Hello again, and welcome back to the Slow Flowers Podcast with Deborah Printing.
This is episode 577.
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 Slow flowers.com,
the free online directory to more than 850 floors,
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, Farm Grow Flowers.
Farm Grow Flowers delivers iconic burla wrap bouquets and lush abundant
arrangements to customers across the US supporting US Flower Farms
by purchasing more than $10 million of us grown fresh and seasonal
flowers and foliage annually. Discover more@farmrowflowers.com.
Our first sponsor, Thanks,
goes to store at Cold creators of the Revolutionary Cool bot,
a popular solution for Flower Farmers Studio Flos and Farmer
Flos.
You can save thousands when you build your own walking cooler with the cool bot
and an air conditioner. Don't have time to build your own.
They also have turnkey units available.
You can learn more@storeitcold.com.
While you're in for a real treat,
today with my conversation featuring Janet Kraka of Backyard
Blooms based in Trumbull, Connecticut. In August,
Janet and I participated in a webinar hosted by New York's Madison Square
Park conservancies horticultural lecture series.
It was all about the Soul Flowers movement,
and it was really fun to share the screen with the Soul Flowers member who is
walking the talk in her practices as a small scale farmer florist.
Through that experience,
I became fascinated with Janet's personal story of pivoting to a second career.
After working in the graphic design field,
she recorded a special video tour of Backyard Blooms backyard in
Connecticut, where she mostly grows annuals and dahlias in raised beds.
You can watch that video by logging onto today's show notes for episode
577,
and you'll see the video tour and more photos of Janice Flowers and
farm@slowflowerspodcast.com. For episode 577,
it's really impressive to see the scale of what she has built with the land
available to her backyard Blooms grows and sells custom bouquets,
flower subscriptions, and DIY buckets direct to consumers,
as well as maintaining a presence at the popular Trumbull Farmer's Market.
They offer wholesale flowers to Floris through the Connecticut Flower
Collective. Today's conversation focuses on backyard bloom services,
customer base, and regional market. As Janet writes on her website,
what started as a love of nature and gardening has blossomed into our small but
mighty family farm,
where we are committed to growing flowers sustainably and organically.
Our blooms are local,
unique and grown with great care for Floris designers and anyone who delights
in the beauty of flowers. I love that sentiment.
Let's jump right in and meet Janet Kraka of Backyard Blooms.
I'll share all her social places in our show notes.
Hi everybody. This is part two of our, uh,
feature about Backyard Blooms,
and I'm so excited to welcome Janet Kraka.
You just saw her in this wonderful video tour that she created for us.
And now we're gonna talk a little bit about your business. Janet. Hi.
It is great to have you here. And, um, by way of background,
I should just mention when you first joined SL Flowers, I was like,
I know where Trum Connecticut is,
because I went to kindergarten and troubled Connecticut, which is, uh,
so in my mind you're in the house. I grew up in.
. Yeah. At least the town.
Yeah. Yeah. We were only there until, I don't know,
a year and a half until we moved to Southern California.
So it is a distant memory, but it's,
it's really wonderful to kind of know where you are. Um,
you talked about your size of your growing area,
you talked about the zone you're in. Um, but I,
I wanna just ask you about your business and kind of your path. Um,
and I will just say we, uh,
both participated in a webinar that took place on
August 18th with the, um, uh,
Madison Square Park Gardens in New York and for their
online horticulture program.
I think by the time this episode Air Janet will be able to get the replay video
and share that with people too.
Oh, good. Okay. Which.
Was really fun. I thought it was. Yeah.
It was, it was.
It was a great, I mean, it was virtual, but it was, I think it,
we got our point across.
Yes. Yeah.
Well, I was, So we've seen your fabulous backyard. You know what,
you've talked about it being a 2,500 square feet,
and then you mentioned that you think that's like less than a eighth of an acre,
but it feels,
it feels large to me when I see you standing next to rows of flowers that are
taller than you, it feels very abundant.
Yes, it does. I had the same impression.
I went back and looked at some photos from when we first started, and I thought,
Oh, look how little we were when we were just four rows . And then,
you know, the next year we added another four, and then we added another four,
then we added a couple more. And so yeah, when I'm back there, when I,
first of all, when I saw that photo, when we were just four rows,
I said to my husband, Oh, remember when we had a lawn ?
Completely.
Gone now. So it does feel that way to me when I'm out there. I, I'm,
I'm short, I'm only five foot one,
but a lot of the flowers are taller than I am. Right. So that's part of it too.
I feel like I'm in a jungle when I'm there.
But I love it. Uh, it's like your secret garden. Yeah. Um, so when you did,
uh, mention that you've got these ra rows and they are kind of like raised beds,
I thought maybe you should talk a little bit about how you had to choose to grow
in that method because of the type of soil you have.
