Farm to market

For more than 20 years, Michael Francis nurtured flower fields and fortified relationships, eventually developing Francis Roses into the largest wholesale rose farm in North America. Founded in 1987, he built the foundation of the Arizona-based nursery on family — not always by blood, but in the sense of close-knit partnerships with breeders and customers.

Tyler Francis soaked up his father’s vision beginning as an adolescent. Even now in his 16th year as CEO, Tyler continues to gain inspiration from his dad.

“My dad was focused on cultivating excellence and innovation, and I got my inspiration from him,” Tyler says.

Tyler says his dad’s commitment to innovation helped inspire him to take a leap forward in the rose market, launching a consumer brand and a direct-to-consumer sales platform. In January of this year, Tyler, accompanied by co-CEO Brian Rhodes and COO E’Ana Bordon, debuted April & Ashley.

The brand was designed to broaden the consumer’s experiences with rose varieties in a way the wholesale market may not be able to achieve.

“Our mission is really about connecting the world of roses to everybody,” Tyler says. “When I started visiting major rose breeders in Europe, I’d see what looked like a perfect rose. I’d ask, ‘Why aren’t we introducing that one?’ And the answer would boil down to fact that the wholesale market has a very specific mold. While that makes sense for the wholesale market, it left out the opportunity for other amazing genetics to be introduced to the market. We wanted to broaden that view and introduce some amazing roses that we know consumers are going to love.”

Tyler has spent more than a decade developing relationships with European rose breeders, including Interplant Roses, Jan Spek Rozen, Rosen Tantau, NIRP International, Schreurs, Georges Delbard Nurseries and Roses Forever APS.

Like his father’s legacy, Tyler considers these breeders as family.

“We’re connected because we have a shared passion. I went to them, had real conversations with these companies, and worked to earn their trust that I could get their products to market. We’ve even hosted the children of the breeders to come to Arizona to live and work on the farm. It really is that family-type relationship,” he explains. “With our breeder partners, April & Ashley is focused on quality, the beauty of the rose and the artistry of the breeding.”

In North America, the company maintains rose trials in Arizona, Texas and Vermont. Tyler and his team also attend international trials across Europe.

“We look at [the European trials], but we want to make sure that the rose we’re interested in translates here in Arizona,” Tyler says.

Getting a rose to market can take up to a decade.

“It’s a long process to get a rose from a seedling to market. We can speed that up a little bit because of the way we’re vertically integrated, but it still takes a long time,” Tyler says. “We’re not doing any sort of genetic modification. We’re evaluating the novelty of the flower like color, the habit of the plant, fragrance and disease resistance. But we also look at the bloom and the foliage together to make sure it works, that it makes sense.”

The Amazon effect

April & Ashley provides cut roses, bareroot plants and potted roses to consumers. The brand sources its cut flowers from Milagro Farms in Columbia. The bareroot roses are shipped from the Arizona farm and the potted roses, which were added to the product mix in April, are grown in California at Eufloria Flowers.

This supply-chain platform embodies the brand’s farm-to-market focus.

“Amazon really paved the way for two-day shipping,” Tyler says. “And with online plant sales increasing, we wanted to give consumers the ability to purchase some amazing roses from the comfort of their own home. The rose bouquets are curated at the farm the day they’re ordered, and they show up at someone’s door 36 to 48 hours later. And these roses last multiple weeks. That's something we want the consumer to experience.”

The busy consumer benefits from this platform, he adds.

“I always think about my wife, Ashley. We have five children at home, and on most nights, we won’t be done until about 10 p.m., because my son is playing football, we have softball practice, we have baseball practice, et cetera. So, we’ve become very busy. Like I mentioned with Amazon, people’s tastes and preferences have changed, and that includes how they purchase things.”

Whether it’s a bouquet of cut roses, a bareroot rose or a ready-to-flower container rose, the consumer will get that same quick delivery they’ve come to expect with other items, he adds.

As they continue to streamline the process, Tyler anticipates their breeders will be able to set different breeding targets sooner.

The speedier product will not compromise quality, he adds.

“We have a clean plant network and that is absolutely critical to our company. The largest block of Cal Davis understock is at our farm. We also initiated a partnership with a tissue culture program, which allows us to source our scion material and ensure that it’s 100% clean. When we make these long-term investments, we’re going to provide a better-quality product. We’re going to have a happier consumer that buys more product,” Tyler says.

But unlike the typical Amazon platform that focuses on speed and convenience and not relationships, the April & Ashley mission remains family centric, Tyler says.

“This is a family business. Our breeders are family businesses, our growers are family businesses, and we’re connecting with your family,” he says.

Editor’s note: This month’s digital edition at nurserymag.com will explore the company’s — as well as their breeder and grower partners’ — commitment to sustainable growing and packaging practices.