Can tulips be profitable? What you should pay (per bulb) & charge (by stem)!

This is a question I hear alot from new cut flower farmers. The answer is a resounding YES but you have to understand how much you should be paying for bulbs and charging for stems to make this worth your investment. In this video, I cover the following:
*Why I love tulips from a profitability standpoint
*Downsides
*How much $ can you pay for bulbs and charge customers
*Considerations you need
*What my plan is for 2023 (including who I bought from, # of bulbs, cost, etc)

[@YouCantEatTheGrass]

I love it! I love the focus on numbers - I always say the math doesn't lie, lol. My only note would be that you forgot to account for the labour of selling as well as the labour for planting/harvesting. But, I think the chart with $1 sales (which you can think of as wholesale instead of low retail) proves that there is profit in tulips when they are done right! I also like to add in loses when I do my math. So I'd account for 10% bulb losses, giving 45 bunches. And then for retail, I would account for 10% not selling. So, I would do my math based on 41 bunches selling (but that is also what I would consider my healthy paranoia, lol).

[@bareflowerfarm]

Yes! All great points, especially on the buffer piece. I always like to see what my low to high range is to give me an idea of what is best and worst case scenario, but realistic scenario is somewhere in between especially for someone who doesn’t have an established market. More people need to have this healthy paranoia 🤪

[@cbak1819]

Great tip about temp intolerance segment.

[@cbak1819]

Great stats on every aspect of Tulip growing pro's and con's. Warm Regards💜

[@joinmeinthedirt5186]

Wow! I didn’t know flower farmers went through so much. I look up to all of you.

[@piecesofjoy8681]

Fabulous information and thank you so much for sharing and breaking it down.

[@bareflowerfarm]

Glad it was helpful!

[@ourcozygarden]

Looks like we’re in a hood shape in terms of cost of goods so far. I do hope most if not all will bloom well for next spring.

[@blakesblooms]

When I saw how long the video was i knew you were dropping valued information! I'm mentioned this before, i love your business breakdown approach. Thanks you so much.

[@bareflowerfarm]

Thx for the kind words ☺️

[@aimeesgardens]

This was extremely helpful so thank you for breaking it down!

[@susanwondergem4014]

Thanks so much for doing the math! Your advice has been invaluable and has me considering refrigeration options. May you have much success with your tulips!

[@iamGrowing]

Awesome video. We’re in Pawling NY now but I grew up in Jersey…went to Rutgers. Glad to see someone from a similar climate post these awesome videos.

[@bareflowerfarm]

Hello fellow Jersey native! Thank you for the kind words 🙏

[@madonnaschmid7707]

I ordered pre chilled bulbs this year...zone 9. I'm hoping they do well for me. If so, next year I will order more. I loved this video, thank you!

[@bareflowerfarm]

Thank you and good luck!!

[@jeanettehawkins7472]

I have 2 refrigerators! Just planted another 400 tulips today total so far 2850. I have 200 candy striped in my fridge to force for valentines day. Good luck

[@bareflowerfarm]

Nice!! Do let me know how vday goes!!

[@donnaj1049]

This is my second year buying in bulbs. My second year buying from ADR. I also bought from Colorblends and was going to buy from LeoBerbee, but their shipping date was too far out there for me to be out planting bulbs in Maine. Can you do a video on bulb Quality when you get your bulbs. I am on the fence with ADR. Going to crack open my order from Colorblends today. Love your videos and the business side of growing. Hope you also do a video on your hydrophonics growing of tulips.

[@bareflowerfarm]

I finally got a response from ADR today and delayed the shipment til mid December so that I could get more cooling time on them! So the bulb quality video will need to wait til next year. Just need to make sure I can identify. I think I have a pretty good idea but need to actually see how my tulips go before I potentially spread misinformation lol!

[@kateseverein7650]

You are fabulous to share all this, thankyou! I loved listening to u x

[@jennifermitchell2493]

This is gold! I love your focus on the business and planning aspect. Cannot wait to see you post spring 2023 analysis and what worked. Also, at Valentine’s Day do you put prices up to say $25-30 a bouquet vs $20?