Yes. So originally we had a little vegetable garden,
and that was even with the, that was ground level,
and that's where we started our farm.
What we didn't realize that the time was that that was really the only spot in
the yard where there wasn't rock ledge, which is very common to Connecticut.
Okay. Connecticut is covered with, with rock ledge, and we live on a hill.
We're at the top of the hill, so I think we're even more prone to it there.
So we had that original bed,
and then the next year we wanted to add four more rows,
and my husband dug down and about six inches in he hit rock.
And then he tried another spot, you know, all over this area,
and he just kept hitting rock. And, and I said, Now what do we do? Right.
You know, you can't grow.
You were all ready to expand your flower operation.
. Yeah, we were. And so he said, Well, we're gonna have to build up.
So the raise beds were done out of necessity.
I think it makes things a little more complicated.
We've gotta get the drip irrigation up and over the ledge.
It makes the caterpillar tunnels that we use a little more complicated to steak.
So it's definitely fussier, but it's just, you know,
you do what you have to do to make something work. Mm-hmm. ,
and I'm just thankful we could do that.
So he put in four rows via a raised bed.
The expense was, now we had to fill that with dirt, so that was Right. You know,
a bit of an expense. And, um, but, but that worked okay.
And then when we wanted to add another four, we then it was like, Oh, boy,
are we gonna hit ledge again? And we did. So then the next four that came,
we had to do a raise bed again. So.
Wow. So what's the material? Is it, are they timbers or, uh, brick? What do you,
what is the kind of contain the, the, the border of the raised bat?
I believe they're, I wanna say two by eight boards. Mm-hmm. . Okay.
I'm not positive on that. Yeah. But that's what I, I think it is.
And he did in some of them, because we have a, a slight slope in the yard,
he had to use two stacked on top of each other, knee them together. Yeah.
So it's a little deeper than eight inches in some spots.
But in a perfect world, you're trying to get your, your mostly your annuals to,
and your obviously dolia tubers to get what, like 12 inches of root space, or.
At least, Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. At least. That's great. Well,
you mentioned that you use organic methods and, um,
I can imagine where you're constantly just trying to add compost every year
after maybe after you've removed at the end of the season,
removed everything to build that back up,
because you can't keep buying top soil.
Exactly. Yeah. Yes. So we have that,
that fill that we purchased as a base,
but we do have a very large compost pile. And so we work that over every year,
and then we add that to the beds, do the soil tests each year,
and then amend accordingly because the soil in those beds is changing a lot from
year to year.
Yeah. Yeah. Well,
I just wanted to mention that because that's a hardship and you found a way
around it because you're resilient and you're inventive . Um,
but, uh, backyard blooms is what it is. You're in your backyard,
you live on your farm, um, but as you said, it's suburbans,
so there's traffic and, you know, neighbors and all. Um,
can you talk a little bit about the channels of business that you're,
you're bringing your flowers to market and who your customers are?
Yeah, so we have several outlets.
I sell wholesale through the Connecticut Flower Collective, which has been, uh,
a wonderful option. I sell retail.
There's a very cute little gift shop in Trumbull called Pure Poetry,
and she allows me to bring my bouquets there and sell on consignment,
which is lovely. And we sell subscriptions.
So I do a csa, um, I do DIY buckets,
buckets of blooms on my website,
and I do flowers on bouquets on demand.
So I am a farmer florist. Mm-hmm. ,
and I do the Trumble Farmer's Market. The farmer's market,
I realized was a necessity. That was kind of a last minute add on.
So I started with the csa my very first year. I did a tool up subscription.
And so I, I wanted to start very small, um,
didn't have a ton of bulbs, so I was just gonna offer 10 subscriptions,
and I filled the 10, but it was primarily my friends and family. Yeah.
Which was,
So you kind of just put the word out that I'm gonna do this next spring.
Do you wanna get in on it?
Yes, that's exactly, that's great.
And so it was lovely that they were so supportive of what I was doing,
but I realized right away, this isn't sustainable.
I can't have my friends and family be my subscribers every year, . So,
you know, I realized, I said to, to Pete, my husband, I said, um,
I don't think the community really knows we're here.
So we really need to do a farmer's market so that we're in,
those are our people. These are people that appreciate locally grown.
That's why they're there. They're obviously in the area.
So we entered into that, and we were in our second,
just our second year doing the farmer's market. Mm-hmm. .
But that's been tremendous for networking with people in the community.
And I feel like we're finally establishing that base of people who,
who know we're there and come back repeatedly, which is wonderful.
At the, And you said it's a Thursday Farmer's Market, is it like a afternoon,
early evening?
