Please join us on our 26-acre farm where we grow mainly perennials and woody cuts for year round production. We believe that the best time to look around here is in the spring.

At Smit Nursery Ltd., we feel that when something as beautiful as flowers can be used to express emotions, then these beauties should not be restricted to only a particular season. This is why at our facility, we specialize in growing flowers even off season. We provide the local market with perennial cut flowers.

Besides being a supplier to the local market, we also ship our flowers to the United Flower Growers Auction in Burnaby. Our facility is high on a perfect mixture of nature and science, which allows us to get the best quality flowers.

Sasha Kanno

Farm Lot 59 is a 501(c)3 working urban farm that specializes in growing rare and unusual varieties of flowers and organic vegetables. We envision a world where we serve as a center for community engagement and wellness – it is not our farm, it is yours. We provide a local Food Hub with the vegetables we grow. Our goal is to serve vulnerable populations in our community, to help with immediate food needs, and inspire them to eat and live healthily. We use our diverse farm to host educational, volunteer, and other events that bring together our community to learn about the benefits and possibilities of urban farming and so much more. We fund our efforts through our Farmstand sales of the unique flowers we grow, and through generous donations.

Our year-round farming operation has two high tunnels, drip irrigation, grey water produce washing station, and rain barrels to collect water. Our practice is minimal till to no-till. We use cover cropping, tarping, and have a shed full of small farm tools.

Sasha Kanno is the founder and farmer of Farm Lot 59. Before it was founded in 2010 Sasha was a floral designer working in film and for prestigious shops in LA and OC. Her designs have been featured in People magazine, The Knot, and other publications. She has been awarded numerous grants and awards for her work in the community as a leader, innovator, and driving force in the local food and floral movement. She is a member of Slow Flowers, the Association of Specialty Cut Growers, and an active member of the USDA Farm Service Agency County Committee serving Los Angeles County.

Attendees will be able to see our off-season greenhouse improvements (version 5.0 ) and how we grow in our two high tunnels. By the end of May, we will be wrapping up spring and planting our first round of summer annuals. We look forward to sharing with you!

Jean Howard

We are an example of all you can do with only five acres! We opened in 2017. We are an off-grid solar, educational, herb, egg, cut flower, and music farm in Mathews County, Virginia. We do everything small scale, using organic practices. We also present programs on farm, off farm and online; offer an annual herbalist course. We share knowledge on natural wellness, living simple and self-sustaining, farm skills, and healing music. Our farm includes chickens, ducks, rabbits, beehives, 3 big dogs, herb and cut flower gardens, hoophouse, grow room, indoor education and music center, large outdoor stage, meditation areas, Yellow Barn Store, refreshment area, large firepit gathering area. We are open to the public—a good example of adding agritourism to your farm model. We have a Non-Profit Fiscal Sponsor for the Music at the Farm.

We will discuss our efforts to produce cut flowers organically, as well as an herb talk, “Staying healthy at any age – so we can do the work we love!”. There will be time to enjoy the labyrinth, peace pole, and woodland wellness walk.

Leap Frog Farm

I have been growing for 5 years. My method until recently has been mostly “throw it against the wall and see what sticks.” I’ve tried pretty much everything: CSAs, small farmers’markets, big farmers’ markets, DIY weddings. I didn’t have a cohesive plan and vision until I helped found Central Virginia Flower Collective in spring 2022. Being a part of a cooperative selling model has helped me hone and fine-tune my growing and sales plans. Not only does the Collective provide extensive stem metrics through Rooted Farmers, it provides weekly feedback on what is and isn’t a saleable item.

I’d like the focus of this tour to be on the collective model. I am in central Virginia, where we have faced an uphill battle to encourage the use of local flowers. After attending a Johnny’s webinar on flower cooperatives in 2021, I contacted every local farm listed in the ASCFG directory. Seven of us came together and started CVFC.

For the farm tour, I’ll showcase the farm and steps that I’ve taken to turn a former cow field into a working flower farm. Then, several of our collective members will form a panel to discuss how joining a collective has impacted their growing and sales plans for 2023.

Take an in-depth look at Harmony Harvest farm during a group tour of the grounds which include seven field acres, eight grow houses, and the farm’s agritourism operations! During the tour, we will walk through the farms elaborate range of high tunnels and heated houses to understand the use of these structures to extend early spring and late fall sales. We’ll explore the farm’s Heritage Barn where they run a robust drying operation that helps to carry fall and winter sales. As we tour the grounds with owner and Visionary, Jessica, she will explain the story of how Harmony Harvest Farm came to be the pioneer direct-to-consumer bouquet shipping through an e-commerce-based farm business. We will see the farm’s year-round store front and experience the agritourism and interactive outposts through the grounds, all while learning the fundamentals of their field rotation, planning, and how they communicate on the fly with a large team.