[@bareflowerfarm]

Thank you! I'm still toying around for vday and alot will depend on how much I can force and store. My limitation is that I don't have a real cooler yet, just a fridge. The number of stems I accumulate will utlimately dictate how much I charge but I would think $3 a stem especially if I do 12 specialty stems for $35 isn't unreasonable!

[@turiaturiana7529]

Ty Jessie, I like the slant of your videos, very different from other flower you tubers.

[@bareflowerfarm]

Thank you 🤗

[@LifeMoreColorful]

I bought a deep freezer and an inkbird for flower storage and tulip chilling. I’m super small-scale, so this is large enough for me for now. I also like that I can use the freezer for food in the future if my needs change. I’m currently chilling my ~3500 tulip and daffodil bulbs in the freezer with room to spare. Also wanted to say I am prechilling my own bulbs (zone 9) because I wanted the ability to stagger my planting and harvests. My freezer is a whirlpool WZC5116LW and I think I paid about $650 for it.

[@bareflowerfarm]

Whoa that's a great hack! Thank you for sharing! I actually never thought about using a deep freezer. Good to know that you're able to chill 3500 ish. Would you say you have capacity to chill more than that? My fridge can chill about 3 crates worth + whatever I can stuff into the veggie drawers!

[@LifeMoreColorful]

@@bareflowerfarm I guesstimate I can fit another 1200 bulbs in there. I have the daffodils in a flower bucket, which is not the most space efficient. So if I transferred those to a box, used the other 6” -12” L shaped space, and added another layer of bags to the top, I can fit about 1200 more. I’ll find your email and send you a picture.

[@bareflowerfarm]

@@LifeMoreColorful my email is [e-mail] 🙂

[@juliematthews5107]

Thanks for sharing. Very useful.

[@woonsckt]

Your channel is awesome! 🌷💐 giving me lots of inspiration

[@bareflowerfarm]

Thank you so much!

[@margielliott6389]

Love your content. Thank you so much!

[@nancyk8153]

Can you make videos of what seeds your going to start in the fall for us to follow along with you this fall/winter season?

[@bareflowerfarm]

Hi Nancy! I am pretty much done with seed starting for spring 2023! Here’s a video of everything I am growing for spring. They will all be overwintering! kzbin.info/www/bejne/onSloIapedNjgsU

[@cbak1819]

We use 1/4" hard wear cloth for our raised beds. I'll have to make some sort of cage box for my 3x5 area for my first year selling. Has anyone ever used H 12:04 Horvoneta 6x6 netting for tulips? Thanks a bunch!

[@bareflowerfarm]

I don't think you'd need netting for tulips because they can remain sturdy and straight without netting

[@racheldoor5946]

Where do you get the nice pictures of what the tulips are going to look like? I am planting tulips for the first time but don’t have any pics for customers to get an idea of what they are getting.

[@bareflowerfarm]

Certainl suppliers are actually more than willing for you to use their photos (ie Ball) so you can always contact them to ask. The rationale is that the more you sell, the more you will buy from them. Another good source surprisingly is free stock photos. I find that alot of times, if I google a specific variety and I have multiple brokers using the same exact photo, there's a high chance that it's actually a stock photo. But I actually haven't had this issue from a website/selling perspective bc I typically sell "on demand" via facebook marketplace or my farmer's market which means I can take photos after the flowers have bloomed.

[@meadowal]

Is there a difference between forcing and hydroponic growing or is that just an interchangeable phrase for the same indoor growing process?

[@bareflowerfarm]

They are different! Hydroponic is growing in water. Soil forcing is growing in soil in crates. There is also a diff for forcing between the two but the biggest advantage in my view is that tulip hydroponics just requires regular water (therefore cheaper than dealer with sterile soil). Most hydroponics growing requires water that is amended with nutrients but since tulips don’t need fertilizer, it’s more straight forward!