It, it's four to 7:00 PM They have live music and, um,
they have like a craft station for kids.
There's a ton of families that come out that's really fun to see,
and they try to break, um, change it up every week.
So they'll do little scavenger hunts for the kids to,
to promote that for families.
And so I love that little kids will come to the booth with their parents and
they'll ask us questions, and sometimes they can,
they don't even understand the question. , there's like.
A, it's on the scavenger hunts page or whatever. Yeah.
There's like a five year old who said,
wanted to ask how many varieties do you grow?
And they couldn't even say the word variety, you know, it was just adorable.
And so, but that was fun for me. So I said, Do you know what a variety is?
And he just shook his head, no. You know,
it's like little deer in the headlights. And so I was able to pick up,
I sell some flowers loose by the stem, so I was able to pick up a few.
And I say, You know, can you see how these are different? And he nod, you know,
he nodded. And I said, Well, that's what different varieties mean.
They're different types of flowers. And so it's just, it's a lot of fun.
So you really get the interaction there. They do,
they do a nice job at the Trumble market.
From that, um, point in the week, um,
you've probably already supplied the
wholesale flowers to the Con Connecticut Flower Collective, which are your,
your longer stems and maybe your higher value flowers. Do you, Yes. Um,
do you find that the farmer's market kind of is a way to just move product that
you would otherwise just not, not cut, or, you know, you toss?
Absolutely.
That's been such a benefit that came out of it that I wasn't anticipating.
Our Connecticut Flower Collective Prime Market Day is Wednesday,
although they have expanded this year and have some offerings on Thursday and
Friday as well. But for me, because of the, the farmer's market,
I can't participate in the Flower Collective on Thursday, but it works out fine.
I bring all my product on Wednesday. And, um, and then as you said,
those are my prime flowers. And, you know,
the other blooms that I'm using for the farmer's market, they're beautiful,
but they're just shorter, so they're not meeting that wholesale standard.
Mm-hmm. But I'm putting together mason jar ques,
and so actually something that's very long that I would sell wholesale doesn't
work as well for the me jar. So yeah,
it's definitely a way for me to use all of those other stems that I can't sell
wholesale. Um, so that's been a real benefit.
Well, like you mentioned in the video, you,
the snaps that are kind of on their third or fourth cutting that are short.
Yeah. I'm picturing that those are going into your mason jar arrangements.
Yes, exactly. Yeah, they are. That's really neat. Yeah, They're the,
they're the gift that keeps on giving. They'll Snap Dragons. They're,
they're wonderful .
So the, um, you mentioned that you, uh, have the,
the subscription program and the BU by the Bucket that's really more retail,
direct to consumer than, um, that probably is, is even,
uh, more profitable than a farmer's market, uh, right. Operation, Right?
Yes.
And how much, how, like in terms of slicing up the pie, how much would that, um,
represent?
Um, you know, I only have last year's a basis mm-hmm. , so I'm, um,
that's when I was really involved in all of those markets. So I'm trying to,
I would say,
I would say that the wholesale might be the
largest,
although the DIY buckets of Blooms would be close to that, and really.
Wow.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They've been very popular.
I think it's because a lot of the larger farms in Connecticut
are pulling back a little bit on their DIY buckets. Mm-hmm. ,
I think that with Covid, people were a lot more adventurous into do it yourself.
So it, it surprised me with its popularity. In fact,
the first year that we did it, , this is true Confessions.
It wasn't one of my business models,
but someone just saw my website and contacted me and said,
Do you do buckets of flowers? And I said, Sure. .
You say yes to everything at that point. Right.
Exactly. And so this is part of what I love about the Flower Collective.
I went there and talked to other farmers and was like, Help.
I said yes to something. I, I don't have any idea what to charge, how many,
you know, blooms do you put in a bucket?
So it's just such a wonderful network of people that are part of that
collective. So they kind of walked me through it. And so in that first year,
last year, it really was, it wasn't part of my website,
so it was just people that, that just asked the question randomly.
And I had not as much last year because of that,
but still just finding me, searching me out that way. I'd say I did maybe six.
Yeah. You know, which, which wasn't bad,
But then I realized right away that I really loved doing that.
So I made it part of my website.
I have a whole FAQ sheet describing it. And so this year, I mean, I,
I'm doing several buckets a week almost.
Wow. And are they people who wanna have just fun with flowers,
or are they throwing dinner parties,
or are they trying to do a DIY wedding or all of the above?
It's all of the above. Um, yeah, I, I mean,
some of the stories have surprised me.
I had one woman who told me she was traveling with the flowers,
and I made the mistake of assuming that she was traveling,
you know, locally, it was for a dinner party. I knew that.
