1 00:00:00,001 --> 00:00:03,920 Bethany Harris: And now you'll hear a little bit about our next speakers. 2 00:00:03,920 --> 00:00:04,400 Whitney Ottinger: Dr. 3 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:13,600 Whitney Ottinger: Natalie Bumgarner is an associate professor and extension specialist in residential and consumer horticulture at the University of Tennessee, 4 00:00:12,860 --> 00:00:17,180 Whitney Ottinger: where she also coordinates the statewide Master Gardener program. 5 00:00:17,180 --> 00:00:27,260 Whitney Ottinger: With two decades in horticulture, she translates university research into practical guidance for growers and gardeners across the state of Tennessee. 6 00:00:26,860 --> 00:00:37,900 Whitney Ottinger: Celeste Scott is UT Extension's commercial horticulture specialist for West Tennessee, based at the West Tennessee Ag Research and Education Center in Jackson. 7 00:00:37,660 --> 00:00:46,860 Whitney Ottinger: Raised on a family farm, she specializes in commercial and residential horticulture from crop production to plant and pest diagnosis. 8 00:00:46,500 --> 00:00:50,020 Whitney Ottinger: She also works hand-in-hand with growers across the region. 9 00:00:50,020 --> 00:00:51,780 Whitney Ottinger: Together, she and Dr. 10 00:00:51,780 --> 00:00:56,020 Whitney Ottinger: Natalie Bumgarner will share the latest from Tennessee's research. 11 00:00:56,280 --> 00:00:57,719 Natalie Bumgarner: Hey, good morning everybody. 12 00:00:57,719 --> 00:01:01,239 Natalie Bumgarner: We're so excited to be here on this multi-state visit. 13 00:01:01,239 --> 00:01:05,159 Natalie Bumgarner: So we've already heard from Georgia, North Carolina, and now Tennessee. 14 00:01:05,159 --> 00:01:05,640 Natalie Bumgarner: I know I've got 15 00:01:06,040 --> 00:01:07,800 Natalie Bumgarner: Kentucky and other folks coming. 16 00:01:07,800 --> 00:01:14,840 Natalie Bumgarner: We are really looking forward to being a part of this program and sharing with you about some of what we're doing in Tennessee. 17 00:01:14,840 --> 00:01:15,160 Natalie Bumgarner: So 18 00:01:15,300 --> 00:01:24,580 Natalie Bumgarner: As you could probably guess from our introductions, Celeste has really been our point person for engaging with the awesome cut flower growers that we have in Tennessee. 19 00:01:24,580 --> 00:01:26,740 Natalie Bumgarner: And I'm going to pass the baton to her 20 00:01:26,340 --> 00:01:35,460 Natalie Bumgarner: to set the stage for what our industry is like and how this has fueled what we do at the University of Tennessee for our cut flower growers. 21 00:01:35,320 --> 00:01:35,720 Celeste Scott: Sure. 22 00:01:35,720 --> 00:01:36,600 Celeste Scott: Thanks, Natalie. 23 00:01:36,600 --> 00:01:38,600 Celeste Scott: I hope everybody can hear me well. 24 00:01:38,600 --> 00:01:48,120 Celeste Scott: So as is probably typical with many of you that are on our call, we saw interest in cut flower production really begin to kick in there in that 25 00:01:48,260 --> 00:01:50,100 Celeste Scott: all-famous COVID era, right? 26 00:01:50,100 --> 00:01:59,460 Celeste Scott: And through our Center for Profitable Agriculture, we were able to secure a grant that allowed them to look into areas of specialty crops 27 00:01:59,360 --> 00:02:06,240 Celeste Scott: that we saw really gaining traction in Tennessee and showed promise for true growth in that particular industry. 28 00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:08,720 Celeste Scott: That allowed us to do some traveling and some visiting. 29 00:02:08,720 --> 00:02:09,759 Celeste Scott: We were able to 30 00:02:09,760 --> 00:02:13,600 Celeste Scott: go out to Utah and meet with Melanie who you're going to hear from here in a little bit. 31 00:02:13,600 --> 00:02:22,080 Celeste Scott: And she really gave us some great ideas and really opened our eyes to how this industry may really begin to expand in Tennessee. 32 00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:23,040 Celeste Scott: So we brought that 33 00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:24,280 Celeste Scott: information back with us. 34 00:02:24,280 --> 00:02:32,200 Celeste Scott: We began hosting like meet and greets and workshops across the state and everyone that we scheduled 35 00:02:32,400 --> 00:02:34,880 Celeste Scott: surprisingly packed out the house, right? 36 00:02:34,880 --> 00:02:36,000 Celeste Scott: We were out of seats. 37 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:39,200 Celeste Scott: More people than we could even support were wanting to register for those. 38 00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:41,200 Celeste Scott: And we were able to carry that 39 00:02:41,120 --> 00:02:48,880 Celeste Scott: interest actually into another larger statewide conference called Pick Tennessee Conference and things have just blossomed from there. 40 00:02:48,880 --> 00:02:51,440 Celeste Scott: Our contact list for those who are 41 00:02:51,820 --> 00:02:59,420 Celeste Scott: already involved in cut flower production in some way specifically in Tennessee has grown beyond 300 contacts. 42 00:02:59,420 --> 00:03:02,940 Celeste Scott: We are beginning to develop a state association to support 43 00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:12,480 Celeste Scott: those folks through marketing, budgeting, education, all those things that are really going to add more value for that very specific local grower. 44 00:03:12,480 --> 00:03:13,440 Celeste Scott: With all of that 45 00:03:13,640 --> 00:03:18,680 Celeste Scott: happening, we were able to apply for another grant, a specialty crop block grant. 46 00:03:18,680 --> 00:03:25,879 Celeste Scott: And three years ago Natalie and I and the rest of our team pictured here embarked on a multifaceted project. 47 00:03:25,879 --> 00:03:28,280 Celeste Scott: Natalie, do you want to tell us about that? 48 00:03:28,280 --> 00:03:29,160 Natalie Bumgarner: Yeah, yeah. 49 00:03:29,160 --> 00:03:31,080 Natalie Bumgarner: So you'll hear pieces of this. 50 00:03:31,080 --> 00:03:36,680 Natalie Bumgarner: A little bit of this work is still in process, but of course, the flower geeks, the plant people just wanted to put 51 00:03:36,760 --> 00:03:44,920 Natalie Bumgarner: plants in the ground and count them and fertilize them differently and all that fun stuff, but this is a great collaboration with our on-the-ground 52 00:03:45,340 --> 00:03:50,060 Natalie Bumgarner: farm management team as well as colleagues in our ag economics department. 