The Cut Flower Podcast

Life on the Lot: How Jen Started Her Flower Business

• Roz Chandler • Season 1 • Episode 117

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Text Agony Aunt Roz with your Cutflower Questions.

In this episode, Roz sits down with Jen from Life on the Lot, a passionate flower farmer who turned her pandemic vegetable-growing hobby into a thriving flower farm. Jen shares her inspiring journey, the challenges she faced in her early days, and how growing her own food completely transformed her perspective on sustainability and seasonality.

Now, with her latest project at Claremont Farm, Jen is creating a pick-your-own flower experience and workshops to bring more people into the world of seasonal flowers. She opens up about the realities of running a flower farm, from financial management to the importance of community engagement, while also sharing her motivation to inspire her daughter to pursue a non-traditional career path.

Whether you're a seasoned flower farmer, an aspiring grower, or just someone who loves the beauty of flowers, this episode is filled with real talk, inspiration, and practical insights.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

🌱 How Jen’s journey into flower farming started during the COVID-19 pandemic
🌿 The challenges she faced, from tough growing conditions to perennial weeds
🌎 How growing food changed her perspective on sustainability and seasonality
💐 Why she transitioned from vegetables to growing flowers
🏡 Her latest project: a pick-your-own flower farm at Claremont Farm
📊 The financial realities of running a flower farm (it’s not all pretty petals!)
🌻 The importance of community engagement and workshops in her business
🎓 Why mistakes in gardening are valuable learning experiences
👩‍👧 Jen’s motivation to inspire her daughter to think beyond traditional career paths

Connect with Jen & Life on the Lot:

📍 https://www.lifeonthelot.co.uk/wirralflowerfarm

📍 https://www.instagram.com/life_on_the_lot

Make the most of your garden by visiting bramblecrest.com and use the code FIELDGATE at checkout. See website for full details.

If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with fellow flower lovers!


Roz (00:00)
I'm so delighted to welcome Jenny at Life on the Lot to the podcast today. And Jenny is a flower farmer based on the Wirral. And I first met Jenny at the Flower Farmers Conference, about six weeks ago now, in Nottinghamshire. And she impressed me with her journey. So I've invited her over to talk to you all. So Jenny, take us back to the start. What inspired you to start growing veg during that COVID period? It was just before COVID, wasn't it? Tell us where it all started, that mad journey of yours.

Jen - Life On The Lot (00:26)
It was, so it was just before Covid and I've got really clear memory in September 2019 I was sat in my garden and and if you remember sort of 2019 September was you know that was before Covid existed.

Roz (00:42)
Yeah,

we were all very ignorant of what was coming.

Jen - Life On The Lot (00:45)
We were, we were. And the biggest worry we had at that time was Brexit. And I was reading a lot around sort of what was going to happen to the food chain. And I remember reading, really clearly reading an article about Jamie Oliver, that Jamie Oliver had written, and it was about chlorinated chicken and about what EU regulations happen with food and the food supply chain.

And at this time, during that summer, I'd grown a few tomatoes and a few peppers on my windowsills. And looking back, they were terrible. I don't actually think that you've even fruited.

Roz (01:20)
vegetables.

I have to tell you that this year we're giving it really good go. But just because you can grow flowers doesn't mean you can grow vegetables. But yeah. Okay.

Jen - Life On The Lot (01:29)
even grow

flowers then, Roz I could barely mow the lawn if I'm honest. But looking back, I was sort of finding my way through this and

during sort of me sitting in the garden reading all this, I shouted into the house, into my husband, Dan, I've applied for an allotment. And he's like, what? So it's like, no, it'll take us years, it's fine. But we need to get our foot in the door. We need to start learning how to do this. And we need to start really having a big old think about what we're eating and things like that. So he was like, okay, yeah, fair enough. That's a really good idea.

So fast forward six months, we get the call for the allotment and we take on our plot of land and we actually got the keys the week before Covid hit. So before we shut down.

Roz (02:22)
amazing timing.

Jen - Life On The Lot (02:22)
It was a dream come true really, it was a dream come true and it's funnily enough set my life on a completely different path now. Yeah exactly, all because of Covid really which is strange but my business at the time...

Roz (02:33)
one thing you did. I know, mental.

Jen - Life On The Lot (02:43)
couldn't operate due to social distancing regulations. So I was essentially furloughed for six months. So I spent six months on that allotment and turning that allotment. And it was time that I got with my little girl. We were outside. I'm really grateful for that time, even though it was horrific. And it was the summer of dreams in terms of weather. It was absolutely amazing. that sort of where

where I began really and then we realised sort of maybe a year later that when we sort of cultivated all the allotment and got every bit of it back into use that this is probably a bit too big to just grow vegetables because there's only two and a half of us in our house there was a lot of vegetables

Roz (03:30)
vegetables.