And then I had all of her flowers collected,
and I think it was the night before I was delivering them,
she sent me an email and she said, um,
So do you have any recommendations for how to help these survive a,
a plane trip to Europe?
Oh my goodness, .
Wow. Okay. That, you know,
so that informs me next time I shouldn't make any assumptions on where people
are traveling with them. So that, that's crazy experience for me,
because if I had known that,
that would've informed different choices I would've made for what I was giving
there. Something that I know is a lot more durable. Uh, Yeah. So our flowers.
Straw flour or something like that. Yeah.
Exactly. Um, so our flowers went to Croatia ,
that's where she was traveling to from Connecticut.
Uh, what a compliment.
I wanted to also just try to picture where you are in relationship to the
Connecticut Flower Collective. Where is that? And like how, how many,
What's the radius of people who sell there and buy there?
Yeah, I know that we have a farm,
a rather large farm in Massachusetts that contributes.
But yeah, you've, you're sort of centrally located in the northeast that way.
Yes. They've tried to pick a location that's right in the middle of the state,
which of course is smart for all of the surrounding states. So, I mean,
that's the advantage of Connecticut is so small that if you travel in any
direction for an hour, you're in another state. ,
it's about a 40 minute drive for me.
But there are other growers like myself down in this area. So we carpool.
So I, wow. I connect with others. There's, you know,
Apple berry farm in Newtown, there's quality DAFs, the Spring Bunch in,
in Shelton. These are all surrounding communities. And, um, so we will,
we will car, we will carpool, you know, we'll text each other.
I need to go this week. Are you? I can take your flowers. You know,
that sort of thing.
Oh, wow. That's what.
But the other advantage of the collective, a lot of times,
even if someone else is driving that week, sometimes I'll make the trip anyway,
because sometimes I'm there as a buyer, not just as a seller.
And that's such an advantage to be part of a collective as a small grower.
If I have a week where I'm doing four DIY buckets, the farmer's market,
I have wholesale orders, et cetera.
Sometimes I don't have enough subscriptions as well to,
I, I get a little nervous about it. Yeah. To, to meet all those needs.
So sometimes I'll come in and I'll shop the floor myself.
And I always tell people that like with their buckets, that I,
sometimes I'll acquire blooms from other growers. I'm always upfront about it.
Um, but there are other local growers like myself,
and no one seems to have an issue with that.
And they'd rather have the abundance of blooms than,
than get it strictly just from my farm.
Yeah. I love it. And part, part of the education too, I remember when I had, uh,
some folks from the, uh, Connecticut Flower Collective on the podcast last year.
In fact, I'll find that link and share that episode when, when we post yours.
Um, that was one of the comments that I heard is like, your, your others,
each other's best customers. You do, Yes. You're, you're, hopefully you're,
you're selling more than you're spending. But some,
some weeks is probably a good, a good way to, to,
to justify, uh, the trip up there is that you're selling and, um,
also saving yourself another trip to, to go buy. Um,
Exactly. The reason you're buying also is because you're doing some, some,
uh, wedding designs or some custom orders for.
Exactly. For clients.
Right?
Yes. And those are really on demand. So I'm not anticipating it.
So when I've already committed to some DIY buckets,
and of course the farmer's market is an ongoing commitment,
and someone's already had a pre-order for through the collective. I,
I can't always anticipate. Some weeks I'll have bouquet requests.
Some weeks I don't. But inevitably, when I have the most going on,
then someone will contact me and say, I need five centerpiece for a shower.
Can you help? And I, you know,
my theory is if I can manage the time to do it, I'd rather,
I'd rather supplement with other blooms and make this happen. Because, you know,
something like a shower, other people see them. It's a good networking practice.
Absolutely.
Yeah. So I think it pays off. That's great. What I have done is gone,
like last year, I went through and organized, I,
the way I keep track of everything.
I keep track of my Connecticut Flower Collective purchases,
and I was able to look at how many flowers I, what, what did I buy the most of.
And I saw that I bought a lot of forget me nots. I needed,
I was lacking in fillers.
And so that helped inform my choices then for the next year.
That was one reason that I did the forget me nots in my garden this year,
was because I saw, Oh, I, I bought a lot of those. Why don't I grow them?
You know? So.
That's amazing. And that blue is just so hard to come by that Oh,
you now have this blue option for people.
Yeah. And I love.
It. That's a really good way to do research. I,
I appreciated what you said about constantly as,
as you know, you're still in your, you know, you're still young.
You said in our webinar that a new our young farmer or a new farmer is
anyone who's less than five years in, which I hadn't heard,
but that makes sense. Um,
so you're kind of doing this evaluation in real time about what
crops are winners and then what you can let go of and maybe replace next
year. Exactly. You probably have a lot more evaluation to do.
