Anniversary Farmer Feature: Masterpiece Flowers

Ten Years of Farmer Bailey

Anniversary Farmer Feature: Masterpiece Flowers

By Felicia D'Ambrosio

Crystal Giesy of Masterpiece Flowers in Whaleyville, Maryland has a simple mission for her Eastern Shore farm: grow rad flowers for rad people.

Crystal is one of our original group of Farmer Bailey customers: the flower farmers who answered Bailey's call to join a group order he was coordinating to bring plugs of hard-to-find specialty flower varieties to US farmers of all sizes. High minimum orders and a lack of access to the trend-forward Lisianthus he wanted spurred this order, made possible by greenhouse pros Dave Eastburn and Fred Granja of Gro 'n Sell in Pennsylvania.

Get to know Crystal, in her own words:

"We are a family farm growing high quality cut flowers and delicious berries with organic practices.

We care deeply for the environment, the people, and animals who live in it. We strive to incorporate sustainability and equality into our everyday work and lives.

As Farmer Florists we grow lush and unique flowers to create romantic custom florals for our community, farm stand, and events. We participate in local farmer’s markets and often do local pop up shops around our community.

Our Farm Stand is located at the front of our farm property both on the cart and in the white building and is stocked seasonally March-December. Depending upon the season you will find fresh flowers, herbs, pumpkins, gourds, fall and Christmas wreaths, and so much more! We are always expanding and trialing new items to grow and make; so be sure to check every week throughout the seasons to see whats new!"

For the tenth anniversary of Farmer Bailey, Crystal shared her insights into the difference plugs have made for her business, her best advice for new flower farmers, and why bigger isn't always better. Read on!

When did you begin buying plants from Farmer Bailey?

I was part of Farmer Bailey's first collective buying in its first year. It wasn’t even done via website if I remember correctly, and my friend Mya of Hillen Homestead participated.

Through her, I heard how Bailey had gotten access to to flower varieties we normally couldn’t buy seed or plugs for in individual trays. Next, the website was made and I was hooked. At the time I was focused on weddings and being able to grow highly sought after varieties was invaluable.

After that, being able to purchase trays was a huge cost saver in efficiency as well. I found that it was cheaper and more reliable to order plugs than to pay for the labor of having someone seed them, or take time from my daily farm work to do so myself. Knowing that guaranteed 210 plugs are arriving on the exact date you need them, despite weather or germination, is huge for any small farm.

What flowers did you start with, and have you pivoted?

In the beginning I was purchasing the higher end and patented varieties most, and a lot of my fall planted spring crops that don’t germinate as well in hotter falls. Over the past ten years of farming we’ve shifted away from the large weddings and pushed all our focus on our market and on farm sales, so the varieties I get have shifted slightly to fit to our needs. We do not live in a very high income area so we try to keep our bouquet prices down to work within our customers budget and grow what they can afford.

How has Farmer Bailey supported your business? What are the advantages of plugs?

Farmer Bailey has been amazing over the years, not only with creating access for small farms to big market varieties, but also in his and the teams constant work to help educate and share the knowledge of the flower world. I would also like to add that he has consistently done this free of charge, which is no small thing in an industry where every person is seemingly selling the recipe of a successful farm, Bailey has given webinars, spoken at conferences, and hosted farm tours to give us all any insight he has.

Which plants have most successful, and why? What do you consider your area of expertise, or greatest area of growth?

I love to order any varieties where the seed is particularly finicky to grow; Lisianthus, Icelandic poppies, etc. I’ve also really enjoyed some of the latest additions in the past years of ranunculus and anemones, I still grow tuberose, but have enjoyed the plugs as well.

I think our farms greatest success has been longevity. Even though we are only 10 years old, it has been no small feat starting a farm when no one thought growing local flowers to be a thing on the eastern shore, starting and growing the farm debt free, surviving the pandemic, maintaining our strides through a flood of growers, shifting our business with a bad economy, all to come out still here feels like a grand accomplishment so far.

My goal in farming is to avoid the temptation to grow big. Staying small and manageable enables me to survive the yearly shifts of business and farming.

What are your challenges? Can we help you turn them into wins?

I’ve always found that any need or question I have is always met by the team.

What is your best advice for new flower farmers? What would you have wanted to know in your first year of flower farming?

Everything you need to know is out there in books or via online research, don’t feel the need to buy into pricey online courses. What works for others may work for you and also may not.

How many years have you been flower farming?

Eleven years.

What is your typical business model? Has this changed over the years?

Yes, we began primarily serving large weddings. Currently our main focus is market and on-farm sales.

How do you spend your non-farming time? What brings you great joy?

There’s not a ton of non-farming time, haha, but time with my husband, son, and two golden achievers (retrievers) are priority. We cook, go to the beach, and enjoy working and riding antique motorcycles.