Summer Flower Fields on the Farm

Summer Flower Fields on the Farm

bikes Hypericum Iris Lucifer Crocosmia summer flower farming

So much of the detail work of flower farming is tied to time spent sitting at a computer. Today, I decided to brake free of the routine, and take an early morning bike ride around our Arcata farm.

I grabbed the rickety Schwinn farm cruiser, and pedaled off with my camera to see what was happening in the fields.  Some days its easy to forget why you got into the flower business.  Riding across the farm, looking for patches of color across the landscape is a great reminder about the beauty of flower farming.

The clouds were still hanging pretty low, but the soft light of a brisk summer morning made the flowers stand out.

I passed a field of iris, with a few yellow blooms flashing like a golden flare.

Golden Beauty Iris

Next, I came to the peace of a fallow field. We are lucky to be able to leave much of our land to regenerate nutrients. The grasses are green from the thick fog that keeps our area moist to the touch, hoping off my bike, my shoes and pant legs got wet as I looked around.

Farm Cruising!

Riding across the field, I saw a sea of red on the horizon. I knew it was our crocosmia crop dancing in the gentle breeze. I bounced across the field to a dirt road that led me to a wonderful sight.

Lucifer Crocosmia

The Lucifer variety in bloom is truly a site to behold.

Wowza!

You can point your camera in any direction and find inspiration. Even looking away from the flowers... where I found a fresh raccoon track. I think they must share my love of these flowers.

Raccoon tracks on the farm

Back in the saddle, I wandered up to something which is truly news worthy. Sun Valley is growing old fashion, California spray hypericum. We will be reporting more on this story, but this classic is coming back, and we are leading the charge to bring this CAGrown botanical, back to United States production. It's looking gorgeous!

#AmericanGrown Hypericum

  This is the epitome of summer flower farming.

Flower farming at its finest.

I continued on, pedaling west across the farm, in the distance you could see the sand dunes that hold back the pounding, pacific waves. I scared up a few quail, ...they were too quick for a picture and the scare was mutual.  I got to a quiet spot and turned my lens south towards Humboldt Bay. The sun was starting to come through the clouds, the road south laid out before me, beckoning me to ride a little further.

Don't forget the magic of flowers, don't forget that they come from the the same land we walk on everyday, don't forget that out in the valleys and coastal lowlands of California all sorts of people  have been drawn to the art and science growing flowers simply for people to enjoy.

Cheers to more days like this.

Now that’s a Croc! Crocosmia that is...

Now that’s a Croc! Crocosmia that is...

#LetsTalkFlowers #USGrown Croc pods Crocosmia crocosmia pods Lucifer Crocosmia

“Now that’s a Croc!” 

JW Brown inspecting our crocosmia crop.

When this was shouted at me across a flower field the other day, I was a bit startled as I turned to look, and then I smiled. Out in the sweeping field of red was one of our National Sales Reps, JW Brown, holding up a remarkable crocosmia bloom. The flower showed a fiery red contrast to the surrounding coastal environment, matched only by JW’s 49ers shirt.  We grow the variety “Lucifer”, which is a rather appropriate name for this saturated red bloom.

A single crocosmia stem

Crocosmia leaves are sword shaped, and the flowers are branched spikes, they sort of look like a freaky freesia. We sell them both in bloom, and then as “pods” which have a great visual appeal for designers. 

 

'Crocosmia' is derived from the Greek words 'krokos' meaning saffron and 'osme' meaning smell. It is said that when the flower heads are put into water that they smell of saffron. They are also used to make yellow dye. Crocosmia is originally from Africa and it is a member of the gladiolus and iris family. Crocosmia masoniorum was crossed with Antholyza paniculata (now C. paniculata) by Alan Bloom and produced a sturdy tall plant which was named 'Lucifer' in 1966.

Just picked crocosomia

Right now, we are harvesting a big swath of Lucifer, so it’s a good time to check out this unique crop. In the coming weeks, crocosmia pods will also be available. These are created by bringing bee hives out to the fields to pollinate the flowers, and this leads to outstanding rows of pods on the stems. 

10 Stem bunches of pods

The only other crop which we use bees to pollinate is our Ilex crop, the majority of our flowers are cut and shipped before they open so the bees never get a chance to sneak in there and do their thing.

