Valentine's Interview with Lane DeVries

Valentine's Interview with Lane DeVries

#lilies #tulips #ValentinesDay Flowers for Valentine's Day

Tracking down Lane DeVries18 days before Valentine's Day is tough. He is walking the greenhouses, talking to the logistics team and making sure everyone is on the same page. My goal was to ask him some questions about our Valentine's prep and get his outlook on this year's holiday.

I caught Lane as he was heating up a mug of tea, and he had to remain still for a few minutes while his tea steeped. I saw my opportunity, and I took it!

Our lilies are loving the January sun.

 Lily: "How are you feeling about the crops with less than three weeks before Valentine's Day?"

Lane: "We are right on time. Everything looks great."

Ray is picking your tulips.

Lily: "What are your feelings on the weather?"

Lane: "Lilies love the sun. It is unusual to have all this sun in January. Especially the Oriental lilies, they are spectacular right now.  The tulips like the sun as well, we've been using the shade cloths a lot, but if you look at the foliage it is phenomenal...and nice green foliage leads directly to great vase life.

Lily: "What about the rain?"

Lane: "No doubt about it that we need rain in California, but all this sunshine has been great for the flowers. Also, we are watching the weather across the entire nation. We really hope for some calm weather in the next couple weeks to keep the roads open so our flowers can get where they are headed."

Lily: "Valentine's Day is on a Friday, with the holiday weekend in the mix. Some people are speculating sales may be off, what's your sense on this?"

Lane: "It is what we as an industry want it to be, people are going to be buying flowers regardless of the day of the week. I've seen buyers cut back their numbers because of the day of the week, then surprise...their sales are off. Really, I think having enough flowers for this holiday is a bigger issue than having too many. And as far as the day of the week...look at the biggest flower day of the year, Mother's Day. What day of the week is Mother's Day?"

Lily: "Sunday."

Lane: "Right."

Lily: "OK, I see your point. What do you get your wife for Valentine's Day?"

Rich wonderful Valentine's Day color. #CAGrown

Lane: "You know it's funny, over the years I've done all sorts of flowers, I've tried the roses, but really the bulb flowers we grow here are her favorites. Last year I did a bouquet of tulips, hyacinths and iris, and she loved it.

Lily: "Any other traditions?"

Lane: "A card... If I don't show up with a card, it will not be good."

Lane out in the tulip greenhouse.

Lane's tea was cool enough to drink and I heard the growers footsteps coming down the hallway, time to scoot!

Stay tuned as we ramp up into Valentine's Day.

 

Holy Ship!

Holy Ship!

#tulips #Valentine's Day trucking Valentine's day 2014

"East bound and down, loaded up and truckin'
we're gonna do what they say can't be done.
We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there.
I'm east bound, just watch ol' "Bandit" run."
                                                           -Jerry Reed

T-Minus 32 days until Valentines Day. Much like astronauts at NASA preparing for a space mission, Sun Valley is preparing for the holiday.  There are check lists, meetings and a strong sense that the more pre-planning we accomplish now, the smoother every aspect of our operation will be as we approach the big day in February...and no I'm not talking about the Super Bowl on Feb 2nd.

Tulips = Love

It is thrilling to see Sun Valley scale up for Valentine's Day, this is when we flex our muscles. This is what we train for all year, an opportunity to bring our customers the freshest, highest quality, American grown flowers for the most romantic day of the year.

I headed down to the warehouse to find our transportation manager, Andrea Pesenti, and get the scoop on how all this works.

Andrea Pesenti

Lily: When do you start preparing for Valentine's Day?

Andrea: Mentally, just after Thanksgiving. we need to have a firm plan before Christmas happens. Right now our planning is full bore. This time of year, we actually rent additional cross-docks. One dock in Oxnard and one in Watsonville. So we are planning on many different levels.

Lily: What are the biggest challenges?

Andrea: Finding trucks that are coming to Humboldt County is my single biggest challenge since Highway 101 has some load restrictions. We are able to get what we need, but I really work hard dispatching and organizing our drivers. The other wild card is the weather, this time of year the roads and skies in any part of the country can be severely impacted by bad weather.

Lily: How many trucks will leave Sun Valley this year?

Andrea: With our carriers such as Armellini, Prime and Florida Beauty we see a lot of traffic, add in all the customers picking up at the farm, we are looking at a bunch of trucks.

Brrrrr its cold in here! Upright hampers getting ready to ship.

Lily: How many pallets on a full truck?

Andrea: On a 53 foot semi we get 26-30 pallets...the average is 28.

Lily: How many boxes on a pallet?

