23/05/2022
Dear Flower Farmers of New England,
I want to buy your flowers. I want to buy them for resale, and I want to sell them locally.
That's it.
I'm not trying to seduce you into selling me your entire inventory for a discounted price.
What I am offering is $150 every other week, from June through September, for a selection of flowers of comparable quality and variety to what CSA customers and event clients receive. My two requests are that I don't want any dahlias, and I don't want only leftovers (although I would consider purchasing surplus flowers separately on a case-by-case basis, if and when they are available) .
To that end, my plan is to purchase flowers from a few sources, combine and arrange them into lovely bunches, and sell them locally- at markets, through retailers, and, if necessary, out of a bucket by the side of the road at a busy intersection during rush hour* (*backup plan)
My ultimate goal is simple: I want to provide beautiful fresh cut flowers for my customers without having to become a florist myself. I can tell you from experience that this is an incredibly difficult business model to sustain, but I believe that I have the right combination of intelligence, stupidity, and relentlessness to eventually succeed... and in this case i am defining success as "only half the flowers i hoped to sell ended up as compost this week"
I've bought flowers several times from a few different farms in the area and I have never been disappointed with the selection or quality of the flowers you all produce. i have the utmost respect and admiration for all flower farmers, but especially those of you brave enough to take up the challenge here in new england.
i can't promise i will be your biggest customer, but i can promise that i am and will always be one of your biggest fans. I know y'all are busy with CSAs and event clients and I am hoping to make your lives easier, not harder. The first time I ever saw and purchased a local bouquet was life-changing for me. Even as someone who worked with flowers semi-regularly back then, I had never given much thought to where they came from before that day. So even if you can sustain your business without expanding your market reach, I hope you'll consider that there are still a ton of people out there who aren't going to any fancy weddings this summer, and who don't even know flower CSAs exist, let
alone that some of the most beautiful flowers in the world are being grown right here in their backyard.
I know this was a long post, so thank you for reading it. I know this will resonate more with some than others, and that's totally fine. If you are interested in working together , or if you want to recommend someone who might be, please write back here or email [email protected] :)
thank you!
xo
m
p.s. i am especially interested in sourcing local feverfew (the kind that looks like baby daisies) and and and all varieties of echinacea/coneflowers (which i have planted a whole garden of but am not sure what or when to expect from it)