Mum’s the Word

If you haven’t heard, Harmony Harvest Farm is determined to invigorate the American floral industry with a signature crop that has export potential. During this breakout, Jessica Hall and Ball Seed Representative, Dave Dowling with discuss The Mum Project and why the chrysanthemum should be a staple in every grower’s garden. You won’t want to miss exciting future that this crop has to offer!

Market your farm as a Community

Learn about the benefits of community partnerships and local marketing with Harmony Harvest Farm’s CMO, Stephanie Duncan and General Manager, Elizabeth Stover! During this session, Stephanie and Elizabeth will show you how local partnerships can be impactful tools for your business and how to best reach your local audience. From finding resources to brand-building collaborations, Stephanie and Elizabeth will talk about some creative ways partnering in your community can build synergy and be a win for all.

Bugs Know No Boarders

When it comes to sourcing or sending plants, it’s important to remain good stewards of our country’s ecosystems and how to keep them healthy! In this session, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) inspectors will give insight into the dangers of unwanted pests and things to think about when moving perishables across state lines. What are the biggest concerns in our nation and your own backyard? Come listen to Molly as she teaches us all how to be better bug and disease detectives!

Vashon Peony Co. is a climate-forward farm located on Vashon-Maury Island near Seattle, Washington operating on 12 acres of Preservation Farmland. Our main goal as a medium-sized grower is to improve the quality and quantity of cut flowers while improving the environmental impact of cut flower sales in the U.S. We are a new farm, started in 2021 and are very excited to host a tour and foster discussion about how growers, designers, and brokers can collaborate to meet and expand domestic demand for domestic flowers. We will discuss: the climate impact of the transcontinental cut flower trade; risk and instability within transcontinental cut-flower reliance; logistical concerns and disaster mitigation for cut flower growers and purchasers; environmental concerns from the cut flower purchasers’ perspective; opportunities for communicating how locally grown flowers have unique climate benefits; ways to improve our climate impact as growers and purchasers; sustainable and beneficial farming techniques; radical transparency and collaboration as industry movers; and brainstorm together any climate concerns for attendees farms or businesses.

Takii is a 187-year-old Japanese vegetable and flower breeding company. We are known for our cut flowers, especially our cut Lisianthus, Sunflowers, Ornamental Kale, and Asters, as well as unique crops like Gomphrena, Celosia, Delphiniums, and several others. You could say we’re in it for the long haul.

We breed only seed varieties, and our goal is to continue to produce superior quality flower varieties by combining the best science, research, and ingenuity to fuel the success of growers! Part of that work involves regional trials and partnering with research Universities to test and learn so that we can help our growers succeed.

The first half of this morning event will start at the University of Georgia Horticulture Farm where Dr. Kate Cassity and graduate student Johnathan Pulliam are conducting the second round of trialing focusing on Lisianthus. This year’s project entitled “The Effect of Shade on Organically Grown Lisianthus Cut Flower Quality and Yield” will reveal the effects on stem length, flower size, and yield under variable levels of shade. These findings will provide useful information to regional growers.

From there, the group will be transported in vans to travel to Hidden Garden! This is a private and confidential trial garden. Takii works with Jenny Buley and her team to field-grow Takii vegetables, Cut Flowers and Bedding plants to test them in the Southeastern heat and humidity! This year, Takii’s sister company Sahin will have niche seed-cut flower items in the field.

Attendees will get a firsthand look at varieties that are being evaluated for the commercial market. Understanding how the data are collected, what we look for, and what our growers need and want are all part of the breeding process and bringing cut flowers to market. Highlights will be the field-grown Sunflowers and Lisianthus from Takii, and Eucalyptus and Scabiosa from Sahin. Cut flower growers will love the variety and information they can glean from this half-day look behind the breeding scenes!

Arrive 8:00 am at the UGA Horticulture Farm
8:15 am Introduction
8:30 – 9:15 am UGA Lisianthus Research
9:30 am Travel to Hidden Garden together in vans. No personal vehicles allowed.
10:00 am Hidden Garden Introduction
10:15 – 11:45 am Hidden Garden Breeding Data
11:45 am Wrap up and travel back to cars at UGA Horticulture Farm

This tour is limited to 30 attendees. Registration will be taken on a first-come, first-served basis.

