Youse the flower guy?

[hunterridgefarm]

HRF

What we have is about 40 hoop style greenhouse structures all together. Varying in sizes from 24' to 96' long and average 12' to 20' wide. Plus one gigantic plexiglas showhouse building. On most all of the tunnels I put a double Z track about 36'' up from the ground so we can open up the sides in hot weather. There an incubation chamber for germination, a pot filling machine in the "dirt room", and an new automatic seeder machine that was purchased year before last. Sales are mostly all direct retail, we virtually sell everything we can grow. Now and then a little wholesale and start custom orders for a few people.

Herbs are good. I always do good with kitchen herbs and there is always a dozen or more different ones to chose from. A friend of mine wants to expand into medicinal herbs when she retires from her nursing career in a few years.

My ex liked to grow pro cut sunflowers and one plant only gets one flower head They were worth a $1.00 a stem market one year we losing flowers by the dozen. Thought it was deer turned out to be a woodchuck. One day it rained and we watched that chuck...it stood up on hind legs grabbed that stem and pulled the flower over and ate it! She was so mad she went running outside, slipping and sliding thru the mud and must have chased that woodchuck halfway to Connecticut

Perennials and the bulb type plants are easy to grow and always good to market. For cut flowers you can get 500 gladiolas bulbs for about $75 from Harris. Potted Asiatic or the new Asia Florum lilies easily go for $ 3.00 or more apiece and potted daylilies up to $8

I am still in the learning faze and trying to soak up everything I can. I know several old and young farmers that I question and gain knowledge from as well as several greenhouse owners.

We are considering a large hoop house in the field where we grow veggies and a larger greenhouse for flowers and shrubs.

We you get time take some pictures of your hoop houses inside and out and post them. Do you use propane or Natural Gas for heat?

 

[DFB]

I think the purple flower in the second pic is prairie sage, my wife just planted some of those. I looked at the tag yesterday and forgot the name already.

I'm not familiar with prairie sage but I know the meadow sage that we sell along with the black and blue salvia are both the same genus just variations. If I understand things right the perennial in question is in the same general plant order Lamiales but an entirely different family and genus

So its not Salvia. Its a tough one for sure...obviously its difficult to tell the subtle differences from the photo

When ever youse guys are ready I will list what they all are

 

[DFB]

I am still in the learning faze and trying to soak up everything I can. I know several old and young farmers that I question and gain knowledge from as well as several greenhouse owners.

We are considering a large hoop house in the field where we grow veggies and a larger greenhouse for flowers and shrubs.

We you get time take some pictures of your hoop houses inside and out and post them. Do you use propane or Natural Gas for heat?

They are natural gas heated because they are all in the city limits. We use 3 sources of water city and well water at the main business and well and pond water for the ones up at the orchard. We have to do something different there soon as we now have the GAP inspection for the orchard business and need certifiable source for the water. GAP doesn't really affect the flower operation but it's all the same water.

So what is it you want to know?

 

[Egon]

Yep, I buy flowers for my wife occasionally. Flowers from a florist are terribly expensive for us poor folks, and I usually get the flowers from Walmart. Now those are not cheap either, but when I think about what it would take for me to grow those, harvest, package, transport, etc, well . . . I don't see how they can sell them as cheap as they do.

Now despite what is said above that Fellow Is one of the Richer Folks Going in things that really matter!

 

[caps]

I live in the Northern Neck of Virginia. It is difficult to grow many flowers here. The deer eat everything. There is a terrible overpopulation of the things. When we planted roses, the deer ate them. Hostas = deer salad. Planted a hedge on one side of the property and deer ate it right to the ground. They eat the leaves of the trees if they can reach them. About the only thing they haven't eaten are the iris plants. I have seen as many as 80 deer in a field at a time. A herd of them come thru my back yard every day. Cars are always hitting them on the roads. Several of our neighbors think they are cute and feed the beggers. I would shoot them but don't want the neighbors on my back about it. The deer don't even run from small dogs and ignore me when I yell at them from the porch. Stinging them on the rump with a bb gun chases them away but doesn't really solve the problem. What I really want is some sort of plant that the deer eat and then it kills them. Yeah, I know - sounds bad and makes me a monster but what to do???

 

[Jstpssng]

That's it? Just two guys!

I come home after a half day of work (7am-7pm)

To find nobody got it right?

