5 Hard-Earned Lessons I've Learned from My Years as a Flower Farmer

Flower farming is more than just growing beautiful blooms—it’s a journey filled with lessons, resilience, and constant adaptation. When I first started selling cut flowers, I had no idea how many challenges and triumphs would come my way. Over the years, I’ve learned that no two flower farming journeys look the same, and that’s okay. Each of us is in a different season of life, and just like nature, those seasons will shift and evolve. The key is learning how to adapt, embrace the lessons, and create a business that aligns with your life and priorities. As you read about my experiences, I hope you’ll find encouragement to carve out your own unique path in the world of cut flowers.

1. Flower Farming takes an incredible amount of work, dedication and determination before that first armload photo can be taken. Things will happen: bugs and animals will eat your flowers, hail storms will damage petals, windy thunderstorms will flatten tall stems (if not supported!), historic winter storms will kill all your garden roses (happened to me. My pet goal may have contributed to it as well. LOL) and seed trays will forget to get watered on a hot day and those plants will be toast. It all will happen and I look at EVERY situation as a learning experience to make me a better cut flower grower. I never get down on myself. With that positive attitude, looking at everything as a learning opportunity will take you far in your career. 

2. Flower Farming can take an incredible amount of your time.  It isn't a 9-5 job. More like a 5:30am to dark kind of job. Sometimes it doesn't even end at dark. You are indoors processing and arranging all of those flowers. Much of what you do revolves around the weather and is time sensitive because you are working with a perishable product. 

3. I can't do it all and it's ok to not sell flowers *all of the ways*. Your flower farming career may look very different from another flower farmers. Your business HAS to work with your family life. As beautiful as cut flowers are, growing them can consume your life, as with any job I suppose.

I really saw this in my first 3 years of growing cut flowers. I eventually learned I had to scale it to fit my life and not take me away from my family. Personally, I am a Mom to 4 very busy kids (16, 14, 12, 9), we homeschool, I tutor at their homeschool tutorial one day a week, shuttle them to multiple sports practices and extracurricular activities, am a full time caregiver (along with my husband) to my husbands mother who lives next door to us, am dedicated to making most of our meals from scratch and we run a livestock farm with 100+ animals. There is a whole lot going on and I had to learn how to make my passion of growing cut flowers and running a business fit into my busy life.  

4. Overtime, you figure out your strengths and learn to lean into that. I am a former Registered Nurse. It is in my soul to take care of people and help them. As my cut flower journey has progressed, I have discovered I have a real passion and joy for teaching others how to grow their own cut flowers too. Not just flower farmers, anyone who wants to! I've let go of some things I used to do with flowers to make more room for what it is that I love to do with cut flowers: teaching and growing. 

Some flower farmers are exceptional wholesaler growers.

Some flower farmers rock the bouquet subscription world.

Some flower farmers specialize in growing and drying flowers for amazing everlasting creations.

Other flower farmers love the community of farmers markets. 

Some flower farmers have a passion to teach others.

There are so many avenues you can go with your cut flowers. It's ok to experiment and let go of what isn't bringing you joy or perhaps, an income! Lean into your strengths that you discover overtime. 

5. Relationships matter and there is always room to expand your knowledge and grow yourself.  I am thankful to the many people that have shared their passion for growing plants over the years. Their generosity has contributed to my learning. It's important to make friends with other flower farmers. I've been offered opportunities with businesses because of these other flower farmers recommending me.

I truly believe no one is your competition because NO ONE IS YOU. I've also learned the hard truth that not everyone will be rooting for you and some people are just in your life for a season. Just like a flower blooms and fades, so do people sometimes.

When it comes to selling flowers, you may think people are buying a product, which they technically are, but they are buying a feeling of joy or an experience of delight. They are connecting the story they follow online with the flowers you grow.  Your flowers offer a transformation of giving a space beauty or an opportunity to give a gift of happiness.  

Putting my face out there and sharing my journey with cut flower growing since early 2018 has been one of the best things I've done for my business. No, you don't HAVE to do this to be successful. Your face does not HAVE to be out there as many people are not comfortable doing that (I had to push myself at first to do this because sticking your phone in your face and talking to yourself is weird. LOL) What it has done is led to many opportunities for me and my business.

I love the cut flower relationships and connections I've built with all sorts of people! 

Bonus tip: This one is for anyone looking to create content for their business. One of the absolute best things I have done for my brand and cut flower business is documenting my journey from the start. I take photos of everything and I mean EVERYTHING. From seed to bloom...or even dead plant. I am serious!

To this day, I still use photos that I took years ago because they apply when helping someone else with a particular cut flower topic.

The ONE thing I wish I would have done a better job of is taking horizontal photos and videos. Virtually all of my content is filmed in vertical form... ya know, for Instagram. I am finding myself in more and more situations now where I need horizontal footage. That is definitely my mission going forward! 

Looking back on my journey, I see that every setback, every long day, and every unexpected challenge has shaped me into the grower I am today. I’ve learned to lean into my strengths, embrace what I truly love about flowers, and most importantly, make my business work for my life—not the other way around.

Flower farming is not just about selling blooms; it’s about the relationships we build, the joy we share, and the transformation we create in the lives of others. No one else can do exactly what you do, and that is your strength. Can 10 different people grow beautiful Zinnias? Absolutely, but there is something about YOU that makes people connect with you more. We all have a story and we all have little ways we connect with others. 

Whether you’re just starting out or years into your own journey, know that every experience is a step toward growth. Keep learning, keep adapting, and most of all, keep finding joy in the flowers.

I'd love to know if you have any flower farming lessons you have learned over the years. Let me know in the comments below!