Flower Farming for Profit
The Complete Guide to Growing a Successful Cut Flower Business
EXCERPTS
| Pages: | 288 pages |
| Book Art: | Full-color photographs and illustrations throughout |
| Size: | 8 x 10 inch |
| Publisher: | Chelsea Green Publishing |
| Pub. Date: | January 25, 2024 |
| ISBN: | 9781645021766 |
Flower Farming for Profit
The Complete Guide to Growing a Successful Cut Flower Business
Named a “Best Book for Budding Farmers” by Country Living
“Flower Farming for Profit does a deep dive into the least glamorous, but most important part of farming—how to run a profitable business. This must-have book is incredibly thoughtful, well organized, and brimming with real-life examples. Lennie’s down-to-earth, no-nonsense approach to the numbers is a breath of fresh air.”—Erin Benzakein, owner, Floret Farm; New York Times bestselling author of Floret Farm’s A Year in Flowers
With practical, step-by-step instructions and on-the-ground examples at every scale, Flower Farming for Profit is a comprehensive, beautiful guide to achieving profitability as a cut flower farmer.
When Lennie Larkin set out to become a flower farmer, she found all sorts of resources about growing flowers but a scarcity of reliable information on how to build a profitable cut flower business. How do you create efficient systems and adequately value your own time and effort through your pricing? When and how should you consider scaling up your farm? How can you make doing what you love support you financially?
In Flower Farming for Profit, Larkin answers these questions—and many, many more. With instructive lessons and savvy business tips from her own and other successful farms around the world, she explores:
- The diverse challenges of both wholesale and retail sales channels, from florists and farm stands to farmers markets
- Streamlining weddings for the farmer-florist, from communications to floral design
- Efficient recordkeeping and bookkeeping
- Steps for conducting your own cost-of-production analysis
- Marketing and growth strategies
- Business planning, goal setting, and making financial projections
- Crop planning based on local climatic conditions, market demand, and sales projections
The cut flower industry continues to experience wild growth. To successfully do what they love while expanding the market for sustainably produced flowers, new and experienced farmers alike must deliberately step back from the field and into the office. Flower Farming for Profit is a one-of-a-kind guide to creating the type of numbers-driven business that will allow individual farms to prosper and local flower economies to thrive.
Reviews and Praise
“Flower Farming for Profit does a deep dive into the least glamorous, but most important part of farming—how to run a profitable business. This must-have book is incredibly thoughtful, well organized, and brimming with real-life examples. Lennie’s down-to-earth, no-nonsense approach to the numbers is a breath of fresh air.”
—Erin Benzakein, owner, Floret Farm; New York Times bestselling author of Floret Farm’s A Year in Flowers
More Reviews and Praise
“Lennie Larkin pulls back the curtain on the secrecy that often surrounds the business of flower farming—how to set prices, project sales, budget for expenses, and, most of all, how much money you can take home. Although focused on financial matters, this is no dry business tome; Lennie is a flower farmer herself, and her love of flowers shines through on every page. Between her own experience and her extensive research, she has crafted clear guidance about how to turn a passion for flowers into a viable enterprise.”
—Lynn Byczynski, author of The Flower Farmer; founder, Growing for Market magazine
“Lennie Larkin has seamlessly blended her extensive research and horticultural training with her years of cut flower farming experience into an invaluable resource. Her personal connections with successful growers across the country add another level of relevance to each chapter, ensuring that aspiring flower farmers will find the knowledge to refine their own operations, and established growers may examine their farms with fresh eyes. Lennie’s professionally informed but unpretentious writing style helps to take the guesswork out of topics like managerial accounting and crop profitability. This is the book cut flower growers have been clamoring for.”
—Judy M. Laushman, executive director, Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers
“Flower Farming for Profit takes the guesswork out of the business of flower farming. From projections to pricing to bookkeeping, Lennie Larkin has created a practical resource that is a must-have for every cut flower grower!”
—Lisa Mason Ziegler, instructor, The Gardener’s Workshop; author of Cool Flowers and The Cut Flower Handbook
“Successful flower farming is more than just growing beautiful flowers (though that’s important). It’s equal parts production, financial management, and marketing. Flower Farming for Profit covers all the important points, from launching your business to growing successfully, to help you succeed profitably. This is a must-read for any aspiring or experienced flower farmer.”
