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What is your mix of annuals to perennials?
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Posted by fundybayfarm z5westernN.S. (My Page) on Sun, Oct 19, 08 at 8:56
Hello all,
It seems as though my theory on perennials verses annuals changes often, kind of with the season! I have invested a lot of money on perennials and must admit they often fill in quite nicely when annuals just aren't there, or not enough of them. But it also seems as though the flowers don't fly off the table until the annuals come in full force. I was just wondering what those of you in my zone or similar find the most useful for perennials. I am down sizing my business a bit and am trying to come up with a list of the most useful plants. I have been selling cut flowers for just 5 years and have found this forum to be most helpful. I am also going to list the perennials that I have found to be very useful and that I'll definitely keep.
Painted daisy
whorled yellow loosestrife
coronation gold and terra cotta yarrow
helenium-all colors
gooseneck loosestrife
monarda-red and pink
agastache-purple
phlox-orange perfection, white, hot pink
lilies- as many colors as you have room for but I am now avoiding the OT's because the fragrance is just too strong
delphinium
campanula
astrantia
crocosmia
hydrangea-limelight
peonies
dianthus-biennial
feverfew
Lady's mantle
russian sage
Liatris
centurea macrocephella(?) yellow basket flower
fall aster- ruby red
These are the ones I consider the most useful. Sorry for the long post, hopefully you are all getting to the point in the season you have a little time to respond. I still have so much to do but while I'm out in the field closing things down I'm still trying to plan for next year. Don't we all do that? Anyway, I look forward to hearing from you all.
Cheryl |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: What is your mix of annuals to perennials?
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Hey Cheryl,
You mentioned about 80-90% of the ones I grow and several I don't grow. Some of the ones you didn't mention: astilbe
echinops
sea holly
hellebore
chrysanthemums
bearded iris
columbine
solidaster Maybe you grow these but don't use them as much. My situaiton may be a bit different from yours because I only do subscriptions and do a 6 month season. I think it is harder to develop a business like mine, but the advantage is that I sell as many bouquets in April and October as I do in July and August. This means about half the flowers have to be perennials. I've been doing this about the same amount of time as you, we are getting to be old timers!
Kirk |
RE: What is your mix of annuals to perennials?
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Kirk,
Thanks for your response. I do grow some of what you mentioned but you're right, I don't use them as much. I don't grow solidaster but would like to get some,and I've never used hellebore and the chrysanthemums I have are crazy daisy but they always get these little tiny bugs on them that I can't seem to get rid of. What are you growing for fall?
I have 2 subscriptions and the rest of my business is the farmers market and sales on the farm. I would love to have more subscriptions.
Cheryl |
RE: What is your mix of annuals to perennials?
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Cheryl,
In the fall I mostly grow chrysanthemums and asters. I also have Amazon dianthus, eucalyptus and a few reblooming delphiniums. By chrysanthemum I mean the true fall blooming mums, not shastas. I really like perennial asters. I mostly use the New York asters (Nova belgii) since the New England ones seem to close up sometimes. I have had a hard time finding tall New York asters, most of the ones you see are short. Solidaster blooms earlier than other asters - I think in August. It is pale yellow, one of those light yellows you can combine with almost anything. The flowers are tiny but there are many of them so you can use it like a pale yellow baby's breath. I really like it, but I guess I get excited about little filler flowers (like asters) that most people don't care much about. Kirk |
RE: What is your mix of annuals to perennials?
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| By subscriptions, do you mean something like a bouquet-of-the-month club? How do you charge, and collect payment, for these subscriptions? Are they contracted for a certain period of time? Sorry for all the questions, I am intrigued... |
RE: What is your mix of annuals to perennials?
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Kirk,
Could you please tell me the varieties of chrysanthemums you grow? I have never grown any and could definitely use some extra flowers in the fall. I most always grow amazon for fall and this year my glads took their sweet time blooming but that worked out well because I stretched them to the max. I took a break on asters this year due to the asters yellow they get and also the bugs they draw in. I guess it's a tarnish bug, as they don't look like leaf hoppers. Where do you find seed for your New York asters? The fall aster I use is the violet colored Ruby red, available from Veseys. It's quite tall and very useful. It looks really nnice mixed in with dianthus and dahlias.
I do get the odd delph blooming in the fall, not a very long stem though. Are your mums perennial, and do they last several years?
Prairie girl,
The way I did my subscriptions is by an 8 week period where a person or business pays in advance for the service and then a fresh bouquet of flowers arranged in a vase is delivered weekly. The next week you deliver a new one and pick up your vase from last week. Cost depends on your expense and the flowers used, distance you go, ect..It's a great way to sell your flowers if you have enough interested people, and also people who take care of the flowers. I find if they don't change the water in the vase and keep the water level up it can actually be bad advertising not to mention a waste of their money. I would give out a care sheet at the beiginning of the season and that seemed to help. Cheryl |
RE: What is your mix of annuals to perennials?
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| Cheryl~Thank you for explaining what a subscription is, and for the tip on giving care instructions for the flowers to the customer. That's excellent advice! I interned for an interior plantscaping company a couple of summers ago; they had one customer that had a subscription. What are some ways you advertise for this service? TIA. ~Vicki |
RE: What is your mix of annuals to perennials?
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Prairie,
I had information printed about my business and subscriptions that I would drop off with a complimentary bouquet to a business.
Cheryl |
RE: What is your mix of annuals to perennials?
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| Excellent question! I agree with the other posters that the perennials really helped to round out my bouquets this past year. I was very impressed with the chrysanthemum "Single Apricot" that I saw several days ago in the Home Gardening Center at Missouri Botanical Gardens. Absolutely gorgeous, huge plant and perfect for cutting. I researched it and some of the sources also classify it as a good cut flower so for my Autumn cut flowers next year, I plan to include one of these. I loaned my FallScaping book to a friend, but when it is returned, I plant to review the list of late blooming perennials the author has listed. One was a veronica; however, she mentions that is critical to purchase the type mentioned as none of the others bloom nearly as late. I just purchased a Mystical Red Hypericum supposedly used in the cut flower market as there are two harvests each summer of the berry bearing branches. I hope they are right. Right now, I could use some of those. A cut flower garden feeds my need to have one each of lots of different perennials. All this year (first one), I could always find an interesting perennial flower to poke into a bouquet that I did not expect. They really added some diversity to the annuals that made up 80 to 90% of the blooms in the bouquets. Teresa |
RE: What is your mix of annuals to perennials?
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Vicki,
I do weekly subscriptions. Some people pay ahead and some I bill every 4-5 weeks. Most of my customers are individuals and I deliver to their homes. I have not advertised much besides printing large postcards with a color picture and details about the service. A have left these around here and there and I always give them to my customers, but 80-90% of my customers are referrals. Building the customer base is slow but until this year I was only doing this part-time and the first few years I did it while still working a full time job so the slow build up was actually good. Send me an e-mail I'll tell you anything else you'd like to know.
Kirk |
RE: What is your mix of annuals to perennials?
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| I noticed your mention of limelight hydrangea. There are now a lot of remontant hydrangeas that would produce pink and blue blooms in zone 5; you might want to look into them if hydrangeas are good sellers for you. Also the PG variety Tardiva has lovely long pointed bloom clusters in September. |
RE: What is your mix of annuals to perennials?
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Thanks for the suggestions Anne. I do find hydrangeas useful, especially in arrangements and wedding work.
Cheryl |
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