A Beginner’s Guide to a World of Gorgeous Resources
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A friend of mine recently shared her and her partner’s plans of moving out of the house they’re renting and a bit away from the city to start homesteading. As we talked about it, I asked if she had thought about adding flowers to what they were growing so she would have a secondary income source if needed. Lately, I have been obsessed with everything Floret Farm, especially Erin’s books.
I got Erin’s first book, Cut Flower Garden, for my friend, and she dove into it that first night but found the book overwhelming. I remembered that feeling from when Jonathan bought it for me as a surprise, and I thought back to what I had viewed and learned that made the books and the idea of organizing a year-long flower garden less overwhelming.
Purchase Cut Flower Garden from Amazon here!
As I went through all of that for her, I thought it might also be helpful to you! And so without further ado, my glowing recommendation of all things Floret and how to get started with getting started growing your own flowers 🙂
If you’re looking for other ideas of adding more rituals like gardening into your life or if you’re more of an inside plants person, we’ve got you covered!
The Free Resources (or Free with Brief Trial)
If you’re not familiar with Floret Farm, here’s an introduction from their beautiful website: “We are a family-run flower farm & seed company, specializing in unique, uncommon & heirloom flowers. Our thriving research & education farm is dedicated to giving flower lovers the tools & information they need to grow the gardens of their dreams.”
How lovely is that?!
I first learned about Floret when I saw the most striking bouquet I’d ever encountered online, I think at Terrain, and learned that I couldn’t order it because I lived too far away. I hopped over to their site now and again, but I didn’t feel like I had the time to dive in or the space to grow whatever I wanted.
But when we moved house at the end of 2021, suddenly, I had a yard to tend to and garden beds (both present and not yet created) to fill! This, for me, was a dream come true!
To clarify, I have not always dreamed of gardening, but it has been a growing passion and hobby for me as part of my adult life, so if that’s the case for you too, no, it’s not too late to get started!
Around this time, I watched the Growing Floret documentary on Discovery+ and I went through Erin’s course on Magnolia Network.
A Helpful Strategy
My first time around, I did a free trial of Discovery Plus through my Amazon Prime account, but then I couldn’t access the resources on Magnolia Network, so I bought Discovery Plus directly.
Then, on my second go-round (as I paused my subscription), I learned that as a Verizon customer, you can access Discovery+ for free for 6 months, and then your recurring membership will show up on your Verizon bill. And since this method goes through Discovery Plus direction, you can also redeem it on Magnolia Network.
Caveat: I don’t know if there are special benefits to subscribing through Magnolia Network first. If you do know the answer to that, please share in the comments below!
Free Resources Continued
As they explain in their mission statement, Floret’s goal is to educate flowers lovers about growing the garden of their dreams. As part of this vision, they have tons of free resources available on their site.
The ones I’ve found most helpful are the individual flower profiles and the seasonal courses.
Individual Flower Profiles
Let’s say you love ranunculuses and want to learn more about growing them. Perfect! Floret has a special download on ranunculuses that you can access by requesting it on their site. They’ll email it to you, and you’ll learn not just how to grow them but also some of the best places to buy them!
Part of what I love about Floret is having a centralized place to turn to. There is so much information available online, which becomes overwhelming in and of itself. Having one go-to place makes navigating the number of sites and nurseries so much easier!
Seasonal Courses
Each season, Floret shares a season-specific growing tips video series. In the videos, Erin goes step-by-step through growing flowers, how to cut flowers, etc. If you want more cut flowers in your life, these are the guides for you!
The Books
Moving on from the free resources, my favorite resources, the books, are inexpensive considering the value you gain from them. Erin has three books (at the time of writing, though I am holding out hope for more!): Cut Flower Garden, A Year in Flowers, and Discovering Dahlias.
Of the three, Cut Flower Garden is my favorite as it’s more focused on the gardening part and helps you create a full-year plan for your garden. A Year in Flowers builds off of those fundamentals and walks you through a year of floral design with flowers you’re either growing yourself or ones you’re sourcing from a florist.
One of the things I really liked about A Year in Flowers was the context Erin provides at the beginning on her approach to flower arranging and why it seems so much more lively than a lot of what we see in the grocery store or with standard florists. (This impression comes from growing up in a relatively rural area without access to flower markets and higher end floral designers, so please accept my caveat!)
Buy A Year in Flowers from Amazon.
The third book, Discovering Dahlias, is—you guessed it—all about dahlias! I fell in love with dahlias watching Erin’s videos, and I am so excited to be growing my first dahlias this year! I’m running a little bit behind as I don’t yet have the dahlias in the ground, but I’m hoping to plant them with the rest of the seedlings this weekend.
Buy Discovering Dahlias from Amazon.
I recognize that I said the least about my favorite book, but I’ll talk about it in more detail in a future post. For now, if you’re interested in growing flowers, do yourself the favor and order a copy. You’ll learn so much!
The Workshop
(also known, in my head, as “the dream”)
Floret also has a crème de la crème option: the annual Floret Online Workshop. Registration for the course only opens once a year. They have a few scholarships available and, I believe, they also offer a discount if you’re from a marginalized community. The workshop is pricey, $2000, which is quite a ways outside our budget for the time being but I would love to be able to participate in the workshop one day! Because I haven’t been through the workshop, I can’t tell you more about it other than to say that Erin’s emails and videos around the registration time for the workshop were so inspiring to me!
I don’t know what level/degree of flower farming is in my future. It’s hard to watch Growing Floret or to read one of Erin’s books and not want to start your own flower farm! I’ll add another post soon on my first year’s plantings and my strategy for our garden.
If you’re not sure of where to start with your flower growing journey, I hope this gave you some ideas and that you enjoy the resources!
Happy growing, friends!
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