Yes, I do. Yes. In fact, the first year of growing, I, I had said to Pete,
I have so much that I don't have enough.
And what I meant by that was I had tried so many different varieties,
but I only had like, maybe 20 of these and 20 of these.
And so I realized that I have to be very careful with my
experimentation. I need to keep trialing new things.
Cause I wanna find those flowers that really work the best for us with
our soil, our conditions, our time.
And I'm gonna learn that by experimenting with new things every year. But I,
I have to still have a bulk of things that I know that I can rely on.
And so that was a lesson that I learned early on.
It's hard. It's, I think it's really hard, and I've watched that arc of, of,
um, kind of becoming more disciplined, the more seasoned Yes.
Grower is to the point where, you know,
you might have to kill some of your darlings because they're not profitable.
And yes, this isn't a hobby.
Yes, that's true. It is so hard for me to be ruthless. I have to say.
That's one of the toughest things. But you have to be ruthless, lovingly mm-hmm.
, you know mm-hmm. . And so last year I tried pansies.
There's varieties that,
that grow long and that are beautiful for cut flour production.
But I didn't realize when I grew them was that they really needed to be started
in the fall. If you wanna have that length. I started mine in very early spring,
so I was hopeful that they would do okay because they're very cold tolerant.
Right. Um, but they were coming up, they were, you know,
like just these teeny little things. And so for a while, I, I just,
they were beautiful, but they were so short and I thought,
I have to pull these out. It just, it kills me. .
So for a while I tried just cutting the, the,
the flower heads and selling just that, you know,
because they're often used for cake decorating and that.
Sort of.
Thing. And some people do sell them that way at the collective.
You can get them just in a little plastic container,
and it's just the flower heads. Um, but I knew really, I,
I tried . Yeah. I tried, but eventually we yanked them out,
and then I can put sunflowers in there because I can plant those later in the
season. They're still gonna spring up. And that's what I ended up doing.
And the sunflowers were quite profitable in September, so it was all good.
But yes, especially on a small farm,
you can't have wasted space. Mm-hmm. , you've gotta maximize it.
So, Janet, do you, have you, you showed us that lithe and Dahlia beds,
which are the newer beds. Do you still have further, um,
lawn that you can dig up and, and, and expand?
Or are you kind of at capacity now?
Well, barely. So we're gonna had two more.
Don't tell my husband.
, he won't hear this. He.
Won't, he won't watch this.
Yeah.
Right. Um, so where we had the lthe planted and the new Dahlia bed,
they, they go, there are a different orientation than the other beds are.
So the, the, we have 12 that are what I call vertical rose,
and that's just their orientation to the house. Mm-hmm. .
Then we added two more that are horizontal,
So those horizontal beds we can extend out a little further.
Okay. That's what you're talking about then in.
The, in the video. And so I'm gonna add to those horizontal beds.
So they're 25 feet.
I'll have a little gap in between and be able to do another 2 25 foot rows.
And then we have pretty much officially used every square
inch that we have.
. Well, can you talk a little bit about what you alluded to in our, um,
in the webinar about planning to, uh, find land elsewhere for,
I'm assuming that would be like an annex farm, right? Or Yes. Would it be,
would you move everything?
Well, I'm not sure exactly how we'll make this work logistically.
Ideally, in time, I do want to live where I farm.
I don't wanna be commuting to a farm every day. Yeah.
So I'm not sure how it will work,
but what we're doing right now is just looking for land and it will just be an
annex mm-hmm. . And then the hope is that over time,
once we get that built up, that we could, if there's, um,
that we could possibly build a home on that property mm-hmm.
sell our own home and move and, and use that to,
to build on the land, we'd be displaced for a little while.
So I'm not sure again, how that's all gonna work out. Um,
we've thought about leasing land, maybe just in the meantime,
just leasing something and then when we're ready to move,
then just move to a house that has a couple of
acres on it.
The problem with that is that if I were to lease for a couple of years and
putting all this blood, sweat, and tears into land that, you know,
I'm not going to for very long. Yeah.
Yeah. I understand that.
Yeah. So it, it's interesting. We're talking with,
there's a land trust in the area,
and they're very open to us farming some of their land.
That could be a wonderful annex solution for us in the short term.
So there's definitely options.
But one thing that I learned about is that the University of Connecticut
agricultural department has people that help you navigate this
if you're a new farmer.
So we're actually getting on a phone call with someone from Yon.
I think our appointment is in a couple of weeks,
and they're gonna help us find land or talk through all of those details.
What are the options available to us in leasing and buying the, um,
uh, grants that could help in that sort of thing.
And it's a free service if you're a new farmer.
