Top 5 Agritourism Ideas for your Flower Farm | blog long form content for peony course

Agritourism, sometimes referred to agro-tourism, is any commercial enterprise that connects production or processing with tourism to attract visitors and create income for a farm. Agritourism can help diversify and increase income on farms while sharing skills and building community.

The best activities will be easy for you to create and deliver, while being both engaging and memorable for participants. No matter your skill level or farm size, there’s likely a way for you to participate in agritourism. 

Here are our Top 5 Agritourism Ideas for your Flower Farm

1. Classes

Learning something new in an inspiring environment where participants are surrounded by flowers is a popular offering that can be tailored to your skill level. 

Beginner farmers can offer a “cut and create” class where participants harvest a Mason-jar quantity of flowers and learn to arrange them into a market bouquet. If the weather doesn’t cooperate - or you aren’t prepared to have guests picking from your field - you can pre-harvest stems and let participants select their ingredients bouquet-bar style.

Farmer-florists with design skills can hold “garden-style flower arranging” classes that introduce guests to the basics of floral arranging.

2. Tours

Tours are a popular option for flower farms that can be combined with another offering, like classes, or held on their own. People are curious about what it takes to produce a flower bouquet and this is a perfect opportunity to educate and inspire. 

Pro tip: Offer longer stand-alone tours by reservation for a small fee that’s refundable with a purchase to encourage folks to keep their commitment. 

3. Pick Your Own

If you’ve been flower farming for any length of time, you’ve probably had people ask if they can come pick their own flowers. Even if you don’t offer this option on the regular, you can create special picking events a few times a season. Here at Tanglebloom we hold popular peony picking events each June.

Consider creating your picking event around a certain crop that’s popular and familiar, like peonies, sunflowers, or dahlias. This will help create interest in your marketing (and you can still let folks pick other crops or fillers too).

Pro tip: No matter how many times you explain the correct stage of harvest, most guests can’t resist picking fully open flowers. Consider it an opportunity to sell blooms you otherwise couldn’t - and also make sure to tuck a few stems cut at the proper stage into their bucket. They’ll thank you later. 

4. Picnic

Hosting picnics on your flower farm is a great way to connect with your community in a way that’s family friendly, affordable, and easy to manage.

You can charge a small fee for people to come picnic in a designated area. A “pack it in, pack it out” model won’t leave you with lots of trash, recycling, and compost to sort through. Provide some picnic tables or tell folks to bring their own blanket or chairs. Consider providing lemonade or sparkling water as an added delight. 

With a higher ticket price you could add on live music, or flower picking (or simply charge a la carte for picking and bouquets).

5. Farm Stays

Connect even deeper with tourists by providing on farm lodging or farm stays. These overnight accommodations can be as simple as camping, or you can offer glamping stays in a yurt, treehouse, or cabin. Accessory dwelling units like tiny houses are becoming popular for farm stays. 

No matter which activities you choose, you’ll want to be sure that you’ve researched and are in compliance with any local rules or regulations, and follow best practices for things like health and safety. Check with your insurance agent to see if you need to update your coverage. Sharing your plans with your lawyer and accountant are also recommended.

Make sure you have restrooms available, whether it’s a plumbed bathroom, outhouse, or rented porta-potty. Think through logistics like parking, walking paths and distances, and tell guests what they should wear and bring in order to prepare for their activity. 

Agritourism is a big part of the experience here at Tanglebloom and I’m excited to see what you come up with on your flower farm! Have you tried any of these agritourism ideas? Which do you think would work best for your farm? Tell me in the comments below!