Showing posts with label Flower Talk with Lily. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Flower Talk with Lily. Show all posts

Jul 2, 2013

Bouquet Diversity



Flower Fireworks!
Iris are perfect for 4th of July!
Recently, I took a few moments to just wander around the fields where I work, the Sun Valley Floral Farms. Looking around, the beautiful early summer flowers were blooming: irises, hydrangeas and greenhouses were brimming with tulips and lilies. I took notice of all the sizes and shapes of trucks, production lines and giant coolers. Then I thought to myself, look at all these team members – the most valuable assets of all. 

Flower Talk with Sun Valley
Horonato has worked at Sun Valley for years; his family is from the Machu Picchu region of Peru.
Sun Valley Floral Farms is so diverse. Where else but America would you get this amazing ethnic blend of people, all united in the complicated task of bringing California-grown flowers to the rest of the country? When you talk to the people who make their living planting, picking and packaging our flowers, you see that Sun Valley is a great example of the American melting pot. It’s like a beautiful bouquet of different skill sets, worldviews and dreams. And just like a bouquet, the people all complement each other.

We have team members that don’t just speak English and Spanish, but Dutch, Laotian, Chinese, Hmong, I-Kiribati, Indonesian, Flemish and we also have a guy from The Bronx, who speaks “New York.”  Lane DeVries, the CEO, realized years ago that a large majority of our team members on our Oxnard farm only spoke Spanish. So he and the rest of the team leaders learned Spanish themselves and now conduct the all-farm meetings in both Spanish and English. 

Tulips
Sales Rep. Laura Kurtz speaks four languages!
Work on any farm is hard. Yet, the people who work at Sun Valley are dedicated to something as pure and unpretentious as a delicate flower for you to enjoy in your home.  It is a bit humbling to see the work and effort that brings that flower from our hands to yours; this is the American Dream incarnate. 

The American Flag, on an American Farm
You find the Stars and Stripes all over our farm.
Right now there are teams out picking bright red tulips and matsumoto asters, fragrant white lilies and lisianthus to be combined with classic blue irises, all American-grown. To brighten up your 4thof July celebration, make sure to pick-up a Sun Valley Floral Farms red, white and blue bouquet. Then, sit down with your family and take a few moments to appreciate the great country we all share.
4th of July Flower Bouquet ideas
Lilies, Red Matsumotos, Eryngium and Bear Grass Bouquet
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Happy Independence Day!
Grow with Lily

May 7, 2013

The Best Thing Anyone Can Have



“When you are going through hell, Keep Going!”
                                                                          -Winston Churchill

We can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it is not an oncoming train.  The flowers have been harvested, the trucks have all left and sales reps are directing traffic, making sure all those boxes go to the right place.  Sun Valley customer service is a bright spot in the melee of Mother’s Day in the floral industry.   Having personal contact, with no phone tree, makes it easy to follow up on an order, check order status, and hopefully share a laugh with our team.

Lily picking
A crew picking Oriental Lilies for Mother's Day
 It’s in your hands now, to make this the most successful Mother’s Day ever. We know florists, wholesalers and floral departments all over the country are in the thick of it.  The coffee is flowing and you are getting your ducks in a row to produce an enormous amount of arrangements and bouquets over the next 72 hours.

Don’t worry; it will all be worth it. The elation flowers bring, the smiles and tears of joy that happen when children of all ages take a moment in time to think about their mom is an event to cherish. We thank all the flower professionals burning the midnight oil to make this day so special.

Flowers are the best gift!
The most beautiful present for mom, a Sun Valley Lily.
 The cynics of the world call Mother’s Day a “Hallmark Holiday”; claiming occasions such as this are purely motivated by commercialism and consumerism.  I ask these people, what could be more pure than celebrating the woman who brought you into this world.  Maybe I am being selfish when I say, Mother’s Day may trump all other holidays, since without moms having babies all the other holidays would be moot.

In my family, flowers have always been a tradition for Mother’s Day…as well as a fabulous brunch.  As a little boy, I woke up early Sunday morning and picked flowers from our yard and the forest edge, spring time in Rhode Island can yield quite a bounty, if you know where to look.  The flowers were put in a make shift vase, like a juice glass, and accompanied with a hand drawn card, heavy on the crayoned hearts and “XOXO”s.

Now being a father and seeing first-hand the connection between mother and child, the beautiful essence of Mother’s Day is even clearer.   Your mother had more patience, care and love than your father; I bet this can be said for 99% of the world population, it is one of those “hard wired” type things that no amount of science or research can quantify.  When my son has a bad dream and wakes up screaming, is he screaming “Dadddddy”?  No, never.   He is screaming, “Mommmmmy!"

Yellow Tulips
Happy Mother's Day from Sun Valley
Spring time is when flowers bloom in the wild, and when babies are born in the natural world. We are in the great cycle of rebirth and renewal as the longer days and warmer temperatures awaken the landscape. 

The second Sunday in May is a wonderful time to celebrate, and with all the riches, material wealth and technology in the world, a mom is still the best thing anyone can have.
Sun Valley Floral Farm Blog