53 00:03:50,060 --> 00:03:54,300 Natalie Bumgarner: So we've done consumer perspective, we've done surveys, we've done 54 00:03:54,640 --> 00:04:08,319 Natalie Bumgarner: enterprise budgets, and the budgets especially we'll share with y'all if you're interested, and some of the rest of the material is still coming out, but we're really excited about this being a way to engage with the great Tennessee growers that you're going to get to hear from 55 00:04:08,440 --> 00:04:10,920 Natalie Bumgarner: in some of the breakout sessions. 56 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:15,480 Celeste Scott: So we want to take a few minutes and fill you in on what's been going on with our field trials. 57 00:04:15,480 --> 00:04:20,919 Celeste Scott: Everything that we've done, we tried to fashion this after what our growers were currently doing, right? 58 00:04:20,919 --> 00:04:22,600 Celeste Scott: We had a large influx 59 00:04:22,860 --> 00:04:32,700 Celeste Scott: of new growers into this area, and as many of you are aware, warm season cut flowers are the gateway flower into cut flower production. They're easy to start from seed. It's a good 60 00:04:32,940 --> 00:04:34,700 Celeste Scott: group of plants to get your footing with. 61 00:04:34,700 --> 00:04:40,380 Celeste Scott: And so we were trying to focus our trials on plants that we knew that they were actively growing. 62 00:04:40,380 --> 00:04:46,540 Celeste Scott: We went out, we made lots of visits on site, farm visits and conversations to find out what people 63 00:04:46,639 --> 00:04:54,000 Celeste Scott: really wanted the most support in, and that's really what helped us drive how we wanted to fashion our field trials. 64 00:04:54,620 --> 00:04:58,379 Celeste Scott: So we have replications in Knoxville as well as in Jackson. 65 00:04:58,379 --> 00:05:03,259 Celeste Scott: For those of you who aren't familiar with Tennessee, that is about six hours away from one another. 66 00:05:03,259 --> 00:05:07,979 Celeste Scott: So we have very different growing conditions, different soil types, temperature climates, all those things. 67 00:05:07,979 --> 00:05:09,180 Celeste Scott: So definitely we wanted to 68 00:05:09,780 --> 00:05:15,780 Celeste Scott: do our replications in two different locations to support growers from all across our state. 69 00:05:15,780 --> 00:05:20,099 Celeste Scott: And then here you can see we started out with a huge combination of plants. 70 00:05:20,099 --> 00:05:21,620 Celeste Scott: We had focal flowers, filler 71 00:05:21,840 --> 00:05:27,040 Celeste Scott: flowers, greenery, everything focused there in that warm season crop category. 72 00:05:27,040 --> 00:05:31,600 Celeste Scott: And it was overwhelming to say the least to collect all that data. 73 00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:34,160 Celeste Scott: We were keeping up with stems per square foot 74 00:05:34,060 --> 00:05:41,900 Celeste Scott: that first year we were also measuring stem lengths and trying to really see where we were going to find some differences, right? 75 00:05:41,900 --> 00:05:42,220 Celeste Scott: We 76 00:05:42,720 --> 00:05:46,080 Celeste Scott: selected to grow things on fabric and or plastic. 77 00:05:46,080 --> 00:05:51,280 Celeste Scott: I use fabric, Natalie used plastic because we needed to cut down on time. 78 00:05:51,280 --> 00:05:52,400 Celeste Scott: We were using 79 00:05:52,639 --> 00:05:59,680 Celeste Scott: every bit of information that we used to put these trials in to help build our budgets that you're going to hear about here in a little bit. 80 00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:03,280 Celeste Scott: And so we know that labor is one of the highest input costs from growers. 81 00:06:03,280 --> 00:06:03,919 Celeste Scott: And so 82 00:06:03,960 --> 00:06:13,400 Celeste Scott: The best way to cut down on labor is going to be to spend a little more up front, spend a little more time putting those plants in the ground and moving forward in that way. 83 00:06:13,139 --> 00:06:16,979 Celeste Scott: So we were primarily looking at fertility comparisons. 84 00:06:16,979 --> 00:06:25,139 Celeste Scott: But really the only guidance that we have in this area for cut flowers is from the University of Maryland, and these were their general assumptions for 85 00:06:25,460 --> 00:06:29,220 Celeste Scott: fertility levels broken down into these three different categories. 86 00:06:29,220 --> 00:06:34,099 Celeste Scott: We decided to look at low as one pound of nitrogen per thousand square foot 87 00:06:34,240 --> 00:06:38,320 Celeste Scott: medium two pounds and high as three pounds per square foot. 88 00:06:38,320 --> 00:06:41,920 Celeste Scott: In that first year we only trialed low versus mediums 89 00:06:42,420 --> 00:06:53,460 Celeste Scott: You're going to see here in a minute what we found out from that. That was able to help us hone in a little bit on those plant types that we were seeing responses to fertilizer differences. 90 00:06:53,139 --> 00:06:57,460 Celeste Scott: So year two, we expanded that a bit and looked at low versus high. 91 00:06:57,460 --> 00:06:59,940 Celeste Scott: And then this year we've refined it even more. 92 00:06:59,940 --> 00:07:00,979 Celeste Scott: However, we're going to look 93 00:07:01,139 --> 00:07:02,180 Celeste Scott: all across the board. 94 00:07:02,180 --> 00:07:04,020 Celeste Scott: We have a control of no fertility. 95 00:07:04,020 --> 00:07:10,419 Celeste Scott: We're going to look at low, medium, and high, and that's really going to help round out the information that we're putting together. 96 00:07:10,419 --> 00:07:13,220 Celeste Scott: We used a 20-10-20 97 00:07:13,620 --> 00:07:19,379 Celeste Scott: soluble fertilizer through a Dosatron system to deliver those nutrients. 98 00:07:19,379 --> 00:07:24,099 Celeste Scott: So as I'm sure you're all aware, we trialed zinnias, obviously, and 99 00:07:24,240 --> 00:07:29,280 Celeste Scott: those were one that were showing some good responses to that fertility doses. 100 00:07:29,280 --> 00:07:37,760 Celeste Scott: And here you can see we've trialed everything from the tiny Zinderellas to our customary trade industry standard Benary's Giants. 