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Perfect for gardening enthusiasts at any level, this podcast is your companion to cultivating success and beauty in your own backyard or flower patch. Hosted by Jane Westoby from Fuchsia Blooms Florist and The Hampshire Seed Company.
Each episode is a treasure trove of practical tips, expert advice, and insider flower farming guides designed to help you sow and grow with confidence and harvest with pride. Whether you’re dreaming of rows of neat vegetables or cutting flowers for bouquets all year round, we’ll walk you through every step.
Let’s grow together!
Jane Westoby (00:01)
Hey flower friends and welcome back to the podcast that believes flowers should be local, seasonal and grown with love, not wrapped in plastic and flown halfway across the world. So I'm Jane, the founder of the Hampshire Seed Company and I'm a flower farmer florist who's gone from wedding chaos to seed packet chaos. These days I also help other growers to build blooming good businesses.
whether you are planning your first try of Cosmos or you're scaling up to some serious sales, you're in the right place. So you might have noticed that I have been on a break for the past month because I had quite a lot to do in my own seed business. But over the next coming weeks, I will be delving in. So over the coming weeks though, I'll be delving more into the business and the planning side of things.
to help steer you in the right direction, which is exactly what I have been doing in my business for the past month, which is why I've had a little bit of a break. So today I'm going to dive into something which most new growers avoid like a slug in a salad bed, and that's the numbers. Because here's the thing, if your plot is bursting but your bank balance isn't, then something is off.
If you're harvesting buckets of beauty, but you're still thinking, where's the profit here? You're not alone. But do you need to grow more flowers? I would question that. Or do you need to grow the right ones at the right time and set yourself some targets? Then you have a plan. You have a plan which connects your seed sowing to your sales, your seed sowing to your end goal, your profit.
and your ultimate happiness. So in this episode, it's a bit of a no fluff guide to just figuring out how many flowers you actually really need to grow to hit your income goals. Well, you might be thinking, well, hang on a minute here. I'm not sure I have an income goal. But this is real world flower farmer logic that will help you to grow smarter, it'll help you to sell better.
and actually enjoy your harvest. So let's delve in. So how many flowers do you actually need to grow to run a profitable business that is right for you? You let's be real. You just need a really simple, doable target to help you focus and a way to reverse engineer your growing season around your income goals rather than around guesswork.
because somewhere between the sowing and the snipping, the business, your business, maybe got buried under the blooms. And that's the trap. You might just think that growing more will fix everything. But in reality, over planting without a target is what could be burning you out and draining your resources. So I'd like to say that I've been there, but I'm going to be honest, I haven't.
because I'm a planner. I haven't been there. And that's not me being smug. It really isn't. It's just one of my traits. I'm a planner. I love spreadsheets. And I know that some of you are not into spreadsheets. I totally, totally get it. But if you want your business to be more than just a beautiful and slightly exhausting hobby, you need a target driven
plan. You need to go from guesswork to strategy. Okay, so we can make the numbers nice and easy for you today. So let's say your goal is to make, let's say 10,000 pounds from flowers. Now that's a pretty low number, I know, but if you're starting out, that's kind of a realistic goal to set yourself, which is totally, totally achievable. You're not, you can't fail at that really.
You shouldn't fail at that. And I'll able to show you how. So you might still be working a day job and you only have a few hours to spare, or you might have family commitments, so you don't really know how much time you can spend on this. But if you are more ambitious, or you have neither of those things, then just set yourself a higher target. Your target could be 30,000, it could be 50,000, it could be 100,000. You just need to set that target for yourself.
and that could be the money that you need as a side hustle. It could be the money that you need to replace your salary. Okay. So the first thing you need to think about is that target and everybody's target is going to be different. My target is very, very different to your target. Very, very different to, you know, your neighbor's target. It's very different. Okay. So...
The first step really is to decide after you've decided your target of course is to decide exactly what you're going to be selling. Now you might already have that underway. You might already know that it might be jam jar posies. It might be market bunches, wedding buckets. Each product has a different stem count and importantly a different price point. But if you're not sure where to start to decide this
then have a read through my blog all about finding your flower farming niche. I will link to that in the show notes for you. I won't talk about that today because I think I've already done that on a previous podcast. I'll have a look and I'll link to it in the show notes. If I haven't, that might be next week's podcast. But it's really important that you choose your clients who fit with your lifestyle and your situation. So that blog is perfect for that.