Jen - Life On The Lot (03:32)
Yeah, people were seeing me coming down the street with courgettes and closing the curtains.

I started looking at flowers and then went down the Instagram rabbit hole of flowers and it's just sort spiralled from there.

Roz (03:48)
Wow. So what's some of the biggest challenges you faced in those early days? You're going to grow vegetables, but you don't know anything about it. You're going to grow flowers, but you don't know anything about it. What was your biggest challenge? Did you just jump in and go, I can do this. I can read, I can find things, can find things.

Jen - Life On The Lot (04:03)
did, yeah, I am that person. I'm

never one to be deterred. So it was never the learning. I loved the learning. And I think that's why I've gravitated to flowers more because I feel like there's so much more with flowers to learn. There's so much more intricate details. It's a different skill set again from growing vegetables.

And I don't mind when something goes wrong. I like experimenting and I like just having a go and I find that quite fun. But my biggest challenge when I started was perennial weeds.

how much of a shock they came, they really did come as a shock. And we've got some of the really bad ones on our allotment. So we've got a merse tail, we've got bind weed, cooch grass. If you think about all the bad ones, we've got them all. And at the time I didn't know what they were. And I remember,

Roz (05:02)
Yeah.

Jen - Life On The Lot (05:10)
I remember sort of standing there just pulling all of these bindweed roots out like and they were like spaghetti. I filled a big water butt with them to the top. That's how bad it was. I sort of remember thinking, can we do this? Is this even possible? And that was, I think that was the biggest challenge, but it was more of a mindset.

And I think if I'd learned to coexist a bit faster. But it gave me that resilience to push through, so yeah.

Roz (05:48)
is hard work and then you've got to work

out what's worth fighting for and what's not worth fighting for and some of it is really hard work. But yeah, so how does growing your own food change your perspective on sustainability and seasonality because you've obviously done a bit of research and you know we all know that if we grow our own vegetables and that we don't use pesticides or herbicides or anything that that food is relatively organic you know although it can't be certified organic it is organic food.

Jen - Life On The Lot (05:51)
Hmm.

Roz (06:18)
and we know it's more sustainable you know and if we go one step further and have a tunnel we can grow veg all year round. Yeah, no we can't have strawberries in February and we have to change the way we eat to some extent but how did that give you real perspective of actually seasonality?

Jen - Life On The Lot (06:36)
It opened my eyes big time to how much that I didn't know. Just as a general consumer, how much I didn't know. When I'm walking in the supermarket, I didn't look where things were from and I just didn't have that knowledge. And I don't think a lot of people do.

Roz (06:45)
Yeah, yeah.

Jen - Life On The Lot (07:04)
in that sort of main walk of life. So I thought this was a such a good question because it's really important that we start to realize where things are from. But it also made me realize a lot that a lot of that responsibility is pushed down onto us as consumers. So even though we want you to buy the things.

you shouldn't buy the things. It's such a no-win situation and until we start to educate more and give people that information to make those informed choices, it's not always easy because life is really busy and but if we do that little thing, if we push back to those big corporations and say well no this is not what we want then

Roz (07:29)
Yeah.

Jen - Life On The Lot (07:56)
then no change is gonna happen on a bigger scale. But sort of to us as a family on that sort of small thing, there is things that we don't buy anymore because they taste awful. Supermarket strawberries is a no go.

Roz (08:09)
Yes, that's very true.

Too watery. Yeah.

Jen - Life On The Lot (08:17)
Yeah, my little girl immediately tastes the difference if I try and trick her. No, will not have it. Tomatoes, corn, corn on the cob, until you've had a homegrown corn on the cob. amazing. So yeah, little things like that we have changed. We've tried to waste less. We've tried to use our scrap.

Roz (08:26)
Yeah, no.

Okay. Yeah.

Jen - Life On The Lot (08:46)
for compost so they are going back into the system. So we have made little changes but I think we can still do more as a family.

Roz (08:58)
of us can do that, you know, when you're dashing in to buy your broccoli, you're not necessarily finding the very small code. Where is this actually grown? And you know, in the winter, it's particularly difficult because you know, you've got spring greens and there's not a lot else and you have to accept that. I mean, the flowers, it's even worse because they're not even labelled. So you can't even make that conscious decision. So you can't go in and pick a bunch and go, where are these actually grown?