Buzz, Buzz, Buzz

Another difference between crocosmia and our other crops is that we reuse the same bulbs for multiple years.  Each fall the bulbs are dug up, sorted, and then the best quality ones are replanted, or saved to be replanted at a later date to maintain steady production form mid-summer through fall.

Crocosmia is a dramatic, impressive flower, which adds a rich splash of color to any vase and it is a great summer flower.

Crocosmia with a light breeze off the Pacific

If you aren't familiar with Sun Valley's Resource Pages, check out these two, one for Crocosmia, one for Crocosmia Pods.  ...we have similar sheets for all our major crops. Have a look.

Crocosmia "Lucifer": Devilish name, Heavenly flower

Crocosmia "Lucifer": Devilish name, Heavenly flower

Around the flower farm CA Grown Crocosmia farmer's market Floral industry; Philanthropic flowers Flower Meaning flowers for delivery IFE 2011 Lucifer Crocosmia Sun Valley

Just the other day, I saw the first signs of Crocosmias popping up. These fiery blooms, native to South Africa, turn our Arcata 27th Street fields into a brilliant sea of red from July through August. Their season usually starts around the last week of June, but the unseasonably cool weather we experienced throughout California earlier this year slowed them down just a bit. Aside from their seasonality, here's what you need to know about Crocosmias:

Crocosmia is part of the iridaceae family, meaning it's like a first cousin of Gladiola and Iris (about which you can learn more here). The variety we grow at Sun Valley is nicknamed "Lucifer" for its brilliant red color. Think little horns, cloven hooves, pitchfork... Yep, that Lucifer.

Saffron spice

Despite the name, Crocosmia is an eye-catching delight to see and to smell (when dried), that is, if you enjoy the smell of saffron. The name Crocosmia actually comes from the Greek words "krokos" (saffron) and "osme" (smell). If you aren't sure if you enjoy the smell of saffron because you don't know what saffron smells like, I can't really explain it in words. All I can tell you is it is not your typical floral smell! I guess you'll just have to pick up some dried Crocosmia to experience it for yourself, since the flower is more affordable than the spice!

When growing Crocosmia, warmer climates require replanting of their corms (sort of like bulbs) each fall or winter. Arcata's unique cool growing conditions that I'm always going on about allow the crop to come back strong year after year (volunteer growth). Now that they're ready to harvest, our Iris team doubles as a Crocosmia crew, which works out since the fields are right across from each other. Similar to Iris picking, the crew can tell when Crocosmia is ready to pick from the amount of color (in this case, red) showing on the flower. It's all in the family, I guess!

Just in case you are now scratching your head and saying "What about Montbretia?", I'll tell you a bit about what makes Crocosmia and Montbretia slightly different beasts. The Montbretia is smaller, orange in color, and it comes in about 30 days after Crocosmia. Also, Montbretia has a higher flower-to-pod ratio than Crocosmia. Of course, this is all dependent on the weather, which way the wind's blowing, how active our bees are for the season, how much the dogs bark at night... You get the idea. Basically, the pods vary from year to year, which affects which pods we end up distributing in the fall. More on pods below.

Sun Valley Team Member harvesting Crocosmia

As it happens, there are several ways to enjoy Crocosmia after it's harvested. Of course, the exotic fresh cut flower is interesting enough to display as a single stem, or it gives an exciting twist to an everyday arrangement. (As with most cut flowers, cut stems and place in tepid water.) You can also prolong your enjoyment by drying the flower (for simple drying instructions, click here). But wait, there's more! Once the flowers are done blooming around September, Montbretia pods come in. I'm told that the pods are great for adding texture in arrangements. They can also be painted for extra pizazz. Since my arranging skills are still limited to putting a bunch of single varieties in a vase (see examples here and here), I'm looking forward to getting my hands on some of these pods and trying this texture thing out for myself.




Crocosmia field in full bloom

That just about covers my recently acquired knowledge of the heavenly "Lucifer" Crocosmia. If you have anything to add, please let me know in the comments. And if you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'll do my best to find the answers! Our Flower Resource page has a bit more information on Crocosmia as well. Check it out here: http://www.thesunvalleygroup.com/thesunvalleygroup/pdf/SV_RP_Crocosmia.pdf




STAY TUNED: For those of you who attended IFE 2011, we will be raffling off three iPads right here on the blog TOMORROW, so make sure to watch the video! Good luck to the entrants!