Andrea: I usually say an average of 35 boxes per pallet, which is about 100 cubes.

Lily: So about 980 boxes of flowers on each truck...gosh that's a lot of stems! When do you get to relax?

Andrea: When we make it to February 11th, I will be able to tell my team "We did it!" and we will be over the hump. I have a staff of 8 people spread across the farms, all working to get the flowers where they need to be. ...until then I sleep with my cell phone next to my bed to ensure that all the planning we are doing comes off without a hitch.

Lily: Thanks Andrea!

"East Bound and Down"

We talk a lot about growing flowers on this blog, so thanks for coming along today to learn how we prepare for a big holiday. We will be following our Valentine's Day prep, so stay tuned.

Hi-Tech Flower Farming

Hi-Tech Flower Farming

#americangrown #lilies #tulips Scarecrow Tanner Allen technology

It's poetry in motion
She turned her tender eyes to me
As deep as any ocean
As sweet as any harmony
But she blinded me with science
"She blinded me with science!"

                                                         -Thomas Dolby

A perfect row of lilies. The space between the crates disappears and they are all the same height.

You may think of flower growing as a quaint, contemplative stress free occupation.  Perhaps as you kneel in your garden planting your fall bulbs you experience this kind of sensation. The reality of a flower farm is very different.  It’s actually surprisingly stressful to bring a gorgeous greenhouse of lilies or tulips to harvest. There are pitfalls all over the place, however, at Sun Valley we have invested in the technology to make sure the risks that we face are minimized.

Baby tulips, with drip lines running across the crates.

Get ready to have your mind blown; mine is still reeling at what our growers can do from their smart phones. It is kind of like Star Trek with really amazing flowers.

Tanner checking on recently planted tulips.

For years, Sun Valley has had state of the art equipment in the greenhouses measuring key data points. Ten years ago when a greenhouse got too chilly, a beeper clipped to someone’s belt or propped up on their bedside table went off.  Then you had to get to the farm or call someone at the farm and make sure the situation was corrected. Are you old enough to remember what a “beeper” is?

I recently walked the greenhouses with our head grower Tim Crockenberg, and our newest grower on the Sun Valley team, Tanner Allen. Tim and Tanner proceeded to show me the awesome technology our farm utilizes every day.

From his smart phone, Tanner can monitor and actually make changes in the greenhouse environment from anywhere in cell phone range. What they are capable of doing is remarkable.

The data points we are constantly monitoring include:

• Power: Are there any surges or outages?

• Climate: Any high or low temperature alerts?

• Greenhouse vents: Opened or closed?

• Irrigation: Proper amount of water for the flowers and soil moisture levels?

• Water: PH Level.

• Water Electro-conductivity: Salt content of the water, which points to the plant’s absorption of nutrients.

These devices measure atmospheric conditions.

The growers can see what all these data points are doing nearly row by row, however, they can also make corrections and changes remotely. So that need to call someone at the farm, or to come to the farm yourself to make changes to ensure the crops are in the ideal environmental doesn’t exist anymore.  Our growers could be traveling 200 miles from the farm and see that a bed of tulips isn’t getting enough water, and through their phone they can simply increase the irrigation rate. 

Using smart phone to monitor our crops and conditions.

Of course, if something jams or a certain valve gets closed by accident, Tim, Tanner, Gerrit or Lane will be headed to the farm to fix the problem.

Another aspect of the farm that is constantly monitored is the possibility of frost.  Around the farm we have frost monitors. When they hit a certain temperature, sprinklers automatically start spraying water on the hoop houses. Water has to release heat to freeze, so the tops of the hoop houses freeze over, and inside the hoop house stays nice and toasty…a few degrees above freezing.

Technology in farming has advanced at a staggering rate. The fact that it may look like Tanner is playing on Facebook, when really he is watering a row of thirsty lilies and remotely correcting a temperature imbalance in the tulips is amazing.  However, there are some time tested technologies we still embrace here on the farm. 

Great shot taken last week by David Aronovici

  To infinity and beyond!

Tulip Adventure in the Redwoods

Tulip Adventure in the Redwoods

#americangrown #CaFlowers #OriginMatters #tulips Arcata Hyperion Redwood Grove French Tulips Redwoods

Hyperion is the name of the tallest tree on earth; it is also the tallest living organism and is in the running for the absolute largest life on earth.  Just 40 miles or so from the Sun Valley Farm in Arcata, this tree has been living for about the last 750 years.  The sprawling redwood forests of Humboldt County are an amazing eco-system and are among the wonders on the United Nation World Heritage List.