Jen - Life On The Lot (09:06)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Roz (09:23)
So you actually can't make that concession decision, but at least with veg you can. But I think it's about, you know, when people are starting off, I think it's about grab some seeds, do some easy stuff, do some tomatoes and cucumber.

do some squash or potatoes or carrots that will grow anywhere and give a few things a go because I think I've tried it historically and become very overwhelmed with thinking I eat all these vegetables so I'm going to buy all this seed and then all of sudden you've got all your lettuces come all at the same time and you can't eat them all so it's kind of like

It is a learning but I think we can make anyone can make a step into that by just growing we grow some on our patio in containers things like beetroot radishes that sort of thing or you can grow you know you don't have to have a polytunnel and you don't have to have loads of space you can just give it a go

Jen - Life On The Lot (10:09)
No, you can do little bits, can't you? And even if sometimes you don't get to eat them, like you said, you've made that big mistake and you've got way too much. But actually, them flower, let them go to seed and collect those seeds and let them be food for the bees. And there's lots of things you can do. And a mistake is never a mistake. It's always a learn.

Roz (10:31)
Yeah, yeah, I saw something I saw on Instagram, I think yesterday, people collecting strawberry seeds on on a bit of tissue paper, a kitchen roll, and then they were a bit wet and they let they let the seeds because the seeds on strawberry are obviously on the outside. And they let them go whether this was actually I tried it, my husband said, I don't think that would work. And then they're sort of left for two weeks until they're dry. And then you peel off the seeds and then you plant the seeds. No idea whether this would work or not, but quite tempted to do it because I saw on Instagram and thought

that would work or not but who knows

Jen - Life On The Lot (11:04)
Who knows, you've got to give it a go, but that's the fun of it. That is the fun of it, especially when you are sort of, not, you're not, there's no pressure there. You know, it doesn't matter if it goes wrong. It's fine. Just have a go. Yeah.

Roz (11:16)
Lost a few seeds, yeah, you lost a few

seeds, that's all. So you went from vegetables to flowers, how did this happen?

Jen - Life On The Lot (11:25)
So as I said, the allotment got a bit big and I started playing around with sort of interplanting and companion planting as well to be as organic as possible for our food and lots of flowers are companion plants which is why I started edging into that. And then one of the big ones was Instagram and I found Floret.

Roz (11:49)
okay, yep. Alright, you went down that rabbit hole. Okay.

Jen - Life On The Lot (11:50)
I went

down that rabbit hole in a very, very big way. I was like, wow, flowers don't look like that. And I was like, I could grow flowers that actually look like that. That's amazing. And yeah, that is, I was just.

bitten by the bug, it just became an obsession. And I was just like, just want this. It's just the beauty of it. it's just incredible that when you go to a supermarket and you look at those flowers.

Roz (12:14)
Yeah.

They're not flowers.

Jen - Life On The Lot (12:28)
The

difference, yeah they're not, they're not flowers. It's insane. They don't smell, they've got no colour, they've got no personality at all.

Roz (12:33)
I don't smell!

I mean, if-

No, no, no. And I think you realize that when you grow your own. So you've gone one step further, haven't you? You've transitioned really into flowers. Now tell us about your latest project and you'll sort of pick your own and Claremont farm and how did that happen? Because that's a whole new chapter.

Jen - Life On The Lot (13:00)
That is a whole new chapter. last summer, I've been restructuring my other business and part of it got sold. And I was like, oh, I kinda needed another day job now. So, me and my husband were speaking about this.

And he said, look, you've got to go for this. You've got to give it a try. So I approached Claremont with my idea and I've been so fortunate to be neighbors to these guys, be fair, because they are so forward thinking in what they do as a business and they loved the idea.

So and the rest is history so basically it was it was just a bit of door knocking to say hi I've got this idea do you fancy working with me on it and they're like, yeah sounds amazing. Let's go for it

Roz (13:57)
You were very brave.

So what does this look like at Claremont Farm? What did you ask for? What did you get?

Jen - Life On The Lot (14:02)
So I asked for some land and boy did they deliver! mean they've been incredibly generous but there was a few different parts of the site that we could have had.

Roz (14:08)
Yeah, how many hundreds of acres do you want?

Jen - Life On The Lot (14:23)
And we discussed them together and made an informed decision in terms of what was going to be best, what worked better with the business plan, what did I need. So we settled on the field that I'm in now, which is really, really visible from the main roads, which is amazing because we live in quite an urban area, so there's a lot of traffic, a lot of footfall. So you are going to be seeing from the main road.

which is just off the M53 motorway, all of these blooms. No pressure. Directly opposite the farm shop and cafe, restaurant, car park, so toilets, places to eat, all of that type of stuff. So there's lots of infrastructure there as well. So that was really handy for people. So it was just amazing that

Roz (14:53)
No pressure then.

Good to know.

Jen - Life On The Lot (15:17)
And

I see in the field and the view is incredible. It is just absolutely amazing. We got sun all day, loads of light. So it just seemed like a dream come true.

