Who knows what irides are?

Who knows what irides are?

irides Iris iris fields Sun Pacific Bouquet Sunflowers

California and specifically Silicon Valley is the hub of the technological world.  This is where your iPhone was invented; this is where Steve Jobs came up with the iPad. What about iRides?

OK flower freaks, who knows what irides are?

Irides is a plural form of iris, and Sun Valley is the leading grower of irides in the United States. Iris are one of the classic flowers of all time, and they have graced the virtual pages of this blog more than a few times.

Today though, I will show some of the great iris bouquets coming out of our Sun Pacific Bouquet Division. These bouquets are a great value and many are on sale, since the iris crop is coming in big and strong. Beautiful Telstar blue irides are ready for the picking!

Blue Moon with Solidago and Salal.

 The Blue Moon bouquet is bright and really highlights our irides, Rodi and Melina have these in a few different versions, stem counts and price points.

Cool (Grande)

Sun Pacific's "Cool" bouquet line is packed with jewel tones and rich colors of fall. Featuring tinted sunflowers, Matsumoto asters, snapdragons, salal, beargrass and of course our gorgeous Telstar irides.

Floral Abundance (Grande)

Floral Abundance is is a cornucopia of fall delights. Brassica, iris, Matsumoto asters, matricaria, tinted sunflowers, a Tango Lily, solidago, beargrass, salal and baby eucalyptus. This one is my favorite!

Sundew (Grande)

Sundew is the brightest, cheeriest fall bouquet you will find, why?  This bouquet features two types of sunflowers, traditional yellow and teddy bears.  The contrast with the irides and the Matsumotos mirror the changing of the seasons.  The full recipe is yellow and teddy bear sunflowers, Matsumoto asters, irides, snapdragons, salal and beargrass.

Iris Fields

Lastly, "Iris Fields".  The Fields collection from Sun Pacific Bouquet is one of the most popular bouquet lines in floral history.  The universal appeal of this line is timeless. Simple yet elegant, this version features iris, salal, bay laurel, horsetail and spike eucalyptus.

Right now, we have plenty of iris...or irides if you prefer, so whether in bouquets, consumer bunches or in mix boxes, iris time is now.

Bouquet Diversity

Bouquet Diversity

#americangrown #CAGrown #LetsTalkFlowers 4th of July flowers Flower Talk with Lily Independence Day Iris multiculturalism Tulips

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. 

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. 

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. 

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 4^thof 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.

Lilies, Red Matsumotos, Eryngium and Bear Grass Bouquet

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Happy Independence Day!

Investigating "The Spring Effect"

Investigating "The Spring Effect"

#americangrown #CAGrown #springeffect Asiatic Lilies Iris spring Walt Whitman Wild Mustard

“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.”

                                                                         ― Margaret Atwood, Bluebeard's Egg

It is the best time of year to be a flower farmer.  Why?  Because flowers love spring!  The warmth has returned to our fields bringing bunches upon bunches of flowers ready for harvest.  The growers worked hard to keep the plants warm and well lit all winter; now Mother Nature is taking the baton and leading the charge.  The flowers are reaching up to the sky with the help of long days and the benefit of warmer temperatures.

Wild mustard growing on the farm.

Our ever vigilant growers are walking around the farm with smiles of their faces; they are only checking the weather report once every couple hours, instead of once every ten minutes.  The rains of April truly do bring May flowers; we call it the “Spring Effect”.  Sun Valley is bursting at the seams with flowers.  Of course, a lot are already spoken for as Mother’s Day is just around the corner, but the fields, hoop houses and greenhouse are so full of energy you can actually feel it.

 

I took a hike across the Arcata Farm, to get a feel for spring.

Flowers are blooming everywhere.Even our giant compost pile is blooming out tulips with reckless abandon!

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I poked my head into a big Asiatic stand, the buds are forming perfectly.

