Segment Title: Tennessee Cut Flower Trials and Market Research
Segment: 03 of 08
Webinar Date: July 23, 2026
Speakers: Natalie Bumgarner, Associate Professor and Extension Specialist in Residential and Consumer Horticulture, University of Tennessee; Celeste Scott, Commercial Horticulture Specialist for West Tennessee, UT Extension
Duration: 30:30.7 (1830.719 s, measured)
Series: Cut Flower Symposium
CEU Categories: [PENDING]
Prompts: 13
Coverage: 0:00 to 30:30, no gaps
How to Use These Prompts
Each prompt marks a coherent segment of the talk. Students use them as directed review tasks. Course developers use the same thirteen ranges as the subdivision plan for the video in Moodle, since each range is a self-contained piece of the presentation with its own learning objective.
The ranges are contiguous and cover the full runtime, so nothing in the segment falls outside a prompt.
Review Task 1
Watch: 0:00 – 1:35
Task: Note who each speaker is and which part of the work each one owns. The recorded introduction and Bumgarner’s opening set the division that runs through the rest of the segment.
Key Points to Identify:
- Bumgarner is at the University of Tennessee in residential and consumer horticulture and coordinates the statewide Master Gardener program; Scott is UT Extension’s commercial horticulture specialist for West Tennessee, based at the research center in Jackson
- Scott has been the point person for engaging with Tennessee’s cut flower growers
- This is a multi-state program, with Georgia and North Carolina already heard from
Review Task 2
Watch: 1:35 – 3:28
Task: Trace how cut flower interest in Tennessee grew from a COVID-era observation into a funded program. List the events in order.
Key Points to Identify:
- A Center for Profitable Agriculture grant paid for travel, including the Utah visit to Melanie
- Meet and greets and workshops across the state packed the house and turned people away
- The interest carried into the Pick Tennessee Conference, the contact list passed 300, and a state association is forming
Review Task 3
Watch: 3:28 – 4:54
Task: Identify what the specialty crop block grant funded beyond the field trials, and who else is on the project.
Key Points to Identify:
- The project is multifaceted and three years old, with consumer perspective work, surveys, and enterprise budgets alongside the trials
- The collaboration includes the on-the-ground farm management team and colleagues in ag economics
- The trials were built around what growers were actually growing, established through farm visits and conversations
Review Task 4
Watch: 4:54 – 6:16
Task: Describe the trial layout and the two mulch systems, and explain why the team chose two sites.
Key Points to Identify:
- Knoxville and Jackson, about six hours apart, with different soils, temperature climates, and growing conditions
- Scott grew on fabric and Bumgarner on plastic, chosen to cut down on time
- Warm season cut flowers are described as the gateway crop for new growers: easy from seed, good for finding your footing
- Labor is one of the highest input costs, which is why the trials fed the enterprise budgets
Review Task 5
Watch: 6:16 – 7:19
Task: Write out the fertility treatment structure across all three years and the delivery method.
Key Points to Identify:
- The University of Maryland’s three-category framework was the only regional guidance available
- Low is one pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet, then medium at two pounds and high at three
- Year one compared low against medium, year two low against high, and the current year adds a no-fertility control alongside all three
- Nitrogen went out as a 20-10-20 soluble fertilizer through a Dosatron
Review Task 6
Watch: 7:19 – 10:14
Task: Compare the zinnia results from Knoxville and Jackson. Note both what agreed and what differed, and why.
Key Points to Identify:
- Cultivars ranged from the small Zinderellas to Benary’s Giants, with Agaves added for the cactus flower head type and Queenys kept as a crowd favorite
- Knoxville trended toward more stems per square foot as nitrogen rose, and the trend held at the high rate in year two
- Jackson counts read lower for two reasons: oversized stems cut early on, and a brand new prepared site against established organic farm ground
- The Queeny Lime Orange dip traces to a septic drainage field and a plot move, not to the fertility treatment
Review Task 7
Watch: 10:14 – 10:56
Task: Summarize what the team concluded about zinnias, including the two cultivar-specific cautions.
Key Points to Identify:
- Increasing nitrogen produced differences, and the trend suggests stem counts could keep rising, which is why the final year runs the full range
- Zinderellas gave the highest cull percentage
- Queeny Limes must be harvested at peak for best color or they look dirty and dingy, especially in the warmest part of the season
Review Task 8
Watch: 10:56 – 13:28
Task: Explain what the celosia trials found at Knoxville and why the Jackson celosia data does not appear.
Key Points to Identify:
- Wheat, plume, and coxcomb types were all trialed so the differences across types would show
- The largest fertility response showed up in the plume types, and the more vigorous celosia varied more than zinnia did across the two years
- Jackson’s 2024 data went out because transplants were root bound and planted too early, and constricted roots plus cool nights induce early flowering
- Jackson’s 2025 data went out because of off-target herbicide from a neighboring row crop plot, since rectified
Review Task 9
Watch: 13:28 – 14:37
Task: Build a cultivar reference for celosia from Scott’s takeaways. For each one, note what it is good for and any caution attached.
