Why I Don’t Use Charts or Spreadsheets as a Flower Farmer

Why I Don’t Use Charts or Spreadsheets as a Flower Farmer

Okay, so when I first started out flower farming, I made a lot of charts. Charts for seeds to be purchased, charts for seeds to be sown, charts for planting dates and succession dates and sales and clients. This was OK the first year, but it quickly got larger and larger and what started off as a fun and exciting business project suddenly started requiring spreadsheets, lists, charts and diagrams. It eventually became exhausting tracking and taking care of all of the moving parts. There were a lot of calculations done on the fly, and it became mentally exhausting to keep track of it all. 

You see, flower farming doesn’t have to be complicated. I know that the analytical person in me likes charts and diagrams and spreadsheets to stay organized, but I’ve generally found that they don’t work. Yes, they may work initially but eventually they have to compromise because flower farming isn’t a static business. The general idea may stay in place, but what happens if you have a delayed start to spring (that sets your spring flowers back) and you suddenly have an early and hot spike in temperatures in May that ends your spring season early? Suddenly you’re left scrambling to make up the deficit.

And that my friends is where the stress comes from. That unpredictability, that anxiety from the stresses of certain things being out of your control or prediction - that’s stressful.

When flower farming, we are dealing with Mother Nature, and as any seasoned flower farmer can tell you she will keep you on your toes and keep you humble. Just when you think you’ve figured everything out, she will send something your way that will cause you to have to pivot and rethink your planning. It could be anything from a freak hailstorm to drought to grasshoppers attacking your seedlings to a global pandemic that causes all your weddings to reschedule  - but there’s always something. 

The flower farmer spreadsheets and charts always sound good in theory, but they had a major weakness. - they were too rigid for the reality of flower farming where things flow and ebb.

With spreadsheets and charts being rigid and fixed in place - and a single item being out of place could topple and disrupt the entire plan. Take for example, one year where I planned everything based on Bells of Ireland - of which not a single seed germinated, and I was left having to scramble and replan mid-season. Like a brick being pulled out that caused an entire building to topple, I realized that I couldn’t depend on everything working out perfectly and according to plan. If things did, then great - I got lucky. But if it didn’t, I wanted to be prepared. 

This was further cemented during the pandemic when all of a sudden the flower farming world flipped upside down. Seeds and bulbs were suddenly hard to come by and weddings were postponed indefinitely but a sudden explosion in the demand for flowers at home came rocketing through, and we had to pivot hard and quickly as a result and life has proved to be similarly unpredictable afterwards, teaching us the importance of flexibility and resilience.

I think it was too much to ask of a spreadsheet or chart to bear the load of an entire season’s growing plan for flowers. Not when so many things can change or fail so quickly. We needed to be able to handle whatever life threw at us.

This is part of the reason I changed my perspective on needing to have specific flowers or crops. Take for example, dahlias - although I do like specific dahlias, as long as I have a dahlia that is in a similar color or presentation, 99% of the time nobody notices. Whether or not I have an actual ‘Cornel Bronze’ or an ‘Amber Queen’ or a ‘Hy Suntan’ or even a ‘Benary Giant Salmon Rose’ zinnia in the similar color, none of my customers have returned a bouquet or demanded money back as a result. 

In fact, I no longer plan based on specific varieties or flowers - I plan either based on color or purpose. It’s much less about having that specific flower and much more about planning based on purpose or function. For example, if I’m planning on using a lot white flowers for bouquets or wedding design, it almost doesn’t matter what it is that I grow so long as they are white and productive - Zinnia ‘Oklahoma Ivory’, dahlias ‘Bride to Be’ and ‘Boom Boom White’ and cosmos ‘Purity’ or ‘White Psyche’ all fit into that, and short of my entire farm being swallowed up by a hole in the earth I know that I can grow those flowers easily and readily. 

Or if we’re looking at function, I know that I need lots of foliage for summer mixed bouquets. Again, it almost doesn’t matter what I am growing so long as it bulks out bouquets, so I can plan on basil being a big part of that foliage, but I also know I can cut from marigold and cosmos greens to supplement as needed (or change things up a bit) or even chop at some of the physocarpus and butterfly bushes - so long as I have foliage, that’s what matters. 

If one of those varieties fail - say seed is unavailable, or I fry the seedlings because I forget to water the tray or a cow decides to plow through that section of the field - then I have several other crops that I’m growing that will fill that gap just fine. 

So you see, when you’re not so focused on the particular variety but instead understand the exact purpose that you’re using the flower for, it suddenly makes for much more flexibility and takes a lot of the stress or pressure off you as a grower. 

Yes, there are certain flowers that I desire in that weird Smaug-sitting-on-his-hoard sort of way (any of the KA dahlias, and I’m looking hard at that new Queen Lime Peach variety) but the truth is that when you place so much importance on obtaining that flower and growing that flower, it in turn places a ton of stress and a profound lack of resilience on your whole crop plan.

Because what happens if you can’t get tubers for that particular dahlia? Or if you can’t get seeds for that zinnia? Or something happens - a mistake, a bad turn of luck, a crop failure - and you’re left hanging?

This built-in flexibility is such a huge strength for a flower farmer. It will prevent a lot of those sleepless nights where you’re lying awake thinking if you’re going to have enough flowers for the market this weekend or the wedding coming up next week, and it will allow you to be a bit more big-picture when it comes to your flowers. Even if there are seed/bulb/corm/tuber shortages, even if you have crop failures, you will be okay and can keep on going.

I hope you found this informative and encouraging

The longer that I’m doing this flower farming thing, the more that I value the things that really move the needle and make a profound impact not only on my farm and business but also my own personal success and quality of life - and it’s my hope that I can transfer this knowledge to you. to help you also be a successful and happy flower farmer!

And even if you’re not growing cut flowers professionally or have a business, these concepts can still help you be able to grow cut flowers successfully as a home gardener as well.