—Julia Shanks, author of The Farmer’s Office
“Chapter after chapter, Lennie leads you through the various facets of a profitable, sustainable cut flower farm. You’ll learn what it takes to keep a cut flower enterprise thriving long term in today’s world. And it’s not just all about the pretty flowers! The Flower Farm Viability Quiz in the appendix will help you decide if flower farmer is a career option for you. Don’t skip the quiz! Flower Farming for Profit can be a roadmap to your success, helping eliminate many wrong turns along the way.”
—Dave Dowling, cut flower specialist, Seeds, Bulbs, Perennials & Plugs for Cut Flower Growers
"Simply stated, Flower Farming for Profit is the Bible for creating and operating a profitable cut flower business, whether it be on a local, regional, national, or even international basis. Nicely illustrated throughout with full color photography, Flower Farming for Profit is as comprehensive as it is 'user friendly' in organization and presentation."
—Midwest Book Review
Reviews and Praise
“Flower Farming for Profit does a deep dive into the least glamorous, but most important part of farming—how to run a profitable business. This must-have book is incredibly thoughtful, well organized, and brimming with real-life examples. Lennie’s down-to-earth, no-nonsense approach to the numbers is a breath of fresh air.”
—Erin Benzakein, owner, Floret Farm; New York Times bestselling author of Floret Farm’s A Year in Flowers
“Lennie Larkin pulls back the curtain on the secrecy that often surrounds the business of flower farming—how to set prices, project sales, budget for expenses, and, most of all, how much money you can take home. Although focused on financial matters, this is no dry business tome; Lennie is a flower farmer herself, and her love of flowers shines through on every page. Between her own experience and her extensive research, she has crafted clear guidance about how to turn a passion for flowers into a viable enterprise.”
—Lynn Byczynski, author of The Flower Farmer; founder, Growing for Market magazine
“Lennie Larkin has seamlessly blended her extensive research and horticultural training with her years of cut flower farming experience into an invaluable resource. Her personal connections with successful growers across the country add another level of relevance to each chapter, ensuring that aspiring flower farmers will find the knowledge to refine their own operations, and established growers may examine their farms with fresh eyes. Lennie’s professionally informed but unpretentious writing style helps to take the guesswork out of topics like managerial accounting and crop profitability. This is the book cut flower growers have been clamoring for.”
—Judy M. Laushman, executive director, Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers
“Flower Farming for Profit takes the guesswork out of the business of flower farming. From projections to pricing to bookkeeping, Lennie Larkin has created a practical resource that is a must-have for every cut flower grower!”
—Lisa Mason Ziegler, instructor, The Gardener’s Workshop; author of Cool Flowers and The Cut Flower Handbook
“Successful flower farming is more than just growing beautiful flowers (though that’s important). It’s equal parts production, financial management, and marketing. Flower Farming for Profit covers all the important points, from launching your business to growing successfully, to help you succeed profitably. This is a must-read for any aspiring or experienced flower farmer.”
—Julia Shanks, author of The Farmer’s Office
“Chapter after chapter, Lennie leads you through the various facets of a profitable, sustainable cut flower farm. You’ll learn what it takes to keep a cut flower enterprise thriving long term in today’s world. And it’s not just all about the pretty flowers! The Flower Farm Viability Quiz in the appendix will help you decide if flower farmer is a career option for you. Don’t skip the quiz! Flower Farming for Profit can be a roadmap to your success, helping eliminate many wrong turns along the way.”
—Dave Dowling, cut flower specialist, Seeds, Bulbs, Perennials & Plugs for Cut Flower Growers
"Simply stated, Flower Farming for Profit is the Bible for creating and operating a profitable cut flower business, whether it be on a local, regional, national, or even international basis. Nicely illustrated throughout with full color photography, Flower Farming for Profit is as comprehensive as it is 'user friendly' in organization and presentation."
—Midwest Book Review
About Lennie Larkin
Lennie Larkin started B-Side Farm in Sonoma County, California, in 2014, and has since moved the farm and settled on two beautiful acres outside of Portland, Oregon. B-Side has grown flowers for all kinds of retail and wholesale customers over the years and designed for hundreds of weddings. Lennie’s true passion lies not only in tending to her own farm but in helping other farmers thrive in their businesses. She has been an associate faculty member at Santa Rosa Junior College and served multiple terms on the board of the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers. She is a vocal cheerleader for other growers and is known for advocating the value of business skills—the nuts and bolts that make this beautiful life of cultivating flowers possible. Through her research and educational business, Flower Farming for Profit, she teaches a business curriculum that she developed specifically for flower farmers, provides coaching and business advising, and conducts grant-funded research on cut flower cost of production and efficiency.
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