I think the first time that you have a call and then subsequent calls you pay
for. But we're definitely gonna take advantage of that.
And it's good to know that's out there.
I'm sure that's available in other states for their university.
Programs. Wow. That's amazing. Yeah. And well, what it reveals is that you have,
you're still in the exploratory stage.
This will be kind of a multi-year process. Um, Yes. And right now,
most everything that you're growing, that's the annuals.
It's not like you have to move them.
You'd be moving things like digging up to all your tubers.
You don't really have a lot of perennials really,
that you're integrating into your business, do you?
I don't, because I don't have a lot of room for them.
I have perennials in the front yard mm-hmm.
that have been there forever,
since before we started flower farming. So some of them are usable,
some of them are not. And I'm definitely moving towards more native perennials.
So there are a few gaps in the front yard where I'm filling in with native
perennials that I know we can use for cuts. Mm. Um, we,
we participate in pollinator pathways. Are you familiar with that?
We have something like that here in Seattle too,
that I'm assuming it's just to cry,
try to create pollinator plants throughout a neighborhood or in an
area, right?
Yes. Yes. Exactly. To connect, I guess the radius,
I'm not that knowledgeable on the radius that pollinators travel,
but there is a limit. And if they, if they're in one garden,
but there's a huge open space and nothing for them to,
to land on within, you know, I don't know how many yards or feet.
Or miles.
They don't really move beyond that. They'll just stay contained in an area.
And so the idea is to help develop the pollinator population that you
wanna have these pathways and they, the pollinators, it makes sense.
They're much more attractive to native plantings than they are to what's
imported. Uh, so, so we're really focusing on native growth.
But I would like to really expand on pese. I love them.
They're one of my favorite flowers.
So that's something I would like to invest more in.
But I feel like we're in this limbo phase where if we're not gonna be here very
long, do I wanna invest in a lot of p e in the land?
Right. Right.
It can take them with me, but when you uproot them,
it takes them about three years to really get well enough and stuff. Right.
Might as well just wait. Right.
Yeah, exactly. So, you know,
there are perennials I would love to invest more in,
but I just don't feel like we're in a place right now where we can do that till
we have a few more answers to what our next move.
Is. Oh my gosh. Well, good luck on that. That's exciting. Yeah. Um, well,
I wanna talk a little bit before we wrap up about your influences.
You have this background as a graphic designer.
How long did you work as a graphic designer and like what kind of work did you
do and do you see that that kind of, I don't know,
your visual aesthetic popping up in your floor arranging? Yeah.
That's an interesting question. I didn't know that I, you know,
I think it's hard sometimes for when you're in the arts to know that you have a
style. For some people it's very clear. For others it's not.
I felt that I was much more eclectic in the graphic design field,
but some, but people would look at my work and say, Oh, you have a style.
And it is interesting cause I'd think I, I do really , you know,
I didn't really see it.
Well, especially if you're working for clients and you're,
you're kind of trying to meet their style request. Exactly.
You don't always see it.
Right. That's exactly right. I did a lot of freelance work and I felt like,
you know, if this was for a younger audience, I tried to make it more edgy.
And if it was for a more traditional audience,
I tried to make a more traditional design. And so I,
I did feel like I was always catering to my audience,
and I didn't know that my own style, it makes sense that it would shine through,
but I, it was hard for me to see that. So, um,
when it came to, I did graphic design for about 12 years. Okay.
Prior to that, I had worked in a corporation and then, um,
my degree was actually, my bachelor's degree was in education. Okay.
But I'd never gotten into it. I had children.
I was a stay at home mom for a number of years,
and what got me into graphics was that I thought, Okay,
it's time when my kids were all in school. It's time to,
to start using that education degree. But I thought if I'm gonna teach,
I wanna teach art, because I've always loved that,
hadn't really had any art courses. So, uh, in order to teach art,
I had to get a certification.
So I went back to school in my forties and got certified
in art and graphic design. And once I got in those classes,
I realized, Oh, you know what? I don't, I still don't wanna teach.
This is what I wanna do full time. So I love it. Yeah.
So I did that for about 12 years. And then, uh, as much as I loved that,
I was tired of being in front of a computer screen all the day, all,
all day long. Nature has always been at the heart of what I do. And that's why,
you know, I had said, when we had that talk yesterday with Madison Square Park,
um, it was just very serendipitous.
I see this book about flower farming, and I,
and I just realized all of a sudden in this moment, Hey, this,
this takes everything. I've always loved the nature.
This flowers are art in nature. Absolutely.
I.
Always loved in nature, I've always loved art. This is the perfect combination.
I'm not in front of a computer screen all day. I love working with my hands.
And that's really just what launched that in the last three years.