101 00:07:36,900 --> 00:07:47,060 Celeste Scott: We added in Agaves a few years ago to get that different flower head type, that cactus flower type, and of course relied on those Queenys as they are a crowd favorite. 102 00:07:47,060 --> 00:07:50,660 Celeste Scott: And then as new cultivars come out, we definitely try to include those as well. 103 00:07:50,660 --> 00:07:51,780 Celeste Scott: So Natalie? 104 00:07:52,340 --> 00:07:54,580 Natalie Bumgarner: Yeah, so we'll share a little bit of data with you. 105 00:07:54,580 --> 00:08:01,140 Natalie Bumgarner: We love to show the trends, and of course all these are projects that are still in process, but you can see here 106 00:08:01,539 --> 00:08:11,060 Natalie Bumgarner: Probably no surprise to all of you who are growing these, that the Benary's are larger flowers, they're going to have fewer stems per square foot, but of course the quality is high. 107 00:08:11,060 --> 00:08:15,699 Natalie Bumgarner: And in our first year in Knoxville, we saw this general trend of 108 00:08:16,240 --> 00:08:22,320 Natalie Bumgarner: Seeing some potential for increase as we went up that fertility scale. 109 00:08:22,320 --> 00:08:25,040 Natalie Bumgarner: And you can also see a range here of flower sizes. 110 00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:27,440 Natalie Bumgarner: So we're beginning to dial in. 111 00:08:27,240 --> 00:08:30,120 Natalie Bumgarner: and begin to see the impacts on these different cultivars. 112 00:08:30,120 --> 00:08:36,360 Natalie Bumgarner: Time is of essence in the data collection process, and Celeste was very diplomatic. 113 00:08:36,320 --> 00:08:42,880 Natalie Bumgarner: ourselves and the couple of poor folks that we drafted and paid to help us were overwhelmed in the first year. 114 00:08:42,880 --> 00:08:44,800 Natalie Bumgarner: So we refined some of our cultivar 115 00:08:45,040 --> 00:08:58,480 Natalie Bumgarner: numbers, and you can see here we add in another cultivar, and in Knoxville those trends were remaining similar even when we went to high. And so, of course, that led us to this year where we want to really look at all of these 116 00:08:58,740 --> 00:08:59,460 Natalie Bumgarner: trends. 117 00:08:59,460 --> 00:09:06,900 Celeste Scott: So looking at those same plants there for Jackson, our responses again looking very similar to what Natalie had going on. 118 00:09:06,900 --> 00:09:07,860 Celeste Scott: You'll notice our 119 00:09:08,140 --> 00:09:15,020 Celeste Scott: overall flower counts were a bit lower and I'll have to say that that's due to our harvesting tactics. 120 00:09:15,020 --> 00:09:22,860 Celeste Scott: I was cutting stems that were much larger at the very beginning, and as things went along we were able to get on board 121 00:09:23,140 --> 00:09:26,980 Celeste Scott: and be more closely representative of how we were harvesting those. 122 00:09:26,980 --> 00:09:37,380 Celeste Scott: Also the area that I was growing in was a brand new prepared growing site, whereas Natalie had been planting into an area on the organic farm that has been growing plants for a number of years. 123 00:09:37,380 --> 00:09:37,780 Celeste Scott: So it 124 00:09:38,060 --> 00:09:41,980 Celeste Scott: had some existing nutrients and some loosened soil and things like that. 125 00:09:41,980 --> 00:09:45,820 Celeste Scott: So that's why we see a few differences, but the trend is similar. 126 00:09:46,020 --> 00:09:50,180 Celeste Scott: And then moving right on into 2025, the same thing. 127 00:09:50,180 --> 00:09:53,700 Celeste Scott: We increased those fertility levels, still seeing some responses. 128 00:09:53,700 --> 00:09:54,980 Celeste Scott: You'll see a little dip there on the 129 00:09:55,160 --> 00:09:57,560 Celeste Scott: Queeny Lime Orange, you're like, wonder what happened there. 130 00:09:57,560 --> 00:10:08,200 Celeste Scott: We had some issues with a septic drainage field, moved plots in year two, and so we definitely had some lower quantities there 131 00:10:08,240 --> 00:10:14,400 Celeste Scott: in the zone where our high fertility levels were because we had some conflicting water impacts there in that area. 132 00:10:14,400 --> 00:10:17,680 Celeste Scott: So obviously we have some great takeaways from our zinnias. 133 00:10:17,680 --> 00:10:18,320 Celeste Scott: Yes we 134 00:10:18,440 --> 00:10:23,000 Celeste Scott: saw some differences in increasing nitrogen levels. 135 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:28,600 Celeste Scott: We're seeing trends that increasing those levels could continue to increase stem counts. 136 00:10:28,600 --> 00:10:33,160 Celeste Scott: And so that's why we are wanting to really look at that full picture again in this final year. 137 00:10:33,339 --> 00:10:36,220 Celeste Scott: We also collected a lot of other fun information. 138 00:10:36,220 --> 00:10:39,579 Celeste Scott: Interestingly enough, Zinderellas were our highest cull percentage. 139 00:10:39,579 --> 00:10:42,779 Celeste Scott: Queeny Limes are great, but they have to be harvested at 140 00:10:43,140 --> 00:10:51,060 Celeste Scott: peak for best color or they just look dirty and dingy and can really turn some growers off, especially there in the middle of our warmest growing season. 141 00:10:51,060 --> 00:10:54,900 Celeste Scott: And obviously we can always struggle with late season disease and insect 142 00:10:54,959 --> 00:10:56,480 Celeste Scott: pests there on those zinnias. 143 00:10:56,480 --> 00:10:59,760 Celeste Scott: So let's move on and talk about celosia quickly. 144 00:10:59,760 --> 00:11:03,440 Celeste Scott: So we started out with again a wide range of different celosia types. 145 00:11:03,440 --> 00:11:04,480 Celeste Scott: We had wheat types, we had 146 00:11:04,660 --> 00:11:14,580 Celeste Scott: plume types, coxcomb type, and really tried to start out with some of those industry standards and then mix some tried and trues in as we got a little more experience under our belt. 147 00:11:14,580 --> 00:11:19,220 Celeste Scott: And so Natalie's going to share with you all some of our numbers from that celosia 148 00:11:18,820 --> 00:11:19,620 Celeste Scott: data. 149 00:11:19,620 --> 00:11:26,580 Natalie Bumgarner: Yeah, so as you saw in our first year, we had multiple cultivars that we were taking a lot of data 150 00:11:26,459 --> 00:11:35,180 Natalie Bumgarner: on, and we really tried to look at wheat, look at plume, look at coxcomb so that we could really see the differences across the different types of celosia. 