Early spring flowers in 6b/7a & talking ranunculus at our floral co-op 2024 opening

We pushed the envelope and opened our floral co-op one week earlier this year to hit Easter! This was no easy feat and although we had a ton of ranunculus, we also had a good variety of other florals worth highlighting.
Enjoy this video and want to support me in making more content like this? Access gated content, including more on the ranunculus observations of Cloni vs Elegance at www.patreon.com/bareflowerfarm

[@jessbeth73]

I loved this video. So fun to see what your co op is doing and what you all have available this time of year. I paused the video so many times to just take it all in and look closely at what you had available! I'd love to know what varieties of hellebore you were showing. Several varieties looked very bright and spring-like rather than the typical muted, moody colors. I love moody colors personally, but I wonder if florists prefer the brighter varieties at this time of year. I have about 15 hellebore, and may invest in more over the next few years. They are still maturing and not putting out very many blooms yet. It will be another couple of years before they are really pumping out bountiful numbers of stems. In general, I like hearing about what is selling well at your co op, what florists are saying about the products, and what the flowers are being used for. So interesting that Chick-Fil-A sprung for local flowers! I love that!

[@bareflowerfarm]

Thank you! My understanding is that this is Helleborus foetidus - Stinking Hellebore. I'm not 100% sure if all of them were that but all the colors did pretty well and had demand! I think it just depends on the event they are designing for. The growers selling these have quite mature hellebores, so there's no shortage for our designers this time of year!

[@3kidmama]

I would love to see more coop videos! In addition to seeing the details of how one works, it's also so helpful to see exactly what you showed today: Season flowers available in early spring (and knowing that some were grown hydroponically, some landscape perennials and others in hoop houses.) I live in a much colder growing zone, but it's still so helpful to see collectively what might be blooming at similar times. Also helpful to learn roughly what price per stem you are currently getting (i.e.hellebores). Would love similar videos as the season progresses and perhaps including "fillers" as well? Andromeda was a new one for me - this is why we love your content! 👍

[@bareflowerfarm]

This is super helpful feedback, thank you!

[@blairhouseblooms]

So great to see this wide variety of flowers so early in the season. I have not jumped on the ranunculus bandwagon quite yet, but I think I might have to go there soon.!!

[@bareflowerfarm]

Thanks, Robyn! I’ve tried to jump on the ranunculus bandwagon but… something always eats them 🫣

[@spreadinhoneyflowerfarm]

Thanks for listening and doing a coop video. I feel like you could do these seasonally, holiday, or honestly as often as possible to show the true behind the scenes. Pretty cool. I’m in Wyoming and we have only 3 growers in my area. But wanting to set something up.

[@spreadinhoneyflowerfarm]

How does the coop acquire florists? How do you pay each other? Is there a separate bank account set up for the coop? What do you do with flowers that don’t sell? Do florists try to request things in advance?

[@bareflowerfarm]

I'm glad that you're finding value in these! So a few things to answer your questions: 1) When the co-op was formed, a few of the growers had florist connections and that was the basis. But we are mindful to use instagram to catch a wider net and I do weekly email marketing to try to get people who are interested to shop with us 2) We have a treasurer who is in charge of paying the growers after each market. The co-op has a separate bank account (it is basically a separate business) 3) Unsold flowers are either donated or composted depending on the amount 4) We have preorders that open a week in advance of the market but outside of that, no earlier preorders With 3 growers, you could hypothetically create a "flower hub" where everyone is still an individual seller but you come together on a specific day to pool together your quantities so that you can offer more flowers to a few designers to have a more "wholesale" like experience. I hope this helps!

[@anpe4970]

I love seeingwhat you can grow in different seasons. I think early in the season is interesting because many growers haven't started yet. Also, it would be nice to see what you have in may/june in the gap.

[@bareflowerfarm]

Yes to this!! The may/June gap is real. I’m curious to see if my second year flowering varieties can plug that gap but I had a florist basically say that it’s so hard to find local focals that time so I grew a lot of lilies. The question is whether I can convince them they can be a good focal- I’m hoping many of them try and are brought into lilies. But I will def keep you updated on what the other growers have!

[@ElderandOakFarm]

Those ranunculus buds were huge! I'm definitely interested in hearing more about which varieties out performs the other in # of stems, etc. I've tried for 2 years to do a trial but then got too busy & couldn't keep track of # of stems harvested. I do feel that they are larger & come in prettier colors than the Amandine though, & as a cutflower grower- I don't even bother with Aviv anymore. I het too many singles, & I always have at least 30% or more rot when presprouting. I used to think in the beginning that I was keeping the trays to wet but then I started to grow other varieties, & i wasnt losing any of them to rot. (nd I was still growing Aviv at the time & still having a lot of rot with them. So even when I had more experience it was still happening) So while I agree there's a market for those less expensive stems, I just don't personally want to bother with the Aviv for those reasons. They may still be profitable, at the end of the day, even given those issues, but I dont know. Given how much effort goes i to growing them, & the fact that the majority of them are single (which I'm never able to sell) makes it hard to believe.

[@bareflowerfarm]

That’s great to hear about your experience. My local grower friend Jess and another local grower both grew the most amazing Aviv when I gave them corms so I do wonder what it is that causes them to give most people such a headache. Could be climate too- I believe northlawn grows success picottee from her videos

[@growingcrazy4481]

All the flowers look so great. I am starting up with hellebores this year, could you do a video on them? Maybe get a grower from you coop to help?

[@bareflowerfarm]

This is a great idea for a topic, do you have any specific questions on hellebores?

[@growingcrazy4481]

@@bareflowerfarm I would love to know about which varieties to choose, growing advice both in general and for cut flowers. Oh and also when to cut and prep