I have a small workroom, about 7 by 11 at the back of my garage. IT is barely big enough to contain my buckets and have work space but I manage. I have an air conditioner in it and I leave it set about 58 degrees which is about as low as it can go. My flowers seem to like it at that temp though florists would store them at quite a bit cooler. SUre is nice working in there on a hot muggy August night!

I have a Bush 2-door floral cooler (compressor on top), but...right now its not enough. SO....I am transporting flowers up to our house and have our heat pump on and am putting these in the dark, cold basement!! I'm going to be researching a walk-in cooler!

I have learned a lot this year...I keep the lights off in the cooler and have actually made the space in my barn as dark as possible too...to prevent things opening faster than I want to.

Wendy

Actually, no, I'm way up in the northern tip of Idaho, only about an hour's drive from Canada. Orem must be at least 500 miles away, probably more, I haven't checked. The cooler looks nice but is TOO nice - I want something I can put in or behind my garage where the public never sees it (I live out in the middle of nowhere), so I wouldn't spend that kind of money on something nice enough for public display/sales. Besides, I'm in no position to spend a thousand dollars at the moment. I'm saving up for a new greenhouse. Thank you for thinking of me, though.

I'm almost content with my two old fridges in the garage. I've removed most of the shelves and drawers in them, to make the most vertical space possible. They are dark inside when the door is closed, and I can keep them florist-low, usually around 40 degrees. They could go lower but that risks them freezing on a very cold night, so I just keep them around 40. None of the flowers continue to age at that temperature, they just hold. There is only enough room for four full buckets of fairly tall flowers, so I only store my most-valuable flowers in them (tulips, peonies, lilies, sunflowers), not glads or anything else that takes up a lot of space but is of lesser value. Currently, they are full of Oriental lilies and sunflowers, although I think the sunflowers are going to get pulled out to make more room for lilies before market day comes around. For two or three weeks, starting right now, I wish I had another fridge, or a nice big florist's cooler, but it's not worth the investment for just two or three weeks a year. I'm determined NOT to let my business grow, so the need isn't going to escalate.

On harvest day, when I have 10 to 27 buckets of flowers to cool down and condition, I put the air conditioning in the house down to 65 and keep them all indoors. I do all the arranging there, too. There's no way I'd do that to store all the flowers more than one day a week - it's too expensive!

Jeanne

Ah, we got rid of our refrig in June because it only cooled to about 48 degrees. Now I wish we would have kept it! Maybe I can find one at an estate sale or something...

Sorry about the Utah/Idaho thing....

No big thing. I sometimes get some of the eastern seaboard states confused. That happens. Believe it or not, people often confuse Idaho with Iowa. Nobody who has been to either one would ever make that mistake! Idaho is part of the dry West with lots of the Rockies in it. Iowa is humid Midwestern, no mountains, lots of farm fields. At least you confused two dry Western mountain states that aren't very far from each other.

48 degrees is better than 90, which is what the temperature is getting to these days here.

I got one of my old fridges from a relative, the other from the locals ads paper. Not many folks around here read the newspaper, but EVERYBODY reads the ads paper.

Jeanne

Honeybunny, Check out any local florists that's going out of business. They may have a smaller cooler cheap just to get rid of it. I remember one shop that I worked at where the owner built a cooler- just a small room with a compresser to keep it cool. We had to dump the water from time to time from a bucket that it would drain into. He built shelves in it too. He put those plastic strips hanging down from the inside of the doorway and just used a regular household door. Seemed to work OK. Don't know if it was cost-efficient or not.As cheap as he was, I doubt that if it ran up the electric too much he wouldn't use that type of cooler :)

"I'm determined NOT to let my business grow.."

That's one of the toughest to learn lessons in any kind of business. Congrats on getting it exactly right!

