Webinar Title: A Message from the Atlanta Flower Collective
Webinar Date: July 23, 2026
Speakers: Jess Neese, co-founder, Atlanta Flower Collective and Field and Flower; Ashley Blackstone, co-founder, Atlanta Flower Collective and Wellspring Farms
Introduced by: Gabrielle LaTora
Moderator: Bethany Harris
Duration: 14:17
Series: Cut Flower Symposium
CEU Categories: [PENDING]
NARRATIVE SUMMARY
Jess Neese and Ashley Blackstone built the Atlanta Flower Collective because the sales, marketing, and distribution side of flower farming had worn both of them out. Neese farms at Field and Flower in the Atlanta area, Blackstone at Wellspring Farms. They spent a day together in December 2024 deciding to try it, then nine months interviewing collectives around the country before launching in September 2025. At the symposium they were finishing their first full year.
The collective is a privately owned LLC that handles sales, distribution, and marketing for eight member farms. It works on consignment, so farms are paid on what sells rather than on what they deliver, and nothing is bought up front. Buyers are mostly wholesale: florists, event and wedding designers, church guilds, and garden clubs. Neese described three ways to buy. A client can work with staff on an order for a future event, place a pre-order on Thursday for the following week, or book an appointment to shop the cooler in person. Delivery runs out to 100 miles through Roadie, which is part of UPS, and Uber Courier Service.
Farms drop product Monday night or Tuesday morning, and distribution runs Tuesday through Friday. Sales move through the Open Food Network, a nonprofit platform built for farms that Neese chose for its low cost of entry and its support for a hub with pre-sale and floor sale inventory running side by side. Inventory turned out to be the hardest piece to work out.
Blackstone spoke to what changed at the farm level. One drop-off point instead of many gave her back time, and seeing other growers at delivery cut the isolation of working fields alone. Answering audience questions, the two said appointments can be booked online, new grower slots wait until current demand is exhausted, and stem count estimates come from trial and error and from talking to other farmers. Their buyer list has grown from about 100 florists to nearly 500, and pre-sales and floor sales now split close to 50-50.
YOUTUBE TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Introducing the Atlanta Flower Collective
0:24 Jess Neese and Ashley Blackstone
0:43 The founders and their farms
1:21 From a December 2024 decision to a 2025 launch
2:06 Ownership and the eight member farms
2:39 Which buyers the collective serves
3:02 Three ways to place an order
3:27 Pre-orders, floor sales, and 100-mile delivery
3:56 Who staffs the collective
4:23 Consignment, and how farms get paid
4:45 Community, burnout, and work-life balance
5:51 The Tuesday through Friday schedule
6:19 Online sales and near-live inventory
6:51 Choosing the Open Food Network
7:35 Two inventory structures at once
8:13 Ashley Blackstone on what changed at the farm
9:16 A backyard cooler instead of a lease
9:26 Season length, March through Thanksgiving
10:15 Q&A: booking a visit to the collective
10:54 Q&A: when new growers can join
11:13 Q&A: estimating stem counts
12:41 Q&A: how a farmer counts stems
13:34 Pre-sales and floor sales split 50-50
14:15 Closing
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Q: How do the farms get paid?
A: On consignment. Neese said the collective pays out a certain portion to its farms and does not pre-buy anything, so farms are paid on what is selling rather than on what they bring in.
Q: What are the ways a buyer can actually order?
A: Three. A buyer can contact the collective about a future event and work with staff on an order in advance, which Neese said gets you first picks. There are pre-orders every Thursday for the following week’s distribution. There are also floor sales, where a buyer schedules an appointment and shops the cooler.
Q: How far will they deliver, and who carries it?
A: Up to 100 miles, using Roadie, which Neese said is part of UPS and operates in the Atlanta area, along with Uber Courier Service.
Q: What platform runs the sales, and why that one?
A: The Open Food Network. Neese said it is a nonprofit built for farms, with a low cost barrier and a quick start, and it supports a hub where every farm inputs inventory that then aggregates for sale. It also handles pre-sale and floor sale inventory as separate structures. She called it imperfect but recommended it to any farm selling to its own clients.
Q: Can a grower come see the operation?
A: Yes. Appointments to shop the cooler can be scheduled online through the collective’s website, Tuesday through Friday. Neese told growers to come see what they are doing.
Q: Are they taking new member farms?
A: Not yet. Neese said they are committing to their founding farmers and will start expanding once they exhaust current demand.
Q: How do you estimate stem counts for pre-sales?
A: Trial and error, plus talking to other farmers and other collectives. Blackstone said it takes practice, that you have to know each crop, and that she tends to underestimate. Neese added that most farms underestimate their pre-sales at first and get more confident over time, and that the growers who get it right capture the early sales.
Q: Is it worth running floor sales as well as pre-sales?
A: Neese said their pre-sales and floor sales come out almost split 50-50, so there is opportunity on both sides. She noted that some collectives run pre-sales only, usually because of location and space.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
- The collective’s website is referenced as the place to book a cooler appointment, but no address was spoken and none appears in the transcript. It has to come from the Atlanta Flower Collective or the symposium organizers before publication.
- Neese said the collective was part of a breakout session later in the symposium schedule.
SCALING NOTE
This is a light-track segment of 14:17, and Stage 2 is scaled to it under the hub’s light-track rule.
- Chapters up. One marker every 3 to 5 minutes would give this segment four chapters. It carries 24, roughly one every 36 seconds, placed at real topic transitions with every pair at least 10 seconds apart.
- Q&A down. Eight pairs against the standard 8 to 12. The segment has a genuine moderated Q&A, which the other light-track segments do not, so it supports more pairs than segment 01’s seven. Pairs that would have duplicated another, or that could only be answered from outside the presentation, were cut.
- Summary at 336 words against a 2,177-word transcript.
Processed for UGA Center for Urban Agriculture / Cut Flower Symposium Archives