Is This Course Right for Everyone?
We know the pull of winter flowers is strong! But is a course like this right for everyone? Nope! Our courses are designed to help flower farmers add additional income during what has traditionally been their off season (or, in the case of our Lily Workshop, to extend the traditional season of a crop over a long period of time through a form of season extension).
The vast majority of our member growers have some background with growing flowers before joining and have at least begun to introduce flower sales to the customers they’ve identified as their target market. Can you start your flower farming journey with winter tulips? Of course you can. And we do have some members who solely grow winter tulips and do other things the rest of the year. Flower farmers may find they have lower start up costs (some of the needed infrastructure may already in place)and a bit more background knowledge to help them along. This course is based on the business of forcing tulips as a crop for sale. This means that we use wholesale bulbs purchased from distributors who sell specialty bulbs to the trade at volume. These kinds of bulb offerings are available in bulk to registered businesses and not home gardeners. That’s another reason that our course may not be suitable for you.
Can you force tulips in small quantities in your home? Absolutely. But that’s not what our program is about. The minimum number of tulips we recommend that a new member of our program grows is 3,000. Which probably seems like a lot to a home gardener. When grown in successions, it’s a manageable starting point for people who work with plants and who are eager to be able to offer their customers some winter flower sales when they otherwise have none.
Hope that helps to clear up some confusion out there. We’ve received a number of requests lately along the lines of “prove to me your course is worth it”. First, we point these inquiries to the praise page on our website. It’s pretty telling. We also try to help folks determine if the program is right for them based on the info above, and sometimes some additional back and forth by email. We’re not shy about saying “no, we don’t think this is a good fit”. We want our members to be successful whatever the size of their operation. 🌷
Have a question about our course? Looking for a more help to determine if it’s right for you? Email us at hello@thetulipworkshop.com or drop a comment for us below. We’ll be happy to help you.
-Linda & Emily
