Exploring Life & Business with Ronni Hannon of Kansas Girl Flowers

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ronni Hannon.

Hi Ronni, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
Kansas Girl Flowers is run by my sister & me. Her name is Lacey. We started flower farming as a result of Covid. I have always had this goal to sell at a farmers market, & I think with the stress & worries during Covid, I decided I wasn’t holding back on my bigger, more scary goals in life; we all learned that year that life can be cut short. It is funny because looking back, I realize the farmer’s market goal was no biggie. It was fun! I don’t know why our brains hold us back sometimes. Anyways, we have done the farmers market for two years now. What solidified my wanting to start a business was my grandfather’s passing this past summer.

I was able to take flowers grown in Kansas & place them at his gravesite. I made this massive connection to what it means to be a local flower farmer. Local flower farming allows people to have fresh, chemical-free flowers, that aren’t flown from South America. Local flowers mean that my Cherokee, Kansas-born grandfather got to be laid to rest in a National Cemetery with flowers on his grave that were also grown on Kansas soil. It is truly a beautiful thing, & I am thankful to be able to say that I am a Kansas farmer. As for today, I am headed into year three of this gig. I am excited to say that Lacey & I planted over 2,000 specialty bulbs for spring. Our tulips will look like peonies, and we have daffodils that look like rosettes! These are bulbs that you don’t often see in big box stores or even at some florists. I am absolutely thrilled to have them. I am also offering holiday bulbs arrangements now through December; these are paperwhites & amaryllis; as a start, I am working hard in the off-season so that I can buy even more for the next season. It has been an absolute delight talking to people who tell me that amaryllis reminds them of their grandfather who loved them. And also people who reach out about wanting to start a garden. It has been such a fun experience to get to know people who have beautiful memories and aspirations around flowers and gardening. I like to say that flowers are soul-giving, & we should all grow or give more flowers.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I think it depends on how you look at things. Most of my struggles have just been big lessons. Like the weather; if you ever need to know the weather just ask a farmer. The front screen on my iPhone is now just the weather app because I seriously rely on it every day. I had my market tent nearly fly away because I didn’t pay attention to the wind. I have also had flowers get flattened by storms. I quickly learned the value of netting some flower varieties. I also look back and laugh at how much we ignored soil health. Soil is everything for growing fancy flowers, & in my part of Kansas, we have clay soil that you could literally make pinch pots out of. I had to find what worked best for my soil & use amendments, like compost, to improve how it drains. Pivoting has been key, if something doesn’t work then we are now moving to plan b. We don’t have the luxury of having acres of land, so we pull out what doesn’t work & replant. We only grow on 1,000 square feet, so we plant in successions, meaning multiple rounds of flowers & timing everything to the t. The glorious thing is that you absolutely can grow a ton of flowers to sell in not that much space. One thing I did this year is put all our spring bulbs in a raised bed full of insanely good compost from Missouri Organic; this is so that bulbs won’t have to deal with the clay rotting them.

We have also had to deal with a major drought. I didn’t even know that Kansas was in a drought when I started, but we are still in one, & I now grow more drought-tolerant plants than anything else. From the business side of things, pivoting has also been essential. I currently sell at the Basehor Craft & Farmers Market, but I am learning all about marketing, eCommerce, & social media outlets for offering up my product; I am looking forward to the winter months to have more time to improve my skillset on these items. I will say my largest challenge has been time management. I work full-time in the corporate world as an analyst, & I love logging off & jumping outside into farmgirl mode after work, but I will say both aren’t easy. I am definitely getting better at scheduling my days in blocks of time. One thing I am thankful for is our local Kansas farming community. I have a dear farmer all the way on the other end of Kansas who is literally like my you can do it cheerleader, & I am so thankful for him & his family. The Kansas farming community is awesome, & it is a community that I want to continue to be a part of.

As you know, we’re big fans of Kansas Girl Flowers. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Kansas Girl Flowers is currently a small-batch flower farm in Basehor, Kansas. We grow top-shelf/specialty cut flowers that you don’t find in big box stores. For the past two years, we have only sold at the farmer’s market. This coming year are offering bouquet subscriptions, DIY wedding buckets, relator home staging, florist direct sales, & specialty orders. We currently love selling at markets as we offer flowers people don’t often recognize, & we enjoy the education aspect so much. Being 100% locally grown is what sets us apart.

We don’t use chemical preservatives to make flowers last longer, but our flowers will still last longer because they haven’t traveled thousands of miles to get here. Local for us also means being friends with our Kansas pollinators; our farm is absolutely pesticide free. We are proud to offer local flowers to local people. We want our flower family to be educated before choosing their flowers. Local flowers mean unique, gorgeous flowers that are better for both people and the environment. I want Kansas to know that. But I really want all of us to know that.

Contact Info:

• Website:www.kansasgirlflowers.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/kansasgirlflowers
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/kansasgirlflowers
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/ksgirlflowers
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@kansasgirlflowers
• Other: www.tiktok.com/@kansasgirlflowers