American-grown Hypericum

American-grown Hypericum

#americangrown #CAGrown fall arrangements Fall Flowers Hypericum hypericum berries Lady Aster

Sun Valley is growing the versatile and oft-used botanical, Hypericum. Before my humble beginnings here on the farm, I had never heard of this plant, much less seen it out and about.  But now that I've grown wise to the ways of the flower, I see the unique berries of this plant EVERYWHERE.

"Midnight Glow" hypericum growing in the field

This ornamental superstar features colorful berries on a compact shrub.  The plant itself is a perennial botanical, sprouting golden blooms in the spring, which fall off to reveal elliptical berries come late summer.  We plant hypericum outdoors in fields of dark, rich soil, and let the long, warm days of summer coax it to maturity.  In Arcata,  it is very much a seasonal crop--we harvest the stems at the end of summer and fall, pruning while we pick, allowing the plant to rest and re-gather nutrients for the following season.

However, at our Oxnard location, we harvest hypericum throughout the year.  The Southern California climate, with its consistently longer and warmer days, creates the ideal growing conditions for year-round hypericum cultivation.   

Butter-yellow hypericum flowers and their resulting berries

The "classic hypericum" look has always been a leafy branch with dark-hued berries.  Now, after years of breeding, it's available in many other colors ranging from pale green to dark red.  We currently offer several of these colors, such as deep crimson Midnight Glow, mahogany-hued Universe, luminous Pumpkin, bright Lemon, and the magical red Triumph.

Some of our hypericum varieties, clockwise from upper left: Lemon, Triumph, Midnight Glow, and Pumpkin

Hypericum berries are long-lasting, retaining their color for weeks, which make them ideal additions to a wide range of floral arrangements.  And, as you can see in the photos,  the plant has multiple berries per stem, which makes it a great accent botanical as well as a bright focal piece in your autumn decorating palette.  The smooth and shiny berries provide an interesting and modern textural contrast, which has shown to be highly desirable.

Here, hypericum berries are mixed with sunflowers to create an iconic fall bouquet.

And here, another beautiful use of hypericum mixed with "flame" Calla Lilies

More and more designers are finding that it adds a festive and lively feeling for any occasion and plenty of opportunities for creative exploration.  Take a look at the beautiful and innovative ideas our friends with Flowersand have cooked up below:

Above, peach-colored hypericum berries are strung together to create a whimsical and elegant addition to bridal bouquets and a centerpiece.  Below, red hypericum berries are kept bunched and added to warm floral hues (images found in the September 2015 issue of Flowersand).

The majority of hypericum is grown abroad in South America and Africa, leaving us as one of the few producers on United States soil.  With its growing popularity, we are proud to be one of the largest providers of American-Grown Hypericum, (especially since it's looking so gorgeous)!

A trip down serenity lane

A trip down serenity lane

California Flowers Chinese Lanterns Cotinus Fall Flowers Flowers and Emotion Ilex Rosehips

As you might imagine, one of the many perks of working at a flower farm is getting to stroll through the flower farm once in a while. Immersing yourself in fields of flowers, foliage and berries makes you forget about ringing phones and unanswered emails for a bit. Everyday stresses just melt away and in flow feelings of calmness and tranquility.

And happiness. Let's not forget about happiness.

When you're waist-deep (sometimes over-your-head deep) in flowers, you basically feel every emotion we know cut flowers invoke in people - just a much larger dose.

For the readers who don't get to frolic through the flowers on a regular basis, I want to take you on an image tour of Willow Creek, which I visited for first time since summer the other day. Hopefully sharing these pictures can help you forget your daily woes for a few minutes!

The Farm

Three months ago, Willow Creek was sun-drenched valley laced with the
scent of roses and buzzing with bees. A couple weeks ago it was blanketed
in fog (as pictured here) and bursting with fall crops.



The view from above

The neighbors



Rosehips



Fog hangs over the Rosehip crop



A few rose bushes still have flowers, soon to be completely replaced by berries



Close-up of brilliant red, giant Rosehips

Cotinus

The Cotinus stands about 8 - 10 feet tall now.
I felt like Alice in Wonderland when I wandered past this crop!

 

The Cotinus was covered with droplets from the previous night's rainfall. The rain drops
looked like crystals against the dark purple Cotinus. What a stunning sight!



Close-up of rain droplets on Cotinus leaves



Physalis (aka Chinese Lanterns)

 

A field of Chinese Lanterns, nearly ready for harvest

 

Close-up of the paper-like Chinese Lanterns

Sun Valley team members - fully clad in waterproof gear to keep dry after
the rain - harvest a row of Chinese Lanterns



A tractor-pulled cart full of freshly cut Chinese Lanterns

Ilex Berries



Gold Ilex is just about ready for harvest



Red Ilex will follow the Gold and Orange harvest, just in time for Christmas!

