S2 EP06 The Cut Flower Podcast with Andrew Bly - 02:11:2022,...
Thu, Nov 03, 2022 8:28PM • 41:05
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
flower, growers, redonkulous, people, started, crop, varieties, tend, bulbs, produce, plant, colour, growing, size, elegance, year, hanoi, andrew, bigger, line
SPEAKERS
Andrew Bly, Roz Chandler
Roz Chandler 00:07
If you're someone who has a passion for cut flowers, or environment, and wants to make the world more beautiful, you're in the right place. Whether you're growing flowers for pleasure, or profit, I'm on a mission to empower flower enthusiasts and professionals to help change the world around them. Whether you're just starting out and need a helping hand, or we're looking to scale a substantial flower business, I'm your cut flower woman. Welcome to cut flowers. So let me introduce you to our guest speaker today, Andrew Bly and Andrew will be talking all about today, and there's even some controversy about how you even pronounce Ranunculus. So we'll start with that one. Andrew, tell us a little bit about your background and how you got into this Ranunculus that we all love.
Andrew Bly 01:01
So my background is growing up on a cut flower nursery with my father, who by trade was an agricultural chemist, came home to farm started farming lilies when they were much more rare and exotic than they are today. And grew many bulb flower crops. I spent a lot of formative years in the Netherlands because that's the epicentre of the flower bulb industry, and ended up in the trading side of the business and spent 27 years working for a company called GA vertical, who are really hybridizers bulk growers and exporters. And up to six years ago, yes, six years ago, their export division was taken over by a company called openings, one of the largest specialised Lily bulb exporters in Netherlands. And I went with the trade openings as part of their product portfolio. Sell Italian Ranunculus in the USA, and I think you know, Hank earnings, Who's the youngest earnings brother, who's stationed over in California, and Hank is really kind of Mr. Italian redonkulous, USA. So he's the guy who introduced me to Italian redonkulous. I was so inspired by the product, thought it was just beautiful, the seasonal element, but the sheer range of colours, the beauty of the flower, the vase life, which is absolutely outstanding, really caught my imagination. And I thought, well, we have to get this going a little bit more in the UK. There were members of flowers from the farm group that already started very small scale. But thankfully, over the last four or five years, we've been able to bring that further. So yeah, that was my introduction to Italian redonkulous. Coincidentally, my first posting, working for GA vertigo when I very first started was to Italy. So that has been a big help in reconnecting with the guys in San Remo. The guys from bn carry all these many years later. And it's been it's been a lot of fun.
Roz Chandler 03:14
So where is Italian Annapolis based in Italy, then
Andrew Bly 03:18
Korean rum coastline. So sunray Mo is known as the City of flowers. It's along that balance and ledge overlooking the Mediterranean. So many of the growers are perched up on ledges anybody who's been around that area will see lots of plastic structures and glass on the mountainside. It's a perfect climate, not just for growing ranunculus but for many cut flowers. And in the past, there was a far bigger bar production was a bigger presence, certainly on a European scale than it is today. I think generally what has happened has been that many of those growers growing up on those ledges had quite inefficient systems when you compare it to, you know, modern day Dutch and modern day glass and water culture units all over the world. And eventually, of course, they became less and less competitive. And the market based there was a flower auction in San Remo, which still exists. It's more of a wholesale division now. But really lots of when I first went to Sonoma in 1991. As a young as a youngster, many of those growers were doing lots of different crops Dilys particularly and that's why I was there. And nowadays, you virtually find any lilies there, we don't find any, any limits there. And relatively speaking, the area has been taken over by redonkulous production. There are some that say that they can carry their hybridization programme and then niche market that they've developed for ranunculus has pretty much saved that the growers in that area.
Roz Chandler 05:05
Yeah. Yeah. And then exporting worldwide from there then
Andrew Bly 05:09
not? Well, I'm sure that there are some exports that go further afield, but the main exports would be to the Dutch market. Right. And obviously, through the global connections of the Dutch and Ellesmere and the other auction systems being a gateway to the world market, then undoubtedly, Italian redonkulous end up going into many different areas, certainly within the European market.
Roz Chandler 05:35
So what competitors have they got? Is it French? What other?
