With her roots late in the soil of Texas , it was perhaps inevitable that Rita Anders would end up a farmer .
After all , she mature up on a dairy farm in Weimar , Texas , where her granddad started raise in 1937 . Her family also grew dish and pecan .
All photos courtesy of Cuts of Color .
What was n’t so inevitable was that she would become a flower grower , a wedding party bloom house decorator and an advocate for topically grown garden truck . All that come from within her . The result is Cuts of Color , a thriving certify American Grown flower farm 90 miles west of Houston that develop a wide scope of bloom that are harvested year - circular .
Anders took an indirect route to get where she is now . Out of gamy school , she hold out to work at a construction supply store . It was n’t what she wanted to do , but she learned an of import lesson – she did n’t like function for someone else .
“ There were all these stupid rules and I just knew I liked work for myself , ” she said .
Her grandad had start mature glasshouse tomatoes and he offered Anders the chance to take over the operation after he retired .
“ He had one 4,800 square - foot greenhouse , ” she said . “ I enounce , ‘ OK , what do I do the other four day of the hebdomad ? ’ ”
What she did was steady expand the operation .
“ I take four more greenhouses , and while I rented those , I originate build four more of my own . On some land we buy , we contribute six more . We did that for 26 years . We grew glasshouse tomatoes for the Houston market and we sold everything we had . ”
It was not until the former 2000s that peak were even in the impression . But a overlap of upshot bring in Anders ’ latent kinship for bloom to the forefront – she was weary of grow tomato and a spike in butane Mary Leontyne Price made her greenhouse surgery far less profitable . On top of that , her children were go out the nest .
“ I got burned out on it after 26 age , ” she said . “ I was done with it . All my kids travel off to shoal and college and I was like ‘ I do n’t need to do this any longer . I want to do something dissimilar . ’ I always loved flowers , so I started mixing in my flowers with the vegetables . And then I went all into flowers in ’ 04 . ”
It was the rise in butane prices that give her the big button to trade tomato plant for flowers .
“ I just did n’t need to be act for the butane fellowship , so I decide I would just keep give-up the ghost and use these greenhouse we have for flowers , ” she said . “ With flowers , we just open everything up , and when winter comes we just close it up . It uses nowhere near the amount of gas or electricity . We just say we ’ll use the glasshouse till they fall down , but one did fall down and we put two up in its position . ”
But it was not an easy road . With baby in college , she took on a full - time occupation in addition to her agriculture operation . And she had to teach herself about growing flowers .
“ We do n’t grow tomatoes here in the summertime because it ’s too raging , ” she said . “ So , every summer for two or three years I ’d read everything there was about bloom . I just settle to learn up on flowers and see what I could do with it . And then I joined the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers . I teach so much from them about what to grow , when to grow it . I just read from people . That ’s how I did it .
“ I took my chances . I made mickle of misunderstanding , do n’t get me untimely . ”
But Anders minimized the price of those mistakes early on on .
“ I start with zinnias and helianthus and celosia , ” she said . “ It was all cum crop . I did everything on my own . I did n’t order bulb or plugs or anything . And that was the good matter because I made my mistakes on seed instead of planting a whole clustering of bulbs . That be a great deal of money . ”
She first start selling her flowers in some of the same stores where she sold her tomatoes . She then branched out to a granger market in Houston .
The first prison term , she “ take 30 $ 10 bouquet to the market and we sold out in no time . I consider , ‘ Oh , this is gracious . ’ ”
She also sold to florists and made deliveries . After client suggested she start provide flowers for weddings , she taught herself how to do it . She read , watched YouTube videos and got some tips from one of her florist customers . She also draw off on some long - ago lessons .
“ My nan used to make fake flowers , ” she tell . “ She ’d take woodwind instrument fiber and make prime for a whole marriage ceremony . She did tons of wedding party like that . So , I reckon I inherited some of that . With set things , some citizenry have it and some hoi polloi do n’t . ”
The wedding prime byplay eventually mature to the power point where she had to start turning away customers .
In 2012 , she landed a contract to add bloom to Central Market in Houston , a spot she describes as “ a Whole Foods but on steroid hormone . ” That has leaven to be a in effect paroxysm – the market like her locally grown blossom and eco - friendly approach , and she likes the steady business . She delivers flowers there twice a week and the store now accounts for about two - thirds of her commercial enterprise .
“ We produce a raft and they grease one’s palms everything , ” she say . “ They defend me wholeheartedly . ”
In gain , she offers farm tours and design workshops . She also deal directly from the farm . swing of Color ’s Facebook Sir Frederick Handley Page regularly tender $ 10 redolence for pickup at the farm .
With her child grown and her hubby retired , she can see the next phase of her life on the apparent horizon . What that holds , however , is n’t clear . Perhaps a family fellow member will finally take it over .
“ I could go to more stores and get bigger but I do n’t require to , ” she said . “ My husband is 65 and he ’s pull away . I ’m 60 , and I ’m not at the point where I desire to go big . I ’m felicitous with what I have . ”
For more information : AmericanGrownFlowers.org916.441.1701[email protected]www.americangrownflowers.org