Roz (15:32)
I think you're an inspiration for other people who can't find land or want to start off on their own. And there are lots of people in that situation that you just have to keep going door knocking. And I would say that farm shops and farm areas are a good way because A, they've got the infrastructure and B, they've got footfall, you've got water, you've got electric, they've got plenty of land.

Jen - Life On The Lot (15:50)
Mm-hmm.

Roz (15:56)
they're willing to work with you so you can sell your blooms in their farm shop kind of thing. And it's an absolute, and if people are looking for land, it's a really good way to go.

Jen - Life On The Lot (16:06)
It definitely is, yeah. And traditional farming at the moment is under a lot of pressure. It is under a lot of pressure. So farmers are looking to diversify in ways that they haven't done before. And I think flowers has got a real opportunity, especially British flowers at the moment has got a real opportunity with that. So sometimes it's a little bit of doing your research and

and having that information to hand to say, look, this is what we can do together. And I think that's where my background in having a business already and having that business plan available and saying, look, this is what we can do, really helped.

Roz (16:45)
Yeah, 100%. So I would, yeah, take some inspiration, anybody looking for some land and go knocking on some doors. So you're going to, how are you going to run this Claremont farm Is it a pick your own? Are you running some beds, which are just DIY weddings and flowers, your flowers? How are you going to run this? Because pick your own could be fraught with lots of, I wouldn't say danger as such, lots of logistical nightmares.

Jen - Life On The Lot (17:11)
Absolutely, so

I think when we were at the flowers from the farm conference and I said I said to a few people I'm doing pick your own and the face like and but I Can't wait. I am so excited and poor Roz has met me in person so she knows I'm I'm I'm a chatterbox anyway

Roz (17:16)
I'll be forever.

It's fine.

Jen - Life On The Lot (17:35)
And I love people, I love speaking to people and I think if I was in the field on my own it wouldn't suit me.

Roz (17:45)
It's a very lonely role.

Jen - Life On The Lot (17:46)
It would be, yeah, it would be.

whereas I love it at some points, that is great, but if I was to do that all the time, I would find it very lonely. And I think my joy is actually being able to spread that joy to other people, to see their delight at those flowers, which is something that I truly, truly love.

So yeah, pick your own is going to be around about probably 65 % of the total turnover of the farm. And we are doing workshops as well. Again, very much the people person. And it's just to give people that experience where they can come to the field, they can learn something, they can spend a couple of hours just in a different world.

Roz (18:27)
Good. Yeah.

Jen - Life On The Lot (18:42)
doing something different that they probably never had the opportunity to do before and giving them something beautiful, something really tangible. And I love that, especially the workshops as well. I've got a background in drama, so that kind of helped. I'm very used to speaking to people on a broader scale.

Roz (18:42)
Yeah, kids.

Jen - Life On The Lot (19:05)
And I love that and I love sharing how much I have learned as well. And I think that that's important and I hope that inspires people to go away and grow some of their own as well. But the rest of the business family doing a small bit of DIY wedding and we'll do a couple of field bunches as well but they are very small parts of the business.

And yeah we are going to have some, as you say, some roped off parts that are not available for public consumption. So they're for sort of the weddings and any special sort of varieties that I get that I want to maybe practice with and see how that performs. But I've had sort of a real look at what flowers I've decided on that's kind of

Roz (19:33)
It is.

Jen - Life On The Lot (19:56)
been really tailored to that pick your own as well.

Roz (19:59)
Yeah, I was going to say, pick your own is great in the situation you've got, obviously, because it's on a farm and you've got the traffic and it's just a number of things getting right, isn't it? It's about the size of the bucket and how you cost it and...

and trying to give some instruction about how you cut them because what you know if you've got a dahlia plant you don't really want them to take the whole lot which is three blooms down to the bottom and I think that's the hardest thing is a how you cost it be the instruction of how you actually cut it because what you don't want you want the plant to come back you don't want to ruin the plant and you also don't want them trampling over the bed so let's say your bed was two meters which would be very wide in order to get to the middle they've got to trample over all your beautiful corn flowers that's not really a very good idea so

Jen - Life On The Lot (20:40)
Nah.

Roz (20:41)
I think planning out is really tricky. Costing it is really tricky. But you're in the right environment. And what challenges do you think you're going to face? It's so, so long.

Jen - Life On The Lot (20:50)
definitely,

definitely cutting. So lots and lots of cut and come again flowers that are quite durable shall I say. But my sort vision of it is to just as people come through and they come to collect their buckets we give them a little bit of information.

as to how, and then we have this sign posted around the field as well, in terms of like sort of chalkboards, this is how to cut. Just to sort of remind people as well, and give them that opportunity to still have that, have a go, because I still want them to have a go, and just to be honest, just try not to get too hung up over it as well.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely hard. But yeah, like you said, size of the buckets, all of that type of stuff. But just giving them that education really, I think is gonna be key in the success of the field.