151 00:11:35,180 --> 00:11:39,420 Natalie Bumgarner: And you can look at that and see Flamingo Feather, of course the wheat type 152 00:11:39,240 --> 00:11:45,880 Natalie Bumgarner: And we were seeing the largest trends toward impact of fertility in the plume types. 153 00:11:45,880 --> 00:11:49,720 Natalie Bumgarner: Those single stems, maybe not, we blame ourselves. 154 00:11:49,720 --> 00:11:53,560 Natalie Bumgarner: We don't necessarily blame the flowers, but we honed in on seeing 155 00:11:53,459 --> 00:12:02,820 Natalie Bumgarner: some of those impacts on the plume types, and we moved when we went to 2025 to smaller type of coxcomb type. Celeste will 156 00:12:03,040 --> 00:12:14,160 Natalie Bumgarner: share probably a little bit in the summary about the Kurume, but you can see that compared to zinnia, which had a more consistent fertility impact across those two years, we actually saw a little bit more 157 00:12:14,140 --> 00:12:16,780 Natalie Bumgarner: variability in the more vigorous celosia. 158 00:12:16,780 --> 00:12:22,940 Natalie Bumgarner: And of course we're really interested to see this third year worth of data so that we can really see over time 159 00:12:23,259 --> 00:12:33,980 Natalie Bumgarner: How much, if at all, are some of these fertility treatments impacting these more vigorous, productive, very multi-stem types of plants like some of the plume type celosia? 160 00:12:34,540 --> 00:12:35,019 Celeste Scott: All right. 161 00:12:35,019 --> 00:12:39,660 Celeste Scott: And you may be wondering, Celeste, why didn't you tell us about your information from Jackson on celosia? 162 00:12:39,660 --> 00:12:43,660 Celeste Scott: And that's because apparently I was a poor celosia grower. 163 00:12:44,080 --> 00:12:46,320 Celeste Scott: In year one, I learned lessons. 164 00:12:46,320 --> 00:12:48,720 Celeste Scott: I planted them too early, okay? 165 00:12:48,720 --> 00:12:51,120 Celeste Scott: They can be adversely affected 166 00:12:51,060 --> 00:12:52,740 Celeste Scott: by cool night temperatures. 167 00:12:52,740 --> 00:12:59,940 Celeste Scott: I got them out in the ground a little too early because they were getting root bound, which is also something that you need to steer clear of. 168 00:12:59,780 --> 00:13:07,140 Celeste Scott: is starting celosia by transplants. Constricted root growth as well as cooler night temperatures can induce early flowering. 169 00:13:07,140 --> 00:13:11,220 Celeste Scott: And so my numbers from 2024 weren't super reliable. 170 00:13:11,220 --> 00:13:12,740 Celeste Scott: And then in 2025 171 00:13:12,940 --> 00:13:20,220 Celeste Scott: my research plot is at a production row crop research facility, and we had a little bit of off-target herbicide 172 00:13:20,540 --> 00:13:23,820 Celeste Scott: damage from a neighboring plot that we have since rectified. 173 00:13:24,060 --> 00:13:28,700 Celeste Scott: We tossed some of that Jackson data out the window for 2024 and 2025. 174 00:13:28,700 --> 00:13:35,100 Celeste Scott: But definitely some of the takeaways that we had with celosia: Sunday Green has had reliably 175 00:13:35,420 --> 00:13:37,500 Celeste Scott: long, thin stems for us. 176 00:13:37,500 --> 00:13:46,860 Celeste Scott: And that for me is super important with celosia is you can get that fasciation where you're dealing with, have a beautiful bloom that's going to look great in a bouquet, but the stem is so 177 00:13:46,640 --> 00:13:51,360 Celeste Scott: thick that you can't really make it work diameter-wise for what you're needing those to fit into. 178 00:13:51,360 --> 00:13:53,040 Celeste Scott: So Sunday Greens were excellent. 179 00:13:53,040 --> 00:13:56,080 Celeste Scott: We expanded that to include Sunday Oranges last year. 180 00:13:56,080 --> 00:13:58,480 Celeste Scott: They had beautiful bloom but I wouldn't say that 181 00:13:58,640 --> 00:14:01,200 Celeste Scott: their stem standards were as comparable. 182 00:14:01,200 --> 00:14:03,680 Celeste Scott: Flamingo Feather was a favorite of ours as well. 183 00:14:03,680 --> 00:14:10,960 Celeste Scott: That was a nice filler flower, had super long stems, so if you're looking for something to really get that length on, that would be an area to 184 00:14:11,060 --> 00:14:13,860 Celeste Scott: focus on. It was also a reliable re-bloomer. 185 00:14:13,860 --> 00:14:17,700 Celeste Scott: You could cut that way down and several weeks later get another cut off of those. 186 00:14:17,700 --> 00:14:20,100 Celeste Scott: The Pampas Plume were great for us 187 00:14:19,860 --> 00:14:28,740 Celeste Scott: as far as quality and versatility, and then Kurume was something that we added last year, even though it's an older cultivar, and we really loved that smaller coxcomb 188 00:14:29,259 --> 00:14:37,339 Celeste Scott: form and it had some variability in it as well as far as shape so it was always fun to see what that was going to shoot out for us. 189 00:14:37,620 --> 00:14:40,899 Celeste Scott: All right, so we'll talk just a minute about sunflowers. 190 00:14:40,899 --> 00:14:45,060 Celeste Scott: We did sunflowers in year one and then realized oh we're using all 191 00:14:45,160 --> 00:14:51,720 Celeste Scott: single stem sunflower cuts, so I can't imagine that fertility is going to impact the number of stems that we get on those very much. 192 00:14:51,720 --> 00:14:54,680 Celeste Scott: They were pretty reliable as long as your transplants were 193 00:14:54,759 --> 00:15:02,360 Celeste Scott: healthy that we were going to get one good cut per plant, but we did see lots of variability in flower head size, and carrying that 194 00:15:02,620 --> 00:15:10,620 Celeste Scott: through for last year and then through this year we decided instead of looking at fertility for sunflowers, let's focus on some spacing treatments 195 00:15:10,339 --> 00:15:18,420 Celeste Scott: and see if we can really push those flower head sizes while also possibly utilizing some plant spacing 196 00:15:18,380 --> 00:15:22,300 Celeste Scott: templates that people may already be using in burnt fabrics, right? 197 00:15:22,300 --> 00:15:29,260 Celeste Scott: Because you don't want to, it's very complicated to be having to use different planting standards between cropping systems. 