What do Redwoods and French Tulips Have in Common?

What do Redwoods and French Tulips Have in Common?

#CAGrown #Redwoods coast redwoods French Tulips Mrs. John T. Scheepers northern california Redwood Grove French Tulips Single Late Tulips SLT

The North Coast of California gives us the majestic Coast Redwoods, the tallest trees on this planet.  The cool, coastal climate up here in Northern California allows for their amazing growth—plenty of fog, plenty of rain, and steady, temperate summers.  This ideal environment responsible for our region's "Redwood Curtain," is also what allows us to grow some of the best bulb flower around, including our French Tulips.

 Redwood Grove French Tulips

Our French Tulips, much like the Redwoods on our shores, are the tallest and biggest of all the tulips, which is why we branded them with pride: Redwood Grove French Tulips.  French Tulips are mutations of a Single Late Tulip (SLT) variety, known as Mrs. John T. Scheepers, which has been referred to as the "Mother of all Tulips."  The original tulips were grown and picked in the Cote d’Azur region of Southern France, which led to the name French Tulips.

These French Tulip Hybrids are highly sought after for their incredible height, strong stems, large, shapely flowers, and genetic vitality, aka, long vase life.  And when we say incredible height, we mean incredible height! Redwood Grove French Tulips are picked when they are at a minimum height of 24 inches. 
 

The challenge for the flower farmer lies in the growing conditions needed for optimal French Tulip height and quality. Unlike standard tulips, which are grown in greenhouses and can be influenced by changing temperature and light conditions, French Tulips refuse to be manipulated in this way.

French Tulips do not tolerate glass greenhouse conditions--they prefer to be planted in hoop houses, where that cool, coastal weather (the same that helps those tall redwoods grow) can move freely through their rows. 

The wonderful thing about this process is that it leads to stunning, super-tall tulips that are bursting with color and personality.  The foliage is a rich green which highlights the bright bloom, and the stems are big and strong in order to support the large, egg-shaped bloom heads--just check out the customer favorite, Renown Unique, below. 

The incredibly popular, and aptly-named, Renown Unique

With their tall height and large buds, customers sometimes express concern that their French tulips will fall over.  However, Redwood Grove French tulips are quite good at keeping their form, especially with our thick and sturdy stems--all you need to do re-hydrate your Frenchies correctly and you will be able to enjoy your tall arrangement for weeks. 


French Tulip Care and Handling

Step 1: After purchasing Redwood Grove French Tulips, simply trim the ends while the tulips are still in their sleeve.  Keeping the sleeve on is key! Whatever form the tulips are in when they're re-hydrating is the form that they will keep.

Step 2: Dissolve a flower food packet in a clean vase filled with water and place the still-sleeved tulips in the vase and leave 'em like that for at least four hours.


Step 3: After four hours, remove the sleeve.


Step 4:
Place the tulips back in the water-filled vase, and keep them in a cool location out of direct sunlight.

Step 5: Enjoy, replenish water as needed, and keep watching! Tulips continue growing in water, so your already-tall French Tulips can gain up to 5 more inches in height while in the vase. 

I took some of my favorite French tulip varieties home to try out this technique last week.  Here is how they looked in the days following the in-sleeve hydration technique:

 

As you can see, a little French Tulip care and handling goes a long way! These Frenchies continued standing straight while their stems grew taller, their leaves loosened up, and their buds gained color.  Watching cut tulips continue to go through their growing cycle is fascinating; my favorite moment is when their flower buds open up and you get a peek inside to their eye.


If you are a fan of standard tulips, why not try French Tulips, which have the same vivid colors, but larger blooms, longer stems, and a height that is perfect for creating tall centerpieces, impressive designs, and really special gifts.  Take a little bit of Northern California's Redwood Forest home with you when you buy our Redwood Grove French Tulips.

