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Have you ever wondered what goes behind pretty cut flower gardens or backyards full of different colored and gorgeous dahlias? My dear plant friend Jennifer Gulizia of The Flowering Farmhouse has both, but she’s quick to say the pretty part is only the reward! She is a flower farmer and dahlia hybridizer, and she’s lost her growing space, rebuilt it from scratch, and now stewards a 20-acre farm. In this episode, she talks about the mindset shifts that got her through and her simple bouquet recipe for planning your own cut flower garden. Come hear her story!

 

In this episode, we learn:

• [02:02] Join the Growing Joy Weekly Newsletter!
• [03:00] Meet Jennifer of The Flowering Farmhouse!
• [04:02] Where did her love of cut flowers begin?
• [06:25] How a bride’s homegrown bouquet showed her that people actually buy flowers
• [07:48] What she learned growing 300 dahlias for local florists
• [10:27] How COVID-19 led her to launch a flower CSA
• [11:26] Leasing her neighbors’ fields to grow the farm
• [12:32] How did she almost lose her flower farm?
• [13:29] What soil health and regenerative farming taught her about starting over
• [15:45] Find comfort and plant care guidance in Krystal Duran’s new book, More Than Just a Plant!
• [16:59] Experience the richness of Manuka honey with up to 3x more antioxidants with Manukora Honey!
• [18:48] Finding the 20-acre farm nobody wanted except her!
• [21:50] How they made the move work
• [22:51] How a vision board helped her find her dream farm
• [25:29] How her flower farm business has evolved
• [29:25] Why she’s making a documentary about local flowers
• [31:16] My cut flower dream in South Florida!
• [32:49] Why are so many celebrities suddenly growing flowers?
• [36:08] Why are humans so drawn to flowers?
• [36:40] How flowers reflect beauty, memory, and even math!
• [38:48] How do you stay resilient when your business falls apart?
• [41:15] The mindset shifts that helped her keep going
• [45:43] How to plan your first cut flower garden
• [48:11] What flowers should you grow in your first cut flower garden?
• [53:28] Can you grow dahlias in a hot climate like South Florida?
• [54:31] Where to find Jennifer and The Backyard Bouquet Podcast!

 

 

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Growing Joy: The Plant Lover's Guide to Cultivating Happiness (and Plants) by Maria Failla, Illustrated by Samantha Leung

 

 

How She Went From Clearance Flowers to Flower Farming

Jennifer’s love of flowers started at her aunt and uncle’s house, which was always filled with dinner plate dahlias and hydrangeas. Her first garden was a tiny backyard planted with clearance flowers from Lowe’s.

Years later, as a wedding photographer, she shot a bride carrying homegrown Cafe au Lait dahlias. Then a florist asked her one question… “Did you know people buy these flowers?”

That was how she got the idea.

 

 

Selling Out a Flower CSA During COVID

Jennifer planted almost 300 dahlias in her front yard and sold them to local florists.

She shifted to wedding colors as per their suggestion, and signed up for Floret’s online course to learn how to run a real cut flower business.

When COVID shut down her photography studio, she filled it with grow lights, leased a quarter acre from her neighbor, and launched a flower CSA in 2020. It sold out!

 

 

Losing Her Flower Field and Learning Resilience

Unfortunately, at the end of 2023, her 95-year-old neighbor passed away unexpectedly, and Jennifer lost the space.

She had just closed her photography business. She turned 40 that same week and landed in the hospital a month later.

“I wasn’t resilient at first,” she shared. So she focused on what she could control: soil health, a coach, and a lot of audiobooks in the field.

 

 

How She Found a 20-Acre Flower Farm

For five years, they had searched for two acres and kept losing out to buyers from bigger cities. 

After a podcast guest mentioned looking after (stewarding instead of just growing) 20 acres, Jennifer took the size limit off her Zillow search, and the next day a 20-acre farm showed up on the Hood River Fruit Loop.

It was covered in knapweed and trash, and her daughter even said that no one likes the place except her.

Her husband said no until they watched the documentary Kiss the Ground, where he realized her vision, so they made an offer.

 

 

Vision Boards, the Next Right Step, and Resilience

Every January, Jennifer makes a vision board. Hers had a barn, open land, and a long table filled with flowers.

Her coach taught her she doesn’t need every step mapped out. Just the next right step.

She also changed how she talked to herself, so “I hope we find a farm” became “I wonder when we’ll find our farm.”

 

 

Why Everyone Is Growing Flowers Right Now

Jennifer believes our world has gotten so busy and so loud that flowers give us a way to ground ourselves.

And in a world full of AI… “you can’t fake a dahlia.”

Flowers show us what beauty is. We look in the mirror and find our flaws first, but we never do that with a flower.

 

 

How to Start a Cut Flower Garden

First, know your growing zone. Check the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, your seed packets, and what local nurseries and flower farms grow well.

Then decide who you’re growing for. If it’s just you, grow what brings you joy. If you’re gifting or selling bouquets, you can use Jennifer’s bouquet recipe:

• Focals: dahlias, sunflowers, large zinnias
• Discs: Oklahoma zinnias, Queen Lime zinnias, cosmos
• Filler: yarrow, feverfew, statice
• Greenery: scented geraniums, eucalyptus, mint
• Spikes: celosia, snapdragons, amaranth
• Airy: Queen Anne’s lace, scabiosa

Note: If you’re selling, use 3 to 5 dahlias with filler instead of 10. The bouquet looks less busy, and you can charge the same price.

 

 

What’s Next for The Flowering Farmhouse?

Today the farm runs a CSA, sells wholesale, and is adding more perennials to go easier on Jennifer’s body. She also runs a community for dahlia growers, hosts online dahlia summits and The Backyard Bouquet Podcast, and is breeding her own dahlia varieties. 

She’s also filming a documentary about the ripple effect of local flowers!

 

 

 

Mentioned in our conversation:

• Dahlia Growers Collective
• A Regenerative Flower Farm Documentary Film
• The Dahlia Design Summit
• Floret Farm's Cut Flower Garden
• Dirt to Soil by Gabe Brown
• For the Love of Soil by Nicole Masters
• 10x Is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan & Dr. Benjamin Hardy
• The Gap and The Gain by Dan Sullivan & Dr. Benjamin Hardy
• More Than Just a Plant by Krystal Duran
• USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map
• Growing Joy Episodes:
  • 362: More Than Just a Plant: Finding Joy Again After Loss with Krystal Duran
  • 355: The Secret Language of Flowers Every Plant Lover Should Know with Mary Kelava
  • 241: Small Space Cut Flower Gardening for Beginners with Lisa Mason Ziegler
• The Backyard Bouquet Podcast Episode 90: Sarah Raven: A Year of Cut Flowers

 

 

Thank you to our episode sponsors:

Quarto: More Than Just a Plant by Krystal Duran

Caring for your plants can be a way of caring for yourself, and Krystal Duran’s More Than Just a Plant: How to Care for Your Plants as They Care for You shows you how! Known to millions as Plants With Krystal, she covers the essentials, from light and watering to troubleshooting everything that can go wrong. But this book is also full of compassion, sharing Krystal’s own story of loss, growth, and rediscovery, and how plants helped her through it all. It’s practical, heartfelt, and a beautiful reminder that caring for living things is also a way of caring for ourselves.

Grab your copy of More Than Just a Plant at quarto.com, wherever books are sold, or through your local bookstore.

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