Rooted for Collectives
Building a better way to sell flowers, together.
We’re more than just a software company.
What you can expect from us
We are a sales platform for flowers, but that’s not all we offer. We are committed to your success and that’s why we provide mentorship, business collaboration and coaching every step of the way. When you join Rooted as a collective, it’s a partnership!
We want to help you succeed! Whether you have questions about logistics, product pricing, or market expansion, we’re here to share our expertise and guidance. Our platform is designed for efficiency and to meet the unique needs of flower collectives – however, it’s the additional coaching that helps our collectives make informed decisions and see exponential growth.
Listen to collective leaders Justine McFarland, owner of Tupelo Farm, part owner and manager of River City Flower Exchange Cooperative and Jill Shea, manager of the Connecticut Flower Collective talk all things collectives and cooperatives with Scott Shepherd from The Flower Podcast!
What we look for from you
Rooted is committed to offering quality floral product and farm-level transparency to our community of buyers and this informs our decision to partner with sellers. We look for collectives with a commitment to quality, consistency, and strong communication between your growers, to your buyers and with the Rooted team. We’ve found these principles to be critical indicators to a group’s success.
We work with collectives of varying sizes and at various stages of development, and want to ensure we understand your group’s unique needs. We are more than a technology company – we’re here to understand the intricate details of your group!
Collective Qualifications
When we evaluate new collectives looking to join Rooted, there are several minimum requirements we are seeking. If you don’t meet these exact requirements or have questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us to have a discussion.
- Cohesive, collaborative leadership team with strong communication skills and a commitment to the long-term success of the collective
- Flexible, adaptive mindset to be able to proactively solve challenges
- A dedicated administrator with a backup member to ensure redundancy to manage collective management-related responsibilities
- At least 2 members with 3+ years of growing experience
- At least 2 members with 2+ years of experience selling wholesale and/or to florists
- Group includes 3+ growers
- Demonstrated awareness of the opportunities and challenges of your local market
Collectives and Flower Exchanges
Why Work with Rooted?
As a collective working with Rooted, you will be able to streamline your operations and offload tedious busy work, giving your team more time to spend on what really matters (growing!).
Each of your supplying farms shares their availability each week. All listings are automatically aggregated to give your floral buyers an easy-to-use, one-stop-shopping experience. Here are a few of the features that we are excited to bring you this season:
Collective Onboarding & Ongoing Support
We Dig in Deep!
We view the onboarding process as the kickoff to a long-term relationship! We begin with a discussion around your background and experience as a group, your goals for the seasons ahead, and how we can help with the next phase of your journey.
You can expect onboarding a new collective to Rooted to take around four weeks. This can take more or less time depending on several variables including the number of growers in your group and how quickly the group works through their account setup. Once you are up and running – we are here to collaborate and support you as your group evolves season after season.
What's included:
- Grower training meetings
- Collective admin training
- Logistics consultations (weekly schedule; delivery/pickup settings; market days; payment setup, market set-up)
- Ongoing check-in's, support, and more!
Collectives 101 Course
Are you looking to scale your flower farming business and want to join an existing collective? Or maybe you’re interested in organizing growers in your area to formalize your own coop?
In our new, on-demand online course, Collectives 101, produced in collaboration with The Gardener’s Workshop, Head Farmer, Founder of Rooted, and owner of Reverie Flowers, Amelia Ihlo covers the ins and out of how collectives work, and why they have value to you as a grower or a group of growers. Everything from first year expectations, collective cash flows, the role of the collective admin, to logistics and more is covered in this densely packed 104-minute workshop.
Listen to Lisa’s recent podcast episode "What is a Collective, Anyway? Interview with Amelia Ihlo".
Featured Collectives
Collective name: River City Flower Exchange
Rooted in: Richmond, Virginia
Total farms in the collective: 9
In production: Mid-March to Mid-November
From the collective: "The amount of expansion we plan to do this season is super exciting! This year, we are increasing the days where our customers can shop in person or receive deliveries from our new home base: a brick-and-mortar store in the heart of Richmond, VA! Additionally, this space allows us to host all sorts of hands-on workshops and engaging educational programming year-round."
Why Rooted: "We love the new analytics tools on Rooted because not only does it help us hone our sales, but the levels of granularity available really help us to plan with our farms in a way that is supportive of their work and abilities as growers. It’s nice to pinpoint our needs and see a visualization of all the hard work we did over the course of a year."
