Session 1 – Clearing Time to Start and Run a Business

‒ Where does the workday go?
‒ Why and how to do a brain dump
‒ How to structure the business day
‒ Tips to really make this all possible

Session 2 – The Business 

‒ Why starting small is the best way
‒ The name and face of the business
‒ The jump from gardener to flower farmer
‒ Online Printing Services

Session 3 – Money Matters

‒ How to get paid
‒ Why you need a CPA
‒ Keeping the books
‒ Financial goal
‒ Bookkeeping Software & Credit Card Processors

Session 4 – Getting Legal & Professional

‒ Why having a plan is important
‒ How to be a professional
‒ Why you need insurance
‒ Licensing and sales tax

Session 5 – Taking Stock of What You Have

‒ How to make the most out of what you have
‒ Taking an inventory can be an eye opener
‒ Thinking about cash to start the business

Session 6 – Getting Organized

‒ How to create a farm guide and record even if you are a terrible record keeper like me!
‒ The weekly schedule of a flower farm
‒ How to stick to your schedule

Session 7 – Life Balance

‒ How to draw a line in the sand
‒ It’s not rocket science–but persistence
‒ When to hire help

Session 8 – Business Stumpers

‒ Some of the common issues that can stop us dead in our business tracks.

Bonus Content

‒ When to Hire Training Video
‒ Multiple Recorded Live Q&A Sessions

Session 1 – Working Garden Design

‒ Think beyond planting- plan for maintenance and tear down
‒ Laying out beds
‒ Windbreaks and drainage
‒ Rotation of crops

Session 2 – Soil Building and Management

‒ Getting a garden started
‒ Season to season soil building
‒ Leaf mold and compost
‒ Using organic fertilizers

Session 3 – Making Beds

This session is made up of 5 separate videos:
‒ 3a Making beds by hand
‒ 3b Making beds with a tiller
‒ 3c Making beds with a tractor and bed maker
‒ 3d Finishing beds
‒ 3e Tips

Session 4 – Flower Farming Tools

This session is made up of 4 separate videos:
‒ 4a About irrigation
‒ 4b Installing flower support netting
‒ 4c Talking fertilizers
‒ 4d Making a low tunnel

Session 5 – Cover Cropping

‒ The benefits
‒ How to include them in your garden
‒ Warm-season crops
‒ Cool-season crop

Session 6 – Weed & Pest Concerns

‒ Preventing weeds
‒ Reading the soil with what weeds are telling you
‒ Ditch pesky crops
‒ ID insects first

Bonus Content

‒ Weed Control
‒ No-Till Beds
‒ No-Till Planting
‒ Why Use Support Netting
‒ Multiple Recorded Live Q&A Sessions

Session 1 – Potential Customers

‒ Breaking the image of yesteryear
‒ What markets might fit you?
‒ Growing for your market
‒ Pricing- don’t undersell yourself and the rest of us!

Session 2 – Deep Dive on Specific Customer Types

‒ 2a Florists
‒ 2b Farmers markets
‒ 2c Supermarkets
‒ 2d Members-only market and bouquet subscriptions
‒ 2e Farmstands, pick-your-own, designers, DIY brides, weddings and events, wholesale houses, co-ops and others

Session 3 – Customer Service

‒ Customers are always right
‒ Making it convenient to buy from us
‒ Look like the professional you are

Session 4 – Marketing

‒ Face-to-Face opportunities
‒ Social media
‒ Freebies

Session 5 – Making Bouquets

‒ Preparing to make bouquets
‒ Making bouquets

Bonus Content

‒ Preparing buckets for bouquet making
‒ Selling
‒ Missing Markets
‒ Market Display
‒ Making a Spring Bouquet
‒ Social Media System
‒ Selling in a Contactless World
‒ Why Build an Email List?
‒ Docs for Gathering Orders
‒ Multiple Recorded Live Q&A Sessions

Session 1 – Seasonal Growing Outdoors

‒ Why to have a road map
‒ The skills of growing outdoors
‒ Growing to fit your conditions

Session 2 – Producing Consistently

‒ Succession planting
‒ Easier to sell a steady crop
‒ Sticking with the schedule
‒ Planning how much to grow

