“What are buyers looking for?” is one of the questions most frequently asked of the Rooted Team. Growers want to make informed crop planning decisions, hone their marketing strategies, and have data-driven discussions with buyers. These are prudent approaches, though in the absence of aggregated and easily-digestible data, they are historically difficult given the lack of transparency and aggregated market data available in the specialty cut flower industry.
That’s where we come in! Because of the unique way that growers sell product through Rooted’s software, our team can slice and dice market data from across the country and share some helpful insights with you. Analyzing Rooted’s year-end reports can help to validate mainstays and uncover new opportunities.
Before going any further – we strongly recommend that you read our Data & Analytics: A Crash Course post. This will give you some necessary context for how to interpret these results and apply them to your business.
A few things to keep in mind before we dig in:
Approach each data point as a piece of a puzzle – not the complete picture. If you examine any one layer of these data independently, you will draw different conclusions than you would by combining them. We encourage you to pair this discussion of quantitative data with your own research – including qualitative information from your local markets – to help you approach the year ahead.
Remember, you know your market best! Always talk with your buyers about what they’d like to see more of – our data may provide you an opportunity to educate your audience, but ultimately, collecting direct feedback from your buyers is a critical input.
Let’s dig in! What did we see in 2022?
A quick snapshot of some exciting findings for farmers:
Local staples continue to anchor the local flowers market as top sellers. These are the go-to favorites that are either hard to ship or have a more ethereal shelf life, like dahlias, zinnias and cosmos.
Highest-growth products fall into the filler and foliage categories. More buyers are seeking out non-focal flowers from local growers! Items that outperformed include products like yarrow, euphorbia, statice, nigella, goldenrod, and grasses.
Brighter colors like yellow and red are picking up steam. These colors fall outside of the long-standing traditional soft and neutral “wedding colors.” Increases in sales to more conventional florists, retail florists, and brick and mortar shops could help account for some of this growth.
Top-Selling Colors
Rankings based on stem count across all sellers
White
Green
Pink
Highest-Growth Colors
Growth compared with 2021
Yellow/gold
Cream
Red
Color Takeaways
Buyers want your foliage! While white continues to be in high demand, green was a close second. Buyers are increasingly looking for local alternatives for foliage products, and they are willing to experiment a bit; think creatively: do you have perennials that you may not be offering? Woodies that work well to provide structure? Responsible foraging opportunities? Try offering some samples to grow your weekly offerings!
Top-Selling Flowers
Based on stem counts, by genus
In 2022, we saw thousands of unique cultivars sold on Rooted! Our top performers included the following genera:
Dahlia
Zinnia
Celosia
Cosmos
Ranunculus
Antirrhinum
Eustoma
Paeonia
Gomphrena
Tulipa
High-Growth Products:
We were excited to see strong growth from many unsung heroes in 2022! The below genera were among our highest-growth products sold:
Elaeagnus
Ornamental grasses
Artemisia
Achillea
Eustoma
Chrysanthemums
Solidago
Product Takeaways
Outside of dahlias and zinnias, we saw relatively low concentration among the top selling genera – meaning that growers saw success selling a wide range of floral product throughout the year. Buyers exhibited increased openness to working with specialty cuts that fell far outside of the local staples, with specialty filler and foliage products gaining momentum over the course of the seasons.
Conclusions
Pretty exciting, right? We hope that you find these insights helpful in preparing you to talk with your buyers and think about the season ahead. Maybe you will approach your crop plan with more emphasis on color rather than cultivars, or perhaps you felt inspired to broaden your buyers' awareness around the flowers you grow, or empowered to talk about your blooms from a florist’s or designer’s point of view! We at Rooted Farmers are especially excited about the growth and awareness of local flowers in recent years. Local flowers are where the party is at, and what you do as a grower has a positive impact in your community and beyond!
Here are some other resources to help you continue to increase awareness, sales, and continue to bridge the gap between grower and end user:
Learn more about how [Rooted Pro, our robust Data & Analytics package](https://www.rootedfarmers.com/pricing) can help you level up your growing game.
Read our Data & Analytics: A Crash Course post for more context around how we put these data to work.
Read our Sales Data & Crop Planning: A How-To article to learn more about how we reflect and set goals for the season ahead.
Learn from [Designer Rachel Fletcher at Carbon & Co] to as she shares her insights on working with local product.
Building new buyer relationships? Check out our 7 Tips for How to Build New Relationships with Wholesale Buyers
Check out our article about Photographing Flowers for Wholesale to learn the nuances of product photography.