Mm-hmm. , I would say with making bouquets,
I definitely do have a style.
And what's fun is that when people see it at the farmer's market,
they say, um, someone said,
it's like a curated wild flower look. And,
and I love that.
It's a huge compliment.
. Yeah. It, it made me happy. And I realized that they,
they describe a wild flower look because they're,
they're used to a very different look usually from, you know,
if you order from FTD or, or go to most flower shops,
there's a very standard look and mine don't fit that standard. Look.
Maybe there's a more in your mind a stiffer look and not so naturalistic. Right.
Yes.
It's very naturalized. Exactly. Yeah. But they could tell,
it's not just that I threw things in Aase.
So the fact that they said it was curated, I thought, Okay, I like that. I.
Like that. Yeah. That can be your new tagline.
. Yes. Curated wild flower.
But you had mentioned also like color is always factoring into your graphic
design and that you're obviously thinking about that when you're
choosing what to grow. Yes. And how, how you can use it in design. So.
Yes, that's true. And that's part of what drew me to the arts.
I've always loved color. Um, I tend to like more subtle colors.
So even though I love color, I'm not typically a bold, loud person,
but I love experimenting with those colors. Mm-hmm. ,
if someone calls for that in their bouquet,
it's fun to always break out of what your normal mold is.
Sure. So, so never say never about certain colors. Right.
Exactly. Yeah. Right. I mean,
I've had the most fun with some colors that I would've never chosen myself.
But when I'm choosing it for someone else, then thinking through, Okay,
I have this bright red color, and how can I,
how can I pull other colors into that and have a bridge color that's going to
blend those, what complements this to make this pop more?
So all of that that I've learned in, in art design is,
is really a real boon to that.
Well, I, I can't help but, uh, look at the flowers over your left shoulder.
There. There are so beautiful. Thank you.
And you've got dahlias and sys. What else is in that base?
There's a little Lizzy this in there.
This is really the last of everything on the farm.
So this is quite a combination. I've got some SC Bosa in there.
Yeah. A lot of zia's. A little Menard I think is still in there.
Love and a puff is the little vine. Yes.
You probably can't see that that well in there, but it's.
Charming. Yeah. I love it. Yeah. Thank you. Um, well, I was wanting to ask you,
when you're at the farmer's market, are you the only a flower farmer or, um,
are, you know, is that an advantage? I know some people don't have that kind of,
uh, luxury.
Yeah, no,
I am and I'm very grateful for that because you never wanna get in a position
where you're undercutting each other. Pricewise. Yeah. You know,
this other growers have said neither one of you benefit from that kind of
competition. So I am the only one there. There are some, um,
vegetable farms and some of them will have just some loose zinnias cuz they've
had those, or they'll have maybe some hanging baskets,
but that it's nothing like what I'm producing. Yeah.
Wow.
So, yeah, I, I appreciate that in a farmer's market when they limit the vendors,
um, so that you're not competing directly against each other.
Yeah. And even if somebody did come in, I mean, I, I'm imagining you've got the,
you're established now, you're, you've got the, the following and so Right.
Right. Which would be hard for them. So.
Yeah. I mean, if it was me and I was new going in,
I would try to look at what, you know,
Janet was growing and try to grow something completely different just to
differentiate myself. So.
Yes, you would hope yes. Yeah. Right. Yeah.
Well, so we talked about your new, uh, your,
your search for land and constantly evaluating for new, uh,
varieties that you wanna grow. Do you have any other projects in,
in play that you're hoping to implement next year? Or is,
is your plate very full right now?
My plate's very full, but I'm always thinking of new ideas, so mm-hmm.
, I mentioned how much I love the DIY buckets.
I think part of that, I am an extrovert and I,
I get so invested when these people come to me. You know, they're saying,
I'll ask, is this for a birthday party? You know,
it informs the choices that you're making. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm,
I'm not trying to pry, but it,
it helps me make good decisions for what their event is. And,
and inevitably we get in this exchange and I get so excited for what
they're doing. Um.
I love that. It's.
It's just the extrovert in me. So I'm like, really? You're having,
having a party? Okay. We know.
. Let me help, let me give you some ideas.
, I almost wanna be there. That's just my personality.
I love it.
It's very fun to make these connections. That's the,
the connections in the flower farming. I, I love that.
And so I find that that's what the farmer's market does.
That's what the DIY buckets do. I ask them, you know,
if you think of it when you're done,
would you send me pictures of how the bouquets came out? Um,
and so we still have exchanges even when the, when the event's over. And,
um, and so as I've done more and more of these,
what I've realized is that people really, they wanna do their own events,
but they maybe don't have the full confidence in their abilities.
