Sometime in 2019 I stumbled onto the book “Cut Flower Garden” by Eric Benzakein of Floret. I was in love! If you haven’t seen the book, it is a delicious entry into cutting gardens, page after page dripping of the most gorgeous flower photos. I devoured it then got the follow up book “A Year in Flowers” and was hooked.

I initially read the first book to help plan my own cutting garden, just a long raised bed in my vegetable garden. But after reading the two books I heard about the Floret Online Workshop, a six week long only online curriculum that covers everything about being a cut flower farmer. I thought about this long and hard for a few months then happened to talk to my friend Mary whom I’ve worked with at Fresno State for many years. She had started growing flowers on her property a couple years earlier and had signed up. Once I talked to Mary, I was all in! I decided to sign up with the intension of growing cut flowers myself as part of my GreenLily business.

So that is what I’ve been up to so far this year. I completed the Floret Online Workshop at the end of February and officially became a member of the class of 2021!