Do you love gardening? Have a penchant for flowers? If so, there’s a bright business opportunity in orchid farming. But how do you get started? The first step toward building any successful business is knowledge.
That’s where our orchid farming course provides the education you need to get your dream off the ground.
The Certificate of Cut Flower Orchids will show you how to grow orchids as cut flowers on a commercial farm. You’ll learn about orchid cultivation, hydroponics, and potting and pruning techniques. You will also learn about propagation materials and equipment, plant hormones, diseases, and nutrients.
You’ll discover the importance of greenhouses and other growing structures, environmental controls, sterilisation and pest control, managing a market garden, and marketing your cut flower orchids.
So, if you want to learn to grow, harvest, and market cut flower orchids for a commercial garden, look for further than our orchid farming course.
Outcomes achieved when you study our online floristry course – Certificate of Cut Flower Orchids.
And more …
Orchids are to the flower world what diamonds are in the jewellery business. They’re fine flowers that often adorn special celebrations, such as weddings, anniversaries and birthdays.
Many believe they’re hard to grow, but given the right care and conditions, they’ll be blooming for months at a time. Because orchids thrive in warm, humid climates, they’re perfect in Australia’s southern states.
There are over 30,000 different types of orchids from all over the world, each unique appearance.
If you’re considering growing orchids, whether in your own garden or for commercial purposes, take a look at five of the most popular varieties.
This bright purple orchid is widespread in most Australian states, except Western Australia and the Northern Territory. It is a problematic species to propagate, being germinated by fungi and pollinated by bees.
This is one of the most popular gift and decorative orchids. It can be grown indoors in any brightly lit room. These plants produce sprays with several blooms to a stem, in white, purple,e pink and sometimes yellow and cream. Some flowers have a unique checkerboard pattern. These orchids are suited to beginner growers!
Fairy orchids can grow in trees or on rocks and are native to eastern Australia. Many people have these types of orchids displayed in hanging baskets. These orchids are white, terracotta, purple and pink and are best grown by experienced growers.
These are some of the most popular orchids grown in gardens, usually in large outdoor pots. They have large, robust stems of flowers and come in various colours, including green, pink, magenta, yellow, cream, white and brown tones. Some species of this orchid are native to Australia and are well suited to bright, hot conditions.
The Cooktown Orchid is Queensland’s official floral emblem. It blooms from March to July and is pink or purple in colour. The flowering plant grows up to 80cm tall and is native to the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland.
The rare pot-bellied greenhood orchid has been discovered in the southern highlands of New South Wales.
The critically endangered orchid usually only flowers for a couple of weeks a year, but that doesn’t necessarily happen annually.
The patch of 170 pot-bellied greenhood orchids was discovered by NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE) officers Jedda Lemmon and Vanessa Allen.
While they’ve been known to pop up in the Shoalhaven area, scientists with the DPIE were excited to find them further west. The discovery, they say, came about thanks to a wetter summer.
Given the orchid’s small petals, it wasn’t an easy unearthing. “Once you start looking for these, you get clued in, and your eyes start to pick them up, but with a flower the size of a fingernail – and it might only have two flowers and a flowering stem that might only last for up to two weeks – they can be challenging to survey for,” threatened species officer David Bain told the ABC.
After eight years working as an interior designer in Sydney, Erin Dore swapped stilettos for gumboots, heading home to establish Petal Head farm and florist on her parent’s historic Gympie property in regional Queensland.
COVID-19 made Ms Dore re-evaluate, so she invested all her savings and is now earning a living from her green thumb.
Since January, she has packed the large house block with stunning flowers grown from seed or bulbs in the case of striking hot pink dahlias, donated by neighbour Marge.
“People are just kind of amazed by the colours and the textures, so that’s what makes me excited,” Ms Dore said.
Flower Industry Australia CEO Anna Jabour said Ms Dore wasn’t alone in wanting a tree change.
On the day we spoke, she had three emails in her inbox from people looking to start flower farms to meet local demand.
Read more on this story at ABC.
Gain the knowledge and skills required to join the orchid farming industry or start your own flower farm with our Certificate of Cut Flower Orchids course!
The cut flower industry is an expanding sector of the horticulture industry and those with experience are in demand! This course is ideal for home gardeners, landscapers, commercial flower growers or those who would like to work in flower farming.
The Certificate of Cut Flower Production is a professional development course that will teach you the fundamentals of growing cut flowers as a commercial enterprise.
In this flower farming course, you will learn which flowers are the best varieties to grow in your region; study how to determine soil, nutritional requirements and cultural requirements; and explore harvest and post-harvest management practices.
You’ll also discover how to develop a production plan for a cut flower crop, determine export market opportunities, and prepare a management plan including equipment tasks, marketing strategies, production costs and contingency plans.
Outcomes achieved by undertaking a flower farming course include:
And more!
With hundreds of thousands of flowering plants in the world, naming them could be considered a daunting process. But thanks to science, flower names are taken from the Latin language, and this formula ensures everyone is talking the same flower language (something you’ll soon discover if you take our flower farming course)!
All plant species have two names — a genus name (which is like a surname) and a species name (which is like a given name) — and both are always written in italics. The genus name always begins with a capital letter (for example, Hydrangea), and the species name with a lower-case letter (for example, macrophylla). The result is written Hydrangea macrophylla.
However, selected plant forms can also have a third name chosen for their particular attributes, known as a cultivar name (abbreviated “cv.”). Cultivars are essentially hybrids, which are propagated vegetatively by cutting, division, grafting, cloning or layering two different plants to produce cross-pollination. The seeds that result will give rise to a number of genetically different plants. The best are selected, and are then propagated to maintain their specific attributes — for example, Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Hamburg’.
It can take many years of hybridisation and selection to produce a new cultivar, so plant breeders will often register them under the Plant Breeders’ Rights (PBR). Those plants are then identified with a PBR symbol.
Some plants are prized for their unique beauty, others for their fragrance, and others just follow cultural trends depending on the region or country they are grown in. Here are some of the most popular flowers of 2020.
Roses have always been, and still are the most popular cut flower in the world, however, admirers are getting a little fussier. Preference now sways towards perfumed garden rose varieties that have a fuller bloom and unique colouring — from burgundy to brown and coffee colours.
Also known as Eusoma, the delicate ruffled petals of this flower have always been popular, but more recently, unique colours are in demand. Rather than purples, whites and pinks, people are choosing browns, champagnes and autumn tones as found in the Wonderous and Rosanne Brown varieties.
Hydrangeas is a genus of 70 to 75 species of flowering plants that are renowned for their large, vibrant blooms, and are becoming increasingly popular in homes and gardens around Australia. Colours range from traditional whites to blues, pinks, reds, and light and dark purples.
The floral world has embraced sustainability with people choosing more interesting leaves and grasses for their gardens and floral arrangements. Muted colours are popular but also tropical foliage that has lots of variegation (the appearance of differently coloured zones in the leaves) such as in Calathea and pampas grasses.
Australian natives are also enjoying a resurgence, particularly those exhibiting bright reds or pastels. Examples include orange and salmon pink Haemodoraceaes (known as Kangaroo Paw), the yellow-gold Pycnosorus (also known as the Billy Button) and bright pink and red Waratahs.
Flowers are adored across the world, but many also have amazing hidden attributes. Here are some weird and wonderful facts about flowers that will inspire you to undertake our flower farming course.
Obtain a comprehensive understand of cut flower processes for commercial production and increase your flower power with a flower farming course, such as our Certificate of Cut Flower Production.