Andrew Bly 05:39
Yeah, there's there's virtually only two real main sources of ranunculus coming out of Europe at least. I mean, if you go to California, and you go to Southern California, the San Diego area, Encinitas, which is just north of San Diego, there's an obituary online, which many people may have heard of called the telecom cities, which are farmed by farming family called Mallanna. If you go there in the spring, I was over there in late March this this year, and you can go up on the ledge of the hillside on the mountainside and look down and see this glorious field of colour. But not many of those are really produced for cut flower production date they are but it's more of a Nerva a tourist attraction. People come along to walk these magnificent fields, and then they buy a food combs or bulbs at the end of it. So other than that, I don't really know of any other sources. Globally, within Europe, at least there are only two main sources, which is come to our from the south of France, who has a connection with Israel, and breeding lines out of that country. And b&q. Wow. So it's a very limited niche line. Yeah, absolutely. Ross. Yeah.
Roz Chandler 06:59
And I think that's part of the issue. I think most people don't even know what they are. You know, if you're selling it to the consumers, they don't really know what it is. So you have to explain what it looks like and what it is. And I think that's probably you're right, in the last five years, even flower farmers have started to grow more and more. And yeah, Angie, to be blunt, is partly to you to bringing him in and making them readily available and allowing us to be able to buy them and put them in. So I think there is a whole knowledge problem with it. And actually, it's my favourite flower in the whole world.
Andrew Bly 07:33
So isn't it Yeah,
Roz Chandler 07:34
standing is stunning and underrated because it's a people don't really know what it is, you know, is it halfway between a peon in a rose when you're trying to explain it. And then when you look at the Hanoi's when you say with a better shelf life with a massive shelf
Andrew Bly 07:50
life, which is which is multiples. Yeah,
Roz Chandler 07:53
yeah. Both both in bars, and in growing, you know, it's a much longer season. So it's like, yeah,
Andrew Bly 07:59
the very first binoculars that I had at home was just before Christmas, because I've been in Italy, and I bought some standards back. And it was elegance, Bianca. Yeah. And I don't recall which strain it was. But, you know, my wife said, well, wow, they just get to a stage in the vase where they just sit in freeze, it seems and, and don't want to move further or don't progress and success further. So. Of course, there's not a lot of light around, particularly for us at that time of the year. So yeah, that's a wonderful quality.
Roz Chandler 08:32
Yeah, definitely, definitely. So how do we grow them? How do we work wherever you start? Where do we get them? How do we grow them?
Andrew Bly 08:41
Well, I think just going back to what you were talking about there, I mean, it's a double edged sword in many ways, of course, because it is a unique niche market. We don't want to overdo it. The demand the worldwide demand is insatiable, actually by listen to bn girI. You know, once once cut, flowers start entering, you know, and I don't want to sound derisory. But But once they start entering, you know, the channels of sales with multiples, then then the product becomes more commoditized. And this is more of a niche item at the moment. And we're a million miles away from that, which in many ways is good, because it enables us to be able to make margin out of the product. The other side of that is, of course, that we're still building a lot of knowledge redonkulous are still very seasonal, it's very much you know, winter grown and spring product and you won't find much product around in the summer, all the autumn. We will get better at that, just as we have with other cut flower crops is just gonna progress that we will find techniques. So I think I mentioned to you there's a there's a grower in California who's and I was there last week, who's doing a year round programme. Now, if you would just say to me, how successful is it? And we were looking at some of the issues and some of the challenges around that last week, then, no, what I looked at last week doesn't look like a spring crop. But it's there. And there is some production, and we are progressing with it. And I think because it is such a niche crop, and there is so little is known at this stage, then, yeah, that that's why, I guess it's a self fulfilling prophecy that that's why it remains small. And of course, yes, it's in the hands of Sophie.
Roz Chandler 10:36
Yeah, yeah, I am in agreement with you. But I think we will find a way of extending it season whether we do all year, I'm not sure. I mean, they've done it with tulips in Vermont, you know, they've got tulips in January, February, March in Vermont, by fooling them into the fact that it's spring. Yeah, so they're buying pre chilled bulbs, obviously. And then they're planting them and then fooling them. And Heiko, then you get tulips in January, which we haven't quite conquered in the UK yet. But that's on my list. But I am learning about how to bring tulips in for January, February, March, because then you've got Valentine's and you've got Mother's Day, yeah, with a British flower. So and there are other things going on to try and get eucalyptus in the summer that you can cut, which at the moment is pretty challenging eucalyptus, you can have from September to March, which is pretty useless when most people want it in July and August.