Licorice and Tulips

Licorice and Tulips

#cucumbers #Redwoods Artichokes California Flowers Dutch Eureka CA Freesia Lane DeVries licorice Mother's Day Tulips Valentines Day

I was out for a walk through the Sun Valley greenhouses today, and the normal buzz of activity was noticeably missing. No blasting music from the Spanish station, no trains of carts streaming by dangerously close and most unusual, many of the greenhouses aren’t brimming with flowers.

Boots left after an Oriental Lily pick

This isn’t to say that there aren’t busy places on the farm right now. Teams are picking lilies, tulips, iris, brassica, gladiolas, hydrangeas and freesia, but today you just get a mellow summer vibe on the Farm. Many people may not realize that summer is the official slow time in the flower growing business. It is slow for obvious reasons. People can pick flowers in their own yard, people are spending more time outside in nature and also, people are taking vacations and traveling more so they break their normal routines.

This is a blessing for some of our employees, as they get a break from the long hours they put in from November through Mother’s Day. It is a time to recuperate and strategize for the next big season, which gets going in late August, as kids go back to school and people resume their shopping habits.

While the fields lay fallow, they are actually very photogenic as remaining crops bloom out and cover crops return nutrients to the soil.


A freesia hoop house, past its' prime.  We currently have a fresh freesia crop, ready to go.

This time does provide an interesting opportunity for flower growers. What do you do to keep your greenhouses full and your work force intact? At Sun Valley we do a few different things. We spend a lot of time and effort keeping our facilities up to date, doing maintenance and cleaning.


The inglorious but necessary task of power washing our numerous carts.

The other project we are exploring is growing some traditional vegetables, especially those with a quick life cycle, so our green houses and fields will be ready to plant floral crops for the holidays.

A cuke crop in the making.

This year we are bringing in a cucumber crop, featuring several popular varieties of cukes. These will be harvested and sold to regional vegetable wholesalers. I’ve been trying to convince Sun Valley CEO, Lane DeVries that we should get in the pickle business, but apparently the Dutch aren’t as enthusiastic about pickles as I am. I envision our greenhouses brimming with delicious crunchy pickling cucumbers, then being soaked in a brine of fresh dill, garlic and pepper. Mmmm, maybe next year.

You may ask, what are the Dutch enthusiastic about?  LICORICE and TULIPS.

LICORICE. More than enthusiastic…licorice fanatics! They have the highest per capita consumption of licorice of any country in the world, almost 4 ½ pounds per person, per year. This according to about.com, read the full story of the Dutch licorice addiction here. Check it out, banana flavored licorice. (weird!)

TULIPS. Growing tulips is more than just an agricultural pursuit for the Dutch, it is a cultural passion. The reason Sun Valley Floral Farm is based in Arcata, California, is because our climate is as close to Holland as anywhere else in the U.S.  Sun Valley is rooted in innovation, and we have sought to improve upon the Dutch tradition. Our Tulips average 14-20 inches and weigh 45 grams each, where a tulip grown in Holland averages a height of 11-15 inches with a weight of 18-22 grams. See a comparison.

Lane moved to the States thirty years ago, and in a classic American success story; the student now out shines the teacher as Lane and the Sun Valley growers produce the world’s best tulips. 365 days a year.


Sun Valley CEO Lane DeVries, with our "World's Favorite" tulip.

Another surprising crop we are growing are artichokes. They are a great match for us, because we harvest some for people to eat, and then we also harvest a portion as a great bouquet accent item. The unique texture of a small artichoke head and the edgy leaves make artichokes not only a yummy foodie delight, but a non-traditional green for bouquets, arrangements and other floral designs.

Well, I started out this post mentioning that the farm was slow. As I look out my window today in the late afternoon, I see many employees wrapping up their days and heading home, many carrying artichokes. I guess we aren’t really slow, it is just a different rhythm from the sheer madness of spring or the panic before Valentine’s Day. The goal is to enjoy each season's rhythm and realize that the flowers ebb and flow, but like the sea, they never stop.