Most interesting you each got 2 right on one but you each only had one right on the other

Jstpssng got 2 out of 3 on the first set of flowers and JF with two on the second set

I say give these guys an A for effort :thumbsup:

I confess I wondered how you forced the daisies and daffodils to bloom together... Now I know I had the wrong flower...

If you weren't so far away I'd work for you a few weekends; compensation optional. I do miss the good old days in the greenhouse.

 

[Jstpssng]

Yep, I buy flowers for my wife occasionally. Flowers from a florist are terribly expensive for us poor folks, and I usually get the flowers from Walmart. Now those are not cheap either, but when I think about what it would take for me to grow those, harvest, package, transport, etc, well . . . I don't see how they can sell them as cheap as they do.

Now despite what is said above that Fellow Is one of the Richer Folks Going in things that really matter!

Part of the bread and butter of my parent's business was selling geraniums... all year we'd keep the stock plants watered and fed in a raised bed in the greenhouse and that was what the cuttings were taken from. I don't remember exactly when they would take cuttings, but these would be treated with a growth hormone, rooted in a heated sand bed, transplanted to pots, and placed on the benches which they eventually would be sold from. We would pack them tightly at first, to save on space which needed to be heated but as they grew we kept spacing them out so they wouldn't be cramped... fortunately by then the wholesale customers would be coming to pick up plants and we would gain space that way, also. A healthy plant is more than just blossoms... if you want it to stay looking good throughout the summer you want a nice stocky stem with healthy foliage; a steady supply of buds to keep the color coming; yet you also need some color; partially and fully developed blossoms; for Memorial Day when everyone visits the gravesites. Pretty tough on those cold rainy springs when the sun doesn't come out. Color is easy... all you have to do is boost up the heat; yet that doesn't produce healthy plants.

Across the road from where the greenhouse stood is a large cemetery... for decades my family planted and maintained flowers for people who's loved ones are buried there.

At some point, somebody planted one of those "imported" geraniums which was infested with an invasive beetle; said pest has inundated the soil in the entire 30+ acre cemetery so that nobody can plant a Geranium there... it will be eaten in a week. If my father hadn't decided early on that none of us would take over the business, this insect would have closed us down anyhow... it isn't on our property yet but will be in a few more years.

I can already predict people asking for the Cliff Notes on my comments so here they are; Buy your plants at walmart if you want junk; go to your local grower if you want quality.

 

[grnspot110]

What I know about flowers & what I can remember are two different things!!!

 

[DFB]

Part of the bread and butter of my parent's business was selling geraniums... all year we'd keep the stock plants watered and fed in a raised bed in the greenhouse and that was what the cuttings were taken from. I don't remember exactly when they would take cuttings, but these would be treated with a growth hormone, rooted in a heated sand bed, transplanted to pots, and placed on the benches which they eventually would be sold from. We would pack them tightly at first, to save on space which needed to be heated but as they grew we kept spacing them out so they wouldn't be cramped... fortunately by then the wholesale customers would be coming to pick up plants and we would gain space that way, also. A healthy plant is more than just blossoms... if you want it to stay looking good throughout the summer you want a nice stocky stem with healthy foliage; a steady supply of buds to keep the color coming; yet you also need some color; partially and fully developed blossoms; for Memorial Day when everyone visits the gravesites. Pretty tough on those cold rainy springs when the sun doesn't come out. Color is easy... all you have to do is boost up the heat; yet that doesn't produce healthy plants.

Across the road from where the greenhouse stood is a large cemetery... for decades my family planted and maintained flowers for people who's loved ones are buried there.

At some point, somebody planted one of those "imported" geraniums which was infested with an invasive beetle; said pest has inundated the soil in the entire 30+ acre cemetery so that nobody can plant a Geranium there... it will be eaten in a week. If my father hadn't decided early on that none of us would take over the business, this insect would have closed us down anyhow... it isn't on our property yet but will be in a few more years.

I can already predict people asking for the Cliff Notes on my comments so here they are; Buy your plants at walmart if you want junk; go to your local grower if you want quality.

:thumbsup:

 

[dave1949]

I'm not familiar with prairie sage but I know the meadow sage that we sell along with the black and blue salvia are both the same genus just variations. If I understand things right the perennial in question is in the same general plant order Lamiales but an entirely different family and genus

So its not Salvia. Its a tough one for sure...obviously its difficult to tell the subtle differences from the photo

When ever youse guys are ready I will list what they all are

I looked at the tag again today, it said Salvia Viola Klose common name "meadow sage"