Roz (21:51)
Definitely. When do you think you'll kick off? When do think you're opening your season now?

Jen - Life On The Lot (21:55)
So my first workshop, which is already sold out. Yeah, all my spring workshops are already sold out, which is incredible. So that first workshop is happening on the 25th of May. So that will kick off the farm, whether I have enough to open pick your own by then.

Roz (21:58)
well done.

Well done.

Jen - Life On The Lot (22:18)
I think will be a week or two either side. So depending on the weather, that is when we are looking to open. But we shall be open for that Pick Your Own Workshop on the 25th of May, which may or may not be the first thing that happens at the farm, which is going be incredible.

Roz (22:21)
Yeah.

Man.

workshops and come to the farm it's all on your website is it?

Jen - Life On The Lot (22:40)
It is, it's all bookable on the website, yeah. So that, April.

Roz (22:42)
We'll be in the show notes so you can all have a look.

So we'll let people, so workshops, pick your own, what you're doing. Yeah, brilliant. So anyone anywhere near in the world, go and have a look. So where do see this venture going in a few years time? You know, if I said, know, crystal ball, three years, I think five years is too long and nobody knows where they're going to be in five years time, but three years time, where crystal ball, where do you see?

Jen - Life On The Lot (23:08)
So, crystal ball, what I've got in my sort of three year plan. So we are in phase one at the moment in terms of infrastructure of a three phase plan. And by that phase three,

Roz (23:16)
Yes.

Jen - Life On The Lot (23:25)
the 3.2 acres of my field will be cultivated. Hopefully we'll be running multiple workshops. I'm still very much undecided whether I'm going to go down the route of wholesale. Because I love that people experience side of things, I don't know if wholesale is for me. I'm thinking about that really.

Roz (23:49)
and the very first can come and pick their own. That's kind of hard, but again you have a relationship. But I mean wholesale in terms of picking it and dropping off at a florist, you have a relationship it's just not the same.

Jen - Life On The Lot (23:53)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, and we're not under that pressure to grow the perfect bloom as well for pick your own.

Roz (24:08)
Yes. Yeah.

Jen - Life On The Lot (24:11)
which takes a lot of the pressure out of it and selling directly to the consumer we get a much bigger margin business-wise which is obviously great yeah so I don't know if I'm gonna go down that route but then it opens sort of... sorry

Roz (24:26)
I didn't in the early days,

but it opens another market. It how much you've got.

Jen - Life On The Lot (24:35)
Does?

Yeah, it does, it does. We will definitely see, I think sort of going, I would love to do tulips on a big scale to come and pick your own tulips. But again, whether that is commercially viable, because that's such a sort of loss leader, isn't it? But, hmm.

Roz (24:44)
Yeah.

That's what we buy the bulb for

because we're buying bulbs now, if you can believe that, to be delivered in September, October. So we would buy, we would put our order in now. So you've got to be a long way ahead of the game.

They're on pre-sale at the moment in Holland and we will buy our pre-sale in Holland. And you know, we grow, we buy 58,000 or something and this year we'll probably buy about 70,000. So if you're buying at that level, because we sell the, we sell the bulbs but we also sell the flowers wholesale and we also sell the flowers retail. you know, but you've got to have your market already because the moment that tulip pops up, you're out, you know. On a...

Jen - Life On The Lot (25:29)
Yeah.

Roz (25:34)
consumer basis it's a really challenging one because people expect obviously the yellow and red tulips that you buy at a supermarket and to be able to buy five for a pound well you wouldn't have bought five bulbs you know you'd be losing money absolutely at that level so really the tulip market is at a wholesale level i.e florist level and grow you know grow the most

unusual varieties that 1.2 meters high that a florist will want early on in the season. Doing it as pick your own. I mean you'd have to be charging at least one pound, one pound 25 a stem and whether people are going to pay 10 tulips at 15 pounds. I mean we're selling them on London flower markets and we can do that.

Jen - Life On The Lot (26:11)
Exactly.

Roz (26:21)
we can sell 10 tulips for 15 pounds. But that means you definitely, definitely have to get the right bulk price and you have to get the right varieties and you've only got a six week period to sell them. So I would do it. I would do it because it's a really early plant, which you haven't got anything else.

Jen - Life On The Lot (26:31)
to really hammer it, yeah.

Roz (26:38)
You know, you've got some ranunculus, but you haven't got anything else that's going to take to market in that kind of mid April to mid May time. So if you can get your timing right and your market right and your pricing right, then I would definitely do that. But it's taken me, I've only done it in, I've been in flower farm 15 years and I've only done it in the last three years on scale.