Session 3 – Growing Warm-Season Annuals

‒ When to plant
‒ Giving them what they want
‒ Keeping the blooms coming

Session 4 – Growing Cool-Season Annuals

‒ When to plant
‒ Giving them what they want
‒ Keeping the blooms coming

Session 5 – The Supportive Landscape

‒ Planting beyond the garden
‒ Windbreaks
‒ Backup plantings

Session 6A – My Top Warm-Season Annuals

Session 6B – My Top Cool-Season Annuals

Session 7 – Other Crops

Bonus Content

‒ Grow List
‒ Peony Types
‒ Tuberose Digging Tip
‒ Accessing Bonus Course – Cool Flowers Field Grower’s Report
‒ Multiple Recorded Live Q&A Sessions

Session 1 – Do I Start Seeds or Purchase Plants?

‒ Sourcing seeds and reading a catalog
‒ Storing seeds
‒ Knowing when to buy seeds or plugs
‒ Buying plugs

Session 2A – How to Start and Grow Transplants Indoors

‒ Steps to starting seeds indoors
‒ Planting plug trays
‒ Rooting cuttings
‒ About soil blocks and care

Session 2B – Soil Blocking

‒ How to make, plant and maintain soil blocks
‒ All Things Soil Blocking includes the recipe
‒ Brands of soil that are for soil blocking
‒ Tubs for mixing blocking mix and water
‒ Row covers, hoops, and weight bags

Session 3 – How to Plant Seeds in the Garden

‒ Tips for success
‒ Preparing the bed top
‒ Planting seeds
‒ Preventing and eliminating weeds

Session 4 – Rules of Commercial Seed Starting

‒ How many seeds to start
‒ When to start the seed
‒ Pinching seedlings
‒ Planting seedlings in the garden

Session 5 – Making a Germination Chamber

‒ Why a chamber
‒ Supplies needed
‒ Steps to making a chamber

Session 6 – The Seed Starting Calendar

Bonus Content

‒ Seed Starting
‒ Pinching Annuals
‒ Cool Flower pinching in fall and winter
‒ Ammi Majus Germination Tip
‒ Sprouting Stage Tip
‒ Watering Tip
‒ Pinching Lisianthus
‒ Thinning Bells and Giant Poppies in very early spring.
‒ Spring Walk of Cool Flowers
‒ Direct Seeded Cool Flowers
‒ The Grow Room
‒ Multiple Recorded Live Q&A Sessions

Session 1 – The Commercial Harvester’s Toolbox

‒ Equipment
‒ Preparing buckets
‒ Getting the buckets to the flowers
‒ Bucket washing station
‒ Cool room and cooler

Session 2 – Harvesting Practices

‒ Harvesting techniques
‒ Bloom quality related to the harvest schedule
‒ Stretching flash crops
‒ Bud stage to harvest
‒ When to trash flowers

Session 3 – Conditioning Steps and Products

‒ Why to use products
‒ How to use on a farm
‒ Educating customers
‒ Where to purchase

Session 4a – Where to Make the Cut

‒ What stage to harvest a bloom
‒ Where to make to cut
‒ Proper stripping

Session 4b – Harvest Tips Tender Annuals

‒ My warm-season tender annual harvest tips.

Session 4c – Harvest Tips Hardy Annuals

‒ My cool-season hardy annual harvest tips.

Bonus Content

‒ Harvesting Calla Lily
‒ Harvesting Lisianthus
‒ Harvesting Celosia, Plumes & Cockscomb
‒ Harvesting Hairy Balls
‒ Harvesting Zinnias
‒ Stage to Harvest Lime Light Millet
‒ Cool Flower and Sunflower Harvesting
‒ Multiple Recorded Live Q&A Sessions

Mini-Workshops vary from sixty minutes to over four hours of instruction, see individual courses for details. Each of these courses offer lots of valuable information on a specific topic that you can digest in a short amount of time and put into action right away.

School course content is much more comprehensive and covers broad topics. School courses are meant to serve as a long-term reference tool that you will use all throughout the course of your flower farming journey. Each course includes 6 modules, which each contain multiple video training sessions, instructor worksheets, and handouts, and an FAQ archive. All of the course sessions (including the FAQs) are searchable by keyword, so you can always find and go directly to the information that you need at any given time.

Yes, our online courses are available internationally.

No, the courses are based on methods to apply to any growing area.