Here ends my photo tour of Willow Creek in the fall. Hopefully it gave you a moment of peace during your busy day!

If you want to learn more about any of these crops click on the following links:

For more on Rosehips, click here for the blog post or here for the flower resource page.
For more on Cotinus, click here for the blog or here for the resource page.
For the Chinese Lanterns resource page, click here.
And finally, for the Ilex resource page, click here.

Also, check back in a few weeks for a post on Ilex and what this crop has in common with Degas' famous paintings of ballerinas!







Sun Valley's Top 3 Fall Colors

Sun Valley's Top 3 Fall Colors

Autumn Colors CA Grown Cotinus Fall Flowers Hydrangea Lilies Sun Valley Tulips

As the air gets a bit crisper, leaves crunch under our feet, and (up here in Humboldt) rain pours on our heads, we can all truly feel fall setting in. You can even smell it, with scents like wood-burning stoves and apple crisp wafting through the air. But what does fall look like?

Around the Sun Valley farm, it's colorful! Although, not in a "spring colorful" sort of way - it's a bit more rustic. I guess it's just how you'd imagine fall looking!

Here are the Top 3 fall colors I've been seeing around the farm lately:

Fresh purple Cotinus

1. Deep Purple

As green foliage naturally starts to fade away with the warm weather, rich purple comes in the form of Cotinus (which I've mentioned once or twice before - click here and here to read more about it). Cotinus leaves are truly a treat for the eyes, with their tricky hints of dark green and even reddish-pink. The dark coloring of Cotinus makes it the perfect compliment to any type of fall arrangement, be it classic, contemporary or spooky!

2. Marbled!
Another crop you might have heard me mention lately is Antique Hydrangeas. (Click here for the latest Hydrangea post.) These huge mop tops are full of burgundies, greens, blues, purples and several other colors when you look up close. I suppose Antique Hydrangea is exactly what I meant by "rustic."

A bunch of marbled Antique Hydrangeas

3. Orange
Think pumpkin patches, falling leaves, candy corn... Orange is the unofficial color of the season. Naturally, we have plenty of Tulips, Love and Royal Lilies, and crops just coming in, like Ilex and Chinese Lanterns, that help put the Orange in your cornucopia!


Fresh orange Tulips, ready to ship

4. Don't forget about... I know this is a Top 3 list, but I certainly don't want to sell the rest of the fall colors short. I won't list them off, but I'll put it this way: if you can imagine a color, I'm sure we've got a flower for that.

Now you tell me: Did I leave anything out? What colors do you think should have made the top 3 list?

Fall is here! Shhh... don't tell the Tulips

Fall is here! Shhh... don't tell the Tulips

CA Grown Fall Flowers Soil Grown Tulips Sun Valley Tulip festival Tulips

Kees Nelis Tulip, in season now

Whether or not you're ready to put your flip flops and beach towels into storage, Fall is officially upon us. It's time to rake leaves, visit apple orchards, dress in layers, watch football, carve pumpkins, stuff turkeys... and harvest Fall Tulips, if you're part of the Sun Valley team. And it's time to write about them if you're me.

Remember when I told you about Ice Tulips a few months ago? Well, store that away with the zinc oxide. Fall Tulips are a totally different story.

Fall Tulip sprouts planted in soil,
growing in the greenhouse, Sept 28

The Fall Tulips tale is more like that of those Easter and Mother's Day favorites - Spring Tulips - just on opposite schedules. We buy the bulbs around six months before we intend to grow them, plant them in soil and store them at wintery temperatures in our coolers. When their growing season starts, we put the crates full of Tulips in soil right into the Greenhouse week by week, which allows us to do two things: control the color mix and provide a continuous supply of Tulips throughout the season. All the same as Spring Tulips.

Q: So what makes Fall Tulips different from Spring Tulips?

A: Their bulb origin.


Abba Tulips, a Fall variety

As you may already know, our Spring Tulip bulbs come from Holland. Our Fall Tulip bulbs, on the other hand, come from the opposite end of earth - New Zealand. (As it turns out, the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy isn't the only great gift the Kiwis have given us.) Using southern hemisphere bulbs allows us to grow Tulips during the North American Tulip downtime. Looking at the bigger picture, this allows us to do one of the things we do best at Sun Valley - grow Tulips year-round.


Bulbs from the Netherlands in the Northern Hemisphere (top arrow)
and New Zealand in the Southern Hemisphere (bottom arrow)
allow us to grow Tulips year-round 

So, even though Fall is here with in all its crisp, fallen leaves glory, the Tulips we're growing are convinced it's Springtime.

Let's not tell 'em.



Check out the Fall Tulips we have in season now by clicking here!