Online Courses Teach Flower Farming

Online Courses Teach Flower Farming COMPUTERS With current high overseas shipping costs now is a great time to grow flowers for the U S market If you’ve been in the business or want to start flower farming you can learn everything you need to know without leaving your house with online courses from The Gardener’s Workshop “What makes us stand out is all of our schools and courses are taught by seasoned professionals They give a lot of information not fluff Courses are packed with hands-on information ” says Lisa Mason Ziegler owner of the company She started growing and selling cut flowers in 1998 and her experience led her to give programs up to 100 per winter/spring and write a couple of books She decided that online courses could provide more detailed and practical information so she took a course about how to do them and launched her first course in 2018 Her website offers two types of courses The On-Demand courses focus on specific aspects of flower farming such as seed starting how to put on workshops and no-till micro-scale flower farming The 1 to 4 1/2-hr courses can be purchased anytime and the buyer owns it forever to refer back to Prices range from $20 to $160 “There is no instructor interaction but it’s easier for people to take little bites ” Ziegler says The “school” courses are 6 weeks of 2-3 hour video classes per week with enrollment open only once a year They are more intense and include a weekly Zoom Q&A coaching session with the instructor during the 6 weeks Plus after school students continue to network in a closed Facebook group with the instructor checking in Topics cover the basics of growing in hoop and greenhouses growing and marketing for weddings and how florists can source locally grown flowers The next class being offered is Growing Cut-Flower Crops in Hoop and Greenhouses with registration from November 19-23 Prices range from $495-$695 Ziegler suggests checking out the website and requesting to be notified for future registration dates She notes that students in the Facebook group are getting early calls to buy all their flowers this year so there are plenty of opportunities for flower farmers Contact: FARM SHOW Followup The Gardener’s Workshop P O Box 2987 Newport News Va 23609 ph 888 977-7159; info@shoptgw com; www thegardenersworkshop com

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