Some growers say that one acre of flowers is worth around $25,000 in
sales. Like all kinds of farms, there are other costs that
have to be taken out of that money. The cost of supplies,
equipment and pay for workers all have to be subtracted. The
farmer will actually get about $15,000 for each acre of flowers.
Flower farmers choose the flowers they grow based
on a lot of things. Some of these are:
 |
Flowers have to
grow good in that climate. |
|
Flowers should
bloom at the same time of year that the grower wants to sell
them. If they want to sell them in June, it wouldn't
make any sense to grow flowers that bloom in April and May. |
|
Flowers have to
like the soil where they are planted. |
Growers go through seed catalogs during winter to find different
kinds of flowers to grow and sell. Some growers plant seeds
and some start with small plants. Other growers will plant the
seeds inside until the plants are large enough to replant outside.
When the seeds or plants are planted, the next
important thing is irrigation. Irrigation is the way farmers
get water to their crops. Flowers need regular irrigation to
grow and bloom well. The drip
method is sometimes used for this. Sometimes they have
sprinklers.
Flowers are cut all the time. Some growers
have coolers that keep the cut flowers fresh. The farmer
doesn't deliver the flowers to market every day, so a cooler helps
him store them in between deliveries. This helps him because
he might have lots of acres of flowers to cut, a couple times a
week. With a cooler, the farmer can cut flowers for a couple
days before the delivery instead of waiting to the day before.
The grower, or people who help him on the farm,
go from plant to plant, cutting the flowers that are ready.
The flowers are put into tall buckets. When the bucket is full
of flowers, some water is put at the bottom while they go cut more.
Flower farmers will take these cut flowers to market. They
might sell them to:
|
Farmer's markets:
places where a bunch of farmers sell what they grow.
Each farmer pays money for a space to sell their crops or
products. |
|
Supermarkets:
grocery stores that sell flowers. Lots of stores do
this now. |
|
Wholesalers:
businesses that buy lots of flowers and then re-sell them to
lots of different florists. |
|
Florists:
the stores where flowers are sold to people when they come
in or call in. |
|
Customers going
directly to the farm. If the farm is close to a busy
highway, they might sell the flowers directly to the people
who come to buy them. |
Flower
farming is a big, beautiful business!
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