Top Story

3.01.06

By MELANIE DeVAULT

Frank Arnosky grows mega-flowers on his 40-acre wholesale cut flower farm in the Texas Hill Country near Austin, and he had plenty of good advice for Pennsylvania and other eastern growers, big and small.
“Basically, we grow all the same varieties in Texas as you can grow in the northeast,” Arnosky told a packed audience at the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) conference Feb. 3 and 4 in State College. They just have different planting timing because of temperature, he added.
Arnosky, who with his wife, Pamela, sells wholesale flowers in a big way through their Texas Specialty Cut Flowers in Wimberly, Texas, including more than 50,000 bouquets last year, offered plenty of how-to advice on planning, planting, varieties and, at a second session, marketing tips.
This year’s 15th annual PASA conference attracted 1,600 people from 37 states with Sandra Steingraber, biologist and poet, the Feb. 3 keynoter and Dr. John Ikerd, retired professor, economist and author, giving the Feb. 4 keynote address. Brother David Andrews, executive director of the 82-year-old National Catholic Rural Life Conference, was the Feb. 2 pre-conference speaker. More than 70 workshops were offered during the two-day conference, and the pre-conference offered six special day-long tracks.
Arnosky told his groups that in farming and marketing, “It’s all about relationships. The main thing in marketing is tell people who you are, where you’re from and what you’re all about.” And, he adds, if you can dredge up someone you know to make a connection with your customer, by all means make that connection. “Constantly keep telling your story.”
Above all, always think outside the box. “Be creative about what you do. You’re not just selling a commodity; you’re selling your farm, what you grow.” While consistency is most important in marketing your flowers, the ways in which you market often have to change to give yourself that edge. For example, when other flower growers at their farmer’s market lowered their prices and the Arnoskys saw some customers heading for cheaper bouquets, they set up a punch card with a reward that drew back old and also new customers: An all-Texas end-of-season bash at the farm. Response was overwhelming and business was overwhelming all summer.
Wedding flowers offered another exercise in change. “We set up a new way to sell wedding flowers where people come to the farm and pick out their own flowers,” he says. Customers buy bulk flowers and do their own arranging or have it done. “Everyone loves it. This spring, we will set up a building with floral supplies and general arrangement ideas. So we will sell bulk flowers and give advice but we won’t do their special arrangements — other than our standard bouquet.” And they don’t have to deal with mothers of the bride.
Arnosky offers more marketing advice, including:
• Label everything. The Arnoskys label all of their farmer’s market and store bouquet buckets, and put a small label on each bouquet sleeve.
• Be consistent with your product and have a good display. Be consistent with the display/logo, also. “A person has to see or think about something three times for it to register,” he says. “We put our little blue house on our label and when customers come to the farm or drive by and see the house, the logo registers.”
• “You have to get out and make it happen. If you can get free press, it’s so much more valuable than paid advertising,” he says, showing some stories that were done on his farm.
• Marketing sometimes means donating. “We donate to many events,” he says. When George Bush was governor of Texas, they donated flowers for a party at the governor’s mansion — and got invited to the party. That led to a conversation with someone from Farm Bureau who did a blurb on the farm, which brought them customers and more publicity. It all led to an invitation to an inaugural ball!
• Know your prices. Know what flowers are selling for in your upscale grocery and florist. Shipping/fuel prices are getting more expensive, so know how much florists/retailers pay for the product and for the shipping. You have the edge. Don’t give your hard work away. And never use the word cheap, he says. “The last thing you want to be known for is discount flowers. Sustainability, in my mind is economic also. You need to take a vacation, too.”
Arnosky also advises, “Get yourself some kind of greenhouse to grow your own plugs; we grow all our own and the cells go right into the field — 25,000 to 30,000 plugs a week.” Having your own plugs not only saves money, he says, it keeps you going when problems occur. “Always keep going with your planting schedule,” he advises.
And most importantly, don’t skimp on seed cost. “Buy good quality seed. Spend a lot of time going through seed catalogues and seeing what’s new in the market.” He also advises cut flower growers to keep a good succession of flowers going. “We don’t try to save bulbs. We replant a lot. We grow many perennials as annuals.”
Most of Arnosky’s beds are worked on a four-row system, with some three rows per bed. Some flower varieties that Arnosky recommends, include:
• Sunflowers — They plant 7,200 sunflowers a week, some with closer 6-inch spacing for bouquet size flowers and others 12 inches apart for larger flower heads. He likes Superior Sunset from Gloeckner. They start seed in 72 or 128 cells and put out two-week plugs (largely because grasshoppers do more damage to those direct seeded).
• Larkspur — They grow an acre of larkspur every year and use QIS, direct seeded with an onion or cucumber plate on an Earthway Seeder. He also likes Blue Cloud larkspur for its airy quality for bouquets and straight bunches.
• Yarrow — Arnosky likes Colorado and says it should be cut late in the day and should be open when cut.
• Statice — He favors the Splendor and Pacific series, and also likes Fortress mix. Statice is planted in two rows per bed.
• Agrostemma (corn cockle) — This is a cool growing plant and it’s great for bouquets and florists love it. It gives an airy look to arrangements. You can direct seed it like larkspur. Pick when the flower is just coloring but not open.
• Ammi majus — This is another great species for bouquets and can be direct seeded. Watch the sap, Arnosky cautions, as it can cause a skin reaction.
• Rudbeckia — Arnosky recommends several Rudbeckias including R. triloba, a biennial which they grow as an annual; R. fulgida “Goldsturm” and R. hirta.
• Zinnias — “We make more money on zinnias than anything, besides sunflowers and bouquets,” Arnosky says. He likes Benary giant series and recommends batches of pinks and purples in summer because people get tired to reds, oranges and yellows.
Arnosky also raves about Gold Coin marigold — plant them close in the bed to increase height — celosias, and anemone.
He says to speed up harvest, don’t look at the flower you’re cutting — look at the next one. When you bunch, hold the stem down, let it hang. That simple technique will keep your wrists and arms healthy and the flowers happy.