Petalland: Blooms provide business opportunity

Tullahoma, Tennessee

“The name ‘Petalland’ came from a nickname a friend gave our farm because I would always have so many flowers, both growing in the garden and in vases all over the house,” explains owner and grower Karen Yasui with a smile. Petalland exemplifies how one person’s passionate hobby can bloom into a viable business through growing things slowly, learning from mentors and organizations and identifying a market for your product.

Located in the hilly countryside of south-central Tennessee, Karen Yasui and her husband and two boys moved to her family farm in 1988. The two hundred acre farm had been in her family for over 100 years. Karen decided in the late 1990s to start developing and growing Petalland into a business that she would hopefully provide an income for the family by the time she and her husband retired from their other jobs. Karen now grows over seventy-five different flower varietals organically in garden plots surrounding the house using a combination of French-style raised beds, borders and small row crop areas. She uses a combination of perennials and annuals she grows from seed in a small greenhouse on-site.

“My goal has been to build things up slowly, not take on debt and focus on keeping the quality of my flowers high,” explains Karen. Right now her business grosses approximately $6,000 annually, turning her profits back into developing the business. Attending the national conference of the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers proved to be a turning point for Karen, jump-starting Petalland. “Networking with other growers from around the country and attending a range of workshops, I came home bursting with energy and confidence to launch Petalland.”

For the next couple of years, Karen experimented with different approaches to running a flower growing business, keeping things small while exploring market niches. Initially, she focused on dried flowers, using a large homemade dehydrator to enable drying in her humid Tennessee climate. Karen mentored under a local shopkeeper who ran a business that sold dried flowers and arrangements targeted toward the tourist market. “It was an ideal situation for me to start off in,” Karen comments. “She took me under her wing and both taught me how to dry and arrange the flowers and then bought them from me for sale in her shop.” Eventually, however, Karen wanted a larger market and felt she couldn’t compete with cheap, imported dried flowers from China and South America. Talking to other flower growers convinced her that she would have to sell fresh flowers also to make the business profitable.

For three years she sold flowers at a nearby weekly farmers market. However, the time commitment away from her family on Saturdays and the realization that the market wasn’t attracting enough customers with disposable income caused Karen to stop going to market. She explored other sales venues.

“I can’t work harder, but I can work smarter,” Karen explains when describing her current business strategy to focus on the wholesale market. Selling wholesale direct to florists enables Karen to harvest more. She makes deliveries three times a week and works with a floral clientele that understands and appreciates quality. Building relationships with florists over time, Karen learned how to grow flowers for the wholesale market. “I’m no longer selling pre-made bouquets like I did for the farmers’ market, but rather individual stems,” explains Karen. “Florists, understandably, demand the highest quality. They want greater variety and prefer longer stem and long-lasting flowers like lilies, so things worked out well for me to have had several years experience learning to grow better flowers.”

As some flowers benefit from cooling off overnight in the refrigerator, Karen harvests these at night. Other flowers, such as zinnias, hold up best with a morning cutting the day of delivery. Karen transports about twelve flower buckets in her air-conditioned station wagon, working with six florists on her delivery route who buy from her regularly. Karen finds wholesale floral sales follow their own market cycle, including a slump near the Fourth of July holiday which creates a challenge for her business as this is when she typically has an abundance of flowers.

One other business area for Petalland includes restaurant bouquets: Karen brings fresh flowers weekly to a local restaurant, all in vases and ready to put on the table. “These restaurant vases work well since I can use the shorter flowers I can’t wholesale,” adds Karen.

Wreath-making for the holiday season provides another opportunity for expansion. Karen purchased a wreath-making clamp enabling her to create the wreaths efficiently. While most wreaths typically use only one kind of greenery, Karen differentiates her wreaths by using a variety of evergreens – six to seven in all – growing on her farm. Realizing the higher margins made by selling at full retail prices, Karen plans to add a pick-your-own flower operation next season to take advantage of free publicity through the Tennessee Agriculture Department that helps promote pick-your-own operations in the state.

“Running an organic flower business in a rural setting poses its own set of challenges,” adds Karen. “People interested in starting a flower growing business need to think about proximity to larger metro areas with a market aware of and appreciative of organically-grown flowers. “In rural areas, if someone really loves flowers they probably grow their own, plus there are a lot of flowers imported from overseas that are relatively cheap. You need to cultivate a market that appreciates the organic side,” advises Karen.