198 00:15:29,260 --> 00:15:32,860 Celeste Scott: So we thought let's look at one plant 199 00:15:33,380 --> 00:15:36,420 Celeste Scott: on six-inch spacing, that's kind of industry standard, right? 200 00:15:36,420 --> 00:15:37,940 Celeste Scott: Four to six-inch spacing. 201 00:15:37,940 --> 00:15:44,980 Celeste Scott: Then we wanted to look at what would that look like if we planted two plants in each like planting hole, right? 202 00:15:44,980 --> 00:15:47,300 Celeste Scott: Still on six-inch centers. 203 00:15:46,860 --> 00:15:55,820 Celeste Scott: And then we also looked at nine-inch centers because a lot of our larger warm season annuals are being grown on nine-inch centers, and we said people may want to utilize those 204 00:15:55,660 --> 00:15:57,500 Celeste Scott: fabric templates that they already have. 205 00:15:57,500 --> 00:16:04,460 Celeste Scott: Let's see what happens when we put two plants per every nine inches and see how that affects that flower head size. 206 00:16:04,460 --> 00:16:06,060 Celeste Scott: Let's move on, Natalie. 207 00:16:06,260 --> 00:16:12,740 Celeste Scott: All right, so for last year we actually had two successions, and you can see those bars here as well as an average total. 208 00:16:12,900 --> 00:16:14,580 Celeste Scott: I had a little bit of variability there. 209 00:16:14,580 --> 00:16:17,540 Celeste Scott: You're like, how did those numbers get so high on the first succession? 210 00:16:17,540 --> 00:16:20,500 Celeste Scott: We had a really moist spring, and after we made that 211 00:16:20,940 --> 00:16:33,340 Celeste Scott: first cut they actually branched, even though we were using all single-stem cuts, and we were not harvesting anything that had a stem that was below the diameter of, say, a pencil, and so these were 212 00:16:33,440 --> 00:16:36,560 Celeste Scott: usable marketable stems and so we went ahead and counted those. 213 00:16:36,560 --> 00:16:39,920 Celeste Scott: But the information we really want to see is on the next slide. 214 00:16:39,920 --> 00:16:40,960 Celeste Scott: So how did 215 00:16:41,540 --> 00:16:48,740 Celeste Scott: this spacing affect that percentage of flower head diameter that those spacings produced? 216 00:16:48,740 --> 00:16:52,820 Celeste Scott: As reliable, we're looking there at that six inch spacing per one plant. 217 00:16:52,820 --> 00:16:56,180 Celeste Scott: These things are what we assumed that we would find as far as 218 00:16:56,459 --> 00:16:57,899 Celeste Scott: stems per square foot. 219 00:16:57,899 --> 00:17:04,459 Celeste Scott: We had a pretty even distribution of flower heads that were below four inches wide, those that were above four inches, and 220 00:17:04,819 --> 00:17:16,020 Celeste Scott: even a pretty high percentage of those that were getting into that above six inch diameter, which makes them pretty not as versatile, not as useful for mixed bouquet type. 221 00:17:15,560 --> 00:17:16,839 Celeste Scott: considerations, right? 222 00:17:16,839 --> 00:17:20,280 Celeste Scott: Yes, if you were selling by bunches of flowers, that would be great. 223 00:17:20,280 --> 00:17:23,080 Celeste Scott: But even then you're going to have such a high number 224 00:17:23,079 --> 00:17:30,920 Celeste Scott: percentage of those flowers that are below six inches, it just shakes things up and we wanted to have a way for you guys to be more confident 225 00:17:31,200 --> 00:17:32,320 Celeste Scott: in what you were producing. 226 00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:42,560 Celeste Scott: When we looked at the six-inch spacing with two plants, which essentially brings down planting population down to a three-inch planting pattern, we had our highest percentage of flowers 227 00:17:43,019 --> 00:17:46,139 Celeste Scott: below four-inch flower head diameters. 228 00:17:46,139 --> 00:17:47,500 Celeste Scott: I'm not just talking about the disc. 229 00:17:47,500 --> 00:17:49,580 Celeste Scott: I'm talking about from petal to petal, right? 230 00:17:49,580 --> 00:17:52,059 Celeste Scott: So very usable, very versatile. 231 00:17:51,880 --> 00:17:54,280 Celeste Scott: in those mixed bouquet type settings. 232 00:17:54,280 --> 00:18:04,280 Celeste Scott: But what was even more surprising to me was that once we got into that nine-inch spacing with every two plants, we had the highest four-inch and below 233 00:18:04,540 --> 00:18:10,380 Celeste Scott: percentage as well as the lowest percentage of flowers that were six inches in diameter above. 234 00:18:10,380 --> 00:18:12,380 Celeste Scott: We're hoping that we can replicate that 235 00:18:12,740 --> 00:18:19,780 Celeste Scott: this year and compare what we saw last year to what's coming out this year and hopefully set you guys up for a little better situation, 236 00:18:20,760 --> 00:18:33,480 Celeste Scott: confident in expecting those flower head sizes and numbers that you're going to get and help be able to allow you to plan for how many plants you need to plant in that particular crop for each succession. 237 00:18:33,480 --> 00:18:35,080 Celeste Scott: Okay, Natalie. 238 00:18:34,640 --> 00:18:35,920 Celeste Scott: So here's our takeaways. 239 00:18:35,920 --> 00:18:39,520 Celeste Scott: I feel like I've talked a lot about sunflowers, but they were all great. 240 00:18:39,600 --> 00:18:43,200 Celeste Scott: We didn't come across any cultivars that we were super set against. 241 00:18:43,200 --> 00:18:44,480 Celeste Scott: Reliable, resilient. 242 00:18:44,480 --> 00:18:49,280 Celeste Scott: As long as you have a good planting schedule laid out, you're going to be able to have reliable harvest through a long period 243 00:18:49,560 --> 00:18:58,120 Celeste Scott: of the growing season, starting in some areas of Tennessee as early as Mother's Day, believe it or not, and pushing the limits there as far as frost goes. 244 00:18:58,140 --> 00:19:09,260 Celeste Scott: So definitely making sure you're changing your color palette of cultivars that you're planting to match the other tones, those warm tones or cool tones, depending on what part of the season we're in. 245 00:19:09,340 --> 00:19:09,740 Celeste Scott: Had 246 00:19:09,760 --> 00:19:14,000 Celeste Scott: We saw some issues with insects, but that was primarily on foliage feeding. 247 00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:18,960 Celeste Scott: We only saw a flower head or petal damage on primarily the lighter colored flowers. 