 

So what was happening in 1260’s?  Kublai Khan was taking charge of the Mongol Empire, the Crusades were in full swing, Marco Polo was on his way to present day China, the Middle Ages consumed Europe in war and this tree was just a little sapling.

I was given the assignment of heading into the redwood forest with a big bucket of our Redwood Grove French Tulips. I wasn’t able to take them to Hyperion, since to prevent vandals and damaging the surrounding eco-system, only a handful of people know where the tree is exactly located.

I chose the Arcata Community Forest as a beautiful, yet close spot I could go on a back to nature photo shoot.  French Tulips have been a staple of spring for decades; the Single Late bulbs grow the tallest, largest, most dramatic tulips on the market.  You are probably familiar with the Menton, Sauturness and Grand Amore, these classics grow in the pastels of spring.

Recently though, the French Tulip market has been turned on its head.  Enter the “Pride Series” and the “Honor Series.”  These French tulips are bold, bright and stunningly big.  Red, orange, purple, pink and apricot colors are coming in from the fields right now.  Sun Valley has the United States exclusive to grow these tulips.  The breeder only grants permission to one grower per tulip producing nation to grow their tulips, and lucky for you, Sun Valley is it!

We only have a limited number of bulbs, so this is a limited crop. However, they are coming in strong right now.  (Hint, Hint!)  Next year we anticipate have a larger crop, so start wrapping your head around the fact that the French Tulip market is in the midst of a sea change toward big bright tulips to compliment the pastels you are familiar with.

We call our French Tulips “Redwood Grove” because they share many of the characteristics with the redwoods. Compared to normal trees, the redwoods are epic.  Hyperion is 379.1 feet tall, which is over 37 stories in a building.  While standard Sun Valley tulips reach about 14-20 inches, our French tulips start at 22 inches and reach much higher.  Right now we are picking some at 28+. And like all tulips, they continue to grow in the vase.

Pink Pride~ Now that's a TULIP!

  The redwoods and tulips actually thrive in the very same climate.  Damp and chilly with an even light level is just perfect.  Looking east from the farm to Liscom Hill and Fickle Hill the dense green of redwood foliage matches the rich green foliage of our Frenchies.

I was on Fickle Hill in the Arcata Community Forest on an ideal day for photography.  The light was cascading gently through the canopy almost like putting a spotlight on my bouquet.  I used a simple yet elegant vase and loaded it with as many colors as I could find in the cooler. Trudging into the forest with a white 5 gallon bucket stuffed with tulips, vase, tripod, and camera was no easy feat.   More than a couple joggers did a double take, staring at me as some sort of serious flower power hippie coming up the trail, this is not an uncommon thing in Arcata.

Once I reached the ridge with a nice view down into Jolly Giant Creek, I set to work finding the right light and setting up the tulips. The photos don’t show it, but it is actually very hard to find a flattish spot to set up a vase.  I can vouch that these tulips are tough; on more than a couple occasions I set up the vase among the redwood duff and ferns, then tip toed back to the camera on the tripod, only to look through the viewfinder and not see any tulips as the whole vase had slid off the mossy spot I had them balanced, whoopsie!   The shoot took about an hour until my bucket of tulips and I was exhausted.

I walked downhill to the trail head, again playing the role of flower power super hippie.  The mighty redwoods have an uncanny way of enveloping you in their essence; our French tulips have this same effect… make sure you get to experience them both.

Special Valentine's thought from Lily

Special Valentine's thought from Lily

#tulips #Valentine's Day Hyacinth

Valentine’s Day has a really strong power. It is the power to remind people of the joy flowers bring. Many people only give their spouse or partner flowers this one day a year. Yet scratch their heads the rest of the year with what to grab on the way home from work, or how to express the inexpressible. Flowers are so much more a deep experience than can be explored in a single day, once a year. Watching a bouquet of flowers develop and change over a week’s time is an exercise in slowing down this hurried world in which we live. It returns us to wonder, it returns us to the details, to the small picture, to what is happening at our own dining room table. By combining different flower varieties through different seasons, across a year’s time, you build a tapestry of emotion and memory that affects all our senses. It makes you rich.

As sweethearts and families celebrate Valentine’s Day, let’s hope that after the red foil wrappers are tossed and the fancy dinners eaten, that the flower’s enduring natural beauty and the kinetic bliss which they possess will lead to keeping that vase full all year round.

Valentine's Day Push (Part 1)

Valentine's Day Push (Part 1)

#tulips #Valentine's Day flower shipping Sun Pacific Bouquet

¡Ay, Caramba!