Andrew Bly 11:28
Well, the fun, the fun is of any cut flower line is of course to try and extend your season somewhat because it gives you a longer presence in the marketplace and gives you a far better grounding, hopefully to make margin. Yeah. Which is ultimately what you know, we start with His love, but ultimately, you know, it becomes a bit tiring if you're not making any money. Yeah,
Roz Chandler 11:50
that's the kind of hobby wears off. And and you start to rethink. So how do we grow them? I know what I've done with mine that I've received from you, Andrew already. But how do we grow them?
Andrew Bly 12:03
Well, I think really what I've discovered and what my experience tells me thus far is that like many crops, you know, Wellstone is half grown. You know, the old saying that the start is vitally important. It's absolutely vitally important. So your your raw material, good corns, or bulbs tend to find that people call corns or bowls for the most part, actually redonkulous are are a tuber, small risin. So, but we refer to them as belt and comb. So starting with good raw material, deciding your variety range in terms of colour, what you want, and therefore the best sizing for you. So I start out on sizing, we sell 3445, and five, seven size corns. And I think it's because we've we started with a medium size range. Most people, when they come to us on a four, five, I'm not sure they really know why they want a four, five particularly, or that they're just following what's happened in the past, and four or five is the most common size. The main differences is that if you go for a larger size, and people tend to want to go larger, if anything, I mean we always reserve the right because Italian and Uncas is so limited in supply, we reserve the right to supply a size variation, one up or one down. So if you're buying a four or five, you might end up getting a five seven from us, or equally a three, four, people tend to shy away a little bit more from three fours, because they think well, they're going to be thinner, they're going to be weaker, the flower count is going to be lower, my flower size is going to be smaller. And that's not all. I say that carefully, all totally true. Generally, the larger the quorum size, the more flowers that you will get, the larger the quorum size, the quicker they will flower. So the early season production in Italy, the growers like to use the larger sizes, because they're earlier into production. Now that can mean in warm climates, a limited period, let's say one to two weeks, but it can mean you know, up to a month in cooler climates. So so that in particular at the start of the season, when the bolts are fresh, that's very important. So it's working out what size that you want. The Italians advise us that they actually other than the start of the season, they they tend to go now for more smaller sizes. And the reason for that is that larger size call will give you more flowers, and you flower over a long period of time. And I think that that's why our customers like them here in the UK, because they're smaller growers. They haven't got big workforces. lots lots of labour. Lots of people are doing this themselves. They like to be able to crop over a long period of time. Whereas if you're a bigger unit and you're doing more volumes, you want to clear beds, and you want to move bigger numbers quicker, so that you've got that supply for your market. People, therefore wrongly think, Oh, if I buy a smaller size, it's going to produce less of flowers and the quality of flowers is going to be poor than the largest size, the last part is not correct, the flowers are as good, you just get less of them. There's also an argument to suggest that the flowers are bigger because you've got, okay, you've got a smaller comb or bowl, but you've got fewer stents feeding off that. So if you look to what's happening now in South and Central America, which is all export, it's very limited at the moment. They are growing smaller sizes. Why? Because they can get bigger numbers of smaller sizes, and they tend to be quite big units. And they want more uniformity, they want to crop them, and put them into bunches really quickly and clear beds and have decent volumes. Of course, a smaller size costs less money. So that's also attractive, but they still get good quality stems, they just get fewer from from those chords. So that's the main start really size. And obviously, you know, with that smaller size, I said you crop quicker, our customers like four fives and five sevens, they tend to be earlier into production, they crop over a long period of time.