248 00:19:18,960 --> 00:19:20,240 Celeste Scott: Always be cautious of that. 249 00:19:20,240 --> 00:19:22,960 Celeste Scott: And so we can move on from sunflowers. 250 00:19:22,980 --> 00:19:27,060 Celeste Scott: And of course I just had to throw in pictures of the And More, right? 251 00:19:27,060 --> 00:19:33,060 Celeste Scott: We had several different types of flowers that we trialed, and this was by no means our favorites. 252 00:19:33,060 --> 00:19:37,460 Celeste Scott: The celosia and zinnia were just the tip of the iceberg, and so we have a lot more information 253 00:19:37,660 --> 00:19:39,900 Celeste Scott: that we are going to be able to share with you guys. 254 00:19:40,140 --> 00:19:43,660 Celeste Scott: And that kind of leads us into our next slide, which is the trialing summary. 255 00:19:43,660 --> 00:19:48,140 Celeste Scott: And basically we just want you guys to know that we're putting all this information together as we speak. 256 00:19:48,140 --> 00:19:49,260 Celeste Scott: We're going to have this 257 00:19:49,460 --> 00:19:59,300 Celeste Scott: published. People are going to be able to access our production guides and a lot of the things that we learn through these trialing efforts. 258 00:19:59,440 --> 00:20:01,919 Celeste Scott: And that wraps us up for trialing. 259 00:20:01,919 --> 00:20:06,639 Celeste Scott: And Natalie is going to share with us some about our marketing side of the project. 260 00:20:06,639 --> 00:20:07,600 Natalie Bumgarner: Yeah, absolutely. 261 00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:10,000 Natalie Bumgarner: So this is a snapshot of what we've done. 262 00:20:10,019 --> 00:20:16,899 Natalie Bumgarner: so far in working to expand the cut flower market, which is of course of interest to all of us. 263 00:20:16,899 --> 00:20:20,980 Natalie Bumgarner: And so a snapshot of just a couple of the surveys that we have done. 264 00:20:20,980 --> 00:20:24,659 Natalie Bumgarner: We did a grower survey that was followed by consumer 265 00:20:24,419 --> 00:20:32,900 Natalie Bumgarner: survey and the key elements of this consumer survey audience are that they all bought cut flowers in the 266 00:20:33,240 --> 00:20:38,040 Natalie Bumgarner: year prior to the survey, and two-thirds of them were buying local cut flowers. 267 00:20:38,040 --> 00:20:44,360 Natalie Bumgarner: So to the best of our ability, this survey audience is in fact your customer base, our stakeholder audience. 268 00:20:44,360 --> 00:20:46,920 Natalie Bumgarner: And while it's a majority of Tennessee 269 00:20:47,040 --> 00:20:48,400 Natalie Bumgarner: that participate in the survey. 270 00:20:48,400 --> 00:20:55,040 Natalie Bumgarner: We have a lot of the rest of the southeastern states because we want to make sure that to the best of our ability it's pretty representative. 271 00:20:54,940 --> 00:21:02,779 Natalie Bumgarner: So some of the things that we're really honing in on is accessibility and kind of the contact of customer with the local 272 00:21:03,160 --> 00:21:16,680 Natalie Bumgarner: cut flower. And so this is an element from our grower survey. So from the grower perspective, where are you selling your local cut flowers? And so, surprise to none of us, certainly yourselves, 273 00:21:16,360 --> 00:21:20,919 Natalie Bumgarner: are that farmers markets, direct to consumer, are some of those highest areas. 274 00:21:20,919 --> 00:21:27,159 Natalie Bumgarner: Pick your own, some CSAs, and clearly people were allowed to select more than one 275 00:21:26,940 --> 00:21:30,059 Natalie Bumgarner: of these marketing options in the survey. 276 00:21:30,059 --> 00:21:40,620 Natalie Bumgarner: Then when we flip that and look at the consumer side of the survey, we really want to think about what are kind of the motivational drivers for the purchase 277 00:21:40,620 --> 00:21:42,380 Natalie Bumgarner: of local cut flowers. 278 00:21:42,380 --> 00:21:45,420 Natalie Bumgarner: And about 62% were buying for gifts, right? 279 00:21:45,420 --> 00:21:49,340 Natalie Bumgarner: So a little bit less than 40% growing for themselves. 280 00:21:49,340 --> 00:21:54,940 Natalie Bumgarner: And a fairly high number, 40, potentially higher, are reporting this as 281 00:21:55,380 --> 00:21:57,060 Natalie Bumgarner: impulse purchases. 282 00:21:57,060 --> 00:22:00,580 Natalie Bumgarner: So we want to think about this in terms of location, right? 283 00:22:00,580 --> 00:22:02,900 Natalie Bumgarner: Accessibility, getting the product 284 00:22:02,840 --> 00:22:05,480 Natalie Bumgarner: in the face of our consumers. 285 00:22:05,480 --> 00:22:07,640 Natalie Bumgarner: And this is one of my favorite questions from the survey. 286 00:22:07,640 --> 00:22:12,280 Natalie Bumgarner: We ask consumers, at what point did you decide to buy 287 00:22:12,220 --> 00:22:13,260 Natalie Bumgarner: these cut flowers? 288 00:22:13,260 --> 00:22:19,580 Natalie Bumgarner: And so a third of our prepared audience knew what they wanted when they went into the shopping area. 289 00:22:19,580 --> 00:22:20,380 Natalie Bumgarner: 50% 290 00:22:21,019 --> 00:22:23,419 Natalie Bumgarner: knew they wanted it when they saw it. 291 00:22:23,419 --> 00:22:29,820 Natalie Bumgarner: This is our ability to capture audience, and the 16% that these are my people. 292 00:22:29,600 --> 00:22:32,799 Natalie Bumgarner: I don't recall the point where I decided to buy this arrangement. 293 00:22:32,799 --> 00:22:34,559 Natalie Bumgarner: I just walked out of the store with flowers. 294 00:22:34,559 --> 00:22:36,400 Natalie Bumgarner: I don't know how that happened, right? 295 00:22:36,400 --> 00:22:41,360 Natalie Bumgarner: But those kind of two-thirds are definitely the folks that are very much open 296 00:22:41,519 --> 00:22:44,159 Natalie Bumgarner: for a local cut flower purchase. 297 00:22:44,159 --> 00:22:46,799 Natalie Bumgarner: So this is on the consumer side. 298 00:22:46,799 --> 00:22:49,919 Natalie Bumgarner: You can see the higher response number here. 299 00:22:49,940 --> 00:22:52,340 Natalie Bumgarner: Where are you buying cut flowers? 300 00:22:52,340 --> 00:22:58,260 Natalie Bumgarner: Right, so this is not local specific, this is cut flowers, and we see really high grocery store number. 301 00:22:58,260 --> 00:23:04,659 Natalie Bumgarner: We think back to our growers and we saw much lower percentage of our local cut flowers. 