[@sydneyproctor4514]

hardware cloth under bulbs, chicken wire is too big

[@coralle2]

Wow so many good advices. When you talked about the reseller certificate that make sense but what about the farm you are growing in? Do you have to register yourself as a farmer in order to mass plant?

[@katefulton3932]

How cool do you need to store them at once you harvest them.

[@bareflowerfarm]

You would need to store between 35-40F if possible

[@sallyazzato3481]

So we're not to figure shipping into our cost per bulb, correct? Also, what are your thoughts on selling bulbs for profit?

[@bareflowerfarm]

You should definitely factor in shipping into cost. I would say that if you’re doing high quantities, the shipping is relatively reasonable and adds a few cents per bulb since these brokers have massive agreements with the shipping carriers. The guidance of $0.30 to $0.60 per bulb is sans shipping but I always try to find suppliers closer to me to both cut down on carbon emissions and shipping costs. For 2 crates (1000 total bulbs), the tulip workshop charged about $45 for shipping which is an extra $0.05 per bulb so it still stays within my range. This is also on the higher end of shipping but still tolerable (however factored into me NOT buying certain varieties that would have put me over the $0.60 / bulb range). Hope this makes sense!

[@susandobbins1313]

May I ask if you have a source for bulb crates? Well, i guess I actually did ask. 😂

[@bareflowerfarm]

Lol! The bulb crates are from me buying tulips but you can usually ask supermarkets or other local farms who grow alot of tulips. $3 is a reasonable price to pay for crates!

[@MrMonsterrally]

Is this u-pick or are you marking these bouquets yourself and selling them somewhere else?

[@bareflowerfarm]

I'm making these bouquets myself. I also now sell wholesale but only to florists through a cooperative.

[@j.h.6215]

Do you think, realistically, that $2.50 is a decent price for a FULL bouquet of double tulips? I live in Alaska and don’t want to cut myself short

[@bareflowerfarm]

You mean $2.50 a stem in a bouquet right? So 8 stems = $20. I think depending on how big the blooms are you can def push higher. A florist certainly would but I do think it’s market dependent! But do note that this pricing i used also included singles to balance out the cost of the bulbs!

[@limitlesschoices]

Do you have any investment opportunities?

[@emmyhusfloen]

Do you know if there is a 'Too cold' temp for tulips? I am in zone 4b and would love to crate tulips but our temps get down to -10 to possibly -15/-20... I don't want to have them be mush after our long winter.. Thanks in advance - Emmy

[@bareflowerfarm]

Hey there! Zone 4b is definitely conducive to growing tulips. You’ll want to make sure that you’re going 6-8 inches below when digging. Keep in mind that while the air temps may be -20, the ground takes awhile to freeze. That being said, it is important for the tulips to have rooted before you get to these freezing temps. So ideally you plant in early October, allow the bulb to establish some strong roots and then wait out the cold! I would recommend checking out Nicole from Flower Hill Farm who also grows in zone 4b up in Syracuse area. My tulip shop teachers are also based in zone 3/4 and they successfully grow field tulips too 🙂

[@md.mahfuzalam28]

Hi.... Nice video.... Do u sell Tulips bulbs.....????

[@bareflowerfarm]

Hi! I did earlier in the season but no longer have any bulbs left to sell!

[@md.mahfuzalam28]

​@bareflowerfarm Thanks for reply One question to u... If I make a control inverment, like indoor cooling systems use then can I force or growing tulips bulbs any season or anytime......???? ( like indoor greenhouse with lighting and cooling systems) Plz answer me, from ur lots of experience... I waiting ur reply....

[@Relaxits2024]

Tulip bulbs are so expensive in Australia

[@bareflowerfarm]

How much are they australia?? I wonder if it’s related to shipping. I studied abroad there and it felt like mundane things were relatively higher priced!

[@Relaxits2024]

@@bareflowerfarm $2-$3 a bulb which is fine but I don’t think it would be worth MY while to grow and sell them, although o would love to