Evaluating the Potential Return on Investment of Native Perennials for Cut Flower Growers

Commodities

• Additional Plants: native plants, other

Practices

• Crop Production: crop improvement and selection, varieties and cultivars
• Natural Resources/Environment: habitat enhancement

Research indicates that native wildflower and shrub plantings could reduce costs for cut flower farmers in the Northeast, as well as enhance resilience to impacts of climate change and support native pollinator populations that are critical for food crops. However, many first-generation, beginner and limited-resource farmers are entering the cut flower industry in the Northeast. With access to farmland at an all-time low, many are growing on leased land. And without a guaranteed return on investment, flower farmers are hesitant to establish what could be permanent plantings without the security that comes from a long-term lease or ownership of the land, or an understanding of the short-term return on investment of perennial native plant plantings. 

The objective of this project is to determine if establishing plantings of perennial native plants are worth the investment for beginner and limited-resource cut flower farmers working on leased land. It also seeks to identify which native plant varieties are most likely to offer the largest return on investment within two years, and compare the return on investment of native plants to common annual plants used in cut flower production.

Using field research and working in collaboration with other cut flower growers, researchers and native plant experts, this project will assess the two-year return on investment of growing 10  native and 10 annual plant varieties. 

The results of this project will be shared at two conferences, in two regional news articles, online, and through an in-person cut flower grower networking event.

The research will look at 10 different native plants and 10 different annual plants with attractive flowers and foliage that have already been proven to be good candidates for cut flower production (long vase life, focal interest). The research will identify how many harvestable stems are available from each of the 10 native plant varieties and 10 annual plant varieties throughout their first growing season. A financial and labor analysis will provide the other information neeed to calculate the potential ROI of each plant variety.

The project will identify the number of harvestable stems from the native and annual plants selected, how many weeks they were harvestable, and what it costs in terms of cash and labor to grow and manage each plant type.

The project will investigate the following hypothesis: Some native plant species provide more harvestable stems than annual cut flower plants when given the same amounts of inputs (water, pest management, soil amendments, labor etc.)