Come Along to the Flower Collective With Me!

So we have moved into fall which is like makes sense because it's like the second half of September like October is not that far away there's only three weeks left of sales well for market and I usually don't do too much in October the days are getting shorter the weather is getting colder like yesterday was quite cold today's a little bit better but I think we're under 20 degrees all week but um that's okay I actually love this time of the year if the weather is good because there's just so many flowers it's so fun and I started cutting those dark branching sunflowers which is timing it well for the weather we're having this week because when it gets cooler people are thinking fall and they're more likely to go with fall colored bouquets. Okay so I had a question about how my flower collective works so I thought I'd take you along this week I know we've gone to the collective a few times but this is another great order so I've actually spent uh most of yesterday I have to say when the weather gets colder this time of the year I move slower I'm just I am not super energetic this week so yesterday was just a day of uh cutting and sorting lisianthus I actually cut a bunch on the weekend on Saturday and I was just counting and cleaning them up yesterday so lisianthus were done and then today I was cutting dahlia I just finished cutting zinnia and then I have printed out my orders so the collective is basically an online store and there's like eight growers I'm one of the eight and we put our stuff up on this online store so yesterday I realized the dark sunflowers were ready so I quick put some up on the store and I sold three bunches which is great so we kind of just have to I think that's the hardest part guessing how much and what to put up on the store because the store opens on a Thursday where buyers can buy till the Monday and then we drop it off on the like the following Tuesday so that makes sense it opens on a Thursday they have the weekend and up to Monday the following to shop and then we drop off their orders on Tuesday and they pick up on Wednesdays so I love it so I just now I I printed out everything that they've ordered from this online website and I'm just going through and checking off that I have everything that was ordered so I am like almost almost done here someone else asked in last week's video and I'm seeing it right here what are the most common or most popular colors for lisianthus for I'm assuming it was for the collective sales they're actually I think these are the three I actually think blush might win the award but it might be tied with white white lisianthus super popular these are actually just really short stems they're usually bigger but this is all I had left and they still want them because they just love white lisianthus and blush lisianthus so I just dropped the price a bit because they're short and small and then I think brown comes in a second if you can get brown in September where it's it's not as popular in August but it tends to also bloom earlier so it's a little tricky to get your brown at this time of the year or if I have it around Thanksgiving I'm thrilled okay and what's not super popular except this week are these colors green a brighter pink purple these are the reds from my seed trial the two kinds of reds and this pink too is from the seed trial but Heather must be doing some super fun colorful wedding because this is her order here but normally these colors do not usually head to the collective very often table or any of those shelves here okay so when we say collective this is kind of what it is and it would only really happen because of Heather because it would would she has the cooler so we have to like rent cooler space for her each designer has a shelf that we put their stuff on and that's basically it right every farmer comes or they sorry every farmer comes or they work together to come in shifts and bring each other's things every Tuesday which is today so Jen is usually the last you're not the last today we have one more farmer the last one I don't think so I think I'm always running late um but anyways very simple concept yeah all the farmers drop off and it's working pretty good working great year two and um yeah I think that's yeah I just had a last minute order I sent um a couple stems in the florist bucket this week and then she messaged me yesterday while I was at market and wanting some more so this is uh amaranthus this is the green tails I hardly have any I hardly have any annuals period and I kind of forgot about them but they have been a hot ticket item for uh florists and designers the last couple years but our collective has other growers that grow them so I just yeah I've said before I've cut back on a lot of my annuals because I can't do everything which is why I love being part of a flower collective like eight growers eight different personalities different farms we can all specialize in what grows well for us and what we like growing and hopefully we'll keep having this blend of flowers available to the designers that covers a wide range for them so they have lots to pick from my branching sunflowers timed out perfectly for the weather this week like it felt like fall and my blooms at market I think they were more fall like than normal so I was super happy with that they're not all opening uh well I find this variety I don't know I only grow one branching kind often does this and I don't know what causes it it's like the petals get stuck to the center disc and then they don't fully open and then the bloom opens uh halfway and looks funny so I'm getting plenty out and I'm happy with my stem length because I do make a lot of shorter bouquets so this has been great this week um a good sales at market just a standard market week uh in decent weather I just brought way too many flowers and I I know this I keep numbers I know how many I should make so I made too many bouquets and brought too many extra flowers I'm always uh optimistic that it's going to be this amazing day and I should just stick with my uh what I what I know and stop creating extra work for myself and I just wanted to say uh thank you for joining me this week I just had a really good week I often talk about the sales at market um and the sales at my collective but I am part of two uh two areas where I sell that are just full of really wonderful people I love the growers that I grow with I'm happy uh that we're getting along and trying to build something really cool I love Heather I was calling her the crazy uh duck lady this week because oh she has so many ducks on her farm she cracks me up so maybe I could swing a few more uh ducks on my farm because I think she has some to spare but um yeah and the people at market my customers are the best I got I got jam from a chef yesterday who I've met through the years he is so kind I have met a new customer uh this uh summer that has blessed me with cookies three different weeks and they are so uh good just she's just super nice and brings me treats um and then actually I'm taking tomorrow off because I have another customer that gifted Bob and I seats to a Blue Jays game how fun is that I I am so excited to leave the farm even though there's so much work but I'm so tired after these couple weeks of sales and I'm ready to take off and just take a break for a day so just it was just a great week I'm just super grateful right now um the weather is changing I'm trying to embrace uh the beauty of my field because I know soon it's going to be really cold I already found frost on the ground this morning so I know time is limited out here and it's so nice on fall morning so I'm just going to enjoy this this morning try to knock off some of my jobs before we take a day off tomorrow but thanks for all the comments again I know I'm not caught up thanks for liking subscribing everything I really appreciate it and I'll see you again next time!