You Chun Li, left, Maggie Ullrich and Franchesca Abeyta work to clip clones from hemp plants at the Cultivas Bio Hemp Nursery inside Lafayette Florist greenhouse on Wednesday in Lafayette. (Jeremy Papasso, The Daily Camera)

Hemp operation opens in historic florist greenhouse

The iconic family-owned florist will continue normal retail operations in the space adjacent to the greenhouse

An agricultural biotechnology company has launched a hemp grow operation in a newly renovated greenhouse space on the grounds of the historic Lafayette Florist.

Lafayette-based Front Range Biosciences rented the 12,000-square-foot greenhouse — which had been used to grow flowers since the 1970s — and is growing industrial hemp clones to be sold to other growers.

Jon Vaught, Front Range Biosciences co-founder and CEO, said the operation will soon be operating at full capacity, producing 75,000 hemp rooted cuttings per month.

“Our focus is on (growing) the highest quality plant-starts — healthy, disease-free, pesticide-free,” he said. ” … Then we distribute them to the growers and they go do what they do.”

The iconic family-owned Lafayette Florist will continue normal retail operations in the space adjacent to the greenhouse.

Read the full story at TimesCall.com

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