Maximizing Production for a Small-Scale Flower Farm
Back when I first started dreaming of a flower farming business, I had two big reasons behind it:
Flowers are amazing.
Flowers are one of the most profitable crops to grow per acre.
Since I was working with a tiny backyard garden, I knew I'd have to think in terms of square feet rather than acres. I didn’t aim for massive profits but wanted to create something fun with my girls—something that would bring in a bit of spending money and allow my passion for gardening and flowers to support itself.
Starting a flower farm seemed like the perfect solution.
Whether you’re working with acres of land or a small garden plot, using your space efficiently can boost your sales potential while minimizing the area you need to maintain. In this post, we’ll cover:
How profitable flower farming can be
How to work with the space you have
How to plant intensively to maximize your yield
Which flower varieties are best for small-scale farms
Let’s start by exploring the profitability of flower farming.
How Profitable is Flower Farming?
The widely cited profitability figures for flower farming often come from Lynn Byczynski, founder of Growing for Market magazine and author of The Flower Farmer. If you haven’t already come across her numbers, here’s a quick review: in 2002, Lynn estimated that a single acre of cut flowers, when “well-grown and marketed,” could bring in $25,000 to $30,000 in sales. For established businesses, she projected that net profit would range from 50% to 60% of gross sales—around $15,000 per acre.
Lynn’s estimates have become foundational for flower farmers over the past two decades. Although these numbers were based on her experience and discussions with fellow flower farmers rather than formal studies, they remain a helpful starting point.
Fast forward to 2017, and Erin Benzakein of Floret Flower Farm referenced Lynn’s figures while noting in this article that her farm brought in over twice that amount thanks to “small-scale, high-intensity production techniques.” For Floret, those figures included wholesale sales and up to an additional $25,000 to $30,000 annually from value-added services like weddings. In a good year, Erin estimated their sales at $80,000 to $90,000 per acre.
Our experience, on a much smaller scale, shows that flower farming can indeed be lucrative with intensive spacing and added-value offerings. Starting out with 1600 square feet of growing space on an unestablished property, we brought in around $12,000 in our first year. This came from a weekly farmers market, sales at a vintage pop-up shop, bouquet subscriptions, and a few small weddings. For context, $12,000 from 1600 square feet equates to about $325,000 per acre, though scaled down for our plot size.
While we didn’t quite reach Lynn’s or Erin’s margins right away, our flower farm began to pay for itself and even provided a little extra for family activities. It also eased some financial strain—a win in itself.
The bottom line? With small spaces, intensive planting, and strategic value additions, it’s possible to grow a lot of profitable blooms, even on a modest scale.
Now, let’s explore some of the key ways to maximize your cut flower production in a small space.
How to Work with the Space You Have
In our early days of flower farming, we had to make the best of what little space we had—and learned some hard lessons along the way. Our first growing space was far from ideal, barely big enough for a dedicated hobbyist, let alone a business. I remember feeling a bit silly calling it a “flower farm.”
Driven to expand, we tried growing on another property, thinking it would help. Instead, it drained our time, money, and energy, with long drives back and forth and heartbreaking losses as many plants died after transplanting. I remember finally loading up those sad plants and, with tears in my eyes, planting them in our tiny backyard plot. Ironically, those “lost cause” plants ended up thriving. The lesson? Success can come from making the most of what’s already yours.
Through this experience, I realized my original vision—to grow flowers right in our backyard—was possible, even if it didn’t align with everyone else’s advice. I bought a chalkboard, wrote “bloom where you are planted,” and it became my mantra.
It’s perfectly okay to start small and work within your means, especially in flower farming. Testing the waters on a smaller scale can prevent premature investments in other properties or larger plots before you’re ready. Focusing on quality, building healthy soil, and nurturing manageable spaces can be a more sustainable approach than expanding too quickly.
