Crop Planning for a Flower Farm that Actually Works

About this episode

Dr. Liz Fiedler Mergen discusses effective crop planning strategies for flower farms, emphasizing alignment with sales needs and sharing personal insights.

Dr. Liz Fiedler Mergen, owner of Sunny Mary Meadow, delves into the core principles of crop planning for flower farms. Emphasizing alignment rather than control, she discusses scheduling bloom times to match sales needs. Liz shares insights from her own experiences, explaining how she uses succession planting and planning tools to optimize planting schedules and fulfill her varied event commitments. While promoting her crop planning platform Farmers to Florist , she insists the principles can be applied manually with notebooks or spreadsheets. Liz underscores the importance of early planning to make informed decisions and maximize the use of crops during their harvest windows. The episode also highlights the upcoming Flower Farmer Forum conference and provides resources for further learning and support for rural entrepreneurs. 00:00 Introduction to Crop Planning 00:10 Welcome to Rooted Agritourism 00:40 Understanding Crop Planning for Flower Farms 01:50 The Importance of Crop Planning 02:32 Real-Life Examples from My Farm 04:02 Planning for Different Business Models 05:27 Succession Planting and Season Extension 09:11 Using Tools for Efficient Crop Planning 13:10 Final Thoughts…

People in this episode

Host: Liz Fiedler

Guest: Dr. Liz Fiedler Mergen

Topics covered

• crop planning
• flower farming
• succession planting
• business models
• event commitments
• entrepreneurship

Keywords

• crop planning
• flower farm
• succession planting
• event planning
• entrepreneurship
• harvest optimization

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Sunny Mary Meadow, Farmers to Florist

Books & works: Flowers Bloom Anyway

More episodes of Rooted Agritourism

• Heated High Tunnel Lessons: What I Learned My First Year Growing Flowers in Zone 4B · June 1, 2026 · 13 min
• How I Run Multiple Businesses With Zero Employees and Still Grow · May 22, 2026 · 24 min
• What Is Value-Added Agriculture? How Farmers Create More Income Without More Land · May 13, 2026 · 8 min
• Commodity vs Community Farming: The Shift Transforming Agritourism · May 4, 2026 · 10 min
• How Liz Fiedler Mergen Built a Value-Added Farm Business from Grief and Grit · April 15, 2026 · 5 min
• Podfest Publishing Panel: Real Talk on Writing "Flowers Bloom Anyway" · February 2, 2026 · 39 min