Andrew Bly 16:33
When you receive the combs or the bulbs from us, then the most important thing is to store them correctly. And that really is only it's not very complicated. You know, people think they'll put them in a council haven't got to store them at a certain temperature. No, not at all, you've just got that they'll take a temperature variation, and they can handle quite warm temperatures in storage. However, that does tend to dry them out a little bit quicker. But it is really all about humidity, you you want to store them in a really sort of dry, cool, dark place, like any seed or tubers really. And then you're in control. Because ultimately you won't wake them up, you won't get them going until you hydrate and hydrating. Really, I know that certain people, you know, in a very avid touristic fashion will plant them directly into the ground as possible. But the best single advice is to soak them. And by soaking them, you increase their size by three to four times. And the magic number is 12. So we talked with 12 hours at 12 degrees. Now again, for all people, that is not always possible. But you certainly don't want to put them in water that is any warmer than 12 degrees. Because that tends to have more of an adverse effect. Any cooler than 12 degrees is fine. But of course, the cooler the water, the harder it becomes. And then the slower the uptake. So 12 degrees is the magic temperature 12 hours is the magic time. So relatively speaking overnight, put them in water at seven o'clock at night, and you take them out at seven o'clock in the morning, beyond carry when you look at their technical details also talk about running water to build a level of oxygen. And yes, that's going to a more professional level if you've got a running hose pipe. But you know, when people hear those kinds of details, they tend to get a little bit worried about they haven't got the right facilities and they're not employing the right techniques. But that's not a real absolute must. It's better. But it's not an absolute must. The most important is that you soak them for a longer period of time. So I started talking to a customer earlier this year. And we started going through this process. And they hadn't realised that ideally, you need Sofer for up to 12 hours, or certainly a minimum of eight and they were only soaking for two to three hours. And that is really not enough. It takes a while. Particularly the lighter you plant, the more they will desiccate and dry out. So that's your start, then they need to go into well, there's different options at that point. You can then once you've sold them again, they'll plump up to three, four times their size. You can then plot them directly in the foreground, that's possible. Or you can plot them in a race platform or in boxes in peat or other different media caucus, or even an MCs that's all possible and they will develop route structure and produce legals from that point. But of course, you're in a less controlled environment. Because if you go into glass or plastic then or if you put them outside, then unless you can control the temperature you We're open to the elements. If you plant them in a seed cell to produce plants, or you plant them in a box and sandwich them in some peat or cocoa pea and keep them moist, then if you put them in a store, or even in a cold area, then your temperature control is much greater. And you should do that for a period really up to two weeks, two to three weeks, sometimes comes even take slightly longer to produce more more legals and more room material. And the ideal temperature is around about 910 degrees. Once you've completed that process, then to transfer them to your production area, whether that's in the foreground or raised beds in platforms, whether you're growing in boxes, then you can transfer. If you're growing in pots, of course, you can then plant your seed sale or your bulbs corns from the seed tray straight into the pot. That yeah, but the most important element is is the soaking process. And the priests practice, those are the two, if you get those in order, then you establish a really good start for for your final crop.
Roz Chandler 21:17
Yeah. Okay, all the things I've done, things I've still got to do. I mean, we do grow outdoors in big pots to begin with, and then we moved them indoors, when the temperature starts to drop is too hot indoors at the moment, we're still getting too hot. So at the moment, they're all outside the moment, the temperature overnight and during the day starts to drop. So maybe in another 10 days, we'll move all of them indoors, but a man it's just too hot,
Andrew Bly 21:45
it is the magic number. And again, the the temperature range that you should be looking at not exceeding is 15 degrees Celsius, once redonkulous in that sense, and very much like a freezer, once you start going above those temperatures, they'll shut down and become less productive. So you're absolutely right to do what you're doing. They like lots of cold units. That's why they are very much a seasonal flower. They go through the winter, gaining their cold units and getting vernalization. That's what propels them forward to go into flower.
