2024 Ask an Expert
The Ask an Expert webinar series features ASCFG member experts who share their ideas, insights, and lessons learned on a specific topic. Driven by experience, these webinars provide a robust overview of the topic before segueing into an interactive question and answer period for attendees. View our forthcoming sessions below!
Reminders:
- Members can access recordings of prior webinars in the ASCFG Members Only Learning Portal.
- Interested in presenting? Apply to present an Ask an Expert webinar. Learn more here.
- Did you attend a recent Ask an Expert webinar? We’d love your feedback!
Testimonials from ASCFG Members
“I really loved those sessions. I learned something useful every time.”
“It has been an outstanding experience, especially during Covid, when we have lacked face-to-face opportunities to meet.”
Farm Service Agency Loans for Cut Flower Farmers
Monday, January 8
8:00 p.m. EST
Presented by Emily Watson of Fernabelle Acres
Sponsored by:
Join the ASCFG for the January 2024 Ask an Expert session led by Emily Watson of Fernabelle Acres! In this session, Emily will share her experiences in pursuing a farm ownership loan with the Farm Service Agency. Loan applications can be a long, slow, and frustrating experience, and Emily shares that, “The process is not built for people like us but we can still tweak it and navigate it with quite a bit of determination and some good spreadsheets.” Attendees will get an overview of what to expect throughout the process as well as some tips on what they can do ahead of time to get ready for the loan application. Lastly, Emily will share her personal application timeline as well as some snapshots of the application itself.
Zoom instructions will be emailed to members on the day of the event.
Pricing & Selling to Florists
Monday, February 19
8:00 p.m. EST
Presented by Ellen Frost of Local Color Flowers
Join the February 2024 Ask an Expert session for an exciting presentation by Ellen Frost, renowned florist! This session will dig into the nitty gritty details of pricing, touching on such topics including variety selection, availability lists, approaching florists, bunch sizes/stem length, and more. More details to come!
Ellen Frost is the renowned florist of Local Color Flowers in Baltimore, MD, and co-contributor of The Cut Flower Quarterly column, “The Farmer and The Florist.” She is passionate about using local flowers in her work and in 2016, she was awarded the Allan M Armitage Award for Leadership by the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers. She has been featured on The Flower Podcast, the Slow Flowers Society, and much more.
Zoom instructions will be emailed to members on the day of the event.
Develop and Manage A La Carte Weddings
Monday, March 11
8:00 p.m. EST
Presented by Jennifer Joray of Eastern River Farm
Sponsored by:
Join Jennifer and Scott Joray from Eastern River Farm for the March 2024 Ask an Expert session!
Jennifer and Scott are the wife and husband team behind Eastern River Farm and during this webinar, they will share their personal system for managing a la carte weddings on their farm, including how they market, book, style, charge, deliver and/or package, and work pick-up processes for our a la carte menu flowers. This system has been developed and refined over the last five seasons, and the Jorays are generously sharing lessons learned and actionable practices.
Established in 2018, Eastern River Farm is a regenerative specialty cut flower farm in Pittston, ME, that specializes in weddings and special events design. ERF uses zero harmful chemicals on their family farm.
Zoom instructions will be emailed to members on the day of the event.
Not Your Grandma’s Dried Flowers
Monday, April 8
8:00 p.m. EST
Presented by Emily Patrick of Carolina Flowers
Let’s liberate cut flower farmers of this world from tedious rubber banding of bunches and climbing on ladders!
Emily Patrick of Carolina Flowers will show you how to create high quality, colorfast, intact dried flowers quickly and efficiently. Emily has prepared and sold dried flowers for over five years and will share her hard won tips, like how to avoid common dried flower pitfalls such as shattering, mice, storage pile ups, and more. This webinar will also help attendees figure out which crops match which drying techniques; what time of year best fits the farm’s workflow for harvesting and processing dried flower crops; and how to efficiently build out a dried flower space.
Emily shares the following: “On our farm, we dry and harvest every flower we grow, eliminating waste and creating a winter value-added opportunity, wreaths and dried flower bundles. We’ve also launched a dried flower wedding line. Our process uses highly efficient shelving and screens to eliminate bunching and the need for ladders, to minimize labor, to reduce drying time to a matter of 3-5 days, to save space through high-density shelving, and to increase profit margins.”
By the end of the webinar, attendees will have a sense of what size dried flower program fits into their existing farm, and whether online sales might be a good fit for them. Let’s explore the complex pricing of dried florals and make some money!
Zoom instructions will be emailed to members on the day of the event.
Using the Paperpot Planting System for Specialty Cut Flowers
Monday, May 13
8:00 p.m. EST
Presented by Julia Keel of Full Keel Farm
Sponsored by:
Julia will present on using the Paperpot system for cut flowers on her farm in Florida. After adopting the Paperpot trays in 2020, she estimates that about 85% of Full Keel Farm’s 2024 crops will be planted using this system. For this webinar, she will specifically address crop selection and spacing, timing of transplanting, bed prep and weed management, and the overall benefits and drawbacks of the system. Julia will also share detailed information about the cost per plant, time for transplanting and weeding, and more. By sharing in detail how Full Keel Farm converted from using all landscape fabric to almost entirely Paperpot-planted crops, attendees will be able to evaluate the potential of this system for their own operations while maintaining realistic expectations for using this tool.