Again, I'll link to that in the show notes for you. Okay, so let's come back to our target. And we're making the maths easy, remember? That's why we're starting at 10,000, but your number can be anything. It could be 20, 50, 100. Okay, and then let's pick an example. So let's say you are going to bouquets, delivered bouquets, at 45 pounds each. Okay, so to make 10,000 pounds from your 45 pound bouquets,
you're just dividing that number. So 10,000 divided by 45 pounds, which equals 223 bouquets. So that's it, that's all, just 223 premium bouquets. You're not trying to sell a thousand roadside bunches here, you're talking quality. So over a six month period of a typical flower farmer season, and I'm talking here in the UK,
In general, know, if you're a little bit further north, your season might be different. If you're further south, your season might be slightly different. Or if you're in another part of the world, your season may be slightly different. But our season here is the main season is April through to October. OK, so that's that's six months. So if you divide that number, that 223 into the six months, that's 37 per month.
Okay, which still seems like a big number, but break that down again. That's about eight a week. now actually you've gone from 223 premium bouquets to eight a week. Okay, see how I did that? That's now doable because you set a target, you've run the numbers, you've looked at your dates, eight bouquets a week. That is totally, totally...
doable. Okay, so your next step is to work out how many actual stems you need to grow. So let's say each bouquet has 20 stems, you nice easy round number, okay, you might have 22, you might have 23, you you need to decide that. But let's say it has 20 stems in it. So for your 223 bouquets with 20 stems in, you're dividing your 223
So you're timesing it by 20 stems. Okay, not dividing it, you're timesing it. So that equals 4,460 stems. So that's your season's target. That's how many stems you need to grow. Not how many plants you need to plant, it's how many stems you need to cut, not even grow to cut, okay? Those 4,460 stems need to be strong enough to cut and sell. They need to be good enough to cut.
and sell. So this is your magic number and this is the one that is going to turn your vague goal, your hobby into a focused growing plan. You're not trying to sell thousands of ten pound bunches at a roadside stall. You've established that already. That's someone else's market.
You're focusing on quality, value and efficiency and you've decided that fewer well-priced bouquets will give you more profit and less burnout.
by spreading the load across the six months and thinking about three defined seasons within your growing season. So think about an early season, a mid season and a late season. And then you can pick suitable crops and break down that thought process again, because you know, actually that 4,460 stems,
well, hang on a minute. We've gone back to another big number again. We know it's eight bouquets. It's 4,460 stems. So what could that look like? So for your early season, you could grow tulips or Orlaya and ranunculas, for instance. OK, so you can work out your spacing, your total area. And actually, if you had a one by if you had three
one by two meter beds. You could grow tulips in one of those beds or Orlaya in the other, ranunculus in your third bed. So you've now got three crops. You don't have 20, 30, 40, 50 different crops to think about. You're being focused, just like your target is focused. Your growing plan is also focused. You've got three crops, okay? So you're gonna plant tulips within a one by two meter bed.
with seven centimeter spacing, you can fit around 400 tulips. In terms of all Orlaya, you can fit about 200 all Orlaya into that same space. And ranunculas, you can fit about 80 ranunculas into that space, okay? So your tulips and your all Orlaya, they'll be a one hit wonder. You will only get one cut off those. So you'll get one stem off your tulip.
off your Orlaya , now you're likely to get about three stems off Orlaya . So although it's a one hit wonder, it's not a cut and come again crop, it does provide you with multiple stems on that crop. So you'll get on average, you'll probably get about three off that. And if you're ranunculas, because ranunculas are cut and come again, you can expect maybe two or three harvests from that. So you'll probably be able to cut about seven stems per plant, okay?
So if you start to add that up, so your tulips, you'll get around 400 tulips, your Orlaya with your three branches, you'll get around 600 stems off that one. And your ranunculus, you'll get around, I'd say probably around 600 stems off that as well, maybe 620, something like that. Okay, so already now you're starting to build this plan. So already you've got,
around 1600. It's actually 1630 to be precise because I have a spreadsheet in front of me with that written on and I'll share that with you too. Okay so that's your early season okay so your mid-season you could grow stocks you could grow Matthiola Incana you could grow snapdragons and you could maybe grow larkspur so they could be your next three crops okay. Now you're not going to be able to get those crops in
the same bed as your tulips, Orlaya and ranuncula's because you will have to have planted those in the ground before the Orlaya the tulips and the ranuncula's have actually flowered. So you will need another three beds for this. So you've now got six beds. So six one by two meter beds. Okay, so you're going to plant your next three crops and these three crops, as well as your
or Orlaya your tulips and your ranunculas, your next three crops. So you could start to actually sow some of those in the autumn time as well, and you can leave some till spring. So you can stagger your succession slightly here as well, if you're clever, but that's a separate one. Your succession planning is a separate podcast. but so if you've got those three crops, you could in that same space,
you could cut around 90 Matthiola Incana around 800 Snapdragons, that's a huge amount, and around 350 Larkspur, okay? So again, you've now got 1,244 stems for your mid-season, and there might be some overlap from your early season as well, okay? And then you come to your late season, okay? So your early season is like April, May.
