Valentine's Day Push (Part 2)

Valentine's Day Push (Part 2)

#Flowers #Valentine's Day Flowers for Valentine's Day LA Hybrid Lily Oriental Lily Oxnard

This week we dive into how our Oxnard farm is coping with Valentine’s Day 2013, Oxnard is a chaotic blend of world class flower farm and our national transportation hub. 

In the fields, greenhouses and hoop houses, Oxnard is a growing some amazing flowers. Right now beautiful lilies are being harvested, as the light levels are just perfect. 


Oriental lilies enjoying the Southern California sun.

Alberto, our head lily grower in Oxnard stands among our Royal Lilies. This variety is called Party Diamond, which is a pink LA Hybrid, grown for Valentine’s Day. These are being harvested fast and furious for the holiday.

Alberto Arroyo

Our Oxnard farm is broken up into three properties. There is “Home Ranch” where we grow primarily lilies, asters, gerbera daisies, celosia, dianthus and lisianthus. Then there is “Golden Coast” where we grow oriental lilies, brassica, and even some French Tulips. Lastly are our outdoor fields of iris, called “Channel Islands.” These three areas are a short drive a part, and generally surrounded by strawberry fields.
The gerbera greenhouses are my favorite aspect of the Oxnard farm. It is like walking into a Dr. Seuss story. Big, colorful blooms balanced on top elegant stems, reaching for the sun. The gerbera are the only flower we grow hydroponically, and the bright white of the green house contrasting with the bold colors of the blooms immediately make you smile when you step into the greenhouse. I think we could bring groups unhappy and disheartened people here, and this warm and colorful environment would cheer them up.


Prepare for JOY.



A rainbow of color awaits you.

Many of the asters, lilies and gerbera daisies grown in Oxnard go straight to our bouquet division, Sun Pacific Bouquet. At this time of year, crews are working around the clock creating bouquets, featuring the red and pinks of Valentine’s Day. All these bouquets have an enormous amount of personality, from the big and bold like On Fire For Your Love to the playful and fun Sweetheart. These bouquets are all made by our dedicated team of artisans in Oxnard.

Marisol in Action!

I spoke with the Oxnard Sun Valley Head Quality Control person, Marisol Hernandez, about how things were going on our Oxnard bouquet line.

Lily: How are things going this holiday season?

Marisol: Overall, we are doing great. The team work has been awesome and production is flowing smoother than I anticipated.

Lily: Any issues?

Marisol: This year, the main challenge was dealing with some crop availabilities. When you are making bouquets you need to be able to adapt to crop supply and demand, and maintain the up most quality Our team, came through with flying colors, and the bouquets looks great.

Lily: Is your team still working around the clock?

Marisol: Luckily we have been winding down our super long shifts. Late last week, I was here for a few 12 hour days…glad that is over.

Marisol is one of those people at Sun Valley working tirelessly behind the scenes. She is on the farm at all times of day and night, making sure that we ship out the best quality flowers possible. Like a lot of the Sun Valley team, she will be taking a deep breath of relief once the last Valentine’s Day order has shipped. This little bit of relief will be short lived however, as we roll right into filling Women’s Day orders. For us this is another big bouquet holiday, so on Friday, March 8th expect to see some really colorful and creative bouquets, meant just for the women in all our lives.

Oxnard is also our national transportation hub. From this unassuming facility we distribute an enormous amount of flowers and bouquets.


The majority of the flowers we grow in Arcata are brought to Oxnard, where many of our customers come pick them up. The Oxnard shipping dock is busy place. Many of our customers actually use our facilities to stage their eastbound trucks. They will coordinate with other California Growers and use our dock as a consolidation point to fill up entire trucks full of flowers. With Valentine’s increased volume, we expand into another facility we keep for just such occasions. This facility is called “Del Norte” and it is a huge refrigerated warehouse, perfect for flower distribution.
If you receive flowers from our Arcata farm, they get to you a few different ways. Every evening, two or more semi-trucks leave Arcata. One truck goes directly to San Francisco, and then continues on to Southern California. The other trucks go straight through to Oxnard, about 600 miles. These rigs generally stop at both the Armellini and the Prime shipping docks and cross dock our freight onto their trucks for points East. The trucks end up at our Oxnard Farm, dropping off bouquet ingredients and other crops from Arcata.  Then they often get loaded up with supplies for Arcata, turn right around, and return to Arcata on the “back haul”

As Valentine’s Day rolls forward like a huge wave, the warehouses ebb and flow with product, the trucks ride through the night and our team pushes through no matter the hour. Luckily, right now the majority of our flowers are reaching their final destinations and lovingly being prepared for the big day.

