Kentucky is home to more than 250 cut flower growers, with new operations launching each year. This industry segment has a current market value estimated at $2.2M (USDA, 2024), with most growers using field production systems and selling direct to consumers (DTC). An additional 2,000 cut flower growers are in close proximity across the geography generally known as the mid-South, including all or parts of Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Collectively, these states grow about 4% of the US domestic market, with a value of $33.6M USD (USDA, 2024). The United States floral industry, which includes cut flowers, seeds, and potted plants, is estimated at $6.7B (SAF, 2024). The majority of specialty cut flowers - 78% - are imported from Ecuador, Columbia, Canada, Europe, and other production locations (CAG, 2025). The import market value of cut flowers in the US supplying 11,744 retail florist shops in 2024 was $1.98B (FAS, 2025; SAF, 2024). California leads in domestic floriculture production, with about 70% of the US market share (USDA, 2024). As competition tightens in some local markets and Kentucky flower farms continue to expand in scale to meet local and regional demand, many well-established growers are increasingly interested in optimizing production systems and diversifying their farm enterprises.

To provide robust programming for cut flower growers, Horticulture Extension Specialist Cindy Finneseth is leading the KY Cut Flower Working Group, which also includes Alexis Sheffield, Extension Specialist in the Center for Crop Diversification, Kristin Hildabrand, Warren County Extension Agent for Horticulture, Tara Vaughn, Extension Associate in Horticulture, and Savannah Columbia, Extension Associate in Ag Economics. Community partners include Kentucky Horticulture Council, Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development, the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, and Community Farm Alliance. The Kentucky Flower Market (Frankfort) and SOKY Floral Exchange (Bowling Green) are important industry partners. Based on stakeholder feedback, the working group has hosted 5 webinars, 1 hands-on workshop, 1 post-harvest field day, numerous presentations (Kentucky State Fair, KSU Small Farms Conference, Organic Association of Kentucky Annual Meeting, for example), provided on-farm technical assistance to address industry challenges, participated in a grower tour to North Carolina, and annually co-host the Kentucky-grown Cut Flower Month celebration. Work of the group has also been shared with Extension professionals at the State Extension Conference (March 2025) in Louisville and the National Urban Extension Leaders (NUEL) Conference (May 2025) in Durham, NC. Highlights of these activities include:

Kentucky Grown Cut Flower Promotion (July 2024). The target was to feature at least one grower per day on partner social media channels. A dedicated Facebook page – Kentucky Grown Cut Flower Promotion (https://www.facebook.com/groups/kygrowncutflowerpromo) – is used to share year-round tips & tricks, floral design videos, webinars on growing and marketing cut flowers and hosted this promotion of KY cut flower farms. Between July 1-31, 37 Kentucky cut flower growers and 2 cut flower markets were featured, representing a broad geographic distribution across Kentucky. In addition to the farm features, cut flower resources for both growers and customers were shared. One of the most popular aspects of the month were design videos by the Kentucky Horticulture Council. The promotional campaign reached nearly 109,000 social media users across 4 platforms, with high engagement (6,400+) metrics during the month and engagement continued after the promotion ended. All participating growers indicated the promotional activities benefited their businesses, primarily through increased traffic on their linked social media sites. Based on consumer and grower feedback, this promo campaign will be repeated in 2025.

The Business of Blooms: Floral Design & New Marketing Strategies for Cut Flower Growers. On July 8, 2024, the UK Cut Flower Working Group partnered with the Kentucky Horticulture to host an in-person learning opportunity for cut flower farmers at the Hardin County Extension Office in Elizabethtown, KY. This one-day workshop featured presentations covering the topics Pricing Flowers for Design, Photography For Flowers & Floral Design, Sustainable Design & Marketing, and a panel on Contracts & Proposals. Attendees were also given a choice between two interactive sessions: Floral Design Basics or Tips & Tricks of Advanced Design. The event ended with an optional post-conference Beginners Hands-on Design Class that taught new growers and less experienced designers how to work with their own flowers. By using the flowers they are growing, participants learned to create wrapped market bouquets and small Mason Jar style arrangements like those sold at Farmers Markets. This event was well received and attended by over 55 cut flower growers. Many growers expressed that they learned things they could implement immediately. One reason for the success of the event was split design session that kept advanced designers from sitting in a design basics presentation and prevented beginning designers from being lost in an advanced design presentation. The inclusion of sessions that touched on both design and business topics were very popular and helpful to the growers. A post-evaluation survey was distributed to growers in attendance at the end of the event to measure the impact. Survey results indicate: 100% gained knowledge new information about designing and marketing their cut flower products from their farms; 27 rated the conference sessions as excellent and good, reflecting the high quality and relevance of the content; 26 growers indicated that they feel more confident when arranging and marketing their cut flowers because of attending the workshop; and 24 growers expressed that the hands-on workshops and demonstrations were effective, instilling confidence in the practical learning approach adopted during the event. 

Interactive Cut Flower Grower Map (ongoing). As part of efforts to help consumers connect with local growers, the existing interactive map developed in 2020 was updated to make it easy for customers to identify purchasing options based on geographic location. This map, hosted on the UK CCD website (https://uk-horticulture.github.io/KY-Cut-Flowers/), currently has 159 farms featured and new growers are continually being added to the map. The number of listed growers has increased from 35 to 64 to 99 to 126 to 159 from 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 respectively. Annual reach is not available due to staffing changes. This map will be updated in 2025.

On-Farm Visits (ongoing). On-farm direct technical support has been provided to more than 20 cut flower growers to address production and marketing issues to optimize production systems to improve yield and quality and reduce production costs.

Webinars and Conference Presentations (ongoing). Webinars (6) and conference presentations (6) have been provided at various state and regional events between July 2024 and June 2025. These presentations on cut flower topics have reached 296 industry stakeholders. 

Activity participants have been a mix of pre-commercial, beginning, and established cut flower growers and have provided feedback on many topics for future events. Increased knowledge through the different working group activities will improve production practices and farm revenue.