A little over a week to Valentine’s Day, and Sun Valley is humming at top speed. Being relatively new to the Sun Valley team; this my first Valentine’s Day on the farm and it is truly something to behold. In Arcata we have been literally working around the clock picking tulips and lilies for Valentine’s Day orders.

At Sun Valley one of our mottos is “…creating the best floral experience through operational excellence.” This is the time of year when you see what operational excellence really means. We have a huge capacity for growing and picking flowers, this is the time of year when we get to flex all the muscles we have built over the years.

Tulips fresh from the ground.

Out in the greenhouses, the tulips are coming in fast and furious. Crews are picking them as quickly as they mature. Tulips get pulled out of the soil and put in crates, and then a team member drives them right into the grading and bunching warehouse. Here they go on conveyor belts and get sorted by size and color, then bunched and sleeved for various customers. This is space is designed for high production, and that is what is happening now.


The Tulip Line

The vibe on the tulip line is really great. Music is blasting and our team members are all up for the big holiday push. 


Here our team member, Tara Pack, holds some beautiful “Jan van Ness” yellow tulips.

After being bunched and graded, the flowers get put in buckets for their first drink of water and a dose of special flower food.  Next they are wheeled into the shipping coolers. It is a great sight to see a train of tulips, iris or lilies being pulled through the big warehouse doorways.


David Long with a train a tulips.

The shipping warehouse is where the “rubber hits the road”, it is one thing to grow a huge amount of flowers, it is an entirely different thing to get them all boxed up and put on trucks and planes in an orderly fashion. I took some time to talk with one of our most experienced team members David Long. David has been working here about 20 years and he has seen firsthand the wild ebbs and flows in the floral industry. He was nice enough to take a moment and give me some insight into how our operation is functioning this holiday season.

Lily: So David what is the difference between a Valentine’s Day rush today, and ones in the past?

David: The amount of product we can ship today was impossible 20 years ago. Back then we didn’t have the proper organization to ship the huge orders we do today.

Lily: What’s changed?

David: Today, we have the skills and technology to see the big orders through. Years ago, a big order would take a whole day to put together, now those same big orders are just one of many orders we do in a single day. Our computer system allows us to plan, layout, organize and flawlessly ship immense orders.

Lily: How does this affect the packing crews?

David: In the old days we would be here literally 16 to 18 hours a day. Team members would get burned out, people would just hit the wall with exhaustion. Now, we are still working some overtime, but with the technology in place, we are working much smarter and much more efficiently.

I noticed David starting to get impatient and look down the line for the next train of tulips, so I figured I better cut this conversation short, and let him get back to his task.

After the tulips are boxed, they patiently await shipping out on the loading dock. This is the coldest warehouse space, and the semi-trucks are being loaded with pallet after pallet of fresh flowers. This vast space is usually about half full as orders are made ready to leave the farm. Right now there are boxes up to the ceiling and crews enduring the frigid conditions to make sure the flowers are sent on their way in perfect condition.


Boxes of flowers in the shipping cooler.

Walking through this area, making sure all our “i”s are dotted and “t”s are crossed, I found Vickie Balke. Vickie coordinates the order labels for our computerized system. All orders must have a label, and Vickie is one of the behind the scenes people at Sun Valley that is crucial. Somehow she sees the big picture of the shipping warehouse, and yet can tell you where a single box among thousand is located. I asked Vickie, how things were looking this year.

Vickie answered, “You know, we are doing really good this year because the managers have done a great job of spreading out our most knowledgeable team members."

She continued, “We bring on new, inexperienced team members for these holidays. This year we have our experienced people spread out evenly among the day shifts, night shift and cooler shifts, this is working out great. The packing is being done at the highest quality I’ve ever seen, and moral is high because everyone is feeling supported.”

It takes a lot of moving parts to live up to the excellent industry reputation Sun Valley is honored to hold. Bringing flowers to market at the highest quality is what we are all about, and to see the latent technological and human potential of our organization expand and activate into a dynamic force is pretty awe inspiring.

A big semi-truck closes it’s back door, and the driver hops into the cab for the haul. As the truck pulls out of the farm onto Upper Bay Road, it is kind of a bookend on a process that starts with a truck arriving with some crates full of bulbs. Soon those flowers and all this effort will be shared with loved ones somewhere across the county.

Smiles and heartfelt feelings will warm up this February and we will know we have done our job.

Next week we will follow our flowers as they head south.  Many go to the Prime or Armellini shipping docks for distribution, while others arrive at our Oxnard Farm for customers to pick up and also to be included in Sun Pacific bouquets. ...until next week.