A Bouquet of Stars

A Bouquet of Stars

Asters Holiday flowers Matsumoto Asters red flowers

For my part I know nothing with any certainty,
But the sight of the stars makes me dream.
                                                                         -Vincent Van Gogh

Holiday time is upon us—I’ve set up camp in Sun Valley’s shipping warehouse; a thermos of coffee in one hand and a gingerbread cookie in the other.  I’ve been able to witness the change of seasons simply through watching the colors of our fresh bouquets change from autumn’s darling oranges and yellows, to the rich December hues of red, green, and gold.

The smell of evergreen is in the air and amidst the cold, a particularly bright and happy flower has caught my eye—the Red Aster Matsumoto.

Matsumotos have long-lasting flower heads whose soft petals grow in single, double, or semi-double layers.

This vibrant flower, also known as the Japanese Aster (Callistephus) has lengthy, sturdy stems paired with layers of long-lasting, soft flowers.  And I mean soft.  Rub-your-face-in-them-soft.   I’ve taken a bouquet to brighten up my winter hovel, and its presence has inspired me to step outside and explore this cheerful flower’s origin.

This flowering plant has an incredible height range, anywhere from 10 inches to 4 feet.

The history of this long-stemmed annual is noteworthy—it is native to the eastern regions of Asia, and the name Aster hails from the Latin word for “star,” while its scientific name, Callistephus, comes from the Greek word for “beautiful crown.”  You can see why agronomists of old named it as they did—the flower’s snugly packed, thickly fringed petals that surrounds its rich, yellow center strongly resembles a star as well as a crown.  It’s enough to make me want to fashion a star-flower tiara for myself and parade around the farm, Queen of the Asters.

Matsumoto asters in various stages of bloom.

We grow these beauties in our sunny farms of Oxnard, where the naturally cool, coastal climate keeps the flowers happy and on-schedule, even during the colder months of winter.   Normally, asters are a strict late summer/early fall variety, but with our carefully organized hoop house program, our blooms are able to flourish year-round.

Unlike our bulb flowers (tulips, irises, and lilies), asters are grown from rooted seed, which requires no pre-cooling before planting.   Even without that additional cooling cycle, the entire growing process from seedling to flower takes approximately 10-15 weeks to complete. For more on how we grow Asters, see our interview with Sun Valley’s Aster Master, Gerritt.

Asters showing some color in the hoop houses of Oxnard

Asters show full color when they’re ready to be picked, providing us with some great eye candy.  Walking through the hoop houses in Oxnard, it is easy to feel lost among the sea of long-stemmed red, hot pink, pink, purple, lavender, and bi-colored blooms.

My favorite for this holiday season are the scarlet red asters—their brightly layered petals and gold centers are a cheery addition to any environment.

Freshly picked!

Asters bring liveliness and vibrancy to any flower arrangement, but they also shine brightly on their own.  Arrangement ideas include adding them to large holiday bouquets, or placing them in a tall vase on their own as a simple and happy floral piece.

So go on, check out our bouquets full of stars to brighten your day and add a touch of fun and whimsy to your holiday season.

Floral "Jewel Tone" Primer

Floral "Jewel Tone" Primer

Asters delphinium Jewel Tones Lilies Pantone Sumatra lilies tango lilies

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”

                                                -Albert Camus

Now that it is officially autumn, it’s time to dig into the hot colors of fall. The fashion world dictates the color schemes we will see from the runways in New York and Paris right down to the colors a bride requests for her fall wedding. The name of the game this season is “Jewel Tones.” Jewel tones are the rich, saturated colors associated with jewels, such as emeralds, rubies, amber and sapphires.  These tones aren’t the bright and shiny side of the precious stones, but the dark, warm interiors of the stones. According to the trend setters at Pantone, the jewel tone palette will be accented by neutrals, such as browns and taupe.

So let’s investigate the flowers and botanicals that represent jewel tones.

Sumatra is a jewel toned delight

In the lily department, the Sumatra Lily will be a stand out this fall. This beautiful Oriental is big and dark; the saturated colors will ensure that this lily will be the focal of many autumn floral events.  For our Royal Lilies, which is what we call our LA Hybrids, the Sunset Royal lily has all the warmth of a vibrant autumn sunset.  Sun Valley has the exclusive North American rights to grow this lily, and there will be big numbers coming to harvest every week.  The other lily to keep your eye on is Orange Art. This stunning lily is from the Tango Series, so it is part Asiatic and part LA Hybrid.  This is one of our lilies that the average consumer hasn’t experienced; the gorgeous contrasting hues make this a show-stopping fall lily.

Orange Art from the Tango Lily Series.

The ever popular Matsumoto Asters we grow are a natural match for the jewel tone theme. Purple, red and our hot pink fit the bill nicely.

Fall color Matsumoto Asters

 A flower that grows beautifully at our Oxnard farm that we don’t mention nearly enough is our Delphinium Sea Waltz, now this is a rich sapphire blue.

Delphinium Jewel Tones

One of my favorite items we grow on the farm is Ornamental Kale, often called Brassica.  J Schwanke from uBloom just completed a great video showing off our product. Have a look, the dark purples and emeralds of our brassica will be hot this autumn, so you need to see this video!

Not all jewel tones are necessarily dark; our gerberas are bright, yet saturated. Some varieties which will be hot this fall are: Maya, Shania, Carambole, Intensa and Malibu.  I recently took a walk through the Oxnard gerb greenhouse, the crop is looking pretty spectacular.  The colors are popping and the plants are looking very healthy.

Our Gerb greenhouse in Oxnard, CA

The last crop I need to mention to give you the inside track on jewel tones are our Fall Tulips. The great part of growing bulb crops is we can grow the color mix you need on demand.  We often say, “We grow it, when you need it.”  This is the epitome of our year round tulip program.  We keep the tulips in coolers just until we are ready for them to burst into action. The crop is carefully planned, so we grow the colors that any given season requires.  Its fall, so we have the oranges, yellows, red and bi-colors that will be the color splash in your autumn arrangements. The bulbs are from the Southern Hemisphere so they are “spring fresh”, which leads to the best quality and the best vase life.

Jewel tones are the theme of this season, and Sun Valley is growing just what you need.

Interview with The Aster Master - Part 2

Interview with The Aster Master - Part 2

Asters CA Grown California Flowers Chamomile Growing Flowers Matsumoto Asters Seestern Asters Sun Valley

A few weeks ago, we dipped our toes into the world of Aster growing at Sun Valley. I talked a bit about the who (Gerrit, the Aster Master) and the what (different varieties we grow) of our Aster program. Today we're digging deeper and getting into the real heart of the story - the where, when, why and how our Asters are grown.

Bulb Schmulb

As you may already know, The Sun Valley Group started out way back when as Sun Valley Bulb Farm. Our primary focus was (and still essentially is), obviously, bulb flowers like tulips, irises, and lilies. But with our growth as a company has come an ever-expanding selection of cut flowers, including some non-bulb varieties. Asters fall into this category.

Asters grow from seeds, plain and simple. The Aster planting team uses plugs - seeds rooted in about an inch of dirt in trays - that are bought in or seeded on the farm, as they are much more economical then planting seeds directly in the fields. (You can watch how plugs are seeded in this video.) A major difference between growing seed flowers and bulb flowers is seeds or seed plugs don't require cooling before they are ready to be planted. As you might guess, this is a huge advantage for Sun Valley, saving us time and cooler space.

However, that's not to say growing Asters is particularly easy...

Musical Hoops

Sea Star Asters growing in an Oxnard hoophouse

Imagine for a moment physically picking up your house, your car, the garage that houses your car, and all of your loose belongings and moving them to a new location... every year. That's somewhat what it's like with our Aster crops because of a process called crop rotation. I'm pretty sure you've heard of crop rotation before, but in case you haven't, it means periodically changing the crop grown in a particular field to help promote the restoration of essential nutrients in the soil.

A couple years ago, the Sun Valley Oxnard farmers accelerated the Aster crop rotation schedule and wound up with stronger flowers and a higher recovery rate. Great for our crops, hard work for our farmers. Because the Asters require much more than just a field to be planted in (hoops, lighting, generators, hydration systems, etc.), moving the crops requires a lot of time, precision and heavy lifting. But like the saying goes... somebody's gotta do it!

So, how does crop rotation impact our Asters?



Sweetheart Asters making a comeback!

Remember when I called Sweetheart Asters "The Comeback Kids" in Aster Master - Part 1? Well, crop rotation is precisely what facilitated this comeback. When we initially grew the beloved little Sweethearts, "the soil got tired," as Gerrit put it, from growing so many Matsumotos. Sweetheart Asters were the exhausted soil's casualty.

Soon after, the farmers decided to pick up the farm, take all of the hoops off the field, and replace Matsumotos with Iris. (Unlike our Arcata hoophouses, the Oxnard hoops are moveable... in case you were wondering.) This led to an entirely new "growing culture" in Oxnard, which now included crop rotation with Asters, irises and neighboring strawberry farm crops. This shift led to a much more favorable recovery rate for our Asters, and ultimately allowed us to reintroduce our Sweetheart Asters.



Matricaria busy healing the ground!

 You probably also remember me calling Matricaria (Chamomile) "The Healers."  These adorable flowers are vital to the Aster crop rotation process, since they actually heal the soil. And since they make such a charming filler for enhanced bunches and bouquets, our Matricaria varieties are a win-win for us!

How does our Aster garden grow?



Young Asters



Short answer: Year-round in hoops!

Long answer: Aster plugs are planted in hoophouses. Then, similar to growing Royal and Love Lilies, drip tape and a wire grid are laid down. Drip tape ensures adequate delivery of water and fertilizer to the plants' root systems, and the wire grid helps their stems grow straight and sturdy.

Asters are naturally a fall crop, but for some inexplicable reason, they seem to love growing year-round in Oxnard! They take about 10-15 weeks to grow, depending on the season, and the use of hoops and lighting help keep them on schedule during off seasons.

Unlike our bulb flowers, which are cut when still closed, Asters show full color when they are ready for harvest. This makes for a lot of pretty farm pictures! 




Karthauser Sea Star Asters



White Daisy Matricaria (Chamomile)



Freshly harvested Matsumoto Asters


This pretty much sums up my interview with Gerrit, The Aster Master. I, for one, picked up a wealth of new knowledge from this experience. I hope you, too, walk away with a little more insight into growing Asters - The Godfathers, The Comeback Kids, The Crowd Pleasers and The Healers - at Sun Valley!

Click on the following link to watch a video about Sun Valley Oxnard farm and learn a whole lot more about Asters from Gerrit and J Schwanke! (You will have to log into your uBloom account to watch the video.) http://ubloom.com/blog/2010/10/28/the-ca-grown-experience-on-ubloom-visits-sun-valley-group-oxnard-division/ Also, be sure to check out the Sun Valley website to see which Aster varieties are in season now.

If you would like to learn more about our Asters, or if you have anything you would like me to blog about in a future post, please email me! I'll do my best to oblige!

Interview with The Aster Master - Part 1

Interview with The Aster Master - Part 1

Asters CA Grown California Flowers Christmas flowers Christmas greens Sun Valley

Now that we're over a week into December, I think it's safe to say we're officially in Holiday Mode. Whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, Christmas, or just a holiday from work or school, you're undoubtedly encountering the festive spirit everywhere you go. The colors red and green, silver and gold deck every hall and home. Reindeer sweaters, eggnog cocktails, fairy lights, huge blow-up snowmen, real snowmen, and Christmas cookies are everywhere you look. (My team members just brought in a Dutch auction cart sized load of the little confectionery delights for "Bagel Friday," for example. Many thanks for the gluten-free cookies!) 

Yep, the holidays are here.

Since Sun Valley is full-swing into Holiday Mode, it makes sense to write about our holiday offerings. Of course, we have gorgeous red Tulips, pristine white, Starfighter and Candy Cane Oriental Lilies, fragrant Christmas greens, and bountiful red berries - Ilex and Rosehips. But today I simply want to talk about Asters.

Because some of our Asters come in true holiday red, I thought they fit perfectly into my Holiday Mode schema. A recent interview with Gerrit, aka "The Aster Master," the other day left me with abundant information about the star-shaped flowers.

When this happens - "this" meaning I learned A LOT about our crops from one of our farmers - I need to break up the information into few posts to keep my rambling to a minimum, so here we go. For now, I'll start simple, really simple, and give you a breakdown of the Asters we grow at Sun Valley:

Matsumoto Asters - The Godfathers

Matsumoto Asters, also referred to as Calistephus, feature cushiony, brightly-colored petals in red, hot pink, pink, purple, lavendar, bi-red and bi-lavendar, arranged around clusters of tiny yellow flowers. Because of their popularity among customers and favorable recovery rate, Matsumotos account for a large percentage of our Aster program. You might say Matsumotos are the head of the Sun Valley Aster family.

Sweetheart Asters - The Comeback Kids

They're back! These little beauties, commonly called Serenade Asters, consist of multiple small star-like flowers per stem. They've just made a comback in our Aster arena, which will be discussed further in the next post. With brilliant colors like red, hot pink and purple - not available in other filler crops - and exceptional vaselife, Sweethearts are a charming and unique filler.

Sea Star Asters - The Crowd Pleasers



Sea Star Asters, which consist of Igel, Seestern and Krallen varieties, boast huge heads filled all the way in with petals (except Seestern, which have yellow centers) and tall, sturdy stems. Sea Stars recently made their debut at Sun Valley in summer of 2010, and they've made quite a name for themselves already. You'll have to sea these beauties for yourself to understand what all the fuss is about! (Sorry about the pun - I couldn't help myself!)

Matricaria (Chamomile) Buttons, Cushions and Daisies - The Healers

As cute as the names imply, these little blooms add a dash of whimsy and fun to any arrangement. Aside from their aesthetic qualities, they also have healing qualities. You're probably already aware of the calming properties of chamomile tea, but did you know that the plant actually "heals" the soil as well? This makes them an essential part of our Aster crop rotation, which I'll discuss in detail in the next post.

Finally we have Solidago, which I would describe as bringing the garden into your home due its wildflower look. Our farmers have timed this crop carefully to come in during peak yellow demand seasons, thus Solidago signifies the onset of spring one season and resembles falling leaves another season.

And those, my friends, are the Asters we grow at Sun Valley - all fabulous fillers and some wildly appropriate for this holiday season. I'm glad I finally got the opportunity to share some information about them with you. Now I'm going to don my reindeer sweater, pour some eggnog, and use some Matsumoto Asters for my snowman's eyes! Happy Holidays!

For more information on Matsumoto Asters, Sea Star Asters and Matricaria, check out our flower resource pages:

Matsumotos

http://www.thesunvalleygroup.com/thesunvalleygroup/pdf/SV_RP_Asters.pdf

Sea Stars http://www.thesunvalleygroup.com/thesunvalleygroup/pdf/SV_RP_SeaStarAster.pdf

Matricaria

http://www.thesunvalleygroup.com/thesunvalleygroup/pdf/SV_RP_Matricaria.pdf

Also, please check back soon to learn more about how we grow Asters at our Sun Valley Oxnard farm...