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About
ABOUT US
What is First in Flowers?

First in Flowers is looking to partner with the best in the business – industry leaders, tech experts, and our fellow flower enthusiasts! Our goal? To bring a whole lot of sunshine to Delaware's specialty cut flower scene! Not only do we want to see more folks falling in love with Delaware-grown specialty cut flowers but we're also building a community of Delaware flower growers. Together, we'll share growing tips, farming experiences, and technical know-how.

 

We've got industry experts, like the incredible Dave Dowling, Cut Flower Specialist on board to help us create a special "year-round" growing calendar just for Delaware, perfect for flower farmers, cottage farmers, and even home garden growers. Our goal is to help flower farmers in Delaware grow a variety of beautiful flowers all year long.


If you’re a flower farmer in Delaware and interested in farmer meet-up opportunities (alongside Delaware-located flower farmers like Chris Sylvester from Spectrum Farms and Krystyna Corkell from Eastern Sky Flower Farm), participating in farm tours of Delaware flower farms, and attending technical speaker workshops, then please keep reading and consider filling out the survey below and we will be in touch!

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Together we can make Delaware first in flowers!

JOIN US
Flower Farmers 

First in Flowers is an initiative to help strengthen our flower farmers here in Delaware, build our consumer base, and look to expanding cut flower crops offered! As local flower farmers who can identify as a small business, we all feel the pressure of the economy as well as the impacts of convenient and cost-efficient global choices offered to consumers. These pressures at times can cause us to feel we have to be more competitive. But how does this feeling of competitiveness translate in our business actions? With First in Flowers, we want to ensure that we stay competitive as a community and work together to strengthen our local economy and consumer base when it comes to specialty cut flowers. First in Flowers will focus on our flower farmers by offering yearly meetups to gather and chat with fellow Delaware located flower farmers, a yearly farm tour, and a yearly educational experience. What will this cost you? Nothing, but participation. What does participation look like for you? We ask that you fill out a yearly survey that will help us gauge what specialty cut flowers and other crops our flower farmers are currently growing here in Delaware, if they are expanding what they are growing, what their growing seasons look like, and if they are extending their growing seasons. Of course, we also want you to attend the yearly events that we mentioned above, but these are not required and understand busy schedules that might prohibit being able to make these events. Lastly, we would also love to come visit our Delaware located flower farms to capture some of what makes their local farm so special to Delaware for our education marketing campaign. That’s right, First in Flowers will also be completing an educational marketing campaign to strengthen the regional consumer base through highlighting local cut flowers being grown in Delaware as well as introducing our flower farmers. Of course, being included on the First in Flowers website and social media is voluntary and not required.

Flower Farmers
OUR WORKSHOPS
Upcoming Events

FARMER MEET UP

March 7th, 2024 @ 10am

Amity Coffee in Greenwood, DE

If you’re a cut flower farmer you know how awesome it would be to take part of your day this time of year to just hang out with some fellow flower farmers, sip a cup of coffee, and talk shop before the intensity of the growing season is here. That’s why we are so excited for our very first flower farmer meet-up as part of First in Flowers! We will be gathering at Amity Coffee in Greenwood, DE on Thursday, March 7th, 2024 at 10:00AM. Come chat flowers with other local flower farmers such as Chris Sylvester of Spectrum Farms and Krystyna Corkell of Eastern Sky Flower Farm. Chris will also take a few moments to introduce First in Flowers in person to all those interested. Dave Dowling, Cut Flower Specialist will also be hanging out with us that Thursday morning, so make sure to take a moment to ask him that super technical cut flower question that has been on your mind since last growing season. . . or just say hi! So if you are a cut flower farmer in Delaware we invite you to join us for some cut flower farmer camaraderie, conversation, and coffee. Make sure to register for the meet-up event so we can get excited about everyone that is coming!

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FLOWER FARM TOUR

July 25th, 2024 @ 9am-11am

Spectrum Farms in Felton, DE

We are excited that as part of First in Flowers we offer the opportunity to tour flower
farms located right here in Delaware. This is the perfect hands-on opportunity to take a
look into the setup and operations of our fellow flower farmers to gain insight into how each of us utilize different spaces and growing methods to grow beautiful cut flowers in the first state. Our first flower farm tour will take place at Spectrum Farms LLC, located
west of Felton, on Thursday, July 25 th , 2024, from 9:00AM to 11:00AM. LEARN MORE.

Crop Planning for Flower Farmers Workshop

October 24th, 1-4pm 

UD Paradee Center

69 Transportation Circle, Dover, DE 

Crop planning minimizes risk, organizes our operations, and helps us improve our production year after year. Planning is all about creating a road map that, if we use it well, leads to a productive, successful season, year after year. This class is a look inside our crop planning toolbox, where you’ll learn the secrets to our success. Over 200 new and intermediate growers have taken this class, and we’ll keep teaching it as long as it continues to sell out! Butterbee Farm has become more profitable every season for over a decade, and it’s not by chance. Our approach to crop planning is all about evaluating our market and organizing information into a plan for each season. During this class, you’ll see the evolution of our crop plan from field to spreadsheet. You’ll get a clear picture of what goes on behind the scenes before each season starts. You’ll learn to plan your crops using simple spreadsheets, and you’ll take home our templates. You’ll learn what mistakes beginners often make when crop planning, and how to avoid them.

Topics will include:

  • Crop rotations and successions

  • Spreadsheets for organization

  • Profitability vs. Profit

  • Projecting sales

  • Factoring in risk

  • Understanding your market’s needs

  • Record keeping tools

Laura Beth Resnick is the founder and owner of Butterbee Farm, a five acre cut flower farm in White Hall, Maryland. Butterbee Farm provides locally grown flowers for florists, flower lovers, and weddings in Maryland and Washington, D.C. Before founding the farm in 2013, Laura Beth worked on organic vegetable farms across the northeast. She has served on the Executive Board of the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers. She has spoken at numerous conferences and arboretums, including the United States Botanic Garden and the Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention. Laura Beth is a mentor to new growers through Future Harvest's Beginning Farmer Training Program.

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