Butterbee Farm is a five acre flower farm in Maryland, specializing in quality cuts for designers and florists, and using no-till farming methods. After ten years in business, farmers Laura Beth and Jascha bought their own land and moved the farm. Join them at Butterbee 2.0 for an in-depth tour of their brand new farm, including heated greenhouses, annual and perennial fields, livestock, and infrastructure. Discussion topics will include moving the farm, deciding on farm layout, no-till farming, and selling to florists. The tour will end with Q&A and chit chat over light snacks and beverages. Parking is limited, please consider carpooling. Address and directions will be sent closer to the date; the farm is about 10 minutes north of Ladew Gardens in White Hall, Maryland.

We have about 60,000 sq ft of field production and 3 hoops for cut flower production. We own a garden center and a flower shop, where we sell all our cut flowers, about 6 minutes from our field. My father started the flower shop and garden center 76 years ago. We have started producing cut flowers in a field, just by our greenhouse production zone, 5 years ago. I studied landscaping and greenhouse production at the University of Guelph in Ontario, 30 years ago and it helps me a lot every day in my flower production. Our specialty is zinnias, but we have a lot of different varieties and species.

Jennifer Marks

Trademarks Flower Farm is a 22.5 acre farm, with approximately 1 acre in intensive cut flower production (zone 6a). We grow specialty cut flowers primarily for one farmers’ market, our 100+ member flower CSA, and wholesale to florists. Each year we are taking steps to narrow our niche specifically to winter production for early spring flowers, with a major focus on ranunculus. We currently have one 20 x 40 propagation greenhouse, two 17′ x 96′ caterpillar tunnels, two 30′ x 96′ high tunnels, and will be constructing two additional 30 x 96′ high tunnels in winter 2022/23 (they will likely be erected by the time of the farm tour). We also have a newly-built 40′ x 60′ barn that serves as a work space for flower processing, storage, and office. When we purchased our farm in 2015, there was not a single piece of infrastructure on the farm, as it had been abandoned for 7 years and was completely overgrown/uncared for during that time. I am glad to discuss building and growing in hoophouses for those of us in northern climates.

We grow “year round,” however, our marketing (selling) season starts mid-April and extends to late October/early November. Our main crops include ranunculus (~9,000/season), lisianthus (~10,000/season), and dahlias (~1500/season), however, we also grow smaller amounts of hardy annuals such as campanula, dianthus, and snapdragons, in addition to summer annuals such as zinnias, celosia, ageratum, etc. We’ve transformed one 17′ x 96′ caterpillar tunnel into a semi-permanent eucalyptus house, home to approximately 1300 perennial eucalyptus plants. We are careful to grow only flowers that we know we make money on each season, and keep close tabs on profit per crop in order to track overall profitability to ensure the sustainability of our farm.

We are Judd and Shannon Allen We have the honor and privilege of farming our land together and creating a lot of beauty in this world. When we started, we had 1/4 acre and three children under three. We’ve learned so much since we planted those seeds 6+ years ago! We’ve expanded the farm every year and now it includes eleven acres of cut flowers. Our children have grown right along with the farm and now we get to live our dreams together everyday,

Bloom Hill Farm is a specialty cut flower farm growing on over eleven acres. This includes nine acres of annuals, one acre of perennials and woody cut shrubs, and four greenhouses. Our season runs late March through October starting with specialty tulips and ending with mums and other fall tunnel flowers. We plant over 10,000 dahlias each year and specialize in other crops such as sunflowers, ranunculus, anenome, and lisianthus. Our farm utilizes biodegradable plastic as our main weed control method. Over the last six years, we have grown our farm from 1/4 acre to over eleven acres and attribute that success to a lot of hard lessons learned, perseverance, and business focused decision making.

Our current sales outlets include: wedding and event design, on farm events, farm stand, retail florals, florists, grocery and wholesale accounts. The farm also supports an over 125 person CSA model.

In 2022, our farm was featured in a national John Deere advertisement. Shannon is the co-host of flower farming podcast, The Dirt on Flowers, and together they mentor other farmers with on farm consulting.

Come visit our farm! We have 15 acres in production spread over two farm locations where we grow a wide variety of vegetables and cut flowers. We grow in greenhouses and fields with vegetables production 12 months of the year and flower production 9 months. This tour will focus on tools and equipment that can be employed on larger scale/mixed operations, employee management, and growing technique for a high-desert climate. We will talk about production and marketing for Farmers markets, CSA’s, Florist and wholesale outlets, growing for dried and on-line sales.