302 00:23:03,760 --> 00:23:07,200 Natalie Bumgarner: growers that were selling at grocery stores. 303 00:23:07,200 --> 00:23:12,000 Natalie Bumgarner: We add local to this question and we see the grocery store percentage go down. 304 00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:18,559 Natalie Bumgarner: We start to see mass merchandisers, wholesale clubs, as well as local florists, farmers market pick up. 305 00:23:18,100 --> 00:23:28,100 Natalie Bumgarner: But we can see that even in this local cut flower area, a large percentage of our customers are still buying from grocery stores, right? 306 00:23:28,100 --> 00:23:30,260 Natalie Bumgarner: Really highly accessible locations. 307 00:23:30,260 --> 00:23:33,059 Natalie Bumgarner: This is an attitudes question. 308 00:23:32,460 --> 00:23:36,380 Natalie Bumgarner: And we see high good promising types of feedback here. 309 00:23:36,380 --> 00:23:40,780 Natalie Bumgarner: Local consumers want to support local 310 00:23:40,940 --> 00:23:47,580 Natalie Bumgarner: producers, they largely see cut flower local cut flowers as something that are grown within their state. 311 00:23:47,580 --> 00:23:55,019 Natalie Bumgarner: But we still see, in some ways, probably not an ideally high number of people who think that local cut flowers are not 312 00:23:55,120 --> 00:23:58,400 Natalie Bumgarner: available where they live or not something that they think about very much. 313 00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:02,880 Natalie Bumgarner: So there's still a lot of room for more customer engagement and market expansion 314 00:24:02,940 --> 00:24:04,059 Natalie Bumgarner: in these areas. 315 00:24:04,059 --> 00:24:12,460 Natalie Bumgarner: And then a final question for us to think about and look over are what are the barriers to local cut flower purchases from our consumers? 316 00:24:12,260 --> 00:24:16,100 Natalie Bumgarner: Now the high price, we can move, well, we'll work and move them on that, right? 317 00:24:16,100 --> 00:24:20,500 Natalie Bumgarner: But the thing that we want to kind of hone in is that low availability. 318 00:24:20,740 --> 00:24:23,299 Natalie Bumgarner: How is it that we can get our product 319 00:24:23,519 --> 00:24:27,840 Natalie Bumgarner: your product, I should say, more in the face of our consumers. 320 00:24:27,840 --> 00:24:33,440 Natalie Bumgarner: So it's really about accessibility for those planned, our 34% of our planners, 321 00:24:33,460 --> 00:24:36,100 Natalie Bumgarner: as well as for those unplanned purchases. 322 00:24:36,100 --> 00:24:41,380 Natalie Bumgarner: And so we're going to be doing a little bit more work on this and willingness to pay this fall 323 00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:49,240 Natalie Bumgarner: We've also done some willingness to pay surveys that show that as the percentage of local cut flowers increases in that bouquet, 324 00:24:49,580 --> 00:24:55,100 Natalie Bumgarner: that our consumers are willing to pay an increasingly large amount for that. 325 00:24:55,100 --> 00:25:00,940 Natalie Bumgarner: So I think that really education and an understanding of what you are putting into this product 326 00:25:01,019 --> 00:25:09,340 Natalie Bumgarner: And the local elements are going to continue to help us grow this market in the one minute that remains. 327 00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:14,680 Natalie Bumgarner: We want you to know that we already have the budgets that are accessible and out there. 328 00:25:14,680 --> 00:25:16,840 Natalie Bumgarner: So as Celeste said, these are based 329 00:25:17,220 --> 00:25:29,060 Natalie Bumgarner: originally on visits with growers on our own field trial data, but our Tennessee growers have also been reviewers and ground truthers for us 330 00:25:28,740 --> 00:25:30,820 Natalie Bumgarner: as we put these budgets together. 331 00:25:30,820 --> 00:25:36,340 Natalie Bumgarner: So right now we have five warm season annuals that are available on our website there. 332 00:25:36,340 --> 00:25:38,260 Natalie Bumgarner: So we put the QR code. 333 00:25:38,140 --> 00:25:40,540 Natalie Bumgarner: so that y'all can have access to these. 334 00:25:40,540 --> 00:25:48,700 Natalie Bumgarner: And of course, as you're using them, as you're working with them, we would love to hear any feedback that you might have or any experience, any additions. 335 00:25:48,700 --> 00:25:52,780 Natalie Bumgarner: And we're excited about the opportunity to maybe add some more 336 00:25:52,340 --> 00:25:59,299 Natalie Bumgarner: plants to our palette, moving forward, and expand the selection of ready-to-use tools. 337 00:25:59,299 --> 00:26:02,740 Natalie Bumgarner: So I believe that is in fact the last slide 338 00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:03,640 Natalie Bumgarner: that we have. 339 00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:13,799 Natalie Bumgarner: So Celeste may have to hop off and go talk about turfgrass here, but I'm going to hang on, and if there's any questions that you have or any ideas or thoughts or suggestions 340 00:26:13,820 --> 00:26:21,500 Natalie Bumgarner: We just really appreciate the opportunity to engage with y'all and are excited to listen to the rest of the speakers this morning. 341 00:26:21,500 --> 00:26:23,740 Natalie Bumgarner: So Bethany, I'll turn it back over to you. 342 00:26:23,620 --> 00:26:24,500 Gabrielle LaTora: All right. 343 00:26:24,500 --> 00:26:26,420 Gabrielle LaTora: Thank you, Celeste and Natalie. 344 00:26:26,420 --> 00:26:27,940 Gabrielle LaTora: My name is Gabrielle LaTora. 345 00:26:27,940 --> 00:26:32,260 Gabrielle LaTora: I'm an agriculture and natural resources agent in Fulton County, Georgia. 346 00:26:32,260 --> 00:26:34,500 Gabrielle LaTora: And we really appreciate y'all's time today. 347 00:26:34,500 --> 00:26:35,780 Gabrielle LaTora: And we have one 348 00:26:36,519 --> 00:26:38,120 Gabrielle LaTora: question in our chat. 349 00:26:38,120 --> 00:26:44,519 Gabrielle LaTora: My sunflowers are getting hammered by that gnarly leaf-footed army tank stinky bug. 350 00:26:44,519 --> 00:26:48,519 Gabrielle LaTora: Any organic suggestions for getting those off my sunflowers? 351 00:26:48,960 --> 00:26:52,160 Celeste Scott: I can jump in there if y'all want me to try to fill that question. 352 00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:54,400 Celeste Scott: So I feel like you have a few options. 