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This week's idea comes from Wayne and Ann Bishop in Wheatland, CA and demonstrates the revenue potential from the sunflower maze idea previously shared by Lyman Orchards. Many thanks to the Bishops for sharing this idea and the photos below, demonstrating the pre-planting layout, maze during operation and a sample of a flower & water tube purchased by a customer.
"Our idea is an adaptation of the sunflower maze idea of the week from last year! We designed and planted a labyrinth of sunflowers. It takes about five minutes to walk through and includes a water feature at the center of the labyrinth. We charged $1.50 per person for the walk which included one free cut -your -own sunflower at the end. Additional flowers could be purchased for $1 each.
Our intent was to provide a peaceful experience for parents with young children while also beautifying a part of the farm – hopefully at a break even cost. In the end, we actually had a net profit of a few thousand dollars, attracted more ticket buyers to the adjacent corn maze (people are attracted to flowers just like bees), and ended up adding beauty to the whole farm when people walked around with their flowers!
We used three or four varieties of dwarf sunflowers purchased from Harris Seeds. This year, we will stagger our plantings a little more to hopefully achieve lasting blooms throughout our six week season. We also purchased small water tubes at a cost of around 10 cents each to preserve the cut flowers."
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