For three years, we made the most of our 1600-square-foot growing patches. Those tiny plots were the foundation of our flower farm, filled with learning, growth, and family memories. It truly isn’t about the amount of space you have—it’s all about how you use it.
Maximizing the Space in Your Growing Patch
With 1600 square feet to work with, we needed to make every inch count. After some trial and error, we landed on eighteen-inch walking paths and forty-two-inch wide growing beds—dimensions we’ve continued to use at our current property to maximize growing space.
Narrower walking paths mean more growing area, which translates to more plants and, ultimately, more stems to sell. While our cut flower field may not have the aesthetic symmetry some might imagine, it’s intentionally designed for efficiency and yield.
Of course, your setup may look different depending on your space, physical needs, and climate. Some growers prioritize creating an experience for visitors over maximizing output, which can shape row layout decisions. However, if your goal is intensive productivity, consider maintaining a lean ratio of growing beds to walking paths. Proper trellising can help keep even narrower paths accessible.
The industry standard for small-scale flower farmers and market growers is typically thirty-inch wide growing beds with twelve-inch walking paths. This sizing also aligns with common equipment, such as caterpillar and low tunnel kits, making it a convenient choice to keep in mind.
If you’d like more in-depth guidance on row layout, you can check out our dedicated blog on that topic here.
By not only optimizing our bed layout but also adjusting plant spacing, we’re able to get the most from our growing space.
You Can Plant Closer Than You Think…
It’s surprising how closely you can plant various flower crops.
Early on, I leaned on Floret’s blog to maximize our limited space. My background was more hobbyist than commercial grower, and Floret’s spacing recommendations of 6x6”, 9x9”, 12x12”, 15x15”, and 8x8” for vining crops felt like a good starting point. However, we soon realized that even these guidelines were too generous and complex for our crop planning needs.
For intense planting on a small scale, there’s SPIN farming, developed by Canadian grower Wally Satzewich in the mid-’90s. SPIN, which stands for Small Plot Intensive Farming, was initially tailored for vegetable growers, also known as “Market Growers,” but applies beautifully to flower farming on less than an acre.
According to Cornell’s article on SPIN farming, SPIN farming focuses on four main tactics:
Succession planting
Intercropping
Vertical planting
Intensive spacing
Some SPIN tactics, such as intercropping, benefit vegetable growers most. For example, while we interplant violas with peonies, we focus on grouping crops in beds that mature around the same time for easy turnover. Vertical planting works well with vine crops, but otherwise, we rely on SPIN farming’s intensive spacing and succession planting. For more on succession planting, read our blog here.
Another invaluable resource for planting densely is John Jeavon’s book, Grow More Vegetables Than You Ever Thought Possible. Jeavons advocates bio-intensive, organic practices that support soil health and high yields in small spaces. His methods helped us rethink dense planting, which also aligns with Floret Flower Farm’s small-scale productivity model and the principles of square-foot gardening.
All these techniques guide you in maximizing limited space. Land is becoming scarce, and making the most of available space is essential.
In our arid, high-desert climate, we’ve found we can plant much closer than growers in humid areas. Our crops grow less lush due to lower soil nitrogen levels, allowing good airflow even when spaced closely. At our elevation, the intense sunlight also encourages plants to compete for space, resulting in longer stems.
When choosing your plant spacing, experiment based on your unique climate. Researching what works for other growers in similar regions and consulting the commercial growing information from suppliers like Johnny’s Selected Seeds can provide valuable insights.
Along with these resources, here’s what we’ve found effective.
Sierra Flower Farm’s Intense Spacing
Through trial and error, we’ve found our go-to spacing for most annuals to be 7 x 7 inches. In our 45-foot-long rows, this layout allows us to plant 385 plants per row—77 plants along the row’s length with five across the width.
For vining crops, like sweet peas, we maintain the 7 x 7-inch spacing but plant only two across the width to accommodate vertical trellising. This setup fits 154 vining plants in a 45-foot row. If you’re not using landscape fabric, you can try interplanting quick-growing crops along the edge of a sweet pea row. Sweet peas usually take over the space, but we’ve managed to harvest garden gypsophila and German chamomile this way.
