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question about cut flowers for market
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Posted by beth47-romania (My Page) on Mon, Jan 28, 08 at 9:25
| We are a small Christian charity based in North-eastern Romania - we try to help the poor with projects like market gardens, etc. We have been very successful with vegetables, but last year we tried to branch out into the cut-flower market - with mixed results. We got some very beautiful flowers, but a lot more burnt up in the greenhouse because of heat and we lost more in transport. Our families transport on foot, bicycle or horse and cart (mostly) and so transporting flowers is an issue. Can anyone give us some ideas as to which flowers will grow well in our climate (very similar to Northeastern Washington/Northern Idaho (can get down to -10C in winter and +30C in the summer)) and be hardy enough to handle being transported in the way described and still be nice enough to sell?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for your prompt response. I am a biologist by training which makes me the default "expert" here - but I am an environmental biologist and although I know something about plant biology - when it comes to practical plant knowledge, I am a neophyte... |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: question about cut flowers for market
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| Some flowers like lilies and tulips could be transported dry in styrofoam ice chests and then put in water for a bit to rehydrate before selling.Gladiola would transport the same way. I can not think of any good way to transport the more tender ones except to maybe do it at night before the sun is up. |
RE: question about cut flowers for market
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| I saw that Bryan responded to you on the market forum, he had some great suggestions. Lizalily is an experienced hand at this business and the dry styrofoam transport would work but if this is not an option, personally I would stay away from lilies, because although they are very willing to put up with alot, mine always end up with broken petals and busted buds when asked to be transported along especially bumpy roads. Glads in stage 1 or further along for that matter, Sunflowers in stage 1, statice, yarrow, amaranth, maybe Dianthus, Celosia, Helichrysum would be really good, and any of the other tough kids that have smaller clusters of flowers that dont shatter easily would be ideal. IMHO. What flowers are available to you over there in Romania, anyway? Best of luck. Kat |
RE: question about cut flowers for market
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| Thanks for the follow-ups, not sure if dry styrofoam is available here - will look and see what I can find - although, transporting styrofoam chests on bike or on foot would probably be pretty cumbersome. Last year we tried Dahlias, Sunflower, Dianthus, yarrow and a few others - all of which grew well... |
RE: question about cut flowers for market
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| Beth, you may have done this already, but check out the grow lists thread posted on the forum. Huge suggestions, alot of which will do quite handily for you I would think. Good luck. Kat |
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