Whew!

Pollen Disasters!

Pollen Disasters!

Bright Diamond Lily LA Hybrid Lily Oriental Lily Removing Lily Pollen from clothing Stargazer lily Valentine's Day 2013 Bouquets

One of the most eye catching elements of a lily is the colorful pollen which coats the stamens of the flower. The pollen and stamens provide a beautiful contrast to the petals of the flower, literally sticking out of the bloom at the end of the filaments. While being a key element in the reproductive system of the flower and a great visual element for flower lovers, the heavily laden stamens drooping with a huge amount of pollen hold a great potential for disaster. Not disaster on the epic level of a hurricane or earthquake, both of which have been big news this week, but disaster for your clothes and table clothes.


Our Bright Diamond Royal LA Hybrid Lily, loaded with pollen.

Anyone working with lilies or enjoying them in their home or office will know the sad moment when you inadvertently brush against a big Oriental or LA Hybrid lily and end up with a swath of bright orange pollen on you khakis or worse, your white slacks. In my case, it was my new fleece pullover, not as fancy as white linen slacks, but living in Humboldt County a necessary item that gets worn daily and a bright orange pollen stain was bad news.

We had been photographing our bouquets for Valentine’s Day (only 116 days away!), and for beautiful photos you need the lilies, tulips and iris all fully open. After a few days of shooting, I planned to take the bouquets over to our Local Sales Department. Local Sales is where we sell our fresh cut flowers to local Humboldt County florists, I figured I could leave the bouquets out for display since they still looked so stunning. Carrying a Grande "Season of Love" bouquet with a big Stargazer Lily as a focal, I maneuvered through the office, then up the hallway, not only trying to avoid getting the pollen on myself, but also not wanting it to fall onto the petals of the Gazer or other bouquet elements. I turned the corner toward the HR Department; Fernando saw me coming, dropped what he was doing and moved quickly to get the door for me. I made it outside, and turned toward Local Sales. They have a few tables outside where I thought I would put down the bouquet before asking them where they wanted it placed.

Just as I set the big bouquet down, a big dump truck started backing up about 20 feet away from me, the year splitting sound of the reverse, “Beep, Beep, Beep” sounded. Instinctively, I turned my head to make sure I wasn’t in its’ path. In that brief lapse in concentration, I managed to get huge stain of pollen right on the front of my fleece, “Ah, Beeeep” …Luckily the trucks beep also cover up my expletive.

Cisco, the manager of local sales, looked up from his computer and out his window, perhaps sensing the potential pollen tragedy with some sort of sixth sense. I cupped my hand, about to make an attempt at brushing the bright orange pollen off the with the back of my hand.

“Stoppppp!” Cisco yelled, the look in his eye showing a dire warning. “Don’t touch that pollen or it’s going to stain!”

I raised my hands above my head, as if I had just been addressed by the police (not that I know what that is like),

“What do I do?” I asked, the fear of a permanent stain creeping into my voice.

“Freeze, Don’t Move.”

“Yes, Officer…I mean Cisco.”

He reached in his right hand desk drawer pulled out a roll of clear packaging tape. He skillfully ripped off a piece, flipped the piece around backward and created a loop with the sticky side out. He approached, sizing me up and inspecting the pattern of caked-on pollen, kind of like a CSI investigator analyzing GSR. A trickle of perspiration dripped from my forehead. Starting where the pollen first contacted my fleece, he used a gently, twisting, padding motion and to my amazement the pollen came right off my fleece and became stuck to the tape.


Removing Lily Pollen from Clothing.

With a few skilled placements he was able to remove the pollen and save my new fleece. I was amazed, I offered Cisco my heartfelt thanks, and ever the gruff farmer/pragmatist all he said was, “Fleece is expensive.”

As he turned to walk away, an unlikely hero in a bleak situation, he added, “You can put your hands down now.”

Have you had any disasters with pollen?
Do you pick off the stamens?
Do you have any miracle cures for removing pollen from clothes?
...Please comment and share.

lily@tsvg.com

www.tsvg.com

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