Roz Chandler 22:20
And we will be successively planting them. And I know we've had this conversation that two weeks is not enough. So we're going to try three or four weeks and just try and extend the season the
Andrew Bly 22:30
I think that that That's entirely possible. You will the bigger the gap you you give in planting, you will see that it will kind of concertina together because although that you've you've started them off later, the climate and the weather is the weather so him that the light the light hours will become very important. And that is why extensively perhaps you can say that, you know, they found their home in, in southern Italy. You know, the intensity around hybridization, whether it's with Comptoir in South of France or beyond carry around the corner there on the Missouri coast in northern Italy. You know, it's a climate that's very favourable, because it's cool. It's coastal, and yet they have terrific levels of light. And that's why they'll always be into production earlier than than what we will. But that doesn't, yeah, that shouldn't be a negative. I think that there's a wonderful opportunity here, particularly for when the Italians are coming to a finish almost, you know, the Italians, relatively speaking, they start with their first flushes coming through around about early October, mid October, one of the largest size corns and they tend to be growers. Then if you look at the cliff face and all those nurseries on alleges as I've talked about, but these growers who are very early in production, they tend to be the growers that are down at the base, sea level with good cold soil. Because obviously if you're flowering in beginning of October, you're planting relatively speaking at the end of August. So an August up on those ledges pretty warm. So those guys don't tend to be the first ones that start it's the guys down at sea level because they've got cooler soil, and they can give more water to keep the soil cool and they get started earlier. But they're really early guys, you know, so there is production mid late October, going through November into December, but it's not. It's not on a bigger scale, then bigger scale production then comes up up to the Christmas period, and then January onwards. But by Easter, the Italians have done pretty much
Roz Chandler 24:50
because that big then we take over
Andrew Bly 24:53
exactly. So I think that there's a tremendous opportunity here. Certainly let's say from Valentine onwards or UK Mother's Day, through to early wedding season at the end of May, you know, and I have seen grows in really cool areas that are still producing nicer and Angeles obviously into early June. But that very much depends on
Roz Chandler 25:17
on the year. Yeah. And we can't predict that. I mean, we all know that goodness. So question, is it an annual or perennial?
Andrew Bly 25:26
It's actually a perennial. Yeah. Sassy Atticus is a perennial. So if you, if you plant them in your garden, they they're not frosted, or they're not killed off by some other means, then they will successfully reflow year after
Roz Chandler 25:43
year, as good the second and third year as the first year?
Andrew Bly 25:46
No, it will be different depending on how well they've been able to size up or not. And that depends on your soil conditions. How free draining is your the harshness of your winter? Yeah, I mean, from Cornwall up to Scotland, there would be if you took the same varieties, there would be a massive difference, again, depending on your soil type, and how free draining it is. And also the performance of individual for us.
Roz Chandler 26:15
So talking about the varieties, which varieties are available then because obviously this year, we've purchased it, two or three different varieties, but what's available,
Andrew Bly 26:25
we basically offer three lines, or let's put it into two. So you have redonkulous elegance, yeah. Which is the lower priced general line. There's up to a dozen 13 colours, depending on how you decipher that and in the range of pinks from sort of, you know, rasa chiaro light pink to I was a skewer which is the darker pink chicken Amina, which the sick lemon colour, I think that's the beauty redonkulous is such a range of colours, there really are. So most people and the bigger line that we're selling is, is the elegance line. And again, we sell in sizes 344557. And then you also have clonise, which are even in my own words, we were selling them horribly.
Roz Chandler 27:17
I bought some
Andrew Bly 27:19
well, people still do. I mean, it's a much smaller line for us. But yeah, the demand. I mean, I thought when we first bought them, goodness gracious, you know, they're four or five times the price of an elegant, fundamentally, and I'm being totally sincere and saying this, I don't think they really need to be it's not. There's a vastly increased production costs there is you know, clonise just explain to the listeners are what they say they are, they are clones. So cloning, cloning, meaning, you know, plural, more clones. And those are bulbs corns that are produced from in vitro tissue culture. So that's to make them healthier, stronger, more disease resistant, no virus, and you do see it. If you look at all those products side by side, you certainly see, you know, Hanoi is that stand up flagship varieties, everybody would know. But there's a whole range of clonee produced redonkulous in many different varieties. And the process or the thought process behind producing clonise, as opposed to a regular crop of elegance, is that because they are tissue culture and virus free, they will produce stronger, healthier plants that have greater flower production and give you bigger flower size. Yeah. Now, the latter the latter, I think is is true. Absolutely. That does not mean to say that you cannot achieve large, you're good grows, right conditions you can achieve sufficient and also large flower size on elegance types as well. Absolutely. But clonise are very much the elitist line.
Roz Chandler 29:10
I just come for a few Andrew, I'll keep you posted.