Asiatic lilies as far as the eye can see

Next,  I found a crew out planting Asiatics. Yes, the cyclic existence of a flower farmer is evident year-round.

These lilies will be ready for harvest at the end of July.

Then I stumbled upon some iris sprouts in their crates. When space is a factor in the hoop houses, often we will grow the iris in crates. We can let them grow their first few weeks outside, then we bring them into the hoop house where they spring into action.

Baby iris, these will be ready to harvest about July 4th.

After seeing the baby iris, I took a look at what these green starts eventually become.

A Telstar Iris against the soft blue sky of California in spring

Our elegant Skydiver Iris

It struck me that spring isn’t a time to ponder the nature of things; it is the time to experience things.  Forget yourself and follow your whimsy, let your senses guide you, and leave your smart phone at home.  Spring is actually a somewhat selfish season, a time to not think of the future, not to plan ahead, simply to be in the moment, so let the flowers guide you and take Walt Whitman’s advice, “Do anything, but let it produce joy.”

Do You Doodle Flowers? Meet The Sun Valley Horizon

Do You Doodle Flowers? Meet The Sun Valley Horizon

#americangrown #CaFlowers #OriginMatters Flower Doodles Freesia Iris Sunflowers The Sun Valley Horizon Tulips

This week at Sun Valley we are excited to be rolling out a new item to keep you in the loop on what's happening on the Farm.

If you are on the Sun Valley email list, then yesterday you received the maiden voyage of the Sun Valley Horizon. This is our brand new eNewsletter, which will be arriving in your inbox periodically. The goal of the Horizon is to show you what we have on the Horizon.We are always looking ahead to the next harvest, planting or weather pattern. This is the nature of being a California Flower Farmer. We feel it is important to give you, the flower enthusiast, a heads up on what is happening next month or next season. The more we can share what the view ahead looks like, the more likely we can work together.  

Wait, what? You didn't receive out fancy new eNewsletter?  Oh, No! 

There is a quick easy way to remedy this situation. Subscribe right here. It only take a couple minutes, and don't worry we won't barrage you with emails, the Horizon takes a while to produce, so expect it (hopefully) about once a month. As you receive the Horizon, make sure to forward it onto your colleagues, customers,  friends and all those other flower lovers in your life and encourage them to subscribe.  You know who they are. Here is a link to the current Horizon  ...and next month we will be having a fun contest, where you will have the chance to win a few nice prizes.

Flowers are such a fun, magical item. They aren't a necessity to live (for most people), they aren't expensive, they aren't loud, they aren't fattening and they aren't pretentious. Cut flowers hold a certain purity. This is tied to their temporal nature. They will share all they have with you for a week or two, and then pass into the compost pile.  They are grown with the specific purpose of whimsy, beauty and flirtation from the very beginning. The personalities in our greenhouses, hoop houses and fields are as diverse as you would find in a group of people. The way a particular iris bends out of its row and under a water pipe to reach the light, the way a certain tulip will turn brilliant red among a block of white tulips and of course the amazing freesia, whose graceful stance in the hoop house looks like a sweeping ballet as the gentle breeze touches each blossom in a different way.

An iris with "extra" personality.

A non-conformist tulip.

Freesia waiting on the breeze.

Recently I was looking through a big stack of old note books and correspondence, deciding what to keep and what to recycle...in the name of spring cleaning.

What I kept noticing in my doodles, drawings and other scribbles, was a reoccurring theme of flowers. The rudimentary shape of a tulip, the symmetrical lines of a lily and the cheerful blossoms of a sunflower are all over these journals and notebooks. And mind you this is years before I entered the floral industry. 

 

Perhaps I have had flowers on the brain my whole life and working for Sun Valley is truly my destiny. However, I am willing to bet people in all cultures, in all socioeconomic classes and with all different world views doodle in flowers. 

 

Is there another item you can hold in your hand which crosses all natural and man-made boundaries with universal recognition and universal emotion? I think not. What do you doodle?

