What We’re Doing in February on a Zone 3 Flower Farm

If you drove past our farm in February, you would likely assume nothing is happening.

The fields are white and wind blown. Snow drifts collect along the edges of our busy road. The soil is locked under frost that reaches down further than most people realize. There are no visible rows. No flowers. No colour. Just winter. Cold winter.

But February is one of the most critical months of our entire season.

Because summer is not built when things are blooming.

It is built long before the field wakes up.

Zinnia Breeding

We began one of our most important projects this year on December 27. While most people were still easing through the holidays, we were setting up trays in the shop, plugging in heat mats, labeling cells, and beginning our zinnia breeding program. Starting in winter was intentional. In Zone 3, by starting our breeding program inside, we gain one full growing cycle while the rest of the field is resting.

We entered the breeding program cautiously optimistic. Every tray represents future possibility. Every cross we make is a decision about colour, stem strength, bloom form, and performance in our specific climate. The main goal of our breeding program is to tone down the bright colours usually found with zinnias, but we also want to see if we can harden the zinnia flower a little bit, to handle the summer on a Zone 3 flower farm a little better. Something that earns its place in a field where space is expensive and time is limited.

Breeding requires patience. It requires discipline. It requires careful labeling and record keeping. It requires the breeder to be a little more type-A and a little less type-B. It means watching plants closely, culling the weak ones, and selecting the strongest. It is slow work that will not show results for years. But if we want our own Franklin & Co. Flower Farm seed line one day, the work had to begin long before the field thaws.

2026 Crop Planning

At the same time, crop planning is underway. If you're a planner, this will be one of your favourite tasks. If you aren't… well, good luck to you!

Crop planning encompasses so much. The planner needs to consider, plant spacing, varieties, the amount of space you have, the number of varieties you want to grow and so much more. 

The questions are never ending when you crop plan?

• Do I have enough seed?
• How many varieties of cosmos should I grow? 
• What spacing do I use for cosmos? Is it the same for zinnias?

Then you need to consider seed starting time. In other zones, you have the ability to succession plant most varieties, but on a Zone 3 flower farm, you may only plan to succession plant your sunflowers. Succession planting adds another layer of complexity to crop planning. 

We are mapping 800 dahlias. Eight thousand tulips in the field. Around 2,000 ranunculus. Fifteen hundred stock. Eight full rows of cosmos with 280 plants per row. Sunflowers planted in numbers that are easier to count in buckets than in seeds. Feverfew, zinnias, calendula, marigolds, bells of Ireland and other supporting varieties that make bouquets feel full instead of sparse.

Each number has weight behind it. Each decision is tied to labour hours, harvest timing, market demand, and risk. We study bloom windows and temperature requirements. We look at what sold quickly last year and what lingered. We decide where to push and where to pull back.

Mistakes made now do not stay in February. They follow you into July.

Too many of one crop means wasted effort and compost piles. Too few of another means disappointed customers and missed revenue. Poor timing means beautiful flowers that bloom before you are ready to harvest or after demand has peaked. There is no reset button once the season begins.

This is not hobby gardening. It is agricultural strategy.

Infrastructure

February is also when we make decisions about infrastructure. Low tunnels are not thrown up casually in spring; their timing and placement are considered now. Frost cloth is counted and inspected. Irrigation plans are reviewed and materials are purchased months in advance because once the ground softens, there is no time for second guessing or waiting for materials to arrive. Our soil sample will be collected the minute the snow is gone and the soil is workable. Equipment is checked. Repairs are made before breakdowns become emergencies.

In February we build anything and everything that can be done now, in anticipation of hours spent in the field. What we can build now, will set us up for success later on. This month Peter built a seed shelf, a potting soil bench (my back will thank him in March!), a few surprises for the Flower Shack and he will be working on the dahlia row trencher soon.

Zone 3 farming leaves very little margin for improvisation. The growing season is short. The window is narrow. You prepare now or you fall behind quickly. 

Summer in Bloom Market Planning

Even events that feel effortless in summer are being built in winter. Summer in Bloom may look like live music, laughter, flowers, artisan makers, food trucks and golden light, but right now it is applications, logistics, insurance documents, layout planning, and scheduling. We think about how traffic will flow. Where vendors will set up. How people will move through the space. How to create something that feels joyful but functions efficiently.

The visible magic requires invisible work.

Mental Load

And then there is the mental work of February.

The brain works overtime in February. Thinking about every detail, every step. What do we need now? What will we need tomorrow? And what will we forget about that will be instrumental to our success? 

The quiet discipline of showing up when there is no applause. No blooms to photograph. No armfuls of colour. Just planning, spreadsheets, seed trays, and decisions that will not reveal themselves for months.

It would be easy to treat February as a pause.

But February determines whether the summer feels abundant or chaotic.

By the time the snow melts and the first tulip tips break through the soil, much of the season has already been decided. The numbers have been set. The varieties chosen. The seeds have already germinated. The risks assessed. The groundwork laid.

August will be full. Without careful planning, nothing would have bloomed in June or July. By August, buckets will be overflowing. Dahlias stretching toward the sun. People walking the rows and breathing in that unmistakable scent of warm soil and fresh blooms. It will look effortless. It will look alive.

But it will not be accidental.

The field may look quiet right now. It may look like nothing is happening. But nothing about this farm is asleep.

And when the tulips push through in spring, they won’t mark the beginning of our season.

They will be the visible proof of everything February quietly required.

Wishing you all the best if you're planning a garden or a flower farm this season. 

- Cory