Tom and May Zegarelli in their flower arrangement shed at Ocean Fog Farm in Eastport, where they sell fresh-cut flowers from a roadside stand. Credit: Morgan Campbell

 Tom and May Zegarelli in their flower arrangement shed at Ocean Fog Farm in Eastport, where they sell fresh-cut flowers from a roadside stand. Credit: Morgan Campbell

According to the most recent Census of Agriculture data, collected in 2017, there are 49 farms growing cut flowers and cut florist greens in Suffolk County.   There are just two such farms in Nassau County.

Greenhouses can hurt profits

While cut flowers can grow in greenhouses, Catlin said she sees outdoor production more frequently. This includes growing in fields or in raised beds. 

Reckner Greenhouses and Farms uses greenhouses to grow bedding plants, but does not use them for flowers, Read said. The cost of heating — by oil or gas — and lighting a greenhouse is too high to produce a profit on flowers, she explained.

"With less daylight, now you have to provide artificial light to get the number of hours required of the plants to bloom," Read said. "Also, you just have to have constant circulation on them because you have all the greenhouses closed to keep the heat in, so now you have no wind going through, and you're more prone to diseases, so you have to have some kind of fans going all the time, so your electric bill is going up."

Surviving as a cut-flower farmer requires growers to pursue multiple avenues for sales — and, for some, to hold a day job, too.