your mid-season is like June, July, and then your late season, we're talking like August, September time. Okay. So what you can do for your late season is you can actually plant your late season crops into your early season bed because you'll have harvested your tulips, your Orlaya, and your Ranunculus. Your tulip bulbs, you'll have chucked those because they are a one hit. You can't grow from them again. Your Orlaya will be pulled out the ground. That's an annual anyway. Your Ranunculus,
you'll have pulled out and you'll have dried them out and you'll be saving them for next season. Okay, so you'll have an empty bed. You'll be able to flip that bed. Okay, pop some more organic fertilizer in there, maybe a little bit more compost, a little bit of fish blood and bone, a few chicken pellets. So, you know, you've got lots, lots more nutrition going in there and then you can plant your late season crops in there. Okay, so for late season, I would choose something like Cosmos, Zinnias and Dahlia's. Wow.
love Dahlia so much. Okay so off your cosmos, I mean if you've ever grown cosmos you know how prolific it is. You can probably get about 800 stems off that space. You you'll need, you'll probably need about I'd say maybe 80-90 plants something like that and you can get 800 stems from that. Okay your zinnias again you can probably get probably about the same amount probably about 89 plants about
about the same number of about 800 stems as well off that. you know, you're looking at maybe nine. To be fair, the Cosmos, you might even get more than that. But the Zinnias again, you might get something like nine stems per plant because that's a cut and come again. So is the Cosmos. And then Dahlia's, you might get slightly less off your Dahlia's just because it takes them a little bit longer to produce the flowers. They are cut and come again, but you'll probably just get slightly less, maybe eight stems per plant off that.
but you'd have to count them up and it depends what variety it is. So that's just from my experience as an average. So that's actually going to be your biggest season that will net you around 2,300 stems. Okay. So that's bigger than the other two. So your, your spring season was around 1,600, your mid season was around 1,200 and then your late season, can get about 2,300. Okay. So there's a bit of a split there.
So if you add those three together, you've got over 5,000 stems. And that's it, off six one by two meter beds. So you've got a little bit of wastage in there because remember you only needed 4,460 stems to meet your goal. Now you will have wastage. Not every single one of those stems will be perfect. You may have to chuck some, but you'll have some spare because you can actually get
you know, over 5,000 stems out of that space. Okay, so that's your number. It's six well-planned beds equals 10,000 pounds in bouquets. It's about 12 meters squared, roughly. So you might not have beds of that size, but you just need to apply the math and apply the logic, the same logic for the space that you do have, okay? So I have got all of this inside
a blog with this exact example in the blog. will link to it in the show notes for you. Okay. It's called planning for profit. It's my planning for profit blog. Okay. I also have a much bigger spreadsheet available in the shop if you do want to have a look at that as well. Okay. So now you are, you're not just growing for the sake of it. You've got a plan, you've got a layout and you've got a target.
And that is how you grow a profitable flower farm, not a patch of maybes. So I will link to all of that in the show notes for you. And here's what...
So I have got all of this inside my planning for profit blog. So I linked to it all in the show notes. If you want to see this down on paper, it's this exact example. Okay. So what to do next? Set a financial goal. So pick a number that motivates you. If 10,000 doesn't motivate you, maybe 30,000 motivates you, maybe 50,000 motivates you. Whatever your number is, you pick your number.
Choose your products. Is it bunches, jam jars, weddings? Remember, read my blog to find your flower farming niche. It will make life much, much easier for you if you pick something that suits you and your lifestyle. Then work it all backwards. How many bunches, how many stems, how many plants, how many seeds do you need to sow now? So my calculator has all of that in it.
I have a spreadsheet which literally tells you how many seeds to sow, how many trays to sow. And it's the exact spreadsheet that I use in my own business to actually do all of my calculations as well. So I will link to that in the show notes for you as well. And this is where everything shifts. It's when you grow with the end in mind. You stop overcrowding your beds, your head, you know exactly how many trays to sow, you waste less time, you earn more.
and you do finally start to just enjoy the harvest instead of just drowning in it and not really knowing what you're doing. Okay, so you're not here to necessarily grow more, but you're here to grow smarter. You've got the soil, you've got the seeds, and you've got the drive. Now you need your system, a way to connect what you grow with what you earn. And that's what makes the difference between just a lovely flower patch and a profitable flower business.
So I've helped lots of other growers to make that shift as well. And I know that you can too.
So if you are loving this practical side of flower farming, do make sure to subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next and subscribe on our website too and then you'll receive all of our emails with all of our blog links on as well so you don't miss anything. So until next time, grow what you love, plan with purpose. So until next time, grow what you love, plan with purpose and remember, you don't have to grow everything. Grow.
to your target. See you next time.