Year-Round Flower Production Strategy

Flowers fit naturally into a market farm or vegetable garden, and they're a lovely way to add income and stretch the season. For the most part they need the same care as vegetables: start them in the greenhouse like any transplanted vegetable or herb, then grow them outside in the same beds, in rotation with other crops, using much the same tools, fertility and irrigation.

Flowers attract bees and other pollinators that can boost yield and quality in your other crops, and they host beneficial insects that hunt vegetable pests. Their colors and scents draw people in too, pulling customers to your market stand and adding value to CSA shares. Hensley's carries a wide range of flowers that are easy to grow from seed, with options for every season.

Spring

In spring, sell bedding plants, from perennial favorites like petunias to less common choices such as Gem marigolds, phlox, and compact zinnias. Put together themed groupings with bright signs explaining the idea. Have fun and teach a little: an Old-Fashioned Garden of heirlooms like hollyhocks and sweet peas; a Butterfly Stopover of plants that feed migrating monarchs, like asclepias, tithonia, and zinnia; an Edible Garnish collection of calendula and viola. Don't forget customers short on time or space for planting. Offer ready-made patio and deck gardens that combine flowers, herbs and even vegetables in big containers.

For more, see our article on succession planting flowers.

Summer

In summer, sell cut flowers at farmers' markets and farm stands, and to grocers and florists. Many CSAs offer bouquet shares or a few beds where members cut their own flowers at pickup. If you're new to flowers, start with easy crops like sunflowers and zinnias, which you can sow with a push seeder and mostly just weed and water until harvest. Add easy fillers such as cinnamon basil, statice, and celosia, and you'll have striking summer bouquets.

For more, see our article on making better market bouquets.

Fall

Fall is a chance to sell flowers alongside pumpkins and gourds. Sunflowers, grasses and grains look like autumn and sell well from September on. Wreaths of broom corn, sweet Annie, or ornamental peppers are simple to make and can be sold fresh or weeks later once dry. Dried arrangements are popular again for fall décor, and customers see them as a good value since they last for months.

For more, see our guide to drying flowers.

Winter

You can also stretch the fresh-flower season with late-summer hoophouse plantings. For instance, sow a last crop of a day-neutral sunflower such as 'Sunbright Supreme'by about September 1 for flowers from late October into late November. Plant flowers that need a cold spell, like sweet William and larkspur, in fall for early spring blooms.

For more, see our resource page on overwintering flowers: stretching the season with cold-hardy annuals.