353 00:26:54,400 --> 00:27:01,600 Celeste Scott: However, again, remember how I referenced the majority of our insect feeding damage that I was seeing on sunflowers 354 00:27:01,660 --> 00:27:03,020 Celeste Scott: was primarily on foliage. 355 00:27:03,020 --> 00:27:10,220 Celeste Scott: So if we are harvesting those blooms at the appropriate time, your petals shouldn't even actually be fully expanded yet. 356 00:27:10,220 --> 00:27:13,580 Celeste Scott: So hopefully if we're harvesting those flowers at the right time 357 00:27:13,760 --> 00:27:21,280 Celeste Scott: Even if there are pest insects in your field, we can forgo any types of treatments if we are harvesting those flowers early enough. 358 00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:23,200 Celeste Scott: However, if you do feel like that insect 359 00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:26,080 Celeste Scott: pressure is heavy enough that it warrants some kind of control. 360 00:27:26,080 --> 00:27:31,679 Celeste Scott: You can always look into the application of things like horticultural oils, insecticidal soaps. 361 00:27:31,679 --> 00:27:32,399 Celeste Scott: But with that 362 00:27:32,740 --> 00:27:40,180 Celeste Scott: comes the knowledge that you're going to have to get excellent coverage to have efficient control using those types of products. 363 00:27:40,180 --> 00:27:43,060 Celeste Scott: They also have little to no residual in your field. 364 00:27:43,060 --> 00:27:44,980 Celeste Scott: So that's something that would have to be 365 00:27:44,919 --> 00:27:49,799 Celeste Scott: applied pretty regularly, obviously following all of your label recommendations. 366 00:27:49,799 --> 00:27:53,559 Celeste Scott: And also being cautious of temperature, because like it's warm season, right? 367 00:27:53,559 --> 00:27:58,520 Celeste Scott: And those products can cause phytotoxic issues sometimes. 368 00:27:58,040 --> 00:27:58,520 Celeste Scott: Okay. 369 00:27:59,160 --> 00:28:00,760 Celeste Scott: One more question if you want to. 370 00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:01,960 Gabrielle LaTora: Thank you, Celeste. 371 00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:04,440 Gabrielle LaTora: We've got one more question in the chat. 372 00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:09,080 Gabrielle LaTora: Jennifer says, I'm starting some cut flowers in middle Georgia this year. 373 00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:11,960 Gabrielle LaTora: What is a reasonable size of a garden to start with? 374 00:28:11,960 --> 00:28:18,039 Gabrielle LaTora: We definitely want to start small and grow, but not sure where to start what to start with. 375 00:28:18,100 --> 00:28:26,419 Celeste Scott: Yeah, so like I mentioned, warm season cut flowers are the gateway starter for folks who are looking to get into cut flower production. 376 00:28:26,260 --> 00:28:38,179 Celeste Scott: The majority of them are easy to grow from seeds, so it's going to fit a lot of different setups, whether you're trying to start transplants indoors, which is what we did for our trials because we needed to be certain of 377 00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:42,240 Celeste Scott: plant population counts to make sure that our data was correct. 378 00:28:42,240 --> 00:28:46,960 Celeste Scott: However, I know a lot of our growers direct seed warm season annuals. 379 00:28:46,960 --> 00:28:51,760 Celeste Scott: So I would suggest to have a good kind of combination of that filler 380 00:28:52,060 --> 00:28:53,500 Celeste Scott: foliage and focal. 381 00:28:53,500 --> 00:28:55,020 Celeste Scott: Zinnias are a great start. 382 00:28:55,020 --> 00:29:01,740 Celeste Scott: Celosia, you saw from our presentation, depending on what types of cultivars you can use, can serve as focals or fillers. 383 00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:10,880 Celeste Scott: I love gomphrena for a nice light filler, but it can be time consuming to harvest, so keep that in mind if you are putting that into your calculations. 384 00:29:10,880 --> 00:29:11,519 Celeste Scott: I love 385 00:29:11,779 --> 00:29:19,059 Celeste Scott: Frosted Explosion, it is an annual panicum grass, great for foliage and filler. 386 00:29:19,059 --> 00:29:22,179 Celeste Scott: We trialed some ornamental millets that were really fun. 387 00:29:22,179 --> 00:29:25,059 Celeste Scott: Once you get later into the autumn season, those can 388 00:29:25,340 --> 00:29:35,820 Celeste Scott: cause a lot of beautiful contrast and different movement in your arrangements. And then basil, I love using all different types of basil for foliage fillers, but again 389 00:29:35,800 --> 00:29:37,640 Celeste Scott: You've got to be careful when you're harvesting those. 390 00:29:37,640 --> 00:29:43,640 Celeste Scott: If you harvest too early before those stems begin to feel woody, you're gonna get a lot of wilting and no matter 391 00:29:43,820 --> 00:29:49,100 Celeste Scott: what your post-harvest handling methods are, those are not going to revive for you. 392 00:29:49,100 --> 00:29:50,780 Celeste Scott: So harvest timing is important. 393 00:29:50,780 --> 00:29:52,940 Celeste Scott: But those would be some places I would start. 394 00:29:52,940 --> 00:29:59,340 Natalie Bumgarner: And I was going to say, Celeste, our budgets are set up to grow multiple crops. 395 00:29:59,340 --> 00:30:04,539 Natalie Bumgarner: Now we're not saying that they should all be grown in equal quantity, but the budgets are set up 396 00:30:04,740 --> 00:30:14,820 Natalie Bumgarner: to grow, what, a quarter of an acre together, but representing five different cultivars with the concept that nobody needs an acre of zinnias as the beginning to start. 397 00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:15,920 Celeste Scott: Yes, definitely. 398 00:30:15,920 --> 00:30:16,960 Celeste Scott: Thanks for adding that. 399 00:30:16,960 --> 00:30:19,440 Celeste Scott: They definitely play well together. 400 00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:26,880 Celeste Scott: So you can mix and match all those pieces of those warm season budgets to put together that quarter of an acre. 401 00:30:26,540 --> 00:30:28,140 Celeste Scott: Big picture. 402 00:30:28,140 --> 00:30:30,220 Gabrielle LaTora: Perfect, thank y'all so much.