Full Keel Farm is a small, family farm owned by Julia & Earl Keel. The flower farm developed out of Julia and Earl’s love for growing, decades working in and around agriculture, and their desire to build a small farm at our home in north central Florida. After meeting at a research station on a large Florida cattle ranch, they started growing vegetables together in a small garden. In the spring of 2017, inspired by the Slow Flowers movement, they added two 50-ft beds of cosmos and zinnias into the vegetable garden, and quickly decided to transition to growing flowers.
Zoom instructions will be emailed to members on the day of the event.
How Intellectual Property Can Protect and Grow Your Flower Business
Monday, June 10
8:00 p.m. EST
Presented by Jenny Jonak of Dragon Song Farm
Jenny Jonak of Dragon Song Farm has been an attorney for 27 years. She will talk about intellectual property issues that you can use to protect and grow your flower business. Briefly, intellectual property refers to the creative work or processes you put into your business. Jenny will go over the different types of intellectual property (patents, trademarks, copyrights), how you can use each for your flower business, and how to incorporate IP protection in flower farming contracts and other legal documents.
Zoom instructions will be emailed to members on the day of the event.
Drawbacks in Selling Invasives to Florists
Monday, July 8
8:00 p.m. EST
Presented by Ellen Frost of Local Color Flowers
Sponsored by:
More details coming soon!
Ellen Frost is the renowned florist of Local Color Flowers in Baltimore, MD, and co-contributor of The Cut Flower Quarterly column, “The Farmer and The Florist.” She is passionate about using local flowers in her work and in 2016, she was awarded the Allan M Armitage Award for Leadership by the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers. She has been featured on The Flower Podcast, the Slow Flowers Society, and much more.
Zoom instructions will be emailed to members on the day of the event.
Business Planning for Flower Farmers
Rescheduled for Monday, October 7
8:00 p.m. EST
Presented by Lennie Larkin of B-Side Farm
RESCHEDULED FOR OCTOBER 7, 2024.
Join us for the Ask an Expert session taught by Lennie Larkin of B-Side Flower Farm!
Business planning can be an overwhelming process, which keeps flower farmers from doing it. But the good news is that business planning doesn’t have to be a one-site-fits-all, formal process. In this session, Lennie will guide you through some introductory business planning methods and leave you with actionable steps to help grow or refine your farm.
Lennie Larkin is the founder of B-Side Farm and Flower Farming For Profit, an independent flower farm research center and consulting business based near Portland, OR. She has helped scores of small flower farmers streamline and scale their farms through business courses, coaching, grant-funded research, and a growing online database of resources. Lennie’s first book – titled, of course, Flower Farming For Profit – is now available through Chelsea Green Publishers.
Zoom instructions will be emailed to members on the day of the event.
Maximizing Season Extension
Monday, September 9
8:00 p.m. EST
Presented by Maya Kosok of Hillen Homestead
Sponsored by:
Join Maya Kosok of Hillen Homestead (Baltimore, MD) to learn about season extension without a greenhouse or high tunnel. Maya will cover several different ways to maximize your growing space with minimal infrastructure, including planting hardy annuals, selecting perennials, using low tunnels for frost protection, succession planting, and more. Many regions of the United States have the highest demand for local flowers in spring and fall, making season extension especially important. This talk will include many ideas that can be applied across different growing regions and different scales, but it is worth noting that Hillen Homestead is located in a warm zone 7b and produces very intensively with minimal equipment.
Zoom instructions will be emailed to members on the day of the event.
Hosting Successful & Profitable On-Farm Workshops
Monday, November 18
8:00 p.m. EST
Presented by Niki Irving of Flourish Flower Farm
Sponsored by:
Hosting workshops can be a wonderful way to share about your farm operation and to provide guests with a unique, memorable experience – but there is more planning and preparation to hosting workshops than most farmers anticipate. During this session, Niki Irving of Flourish Flower Farm will give attendees the information and tools for success by providing them with strategies for hosting smooth, enjoyable workshops on their farms. By the end of the webinar, attendees will have a realistic picture of what it costs – financially and in labor – to successfully host workshops on their farms.
Zoom instructions will be emailed to members on the day of the event.
Get Ready to Thrive in 2025!
Supplier Showcase
Monday, December 9 and
Tuesday, December 10, 2024
Sponsored by:
This is a wonderful opportunity for members to connect with agricultural and cut flower vendors. ASCFG members are invited to attend these complimentary webinars, during which vendors will discuss current and forthcoming products, tools, and other useful resources. More information will be available in Fall 2024.
Zoom instructions will be emailed to members on the day of the event.