Jen - Life On The Lot (26:52)
Absolutely.

Yeah, I think it's waiting to see how my footfall works this year and building that business so that footfall is there and we've got that customer base. And then I think I can look at that and make some educated decisions around how that works. I think that that's what I'm gearing up to do. So maybe that is part of the three year plan.

Roz (27:23)
Yeah. Yeah, I do you.

Jen - Life On The Lot (27:24)
that we get that capital

in the business to then invest. Yeah.

Roz (27:27)
be able to do.

Yeah, because you would be ordering them in 2020 January 26, them to arrive with you in September 26 to get in September, October to get in the ground in November 26 and selling them in 27. It seems mad, doesn't it? No, but I was going to

Jen - Life On The Lot (27:36)
Yeah.

Which actually isn't that far away. Now you've done that

backwards back to I'm like, my God, that's only eight months away.

Roz (27:53)
I

Jen - Life On The Lot (27:58)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Roz (28:19)
Yeah, tulips, I'm a bit of a fan, but I will say it's only been the last three years and only because I've done really well at selling them. And then there's a margin. And also it's early season when you're looking for some revenue in April when there isn't any. So it's come.

Jen - Life On The Lot (28:33)
And I think

it does kick off the season. People love tulips, don't they? Especially if you can get them ready for Easter. I think that is beautiful to go and look at these things during the Easter holidays and you take the kids. It's a real nice sort of thing to do after that hard winter, blowing all the cobwebs back out.

Roz (28:37)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

and together.

Jen - Life On The Lot (29:01)
can imagine it, but yeah, we've...

Roz (29:04)
I mean, I did a course in the States. I'm one for going learning too. And I did a course in the States about how you can have tulips for Valentine's Day and Mother's Day and Easter and how you can actually buy certain varieties and you buy them so that they've been cooled for a certain period of weeks before you get them. And then you need refrigeration. then you need, so then we're into a whole different ball game aren't we? We need to be able to tulips in crate, which are refrigerated to get.

Jen - Life On The Lot (29:28)
Absolutely,

Roz (29:32)
order to have Valentine's and Mother's Day and I learned a lot about that and you can do it but that's another infrastructure so outside to begin with, definitely outside to begin with. So if you could go back and give yourself one piece of advice when you first started growing what would it be? Where would be your number one piece of advice?

Jen - Life On The Lot (29:51)
So I wouldn't change the process that I went through. I needed it to learn. And that is the way I learn. is my...

learning style if that makes sense I have to learn by doing. So all the mistakes I've made I wouldn't change that for the world because that has helped me so much. I think like I said earlier maybe don't sweat the weed so much.

Roz (30:21)
You'll still be doing that in a few years time.

Jen - Life On The Lot (30:23)
Yeah, they're still, they're fashionable now, it's fine.

Roz (30:27)
Yeah, they are fashionable. They are. They bring in all the pollinators and they're fashionable and nettles and you can make nettle tea and they're really fashionable. I've come to the conclusion that if they're not killing a plant they can just stay where they are and I can't do the resource because we're not spraying anywhere. I haven't got the resource to pull them all out during the middle of summer. No chance.

Jen - Life On The Lot (30:31)
Yeah.

Yes.

No, and I think it's the aesthetics of it, especially for me from that Instagram side of things. And again, from the pick your own as well, I think the aesthetics of it, it used to really get to me, but I have mellowed out a bit and I'm like, do you know what, actually, if weeds didn't grow, I'd be more worried.

Roz (30:54)
Pick your own. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah that's true, the soil will be awful. Yeah.

Jen - Life On The Lot (31:15)
Exactly. So

I'm glad that they're there. They're telling me a lot about the soil and let's co-exist a little bit better and see what it's telling me.

Roz (31:26)
I'm like that with aphids on my roses, which drives me nuts. But growing them indoors and you've got aphids and little white flies and they're all all over it and they're all nibbling, I have to bring in a parasitic wasp to eat them because I won't spray them. So I bring a parasitic wasp, but they've got to develop to a size where they're to eat the aphids. And it takes about a week.

Jen - Life On The Lot (31:39)
Hmm.

Roz (31:48)
So for that week, they have to both coexist, but they're not really because I'm waiting for my parasitic boss to eat all my aphids. And if I'm patient enough, it will happen. And if I'm not, then it will be awful. So that's what I do. I bring them in early enough as soon as I see my first aphid and then they coexist and I have patience to just leave it alone and see what happens in nature.

Jen - Life On The Lot (32:10)
Horticulture is a lot about patience. You do learn a lot about yourself.

