UMaine Cooperative Extension Project Harnesses Flower Power
Contact: Gleason Gray (Penobscot County), 1-800-287-1485; Barbara Murphy (Oxford County), 743-6329 or 1-800-287-1482
ORONO — A bouquet of cut flowers can say so much, so beautifully: I love you. Happy birthday. I’m sorry I stayed out until 3 a.m. with the guys.
Thanks to researchers with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and volunteers in the Master Gardener program, Maine farmers are able to convey those messages — and more — loud and clear.
Over the last four years, Barbara Murphy of the Oxford County Extension office has studied the economic viability, necessary growing conditions and best varieties for Maine farmers interested in growing cut flowers — either as their main crop or as an additional value-added crop. Last summer, Gleason Gray of the Penobscot County Extension office joined the effort, and their findings are promising.
“Research has shown the crop has tremendous potential; there’s a high dollar per square foot return,” Murphy says. “It’s a crop many growers can do as well as their other crops.”
Murphy and Gray share their findings with the industry by speaking with grower groups in Maine, but the trial gardens are open to the public.
Early trials compared the growth of flowers inside a hoop house (a small greenhouse) with flowers grown in the field. Given the unpredictability of Maine weather, the hoop house proved to be worth the expense. Cooperative Extension manages pests in the field organically — mostly by hand-picking — to prove it can be done.
“It’s good for growers to know,” Murphy says. “Many growers in Maine grow flowers organically and are very good at it.”
This year’s trials include nearly 25 varieties of flowers, including sunflowers, lisianthus and larkspur. The cut flowers at Rogers Farm in Stillwater and the Extension gardens in South Paris will be in full bloom starting in August.