Our dahlias get a bit more space with a 12 x 12-inch layout in 90-foot-long rows. This setup allows us to fit 90 dahlias down each row length and three dahlias across, totaling 270 plants per row.
For single-stem sunflowers, we skip landscape fabric since they’re fast growers and tend to out-compete weeds. I also prefer slender stems and smaller flower heads for design work, as large stems and oversized heads can be challenging to arrange and may tip containers. To achieve this, we plant two seeds per 4x4-inch square; for slightly larger blooms, we plant two seeds per 6x6-inch square.
Some crops, like lisianthus, could technically be planted closer than 7x7 inches, but we find that landscape fabric integrity becomes an issue at tighter spacings. Additionally, for certain varieties, controlling weeds is more crucial than saving a bit of space. This is why we stick with a few standardized spacings, which simplifies crop planning and allows us to use our pre-burned, multi-purpose landscape fabric across different crops.
A Word of Caution on Landscape Fabric
Before committing to landscape fabric, I suggest experimenting with plant spacing to find what works best for your crops and climate. Landscape fabric is an investment, so you’ll want to be sure of your ideal spacing before laying it down and torching holes.
This advice comes from our years of experimenting to find the best fit for our flowers in our unique climate.
Maximizing your physical growing patch is just one part of the equation; next, we’ll dive into variety selection.
Choosing Prolific and Profitable Annual Varieties for Your Flower Farm
I’m a sucker for a pretty flower, and these days, we have enough space—and a business model—that allows me to indulge in more variety. In the early years, however, I had to be much more selective with the varieties I chose.
For instance, I love lisianthus, but with only 1600 square feet, I couldn’t afford to dedicate that precious space to a slow-growing crop that might yield just a couple of cuttings per plant. Instead, I needed varieties that offered fast-growing, high-yielding blooms and allowed for quick row turnover, ideally every couple of months within the season.
Our go-to late spring varieties for a high turnover included, in no particular order:
Sweet Peas
Ranunculus
Anemones
Seeded Cress
German Chamomile
Feverfew
Snapdragons
Iceland Poppies
Nigella
Calendula
Bells of Ireland
Mint
Bachelor Buttons
Ammi (Queen Anne’s Lace)
In summer, these were our top producers:
Zinnias
Cosmos
Dahlias
Marigolds
Strawflowers
Statice
Single-stem and branching Sunflowers
Amaranth
Frosted Explosion (Sprinkles) Grass
Ammi (Chocolate Lace)
Love-in-a-Puff Vine
Scented Geraniums
Dusty Miller
These varieties thrived in our small space, producing enough stems to keep up with our goals and sales demand. Experimenting with different flowers was fun, but ultimately, these steady performers carried us through.
If you find yourself with extra room, here are some additional varieties that can add both diversity and beauty to your arrangements:
Lisianthus
Gomphrena
Celosia
Godetia
Mahogany Hibiscus
Cerinthe
Foxglove
Bupleurum
Orlaya
Violas
Campanula
Currant Tomatoes
Heirloom Mums
Feathertop Grass
Bunny Tail Grass
Scabiosa
Yarrow
Each season, we adjust the lineup based on the upcoming weddings and events we have on the books. Many of the core crops that were essential on our original tiny plot have remained our most valuable varieties, even as our operation expanded to almost two thousand dahlias alone.
Determining which varieties perform best in a small space will help guide your choices as you grow. Intensive planting techniques can truly maximize the yield in a limited area, allowing you to make the most of every square inch.
In the end, it’s not about how much space you have, but how well you use it. Remember to bloom where you are planted and let your flowers bring joy and profit, no matter the size of your farm.
We are looking forward to sharing more blooms with you soon.
Jessica & Graham