What Happens on the Farm in Spring?

What Happens on the Farm in Spring?

#americangrown #CaFlowers #OriginMatters Asiatic Lilies Easter flowers Freesia Gerberas Iris LA Hybrid Lilies ornithogalum dubium Oxnard

"The air is like a butterfly
With frail blue wings.
The happy earth looks at the sky
And sings."

- Joyce Kilmer, Spring

Spring officially starts tomorrow! And not a moment too soon, am I the only one feeling like this was a longer than necessary winter? Longer days mean more time after work to play in the sun and warmer temperatures all around.  The earth’s northern hemisphere is now tilting toward the sun, so shake off that chill of winter, and hold on.

As flower farmers this means we have to make some pretty dramatic changes in response to the changing seasons. One great part of having two farms spaced about 600 miles apart is that we have the ability to grow our crops where the weather is ideal. This gives Sun Valley top of the season availability, no matter what season it is.

For the last several months we have been growing Iris at our Oxnard facility. Now as it gets warmer down south, we will start iris production in Arcata as well. This parallel production will give us a steady supply as spring and summer bring warmer weather to both our farms, by mid-June it will get too hot for iris down south, but for spring we will be producing heavily both north and south.

In our hoop houses, we will also be bringing the majority of our Asiatic Lily and LA Hybrid Lily production north after about Mother’s Day. Now though, we will be running substantial production on both farms, as the climate is great in both locations. Crops that like the warmth such as Delphinium, Dubium and Matsumoto Asters will be coming on strong as these longer days lead to more light and more warmth in Oxnard.


Ornithogalum Dubium Orange...perhaps the hardest flower name to pronounce. 

Our freesia crop, which is one of the most temperature sensitive crops we grow, will be coming back to Arcata after Mother’s Day as well. If you aren’t familiar with freesia it is really worth getting a few bunches to watch them develop. It has an unusual, yet subtle scent which varies by variety. The vase life is remarkable, as the florets open up over time and there are great color options. I wrote about freesia last fall, but it continues to impress me as a beautiful and versatile flower.

Freesia, very easy to pronounce!

Tulips always stay in Arcata, except for a smattering of hoop house French Tulips that we grow in Oxnard during winter. Our big gerbera program is always in Oxnard, this is due to the growing infrastructure they need, as well as the growing expertise in Oxnard. Our lead gerbera grower, Gerrit Vanderkooy, grew up in Holland in a family which specialized in gerbera growing, so his knowledge of this particular crop runs especially deep. This generational knowledge is another key to maintaining steady production of our core crops.



Gerbera's Grown at our Oxnard farm.

 In Arcata, I asked our head grower Tim Crockenburg, what happens differently as we joyfully roll into spring.

“Spring is volunteer iris time in Arcata, we have big fields of bulbs that come up naturally every year. Frosty nights are few and far between, and the warmer days lead to healthier crops.”

What about in the greenhouses?

“We are using the grow lights less on the Orientals as the days get longer, currently they are still growing pretty slow. The most important factor in lily growing is the temperature. As it warms up they will come to harvest quicker.”

How are we looking for Easter and Mother’s Day?

“This year we are right on schedule. We always anticipate easing into spring, so we have planted our blocks with enough cushion to ensure that we will be in great shape for Easter…and then for Mother’s Day we will really kick it into high gear.”

Springtime in California is truly something to behold. No place on earth holds forth with so much potential. Whether in the high peaks of the Sierra, the rugged coastline at the edge of the Pacific Ocean, or in a backyard in San Francisco, spring is more than just a symbol of hope; it is as close to a true rebirth we will ever know. As the buds on the alders in Humboldt County explode from dormant branches and the mountains of the Los Padres National Forest above our Oxnard farm turn vibrant green, we can all breathe a sigh of relief that we are once again taking leave of the wet cold, winter and embracing the anticipation and optimism of spring.