So one idea I've had is something that's kind of a hybrid, which again,
isn't easy for me to do in the space that I have right now, but thinking ahead,
when we have land, more land,
I would love to offer something that is like a workshop.
Mm-hmm. for DIY people that, you know,
they wanna do their own, but they want a little guidance. And it's a little.
Coaching.
Yes, exactly. Like a little DIY coaching, something simple.
It's still gonna keep, I, I need to be mindful that sometimes they're doing diy,
not because they want to, but be so much,
but because they have a very restricted budget.
So you have to be mindful of that. But that's something I've often thought of.
I can see a need there and I would love to get involved in,
in that kind of a teaching moment.
I just say, that's the kind of teaching you'll enjoy doing.
Yes, exactly. Finally use that teaching degree. Right.
Right. I love it. Well, this has been so much fun.
I feel like getting to know you has been, uh,
a real reward for me to just see how you've built your business.
And I know it's gonna inspire other, inspire others, uh,
especially people who are pivoting away from corporate careers or looking
at their backyards and thinking about what they can do. And I'm sure you're,
you're realistic in when you talk to people about how much work it
is, but you're not sitting behind a computer.
You're out there treating your mental health and caring for it
and getting all those endorphins from being out in nature and growing.
So it's probably been a positive, uh, lifestyle change for you too.
Yes, it really has been.
I was most concerned about my husband because he helps so much,
but he's got his day job, so he's in front of a computer screen all day,
and then I'm asking him to help me in evenings, weekends.
And I thought this might be a little too much for him.
His job is really demanding, but he finds when he is out there helping,
it doesn't feel like it's work is work. It's hard work, It takes a lot,
but there is, it's physical,
something that's regenerative about it at the same time.
So I don't wanna minimize that. You know, when you're out there it's like, Oh,
this is wonderful. Sometimes, sometimes I've been in tears in my yard. I,
it's pouring. I'm trying to get some,
some tulips pulled up by the bulb and they're sticking in the ground.
And I mean, you know,
there's definitely moments of frustration or something isn't working the way I
need it to work or producing well,
but there is still something about being outside and being in nature and working
with your hands that even when you're working hard and you're sweating,
I come inside and I feel like I,
I feel it's fed me, it's fed my soul.
Yes. That's rewarding. Yes. I love it. Yes, it is.
And you're feeding other people too.
Yes.
Well, I will come visit when I come to Connecticut. Um.
I would love that.
Yes.
And I'll have to ask my mom for the old address so I can figure out where I was
on trouble. I.
Will take you on a tour. Yes. Okay.
Great. Thank you so much. And Janet, I do, uh, wanna hope,
I'm hoping that when we post this@slflowerspodcast.com, I'll, in the show notes,
I can show some of your, um, curated wildflower arrangements. Uh,
if you share some photos. I know you just sent me a big, a big folder.
I just haven't dug deep into look at them yet. So thank you for that. Yeah. And,
uh, we'll also share backyard blooms, uh,
social places so people can find you and follow along. Uh, and thank,
thanks so much. This has really been fun.
Thank you. It's been a privilege.
Thanks so much for joining me today.
You can visit slow flowers podcast.com to watch the replay video of today's
conversation. Look for episode 577.
I'll also include links to Backyard Blooms Social Places,
and two other resources.
The replay video of our Slow Flowers presentation recorded on August 18th
for the Madison Square Park Conservancy. And a link to My Slow Flowers Podcast,
episode 494, which features Farmer Florist, Haley,
Bill of Eddie Farm, and the Connecticut Flower Collective.
Our next sponsor, Thanks, goes to Cal Flowers,
the leading floral trade association in California,
providing valuable transportation and other benefits to flower growers
and the entire floral supply chain in California and 48 other states.
The association is a leader in bringing fresh cut flowers to the US market and
in promoting the benefits of flowers to new generations of American consumers.
Learn more@cgs.org.
And thank you to Details. Flower Software,
a platform specifically designed to help Floris and designers do more and
earn more with an elegant and easy to use system.
Details improves profitability, productivity,
and organization for floral businesses of all shapes and sizes.
Grow your bottom line through professional proposals and confident pricing with
details all in one platform.
All friends of the Slow Flowers Podcast will receive a seven day free trial of
details, Flowers, software. You can learn more@detailsflowers.com.
Thanks so much for joining us today.
The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member supported endeavor,
downloaded more than 900,000 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 our long running podcast,
check out all of our resources@slflowersociety.com and consider making
a donation to sustain slow flowers, ongoing advocacy,
education, and outreach activities.
You can find the donate button@slflowerspodcast.com.
I'm Deborah Printing host and producer of the SL Flowers Show and the SL Flowers
Podcast.
The SL Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brennan.
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 base at a time. I'll see you then.