Please share this post with all your flower friends. Connect with us on the web: Facebook, Pintrest, Twitter and Google+, or visit of website www.tsvg.com

-Lily
“The earth laughs in flowers.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

It's a Farm! (Part 1)

It's a Farm! (Part 1)

#Arcata #Flower farming #Flowers #hydrangeas #iris #Redwoods #stargazer #Sun Valley



Looking at a beautiful flower arrangement on a polished wood table in your hallway, it is easy to forget that these flowers didn’t come from a test tube or a pristine laboratory. They came from a real working farm.  This means dirt, mud, weird smells, heavy equipment and people hustling and bustling in every direction.

Forklifts, trucks and carts full of buckets are zipping around in a constant commotion. You do a double take as a mini-train of colorful Hydrangeas goes speeding by, their delicate heads overflowing out of white buckets and barely staying on board.

These flowers were just picked, and are now on the way to be packaged and sent on their way. The contrast of vibrant colorful flowers stacked on a drab muddy cart, epitomizes the surreal beauty of a cut flower and the hard work involved in getting it to the vase on your hallway table or to the design table in your studio.

Farm fresh Hydrangeas and Golden Beauty Iris just after picking.

The beeping of a forklift grabs your attention just in time as it pulls out of a seemingly endless row of hoop houses. The scale is amazing. Are you on a flower farm tucked between the roaring Pacific Ocean and the legendary redwood forests of northern California, or in the vast Midwest, surrounded by silos, combines and hay bales?

The strong wind driving the salty freshness of the sea up over the dunes and across the Arcata Bottoms leaves no doubt that you are next to the ocean.  The sand and dust in the wind scour your cheeks, you are dodging huge puddles, keeping dry from the spitting rain and all the while looking out of the corner of your eye for the next forklift. Yes, they call this "summer" around here.

You reach for a heavy glass door, slide it open with both hands and step into a huge glass paned greenhouse; your senses react to the incredible change. Here you stand in the warm swirling air, the smell of new growth and rich soil welcomes you. The wind is gone, replaced by the hum of fans moving the air strategically around the vast green house. You still hear the outdoor environment as it shakes the glass panels of the structure with each gust, but now you feel the humidity and the effects of all that fresh green foliage. Row upon row of Oriental lilies greet your eyes, a few have blossomed out early, ridiculous blooms bursting out of a sea of green stalks.

Early blooms and Sumatra Lilies just about to be harvested.

The quiet of the greenhouse is very calming.  Way down at the end of a row, you see a small cluster of workers. They are snipping lilies at the perfect stage.  These lilies will be ready to open up and share the peak of their beauty when they get to the consumer.


Picking our Starfighter Oriental Lilies, the Starfighter is a contemporary version of the legendary Stargazer.

Sun Valley's growers guide the lilies upward with light.  Ironically, we are usually trying to reduce the amount of light on the lilies, so that they strive to grow taller and get closer to the sun.  The proper light level also encourages thick stems which are needed to support the big heavy blooms, usually growing 4 or more per stem.  Hanging from the top of the greenhouse are small black boxes.  These are sensors which are constantly monitoring the conditions in the greenhouse.  If the light gets too bright, canvas sheets are automatically pulled across the length of the green house, if it gets too dark, lights will come on to keep the precious lilies in the ideal conditions.

Bunches of lilies.

A flower farm is science wrapped in organized chaos. Communication flows from the growers, to the sales team, to the customers, back to the picking teams, to the warehouse and transportation departments, and again back to the customers.  Sun Valley prides itself on "operational excellence."  This isn't just lip service, this is an absolute necessity to get our California grown flowers to the end users all over the county, with the highest quality, impeccable consistency and a fair price.

"Creating a World of Color" includes a lot of people, enormous logistics and tons of soil.  In the next installment of "It's a Farm" we will visit the warehouse, so stay tuned.

Please forward this post to fellow flower fans!

Connect with us on the web to learn more about flowers and flower farming. Facebook, Pintrest and Twitter. Thanks.

-Lily


“The earth laughs in flowers.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson