Lily's Boots: The top 5 things I learned at Social Media School for Farmers

Lily's Boots: The top 5 things I learned at Social Media School for Farmers

Around the flower farm CA Grown farmer's market Floral industry flowers for delivery Iris

Have you heard the one about the flower farmer who started a blog?

Despite what it sounds like, this isn't a joke. It's KnowaCaliforniaFarmer.com, and it's the growing reality for farmers of all types. Today's consumers are demanding more and more information about where their everything comes from. Meanwhile, producers of everything are trying to find efficient ways to tell those consumers just where their bit of everything comes from. Enter Social Media, the ever-evolving online networking realm once utilized exclusively by techies and teenagers.

Now Social Media is used by just about everyone from your family dentist to your 87-year-old grandmother. And because they're all there, folks in the farming industry (yes, this includes flower farmers) have considerable potential to reach them. However, social networking doesn't just magically click for most, especially when you spend more time in the field than at a desk. That's precisely why Know a California Farmer created a series of workshops designed to teach farmers how to share their farming stories through the use of platforms like Facebook, Twitter, blogs and of course, the KnowaCaliforniaFarmer.com website.

And that, my friends, is where my boots went this week: down to the lovely and scenic Bakersfield, California, where the most recent Know a California Farmer Social Media Workshop was held.

Here were my top 5 takeaways from this workshop:

1. People like stories. I'm not referring to Dr. Seuss here (although people do like his stories). When it comes to business, people want to know the personal story behind the business. Where do you come from? Why do you do what you do? Tell people about it. They want to know.

2. The days of talking AT people are gone. Old school marketing = tell them you're the biggest and the best and they'll buy your products. Social Media marketing = develop relationships within your community and maybe they'll keep your products in their consideration set.

3. You can run, but you can't hide! "Transparency" is a word that gets bounced around a lot in the world of social media, and it basically means that being open and honest with your audience is much more conducive to building relationships than trying to keep things from them. Tell 'em where that tulip comes from and how you grow it. They'll thank you for it.

4. We're in this together, folks. The more we as farmers, whether harvesting carrots or irises, work together to share our stories, the stronger we as an overall industry become. Rather than focusing on other farms, think of your competition today as all of those voices on the web that might be speaking out against what your industry is trying to accomplish. Now set the public straight by telling them the truth about what you do! 

5. The more we talk, the more they'll listen. I'm particularly fond of this idea, since talking is one of my favorite pastimes. But what this basically means is that more social media content produced by California farmers equates to more opportunities for our consumers to get to know us. The more they know us, the more they like us! So let's get talking!

There were several more social media tips and tricks that I learned from this workshop, but these were the overarching themes that I felt were most relevant to the California farming industry as a whole. Thank you to Know a California Farmer for the education and inspiration!

Now tell me, what's your farming story?

Lily's Boots (or Flip Flops): Lily Wonka and the Bouquet Factory

Lily's Boots (or Flip Flops): Lily Wonka and the Bouquet Factory

Around the flower farm Flower arrangements Holiday flowers

This week, I traded in my boots for a pair of flip flops. No, we didn't have a heat wave in Arcata - I travelled down to our So Cal counterpart to experience this side of Sun Valley's operations. So, over the hills and through the fog to the Oxnard farm I went... and what an amazing journey! 

When I arrived at this truly sunny Sun Valley, I immediately found myself immersed in the Sun Pacific Bouquet Department, which is in overdrive during this busy time of year. The department operates out of a large warehouse filled to the brim with buckets upon buckets of colorful flowers, brightly colored packaging, and a multitude of cutesy, classy, fun, funky, earthy and mirthy flower containers. Not to mention the Team Members working diligently to transform single stems into magnificent masterpieces. One gets the feeling of being in a certain chocolate factory around here... 

Here are some of the magical things I witnessed in the Bouquet Factory...

"Lemon Drop" Tulips, "Violet Mint" Matsomotos and "Cotton Candy" Lisianthus...

Carts full of "Bubblegum" Gerberas...



A flaming red "Fireball" Gerbera...



Team Members using "Secret Recipes" to make our Bouquets...



"Jawbreaker" Seasonal Surge Bouquets, ready to be packed...




A "Gumdrop Sea" of Papella Bag arrangements...



"Candy Button" Take Me Out arrangements...



Finished product rolled on carts to the Packing and Shipping area...

The buzz in the Bouquet Department never died down throughout my entire visit, not even for a minute. And that is just one component of the farm. For this reason, I wasn't able to pay a visit to the other areas of the farm on this trip. One would need a Glass Elevator to see it all. Due to my lack of said elevator, I'll save the rest of the journey for a later date.

For now, I'm off to the other side of the country to inspect product and observe just a small part of the floral trade from the Miami perspective.

As the ever-busy Willy Wonka said, "So much time and so little to do. Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it."

Look for a recollection of my adventures in the Miami heat next Friday!

The candy names below pictures are not actual product names. Contact your Sales rep for product details: (800)747-8700... And please don't ask for Mr. Wonka!

Administrative Professionals Day, EVERY day

Administrative Professionals Day, EVERY day

Around the flower farm Floral industry Holiday flowers

This year, in the wake of the economic recession and subsequent downsizing throughout the world, Administrative Professionals Day is celebrating ALL office professionals, whose tasks likely increased as office budgets tightened. These people are wearing more proverbial hats and working harder than ever to help achieve the their companies' goals. They rightfully deserve some recognition. And in some realms, they're getting it.

Someone somewhere has taken it upon himself to honor these hardworking people from one day per year to one whole week... out of 52 weeks. This is certainly a great thing, don't get me wrong. But here's what I don't get:

Why aren't we celebrating our administrative professionals every day? And what can we, the floral industry, do to 1) take this from a secondary floral holiday to a major one and 2) take this concept into the rest of the year?

I know many of us do some types of small promotions to drive floral sales for this special time of year, but perhaps we need a little more umph to really drive the industry. Maybe we need more advertising; maybe the day (or week) itself needs more awareness built up again; or maybe we need to talk directly to the HR director of every Fortune 500 company and remind them that happy, valued employees are good employees.

Whatever the magic solution may be, those of us in the flower business should work together to make sure that admin everywhere are feeling valued EVERY day.

And what better way to make them feel valued than with flowers?

To our Sun Valley Team Members, we salute you!

Got any ideas on how to take Administrative Professionals Day to the next floral level? Let me know here in the comments!

Lily's Boots: Keepin' it GREEN

Lily's Boots: Keepin' it GREEN

Around the flower farm Earth Day

"Creating a World of Color" has long been the motto here at Sun Valley, but today I'm only concerned with one color: Green. As you probably already know, today is Earth Day. So to get into the eco-friendly spirit of this magnificent day, I've been taking my boots all over the farm this week to find out just what we're doing around here to keep it green.

Here are some of the ways Sun Valley is keeping its carbon footprint small:

Green compost

1. Composting: All discarded green flower products are composted for two to three years. This compost is later mixed in with new planting materials and spread across our flower fields. It's like a mini circle of life!



 2. Energy-efficient lighting: We've recently replaced literally thousands of 90 to 100-watt Halogen reflector light bulbs in greenhouses and other buildings throughout our Arcata and Oxnard farms with 20-watt fluorescent bulbs and 23-watt CFL reflector lamps, significantly reducing our energy usage. 


3. Solar energy: Hey, flowers have been way ahead of the game with harnessing solar energy for growth! So, in a round-about way, we're pioneers of solar power!

4. Reduced trucking distance: Opening a Tulip farm in Canada has greatly helped in reducing our carbon emissions by cutting down on the amount of trucks carrying Tulips from California to the east coast. That's approximately 30 trucks per year travelling a distance of 2,900 miles one way (SoCal to NY)!


Skyscraper of bulb crates, ready for recycling!

5. Steam cleaning: We sterilize our soil with steam rather than harsh chemicals, meaning less chemicals entering the atmosphere and into Mother Earth's groundwater.



6. Recycled materials: Our booth design for the upcoming International Floriculture Expo 2011 (June 14-17) almost exclusively features materials recycled from our farm, including old conveyor belts and Redwood boards from an old barn on our Arcata farm. We've been using recycled farm materials, such as old Tulip crates, in trade shows for awhile now to save on waste.

7. Recycling: We recycle the plastic from our hoop houses and our bulb crates to make recycled plastics. All cardboard is bundled and sent to the local recycling plant. We are also avid recyclers of paper, glass and aluminum from our office spaces. On top of that, any broken pallets we have are ground up and sent to the pulp mill for electrical energy generation. 



8. Cycling: Rather than navigating our large farms in vehicles, many of our employees bike to and from the places they need to be. Healthy for the heart and the environment!

These are just some ways that we are trying to show this planet of ours a little love.

What are you doing, on a regular basis or particularly for Earth Day, to keep your world green?



Easter and Lily

Easter and Lily

Around the flower farm Holiday flowers

Let me be frank, until recently, if I were asked to name the first non-religious figure or object that came to mind when I heard the word Easter, I would have responded in about 0.0001 seconds The Cadbury Bunny.
 



Thanks tvguide.com


Second response: An Easter Egg.





Thanks melon-wallpaper.blogspot.com

 

However, my experience here at Sun Valley has forever changed that innate reaction. Ask me what I associate with Easter now, and I will immediately tell you "Tulips, and lots of them!"

I am truly amazed at the careful planning and hard work that goes into getting our Tulips from the bulb into the Easter basket.

The planning actually starts a YEAR in advance, when we choose the right mix of bulbs to purchase and plant for the next season. (Incidentally, these bulbs hail from the Netherlands.) Once the bulbs arrive at the flower farm, they are planted in soil crates and held in high-humidity rooting coolers, where they form small sprouts and root systems. Next, they are whisked away to very cold wintery coolers, where they patiently await spring.

When we're finally at the brink of Easter, the Tulip bulbs are moved into the Greenhouse somewhere around two weeks before they are ready to be harvested. Here they receive a heavy dose of TLC and the right mixture of temperature, moisture and sunlight so they can blossom into the beautiful Tulips Sun Valley is known for.

The Tulips are then harvested and sent on their way to the Bunching Room. Experienced team members carefully grade, bunch and package the Tulips with amazing speed and accuracy as they travel down the bunching lines. Then, from the Bunching Room to the Packing and Shipping Warehouse the Tulips go!

Did I mention amazing speed and accuracy? Well, the Warehouse team members work diligently to pack the Tulips into upright Tulip hampers (boxes) and load them onto pallets bound for refrigerated trucks, which are ultimately bound for our customers.

All of this takes place around the clock. It all happens within cold-chain managed environments. And it all means that people can enjoy those lovely Easter egg-like Tulip blooms for the holiday.

So, what's the first object that comes to your mind when I say Easter?

 

Fountain of Youth: Testing the vase life of Sun Valley's Lilies and Matsomotos

Fountain of Youth: Testing the vase life of Sun Valley's Lilies and Matsomotos

Around the flower farm Flower arrangements Vase life

Shocking, Royals and Matsomotos

I wanted to know just how long our Royal LA Hybrid Lilies, Sonata OT Lilies and Matsomoto Asters would live once I took them home from the farm... Okay, no I didn't. I really wanted to adorn the lovely vase that my sister made for me and fill my dining room with their beautiful appearance and fragrance! But testing their vase life was an added bonus of bringing these beauties into my home.

The picture above was taken 12 days after I put the flowers in water (placed in indirect sunlight, temperature set to 68 degrees, with no flower food). While the petals are just starting to curl, the arrangement still looks and smells wonderful. I'll give it a good three days more before filling my vase with another bunch of Sun Valley flowers. 

And next time I'm throwing some flower food into the arrangement.  Before I came on board at Sun Valley, all I knew about flower food was that it nourishes flowers, which is essentially all one needs to know.

However, having a little better understanding of flower food makes a stronger case for actually utilizing flower food. Let me put it this way: Cut flowers need four conditions for maximum vase life, which are as follows:
 1) water,
 2) energy (sugar)
 3) free-flowing vessels within the stems to transport nutrients, and
 4) proper pH balance.

Once flowers leave the ground and get placed in your vase of water, they continue to grow slowly, but it's harder for them to receive the nutrients that are vital for their survival.  The sugars in the flower food will be used by the plant as an energy source, while the acidifiers will helps balance the pH of the water.  In addition, flower food contains "stem unpluggers" that will ensure that the flowers have those "free-flowing vessels" in order to take up water and nutrients.

As you can see, the combination of water and flower food gives your freshly cut flowers everything that they need to survive longer.  

Hurrah for flower food!


Lilies two-weeks, no flower food

Lilies, two weeks, with flower food











Lily's Boots: Flowers, Science and Smiles

Lily's Boots: Flowers, Science and Smiles

Around the flower farm

At the beginning of this week, I had the false perception (despite gloomy weather forcasts and dark, ominous rain clouds hovering in the horizon) that we were going to have dry, sunny weather all week here in Humboldt, thus allowing me to trade in my rain boots for my riders. Well, Wednesday night's hail and Friday morning's frost popped that little bubble. Ah well, rain boots it was!

Anyhow, my Boots had the pleasure of strolling through one of our farms on tours for Humboldt State University Marketing and MBA students this week. We journeyed through our massive coolers (one cooler can store about one million bulbs - wow!), our warm Iris rooms, the Tulip Greenhouses and Bunching Room, the Lily Greenhouses, and the Packing and Shipping Warehouse. 

Lily Greenhouse

 Although this wasn't my Boots' first trip around the farm, the tours certainly helped fill in some missing pieces of my floral education.  

For example, I knew that Tulip bulbs are held back in "winter" coolers before being pulled into the greenhouse, but I had no idea that the opposite is true for Iris bulbs. While Tulip bulbs are stored at near freezing temps for vernalization (or the stimulization of growth), Iris bulbs are actually stored at a balmy 87 degrees for their dormancy period. Fascinating!



There were so many other tidbits of information that I picked up from one of our Sales Managers and one of our resident "Tulip Guys", but alas, this post is not a novel, so I will share these educational gems at a later date.

Perhaps the most enchanting part of the tours was when I experienced first-hand the magical effects flowers have on their recipients. One of our recurrent conversations with the HSU students was about the positive emotional effects associated with flowers. To really drive the point home, each of the students received a whole bunch our fresh Tulips, sprinkled with some Hyacinths and Lilies. As the flowers found their ways into the hands of their new owners, smiles spread from ear to ear on male and female faces alike. Positive emotional effects in action!

So this week, my Boots brought me to a greater understanding of the science behind flower growing, as well as through the ethereal experience of flowers bringing happiness. That put a smile on my face! 

HSU Students & flowers: The more the flowers, the bigger the smiles!

I wonder what fun flower facts my Boots will stumble upon next week...

To learn more about the Emotional Impact of Flowers, please visit: http://bit.ly/7bRhu