very early spring. Her lectures have reached from Texas to New York City - far beyond anywhere she ever imagined. Lisa spends much of her off-the-farm time teaching others about organic gardening and growing cut flowers. She sells to upscale florists in both her town and nearby Williamsburg, and direct-to-consumers with a members-only Garden Share program for about 120 subscribers. She farms intensively and organically on about 1½ cultivated acres of open field, producing 10,000 to 15,000 stems a week in season (mid-April to mid-November). ”Īt The Gardener's Workshop, an urban farm in Newport News, Virginia, Lisa Mason Ziegler has grown cut flowers since 1998.
“ Hardy annuals naturally develop and grow into strong plants when they have opportunity to do it during cool conditions.
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