Frary's Fresh Flowers

What do we need to do
1 Find some land - preferably close or next to our house
- how much price wise, how much area
- garden centre or nursery or grower
2 Where do we sell
- direct from field, farmers market, carboot - Thainstone
- to intermediary - flower shops, supermarkets, traders e.g. knowles
- Are me and Jiurie sellers?
3 Describe our current garden
- Aberdeenshire climate
4 Decide what will grow where we are and will be commercial and won't be undercut by imports
- acid soils - heathers, rhoderdendrons
- local plants - mulleins - verbascum - already ready good in garden
- old style flowers that won't travel well - violas, sweet peas,
- flowers that are already commercial - snapdragons, verbena
- flowers we like but can they be used for cut flowers - fuschia - I used to hate them and now I love them
- roses - can we compete with imported? doubt it.
- Decide what to specialise in -or whether to specialise.
--- Medicinal herbs,
--- Local plants
--- Hardy exotics
--- Alpines
--- Shady perennials - Ajuga (Bugle) doing really well
------- Need to look at market...
5. Get the logo - psycho thistle - working on
6. Get the direction - the unique selling point - carbon neutrality - cost of importing flowers - air travel - I read somewhere that a bunch of roses from Kenya produces the same ammount of carbon as using a light bulb for 8 hours - need to find that out.
Local flowers for local people - there's notheing for the likes of you here.
7. Display garden - become the equivalent of IKEA for gardens
The competition
8. The source of materials - propagation - bought in liners or produced ourselves, seed or vegetative.

Anyway - 2 days after this I decided to write a list of things (and pictures) I think I could write at least a couple of paragraphs about related to gardens and trying to set up a business.
I only got to 92 different topics (forget about the subtopics) so hopefully I should be able to get at least a couple of months into this blog eventually - which will help I think - FOCUS< FOCUS< FOCUS at least I think that's what Jiurie mutters under her breath when I tell her my big plans for world floricultural domination.

So me and Jiurie (my wife of 23 years - Rotuman - that is Polynesian from Fiji) are looking for ways to grow flowers for a living - one day soon. Awful lot of plans and ideas and not too much happening.
Why is it not happening - because we still both have to work - me full time overseas (Libya for the last 8 months after 3 years rotating to Angola) and Jiurie part time in Aberdeen. Therefore - thanks to the UK draconian tax laws - I am only allowed back to Aberdeen 3 months a years before tax kicks in - 40% tax - not good.

Anyhow we want - okay I want - to grow flowers for a living. Jiurie, I think she's not so interested in the business aspects or the growing but in the garden maintenance (the only person I know who loves weeding!) and in the flowers in the house - cutting flowers. Lots of our email communication is reports from Jiurie of what is coming up in the garden or what is blooming - while I reply asking her to water the tomatoes or check the onions or whatever.

So why a blog - I'm going to try to document the thought process and actions about trying to set up the business - and what flowers we are trying - create some content that will eventually form the archive for the commercial website. Don't know why anyone would want to - or whether anyone will read - but a good way to keep focussed on the object - a life growing and selling flowers - we have plans - we have plans.