Grow Flowers For Cash

Image Gallery Even after 14 years in the business, author Lynn Byczynski still enjoys her job.

by Lynn Byczynski

I get up at down and drink a cup of coffee on the porch as the red sun inches over the hillside. Then I head down to the field, just a stone's throw from the house, and wade into the neat rows of zinnias, sunflowers, salvia and celosia. As I focus on cutting stems and counting the flowers, all other thoughts drift away. It's a typical summer morning in the life of this flower farmer.

My husband joins me in the field, and by 8:30 a.m. we're ready to load the buckets of flowers into the van. I eat breakfast with my two children. take a quick shower, then drive the 30 miles into town to the florist. I spend a few minutes hanging around the shop, chatting with the designers, then I pick up my check—usually $300 to $500 per delivery—and head home.

Flower farming may he the perfect home business. You can set your own hours, work outdoors and earn a decent wage. Your spouse and/or children can help. You can work as much or as little as you choose—you really are your own boss.

Even after 14 years of running my own flower business, I still enjoy almost every aspect of the job, from studying catalogs and planning crops during the winter, to cutting thousands of stems from spring until fall.

I don't want to suggest that flower farming is easy—it is farming, after all. You have to bend, stoop and sweat. Your hands get callused and dirty, and your back gets sore. And you don't get rich doing it. As a beginning flower farmer, you probably won't snake much money at all. But as your knowledge and skills increase, as you learn what to grow and how to sell it, you'll find that flower farming can become a profitable endeavor for your family.

Cut flower growers in the United States report that an acre of well-grown and marketed flowers is worth approximately $25,000 to $30,000 in sales. Net income is much less than that, depending on factors such as equipment and supply expenses. whether or not employees are hired (all you'll need is one person per acre to handle production) and whether or not money is put back into the business. As a general rule of thumb, an established business will net 50 percent to 60 percent of its gross. or about $15.000 an acre.

GETTING STARTED

If you think flower farming might be the business for you, there's no time like the present to get started. You need to do a lot of research before you buy a single seed. so winter is the perfect time to plan your strategy. My book, The Flower Farmer, provides a guide to starting a cut flower business. including information on production, harvest, marketing, pricing and suppliers.

First consider where you will sell your flowers. Study the options available and get a general sense of your area's market for flowers. Here are the most likely buyers: