Lexington, KY - April showers aren't the only things that bring May flowers. Truth be known, a growing number of those flowers are coming from area greenhouse operations, and those businesses are as different as the flowers they grow.
There are the standard operations that began as floral businesses as well as "newcomers" that were formed out of the need or desire to diversify a traditional farm. As the agricultural industry here has taken a swing away from tobacco production, many of those farms were left with greenhouse facilities once used for growing tobacco plants.
Eddie and Tammi Warren have taken the idea and grown a valuable business to co-exist with their tobacco and cattle operations.
"We're basically a burley tobacco farm and have always had beef cattle. I started, in the early '90s, putting up greenhouses to raise tobacco plants for myself and started selling them and developed a pretty good business," said Eddie Warren.
The tobacco industry has, however, gone through many changes over the last decade - first with quota declines, then with the federal buyout - and plant sales dropped off. But the idea left the Warrens with an infrastructure perfect for the greenhouse business.
"My wife had always been interested in ornamental flowers, so we decided to grow flowers on the farm for retail," he said.
The Warrens started with one greenhouse in the business the first year and since have added two more of the five that were present on the farm.
"Our focus has been to grow what we could sell. We've never really gotten into the wholesale part of the business," Eddie Warren said. "We wanted to be efficient and grow the best quality plants around and have them at a competitive price. But we've never tried to get too big too quick."
Aside from many varieties of flowers, the couple sells some shrubbery, a few small trees and mums in the fall, and they have a storefront area to wait on their customers.
Eddie Warren said they have been fortunate to have used a variety of available resources to help with the transition, including grant money from the state's Agricultural Development Fund, the Kentucky Farm Bureau Roadside Market program and the Kentucky Proud marketing initiative.
"This is our eighth season, and we try to grow a little each year. We advertise in several different ways, but word of mouth is still the best way," he said.
"The Kentucky Proud program has helped with some advertising and we've been members of KFB's Roadside Market program and the Richmond Chamber of Commerce," he said. "When you do those things, you don't really know for sure which advertising dollar pays the most dividends, but you do a little of all of it to try and get people in. For us, we were able to utilize some ag development money when we were changing the greenhouses over. There was a lot that had to be done, even though the structures were already here. We got some cost-share funds through the county grants and were very appreciative of that."
Warren also said those county funds are very beneficial to farmers, especially those in the beef industry. The fund has been in existence for 10 years and is administered by the Kentucky Agricultural Development Board.
While the greenhouse business has provided diversity to the farm, it is still very much a traditional farming operation. Warren still raises his own tobacco plants for his 50,000-pound crop and has continued to sell plants to other growers.
"Tobacco is very important to our income to make this farm profitable. If folks are going to use it, we prefer they use ours rather than from some other country," he said. "It is certainly not gone. It's gone for a lot of people, but it's still an important part of agriculture in Kentucky."
But Warren recognizes the challenges ahead in the tobacco industry, with last year's government move that brought the Food and Drug Administration as the regulatory agent and the difficulty for some to get contracts with tobacco companies.
He said the greenhouse business is a way to supplement the farm, but it was not intended to replace the other more traditional activities.
On the other hand
Lyn and Russ Madison have operated their business for more than 30 years starting at a time when there were few similar companies. Proper Plants, located on Military Pike, is very much the traditional greenhouse business and has grown to include 10 greenhouses with 50,000 square feet and more than 200 varieties of flowers, along with a wide array of vegetable plants.
Russ Madison's love of growing things came about while being raised on a large Nebraska farm and through his career as a rehab therapist with the Veteran's Administration working in horticulture.
"We probably grow the largest selection of annuals and hanging baskets in central Kentucky. We are not massive growers compared to the industry; we're a mom-and-pop operation," said Madison, who received his bachelor's degree in horticulture from Iowa State University.
While a large portion (roughly 75-80 percent) of the business is retail, the Madisons also sell wholesale to a number of institutions and businesses.
"Change has come in the last five years in the growth of the box stores, in all candor," he said. "The customer base we had were the garden centers. At one time we grew 800 varieties of perennials. Almost 90 percent, then, was wholesale."
A key to success for Proper Plants has obviously been to change as the industry changed. According to the Madisons, their business isn't big enough to supply the big box stores.
"They don't want the kind of stuff we have anyhow," Russ Madison said. "We gear toward selection and quality. Our 10-inch basket is a 10-inch basket."
The Madisons have also made use of technology such as a Web site and Facebook to advertise, but word of mouth has worked best, and a long list of loyal customers helps the cause.
Creating a quality product and adapting to change has helped the couple to create a successful business even in tough economic times.
"It's like everything else; you either change with it or that is it. You have to get out," Russ Madison said.
With the unusually warm weather of late, many customers are ready to get started, but preparation for this year's sale season began last August.
"We're kicking in full gear by October," Madison said of the early start. "By January and February, we are going full blast. We've got all the greenhouses now full and bulging. It's a fun thing just to walk through."
But the reality of it all is that, starting about the second week of April, 85 percent of the greenhouse sales will come over a seven-week period. That's a lot of flowers going out the door in a short period of time. This year, they have 8,000 hanging baskets to sell. Still, Madison keeps his doors open nearly every day, although he recommends customers call ahead of time in the off-season.
Paying attention to detail and creating quality products has helped both businesses become and stay successful. It also doesn't hurt that both the Warrens and the Madisons live where they work.
"It's just beautiful out here, and we don't want to move," said Madison. That's a good thing for local flower lovers.