Roz (32:13)
Yeah.

Definitely patience in everything, something like that. failure, that it's okay for those seeds, know, not 100 % germination. And I can't tell you why one lot germinates better than another, you know, why one year we're really good at flocks and the next year we're a disaster. Why one year, you know, every single bit of our cornflowers will germinate and we got hundreds of, I can't tell you why that is. I can just say that if one packet of seeds for flocks doesn't work, go again.

Jen - Life On The Lot (32:21)
Yeah.

Roz (32:43)
because the cost of it is so small in general terms, just do it again. So it's like, yeah. So as a flower farmer, you need to be everything, don't you? You're gonna have to be everything. You're gonna have to be a marketeer, a social media whiz, an accountant, a grower, a cutter. I mean, everything in certain pick your own, marketeer and a customer service guru. What do you think is the most challenging in all those ? mean, it's pretty...

Jen - Life On The Lot (33:07)
Don't I know it?

I think it has set me in good stead that I have been a small business owner already. the expectation of wearing all of those hats, I already knew that.

Roz (33:11)
So it's another means to drive real.

Yeah.

Jen - Life On The Lot (33:26)
that

was something I needed to do. So it wasn't a massive surprise and I already knew where my sort of weakness lied within that side of things.

And for me, for me, it is financials. It's always been financials. That's where my biggest learns always happen. And over the years, I've had to force myself to learn it because it's not my strong point. It is not my strong suit. It's not where my interests are, but they are super important, super important. And without those financials,

you are not gonna have a successful business. And most of the time, I now pay an accountant to make this prob, most of the problem go away. But if I don't know what like gross and net is and how much that bottom line is and how much we're spending, it gets quite scary and you've got to be able to make important decisions based on those numbers.

Roz (34:28)
numbers again.

Jen - Life On The Lot (34:29)
And if you don't know them, you can't make those decisions. And that's where you're gonna run into some bigger problems. You can't, you can't. And that's what I've learned.

Roz (34:36)
Yeah, you can't run away from them. You can't hide from them, unfortunately. You can hide from them little

while. Yeah, me too. So what's been your... It's really hard. Yeah, because it's not something you enjoy doing. Crunching the numbers and it's not something I enjoy doing.

Jen - Life On The Lot (34:45)
And it's hard, it's hard.

Roz (34:54)
Looking at the management accounts, working out how you can reduce your costs. Where's your revenue coming in? How can you sell more? That is, mean, I've run my own businesses for 25 years and I still can't, there still isn't an answer. There isn't an easy answer. I use a company, I use an accountant, but I also use a company called the Bean Counter and she's called the Bean Counter and she counts my beans. But I still have to look at the reports. I don't even like doing that. So I think you have to admit what your strengths and weaknesses are.

Jen - Life On The Lot (35:09)
No.

You do and eat the frog.

Roz (35:27)
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you should put some time in your diary where you actually, that's what you do. You know, you do your, if you could see my desk right now, you'd be thinking, my God.

Jen - Life On The Lot (35:33)
Yeah.

Roz (35:37)
And I've got these little silver spikes that I bought off Amazon, a silver spike like that. So when I get a receipt or something, I've gone and bought something, because quite often you'll be going and buy some compost or something like that. And I put it on so they're actually physically, they're almost in date order, if you think about it, because the way you're putting them on, well, they're fairly loaded at the moment. So they need resolving and the expenses need doing, but hey, nothing in life is perfect.

Jen - Life On The Lot (35:52)
Yeah.

No!

And especially

sort of when you're in that that fledgling stage and the costing of everything is massive it is massive and Which is is obviously where I'm at now and not initial outlay for infrastructure even though you budgeted for it times it by four Because

Roz (36:08)
Yes.

Yes, that's not

Yeah.

Jen - Life On The Lot (36:23)
unexpected things come up and you're like my god I did not think about this and this is twice as big as what I imagined that I'd need and all of that type of stuff so that is really important to have your eyes open around that side.

Roz (36:40)
Yeah. I think that's the

hard thing about flower farming in the hole is that you buy everything, you put your infrastructure in, you plant all your seeds, you've got your compost, you've got your mulching. It's all cost out and yet you still don't know if anything's going to grow yet.

or even if you've sold anything. So it's a very, you've really got to believe in yourself that all that expenditure and all that investment is going to return. And I think over time you are, but it's still lots and lots of investment in the winter for something that's going to come in the spring at some point. But.

Jen - Life On The Lot (36:55)
Absolutely.

Absolutely, but I think more

people Do need to think less about what they're growing Because actually at the end of the day flowers want to Your flowers will grow some flowers will grow it will be fine you'll have flowers if you think less about the intricacies of that and more about the financial viability around your business

Roz (37:26)
Yeah, they do.

