Making money from cut flowers

[Pootles34]

This is probably a bit of a mad idea, but has anyone on here made any money from selling cut flowers? I have quite a big south facing front garden which I've used as a cut flower patch before, and always find I have more than I could use. I'm not thinking about a full time income, just a bit of spare money. We live in a fairly affluent village, on a corner that a lot of people pass on the school run, and I wondered idly about setting up an honesty box at £5 a bunch or something. Anyone done similar?

A few people near us sell plants out the front of their houses with honesty boxes and I've put out bunches of flowers for people to take (for free) before and they've been snapped up!

I'd suggest asking people to put the money through your letter box as a box might get nicked, otherwise what have you got to lose? I'd definitely buy flowers from you if you had stuff I wasn't growing!

I wouldn't trust an honesty box! I would have in the past, but not now.

There is a florist local to me who uses cut flowers from her garden, supplemented with other British flowers/greenery where needed. She delivers them by hand (on foot) in a little jar of water, and only in spring/summer/early autumn. She charged £20 a bunch last summer, not sure if it will go up. We’re in SE London and I found her via the local Instagram/Facebook pages reposting her things. She has a proper website and you can pay by card, so it’s a more formal set up than you have in mind.

Her flowers are beautiful, and she is a delightful person, so I am happy to pay that. I actually cancelled my Freddie’s Flowers subscription and now just order these local flowers if we are going to be around when she is delivering. They make me much happier!

QueenofWeeds that does sound wonderful, and I agree I'd much rather buy locally, but the problem is that the flowers I grow wouldn't be anywhere near that reliable, and I'm also no florist. This would definitely be just some flowers bunched together!

I think it's a lovely idea. I'd buy!

I would too, I remember stopping for petrol at a little country petrol station and they had absolutely gorgeous bunches of dahlias for sale, you could see them growing in the garden next door. They were irresistible.

I'd buy flowers locally grown.

It could be as simple as making up bouquets with whatever you have in bloom, then advertising on local FB community you have '10 bouquets at £10 each, for collection' etc.

You could also go the other way and find local florists, then see if they'd be interested in buying whatever is available on a weekly/fortnightly basis. I think you'd need to have a decent supply though. We have a couple florists who seem to specialise in more of the British wildflower-style arrangements and wreaths, I often wonder where they get their flowers from!

The blog on www.flowersfromthefarm.co.uk has lots of inspiration. It's a membership association for people growing cut flowers in the U.K.

DH does a lot of driving about the countryside as part of his job and often comes home with a bunch of garden flowers he bought from a roadside stall outside somebody's cottage. He buys apples, plums and eggs like that too.

I would buy too. We have a gardener that grows sweet peas and bunches them up and leaves on a little trolley in his drive. The money goes to a local charity. I would happily buy from local sellers , do it I think it’s a great idea.

Do you have a local WI or country market where you could sell them?

One of my neighbours has a couple of allotments - she sells bunches of flowers throughout the growing season. She only charges £1 a bunch - its a hobby rather than a business. Very, very popular - she could easily charge more.