Key Points to Identify:
- Sunday Green gives reliably long, thin stems, which matters because fasciation can leave a bloom on a stem too thick to use
- Sunday Orange bloomed well but its stem standards were not as comparable
- Flamingo Feather is a long-stemmed filler and a reliable re-bloomer several weeks after a hard cut; Pampas Plume is good for quality and versatility; Kurume is an older cultivar with a smaller, variable coxcomb form
Review Task 10
Watch: 14:37 – 18:34
Task: Explain why sunflowers moved from a fertility question to a spacing question, then record what each of the three spacing treatments produced.
Key Points to Identify:
- Every cut was a single stem, so fertility was unlikely to change stems per plant, while flower head size varied a lot
- The three treatments are one plant on six-inch spacing, two plants on six-inch centers, and two plants on nine-inch centers, chosen so growers could reuse spacing templates they already have
- One plant on six inches gave an even split below and above four inches plus a high share above six inches, which is less useful for mixed bouquets
- Two plants on nine-inch centers gave the highest share under four inches and the lowest share at six inches and above; the team wants to replicate it this year
Review Task 11
Watch: 18:34 – 20:06
Task: Record the sunflower takeaways and what the team says is still coming from the trialing work.
Key Points to Identify:
- No sunflower cultivar was ruled out; with a good planting schedule the harvest runs from as early as Mother’s Day in parts of Tennessee
- Change the color palette through the season to match warm or cool tones
- Insect damage was mostly foliage feeding, with flower head or petal damage mainly on the lighter colored flowers
- Celosia and zinnia were only part of what was trialed, and production guides from the work are being assembled for publication
Review Task 12
Watch: 20:06 – 26:03
Task: Work through the grower and consumer survey findings and write down what Bumgarner identifies as the market’s main constraint.
Key Points to Identify:
- The consumer survey audience all bought cut flowers in the prior year and two-thirds bought local, so it stands in for a grower’s customer base
- Growers sell mostly through farmers markets and direct to consumer; consumers buy heavily from grocery stores, and the grocery share drops but does not disappear when the question specifies local
- About 62 percent buy for gifts, 40 percent or more call it an impulse, and on decision point a third knew in advance, 50 percent decided on sight, and 16 percent do not recall deciding
- Low availability, not high price, is the barrier she says to work on; willingness to pay rises with the share of local flowers in a bouquet
- Five warm season annual enterprise budgets are already published, ground truthed by Tennessee growers
Review Task 13
Watch: 26:03 – 30:30
Task: Answer the two chat questions in your own words using only what the speakers said, then note the conditions Scott attaches to each recommendation.
Key Points to Identify:
- On leaf-footed bugs: harvest timing may make treatment unnecessary, since petals should not be fully expanded at the right stage; if control is warranted, horticultural oils and insecticidal soaps need excellent coverage, regular reapplication per the label, and caution about phytotoxicity in the heat
- On where to start: a combination of filler, foliage, and focal, with zinnias, celosia, gomphrena, Frosted Explosion, ornamental millets, and basil all named, and cautions on gomphrena’s harvest time and basil’s woody-stem timing
- Bumgarner adds that the budgets are built for multiple crops across about a quarter of an acre, because nobody starting out needs an acre of zinnias
Coverage Check
| Prompt | Range | Length | Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0:00 – 1:35 | 1:35 | Recorded introduction and opening |
| 2 | 1:35 – 3:28 | 1:53 | How the program started |
| 3 | 3:28 – 4:54 | 1:26 | The block grant and trial design |
| 4 | 4:54 – 6:16 | 1:22 | Sites, mulches, and scope |
| 5 | 6:16 – 7:19 | 1:03 | Fertility treatments |
| 6 | 7:19 – 10:14 | 2:55 | Zinnia results, both sites |
| 7 | 10:14 – 10:56 | 0:42 | Zinnia takeaways |
| 8 | 10:56 – 13:28 | 2:32 | Celosia data and the discarded years |
| 9 | 13:28 – 14:37 | 1:09 | Celosia cultivar takeaways |
| 10 | 14:37 – 18:34 | 3:57 | Sunflower spacing |
| 11 | 18:34 – 20:06 | 1:32 | Sunflower takeaways and trialing summary |
| 12 | 20:06 – 26:03 | 5:57 | Marketing surveys and budgets |
| 13 | 26:03 – 30:30 | 4:27 | Closing and moderated chat Q&A |
Thirteen contiguous ranges, first at 0:00, last ending at 30:30. Every boundary falls on a block start in the corrected transcript.
Note for course developers. Prompts 6, 10, and 12 are the three long ranges and each subdivides cleanly if a Moodle section needs to be shorter: prompt 6 at 8:59 where Scott picks up the Jackson plots, prompt 10 at 15:29 where the three spacing treatments are laid out and again at 16:39 where the diameter results start, and prompt 12 at 22:05 where the survey moves from where growers sell to when consumers decide.
Processed for UGA Center for Urban Agriculture / Cut Flower Symposium Archives
Source: Corrected SRT (Stage 1), GTBOP_Transcript_2026-07-23_BumgarnerScottUTResearch.srt (402 blocks), with the Stage 2 Archive Package as structural reference