Jen - Life On The Lot (37:41)
because the flowers will grow on their own, your business won't

Roz (37:43)
That's right.

Exactly. So I say that, you know, to people who ask me, say, do you know what 85 % of its marketing and 15 % is growing? Or, you know, let's be fair, 70 % is marketing and 30 % is growing, because the flowers will grow and you'll always find a solution. And if you haven't got it, you can get it from another flower grower or there is some there is always a solution to the growing. There is not a solution to building up your marketing. Yeah, I've always been.

Jen - Life On The Lot (38:06)
Yeah. Yeah.

Roz (38:10)
So who is your inspiration? Who keeps you going? What's this all for?

Jen - Life On The Lot (38:14)
that's a really good question. I think in England, because America do flower farming really, really well and you can pick a plethora of people to be inspired from. But in England, we do have some really amazing flower growers.

Roz (38:31)
Yeah.

Jen - Life On The Lot (38:31)
and

business women, quite frankly, we are an industry that is predominantly women-orientated. Obviously, like yourself Roz, who is an incredible businesswoman, there's Georgie Newbury, Kim Fleming, Robertson, Rachel Siegfried, Joe from Organic Blooms. I could go on and on. We've got...

Roz (38:35)
for joining. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Aww.

Yeah.

Jen - Life On The Lot (38:57)
some amazing and inspirational and really clever business women who we can definitely learn from and make this industry really really incredible and really inspirational for people wanting to come into this because that's why I've wanted to come into it because I can see how you guys have made such

Roz (39:03)
Yes, I agree.

Jen - Life On The Lot (39:23)
brilliant businesses from it. it gives me a lot of hope around that side of things to be honest because it's possible, it is possible. But.

Personally, rather than from that business aspect, is my husband and my little girl. Yeah, Dan pushes me, he says go for it. He always believes in me. He never ever questions whether I can pull something off. He's got unwavering belief.

Roz (39:37)
Yeah, so it's what you do it for.

Jen - Life On The Lot (39:55)
And for Elsie, she's eight now. So she's been gardening for five years with me now. And I want to show her that a career beyond a traditional nine to five is possible.

Roz (40:00)
Nice age actually.

Yeah, it's on the careers officer's shelf where he picks his book up and he goes, you can be a doctor or a lawyer. There are so many careers even today that don't exist. know, people at school don't exist yet. So, you know, it's about opening your mind to all the different possibilities of what you can do as a job.

Jen - Life On The Lot (40:23)
Absolutely.

I feel like if she's got that.

person to look up to, she doesn't have to conform if that's not right for her in terms of her career and she can find a different type of happiness from her career. And one of the things that always, always stands out for me that we're big fans of Frank Turner as a family.

Roz (40:41)
Exactly right.

Jen - Life On The Lot (40:55)
who's a singer and he's got a song funnily enough very fitting photosynthesis and there's a line in that that says no one's yet explained to me exactly what's so great about slaving 50 years away on something that you hate.

Roz (41:00)
No.

Mm, so true.

Jen - Life On The Lot (41:14)
If as a parent if I can instill that into her I feel like I've done a very good job

Roz (41:20)
Yeah, because why would you do something you weren't passionate about? Because it's not in your heart and it's not great, but it pays the bills, but what for at the end of the day? Yeah, absolutely. Definitely about a passion. Definitely, definitely do what follows you. I know you're going to be successful. So I'm going to come up this summer and see fields and water, fields and fields and flowers on the wirral and they'll look amazing.

Jen - Life On The Lot (41:23)
exactly.

I hate Sam.

Roz (41:43)
I know you've got it because you've got, you you started off with business knowledge, you started off with some growing, you thought, I love this, you did more and more, you learnt yourself, you went looking for the right people, if you like, to get some inspiration from and then saying, I can do that and I want to be like that. I have no doubt you've got this sussed, no doubt at all.

Jen - Life On The Lot (42:01)
That's so

kind Roz, thank you. It means a lot coming from someone so experienced as well.

Roz (42:05)
You're going to do this. This summer is going to be amazing. You've already

filled your spring workshops. I mean, that's, it's not easy. So yeah, well done.

Jen - Life On The Lot (42:13)
Thank you. Thank you.

Roz (42:16)
So Jen, it was lovely having you on our podcast today. So thank you very much for coming.

Jen - Life On The Lot (42:19)
I've loved it, it's a bit

of a fangirl, I listen to this all the time and I'm here, wow how strange.

Roz (42:29)
See, you believe and you can do it. Yeah, absolutely. Keep doing it. I'll talk to you soon. Take care. Bye bye

Jen - Life On The Lot (42:31)
Yeah. Thank you, Roz.

Bye bye.