Andrew Bly 29:13
Yeah, well, I think I think that's what most people do. And of course, as I said, the standout name that everybody knows is Halloween, which is a wonderful sort of light pink blush. But it's a real grows for it. You know, I've been around different flower crops throughout my career. And growers always talk about, you know, the growers dependent those dependable forgiving varieties that that everybody puts us the first on their list, and had always very much that type of variety and a dependent, reliable form. And stunning.
Roz Chandler 29:51
Yeah, it's I mean, we added it to two hours this year for the sheer fact it's amazing wedding flower. And a lot of what we do is weddings and it's the right Carla and it's the right size. And yeah, I'll keep you posted it,
Andrew Bly 30:04
it's it's incredible, really big carry now produce alternatives to, to Hanoi, or they're looking for more improved alternatives to handling in bulk production actually, handily, as vigorous as it is, and as strong as it is, as a cut flower crop actually is not particularly productive at bowlful. So the multiplication rate is not great, obviously, as producers selling at decent prices, they want to produce more. So you know, you will see varieties like vein Tolosa, which to me are not still quite the Hanoi colour, that delicate, soft blush, they're more intense and slightly darker pinks. But of course, being carriers, the Bobal, the corn producers, want to look at something that's more productive. Again, that's a double edged sword in the limitation of Hanoi also, obviously makes it more popular. And people always want
Roz Chandler 31:06
well, they can't always
Andrew Bly 31:08
and it's and it's very successful. As a couple of Yeah, absolutely. We have to go back. So to go back to the range of sorry, so there's elegance in many different colour forms. And on the clonise. There's, there's Cloney success, which is handle is climate success type, which have flowers as elegance types, but they tend to be bigger and have an even greater intensity in the layers of petals. They produce a bigger flowers in general. But there's also pom poms, which you'll also know about, I think that you've had those as well. So cloning pompon igloo, for example of Mignon and Minerva varieties that we sell the best way I can probably describe a pom pom and Hank put it on his, on his website, that description, which is more like an antique hydrangea. Yeah, it's that kind of cluster of petal form. Again, they're very limited in supply. There's a range of four or five colours. We lit you know, there's oranges and there's salmons, and there's there's yellows, and there's darker purples. But we tend to limit it just to sort of white and pink. Yeah, a very limited, more exotic line. But UK growers have had success. So that's, personally I think that they need a lot of lights. If you look at other for you look at tulips as doubles. They're not the earliest flowering, tulip types and varieties. So I tend to think that clonee Pom Poms need a lot of lights. So that brings them nicely in for the wedding season,
Roz Chandler 32:46
doesn't it? Yeah, I'll keep you posted on my development. Yeah, try something gotta have an indulgence every so often and try something new every so often.
Andrew Bly 32:54
We were a band carries trial house early this year, and they had anybody who knows igloo will see it as a white, but more of a white green. You know, it's got almost a two tone effect and bn Carey then had a cream yellow one with green and it was you just, it caught your eye from 20 yards, you couldn't help it recognise it was quite stunning. So that's, that's something for down the road or
Roz Chandler 33:20
watch my Instagram, it will be coming, I can assure you. So one last question for you, Andrew, before I let you go. So if there was one thing you could change about the industry today, what would it be?
Andrew Bly 33:31
Very good question.
Roz Chandler 33:32
More stock, less stock?
Andrew Bly 33:35
Very, very good question. I think probably the price, the price of clonise. We've just picked on that subject. I think I'd like to sell more clonise. I do see? I do see the merit in that. Absolutely, and what they're trying to do, and so does everybody, because that's why they are the price that they are. So it's more of a supply demand situation, then the whether the product works or not the product works. It's a really, you know, this initiative from bn, Carey was started, I think about five, six years ago, the clothing line. And of course, it's very successful with groceries, anybody who's had it tends to like it, but they just all wince at the price. Having said that, you know, if, if a handily on the four or five is let's say up to two pounds, but you get four or five flowers off it, you know, and the last time I looked at common garden, they were selling for two pounds plus a stem then there is an economy in that so but yeah, it's it's not without risk, it's a big outlay been in terms of plant form. And how I see them performing for growers then yeah, if we could have more clonise at lower prices. I don't say elegance prices, but if we could have more clothes He's at lower prices. If there was a way to produce more clones that lower more cost effective price that would be, that would be a real boost for the industry.