"That's one of the toughest to learn lessons in any kind of business." That not a lesson one learns in business. Growing cutflowers for market is one he!! of alot of work. It takes more blood, sweat and tears than some of you can imagine. These flower farms don't grow on their own. And, when you have a competitive business such as this, one needs to stay one step ahead of the game if this is one's livelihood. This isn't a hobby for many growers -- some of whom post here on the Cutting Garden and flowerfarmer included. I read the frustration some of the growers experience; and, I can identify with all of that. The person who posted that she didn't want to grow would be considered a hobby grower. Hobby growers don't have to grow, and most never do. Most businesses, however, want to grow. Don't they Donn? That's what made America what it is today. We are free to own our own business. We are free to grow our business. And, one is also free to grow as a hobby; but, don't pretend to be something that you are not.

"Most businesses, however, want to grow. Don't they Donn?"

Most do want to grow, from their inception to a sustainable level, but there's no law in business that requires a successful business to continue to grow. To call a business that controls it's growth at a certain level a hobby, is innacurate and demeaning. The classic description of the historic family farm in America is one of businesses being constrained by acreage, finances, labor etc., yet being successful enterprises.

Well, actually, I think most other flower farmers WOULD consider me a hobby grower. I seriously tried to grow the business once, quit my nursing job, etc. and decided it was way too much work and time for very little reward. If I weren't spoiled by my R.N. paycheck, maybe I'd like it better, but I can work much more easily in an air-conditioned hospital for way more money in half the time, so I went back to the hospital. And am determined not to do that again. However, I'm not really strictly a hobby grower, either, as we do depend on my flower income. I work as a nurse only one or two days a week, but work as a cut flower grower for all the remaining days of the week, often very long hours (sunup to sundown, generally). I price my flowers fairly, not dead cheap, so that I'm not working for nothing or underselling Costco. I've been an active member of our farmers' market for eight years. I consider my presence at the market to be a sacred obligation whenever I have flowers (broken only for a death in the immediate family). I have customers who rely on me to be there with a quality, long-lasting product, and I am proud of those products. I track my expenses and income and make conscious business decisions accordingly. That, and it's hard to call something that takes up so much of my life a hobby! And it's hard to look at all 23 buckets of flowers conditioning in here right now and call them just a hobby. Maybe it's more of a lifestyle than a hobby, but at any rate, I'm the business exception in that I quite consciously DON'T want to get any bigger.

Jeanne

Jeanne, you may not want to grow, but I'll bet you've got mini-branches sprouting all over...lol From early days on the Cutting Forum you've been consistently evangelizing...and successfully. I wonder how many hours you've spent patiently explaining, encouraging...so many must have said "If Jeanne can do it in Idaho, surely I can do it in SC or TN or TX".

I think you're wise to have sought and found your balance between your cutflowers, family and nursing. It seems to suit you and others may take your "part time" route for their own reasons.

So many of us, hobbyists and professionals, have gained from your willingness to share your expertise here day after day.. Just wanted to say this...thanks. josh

It's kind of hard to look at 27 buckets of flowers conditioning in here and call it a hobby. I work as a nurse at a hospital one to two days a week, and in the field as a flower farmer the rest of the time, usually sunup to sundown, always WAY over 40 hours per week. We do depend on the income, and I run it as a legitimate, albeit small, business. I charge a reasonable amount for my flowers; I'm not giving them away or trying to compete with Costco. They are too much blood, sweat and tears not to charge a decent price for, in fact I charge more than the "fulltime" flower farmer there - I don't think she tracks her expenses. I consider my market membership and obligations as completely binding. My customers count on my being there with a quality product EVERY week in the season. It takes a death in the immediate family to get me to skip market. However, I worked hard to grow my business in the past and turned out not to like it that way, so I purposely cut back and intend to stay there. In my case, I learned by experience that I didn't like it as a bigger business, but I would call it successful small business. I wouldn't call it a hobby. Being small-time doesn't mean it's not professional. I only work very part-time as a nurse, but I'm still a registered nurse and would never consider nursing a hobby.

Jeanne

Oops! I didn't mean to post almost identical follow-ups twice. For some reason I didn't think the first one had "taken". I was very annoyed but wrote another. Now there they both are ---oops! I'm sorry. Josh, thanks for your encouraging words.

Jeanne

I store my flowers in a Kysor Floral Cooler.

Here is a link that might be useful: Floral Cooler

floral-cooler, did you read the businesses using the forms policy? If you are going to have us read your advertisment you should at least give us 50% off or pay gardenweb.

Bryan