Making the Dollar: Erika’s Fresh Flowers

Published 5:00 pm Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Kathleen Barber, owner

Erikas Fresh Flowers

92255 Moore Road

Warrenton

503-791-0538 or erikasfreshflowers.com

Barber works about 2 acres of flower gardens near Oceanview Cemetery in Warrenton. On occasion, she sources flowers from other local growers. Barber touts a new website, www.slowflowers.com, that helps people network with local flower-growers. Erikas Fresh Flowers is also on Facebook and Instagram.

What do you do?

I grow my own cut flowers for my business. Im a floral designer and a flower farmer. That way, I can make sure theyre grown organically, sustainably, that Im not exposed to harmful pesticides and chemicals that often florists are exposed to dealing with South American imported flowers. I can pretty much choose what I want to grow and use in my floral design. I grow whatever I like, whatever I think is beautiful and in season, and as long as its not too hard to grow. It has to pretty much grow without disease and a lot of bugs all over it.

How did you get started doing this?

Ive been growing flowers my whole life. I always had a flower garden when I was young. I picked flowers. My mom, who flowers, sold them at a flower stand locally. Then my daughter started doing that to raise money for college. She went off to work with a florist and learn more about floral design. Because she went off to college and lives in the Willamette Valley now, I just decided that Ill keep with the flowers business, and it kind of just boomed from there.

What are the volume and demographics of your business?

Demographics is local, because I grow locally. Mostly Clatsop County. It keeps growing and growing each year. We have floral bouquet CSAs (community-supported agriculture), which is kind of like a vegetable CSA, where you buy a seasons worth of bouquets each week or monthly to be delivered. If you own a business of any type you can have a weekly fresh arrangement or table flowers for your restaurant, coffee shop. Anybody who wants flowers, I sell bouquets at the Astoria Co-Op, and I sell them now at two different coffee shops, 3 Cups Coffee House and Rusty Cup. And I do custom floral arrangements to be delivered. Its more of a regular floral design business, with delivery, also.

What are the challenges of running your business?

The weather is the main challenge. After the weather, then you have bugs, which I manage with beneficial insects. So I dont use any insecticides, and theyre all done with organic practices. The whole entire garden is fenced in, so (you only have a problem with animals) when a deer can wiggle its way through a little crack and eat all my lilies down. Then it becomes a problem.