Roz Chandler 35:09
Yeah, definitely. So tell me, Andrew, how do people buy these? Where do they get them? When should they order? Because obviously, now they should be putting them in the ground, is it too late to order now,
Andrew Bly 35:20
we tend to sell pretty much every month of the year, almost every week of the it's been quite incredible. In that sense, really, if there were any kind of quiet months, I would say it's genuine February, we tend to produce our price list. Once mother's days got out of the way, we produced a new prices for the new year. So that's our kind of cutoff point. That goes out to anybody and everybody who's on our mailing list, which I think is almost close to 1000 people that have been either expressed an interest in ranunculus at some point or purchase at some point. So yeah, that goes out. And then we tend to find, as soon as Mother's Day gets out of the way, then orders start coming in very thick and fast. We actually received stocking so stock is harvested in Italy, think I have to around about that time. So about they will probably start about mid June, end of June. So they're in real full flow in July, and bring the product into grade. And and process during August, we get our combs bulbs coming in around about the end of August, early September. last few years have actually been quite late harvests. So we've tended to receive that product more mid September. But that's getting quite late. And as soon as that we get product in then of course, yeah. It's a really intensified. It's out Yeah, well, it's it's, it's it's crazy. We I was just in the states and talking to Hank, and they were just crazy, crazy busy. Because yeah, it's a very seasonal products that comes in and everybody that wants it out. We were saying that, wouldn't it be wonderful if we can spread that that two, three weeks over two, three months? But unfortunately, that's that's not the case. So, so yeah, so we're we're taking orders all the way through the year, we very much treat customers, you know, the early people get their orders in, you know, the first order is the first one on our list. And that order has the first priority on our stock. And we've through the COVID years, stock was very limited. And there were lots and lots of substitutions, couldn't blame the N carry for that just, you know, a lack of staff and total confusion in what to plant when much. So the trade was rather than disrupted. I think this year, it's been really good. There always seems to be through the multiplication of the varieties. You know, if I said in elegance, you know, this 1213 colours, then you know, if you times that by different varieties in different breeding codes, and then you look at the range of sizes, so you'll always, to a certain extent get a little bit of a mismatch. But generally we try to limit that. And it has been limited, or it's been much more limited this year.
Roz Chandler 38:18
Brilliant. Okay, Andrew, and then what do they do to get on your email list, which we're going to put it obviously in the show notes where they can get ahold of you. But is that the best thing to do going forward, they get onto your email list.
Andrew Bly 38:29
Yeah, if you want to, if you want to have a look at a website, Hank site is Italian redonkulous.com. You can reach us through that site as well. If you want to email us call us directly, then our contact details are under Italian redonkulous. UK. So you can find us online. And you can also find us as a registered member of flowers from the farm. Brilliant. So if you look at if you look for a Sunday retailer and Uncle as UK and again, you can reach us you can have a look at pictures and get ideas from Hanks website, tell him uncle stop calm. I know this is going out to some American customers as well. So you'll get the contact details for the hanks department over there in California. But again, you can reach us through three flowers from the farm where our membership contact details will be online as well.
Roz Chandler 39:23
Brilliant. Thank you, Andrew, very much for joining me today. I will have details in the show notes. And we'll carry on talking and I'm going to run out and tell the team what to do with the necklace. So
Andrew Bly 39:34
good luck for your season. And good luck to anybody who's listening. Who's bought redonkulous from us. Thank you very much for your trade. And we wish you all well for the coming season.
Roz Chandler 39:44
Thank you very much, Andrew and I'll talk to you soon. All right, thanks. You too. Bye. Bye bye. So next week, we'll be talking to the wonderful Hilary Collins and absolute guru on everything to do with Eucalyptus. She's an author and No grower and know so much about eucalyptus don't miss it. Please subscribe so you receive notifications and review this podcast and I look forward to seeing you next week I look forward to next week's episode. Please don't forget to subscribe and rate and review on your podcast app. We do have some wonderful free resources on our website at the cut flower collective.co.uk. We also have two free Facebook communities, which we'd love you to join for farmers or those who want to be flower farmers. We have cut flower farming, growth and profit in your business. And our other free Facebook group is learn with a cup now afflictive for those starting out on their flower journey, all of the links are below. I look forward to get into NO YOU WILL