Field Grown Cut Flowers: A Practical Guide and Sourcebook : Commercial Field Grown Fresh and Dried Cut Flower Production

FIELD GROWN CUT FLOWERS:A Practical Guide & Sourcebook by Alan Stevens, Ph.D., is a collaboration between the author, a 26 year veteran of commercial and academic floriculture, and John S. Hurd, a Wisconsin farmer who began growing flowers experimentally in 1990 when the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture started investigating commercial floriculture as a crop option for the state's family farms.

FIELD GROWN CUT FLOWERS provides a wealth of down-to-earth advice on planting, cultivating, and harvesting flower crops. There is detailed coverage on the post-havest handling of fresh-cut flowers and on drying methods for a variety of everlastings, also a practical discussion of business and marketing options for flower growers, including farmer's markets and pick-you-own operations and mail order.

The practical information and hands-on focus derived from the real-world experiences of a successful flower grower make this book a real resource for anyone interested in the art and science of flower production.

Alan Stevens is often described as a businessman who happens to work for a university. His twenty-six years of commercial experience from wholesale production to retail floristry provide a real life perspective to his research and teaching activities. After receiving his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in 1990, Dr. Stevens accepted a position with Kansas State University as the extension specialist for commercial floriculture and ornamental horticulture. He has written several award-winning cooperative extension publications on specialty cut flower production and is currently conducting research into glycerin preserving and color processing decorative plant materials.