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The theme of this article is inspired by a hashtag that's trending on social media: #grownnotflown. I am pretty sure my flower-farming friends in the UK deserve credit for coining this phrase a few years back to differentiate their crops from imported ones, and nowadays North American cut-flower growers are adopting the #grownnotflown hashtag.

Trends aside, we know that fresh, local, and seasonal cut flowers are superior to those that travel from afar to reach your customers and your market. What are the best practices for harvesting and caring for flowers, herbs, and foliages before they leave your fields and workshops, to safeguard their quality?

I surveyed five specialty cut-flower growers, all members of Slow Flowers, to glean from their experiences and insights. What you'll read here is collective and cumulative wisdom that adds up to three-quarters of a century of farming and selling flowers.

The following advice comes from Charles Little of Eugene, Oregon-based Charles Little & Co; Laura Mewbourn of Feast & Flora Farm, based in Meggett, South Carolina; Janis Harris of Harris Flower Farm in St Thomas, Ontario, Canada; Ralph Thurston and Jeriann Sabin of Deadhead Cut Flowers in Blackfoot, Idaho; and Melissa Garcia Parry of Howl & Whistle Flower Farm, also in Eugene, Oregon.

Without hesitation, flower farmers cite a publication from the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers as their go-to reference: Postharvest Handling of Cut Flowers and Greens. Subtitled A Practical Guide for Commercial Growers, Wholesalers, and Retailers, the book is "a must when I have a new crop I'm harvesting," says Laura Mewbourn.

As a farmer-florist, Laura's take on the grown-not-flown mantra is twofold: "The biggest selling points for my flowers are that I am growing things that don't ship well or can't be purchased from the wholesaler at all, and that I deliver all of my product in considerably better condition than most of what has been shipped dry."

Janis Harris echoes these sentiments on the value of locally-sourced blooms: "We make sure that we educate our customers and sell them the right flower for their needs," she says. "A bride needs her bouquet to look perfect for a few hours, so we are able to use more unique stems that have shorter vase life. And a market bouquet has to be filled with longer-lasting flowers, so they will bloom for the friend in the hospital or the grandma living in a nursing home."

What to Grow

The recipe for a successful crop mix is as varied as flower farms themselves. Key considerations include the amount of acreage you have available to you as well as what you like to grow.

Charles and Bethany Little are veteran growers and certifiable plant lovers. They write this on their website's "about" page: "Top florists and wholesalers are forever hungry for something unique, something they have never seen. It's our job to provide these kinds of flowers in both quantity and unmatched quality."

When Charles began the farm in 1986, he originally grew "everlasting" flowers for the craft market. Later, with changing customer preferences, he and Bethany transitioned to herbaceous and woody crops, although they did not abandon the annuals that dry well.

"I still love the things that give you two or three opportunities to harvest," Charles says. "Whether it's the flower in the spring or the pod in the fall, it's always great to have some kind of backup plan for a flower. Certainly, we grow statice, ammobium, and strawflower ... all are great dried flowers, but they're almost better as cut flowers."

Charles is always on the lookout for something new and unusual to satisfy customer demand. "It's so important for growers to ignore what the competition is growing and study the seed catalogs, read the trade journals, wander around garden centers and nurseries and even through people's yards. That's the way to find things that no one else is growing."

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Cut-Flower Harvesting & Post-Harvest Care

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Best practices and systems for harvesting and post-harvest handling of flowers and foliage to safeguard quality-wisdom from the Slow Flowers community.

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Find a website that has information about each of the key factors and include it in the section that it fits best.  How is it related to post-harvest care? Record a fact about how each is related to post-harvest care. 

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Find a website that has information about each of the key factors and include it in the section that it fits best.  How is it related to post-harvest care? Record a fact about how each is related to post-harvest care. 

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Post your thoughts about the reading and/or video. Answer the following question: What is post harvest care?

Then, respond to two other discussion posts.