Sinking & Swimming
This year I decided to try my hand at hanging baskets & a few bedding flower plants. I personally LOVE flowers so I thought why not. What a rollercoaster! You don't know what you don't know. I am not sure before this adventure I truly understood that saying. Man do I ever now!
For all of my studying, seeking to advice of others & praying it still had a ton of ups & downs. I spend too much & made too little but I am truly happy! I have learned that plant nutrition & proper watering are NOT to be underestimated! I had gorgeous plants that went down fast when my water regulator dispensed TOO MUCH water. I have experienced UNDER watering first hand before but too much water was a first for me. Check that off the learning list lol.
Sadly, I learned not everyone purchasing cares if the flowers were grown locally & farm fresh. Yes, oddly this make me so sad. I can't really say why. It is FAR easier for me to go to a wholesale vendor, bring them back to sell and do so. So in the future I do a mix to save myself a little work & to be able to offer the best of both worlds.
That being said, I honestly FELT the support of this community, my dearest friends & my co-workers. We have had people in the same business & retired from it come by to encourage us, how cool it that? Yes, I cried at work (I still work 9-5 for an amazing company) more than once from exhaustion & being overwhelmed. And do you know during my first 3 days of opening TONS of my girlfriends & co-workers came to see the new venture & support me?! WOW did Bruce Springsteen ever hit the nail on the head. This is my hometown & I wouldn't want it any other way.
What I learned most of all is my husband is a KING. His patience (which is not his verbal superpower lol) but in his actions. He refused to let me fail. He stood beside me & stood up for me (when a federal funding agency tried to stop my new venture .... that's a different story all together). John Weese is a good flower. A perennial really ..
per·en·ni·al
adjective
lasting or existing for a long or apparently infinite time; enduring or continually recurring.
Well the thing about hanging baskets & flowers of this nature are that it's an early & fast season so we are nearly sold out. Soon it will be all cut flowers & produce stay tuned.
- Michele
