Rosehips: Autumn's Darling

Rosehips: Autumn's Darling

American Grown bees CA Grown fall arrangements Fall Colors Lady Aster Rose Hips roses Willow Creek

Rosehips: the plant of a million uses.  Well, maybe not a million, but its reputation as a great source of Vitamin C precedes it by centuries with ancient and modern use in tinctures, jellies, wine, and more.  Take a walk down your local grocery tea aisle and you'll be sure to find some herbal rosehip tea.  

However, rosehips are not just for flavoring foods, they are also for spicing up bouquets.  And in the world of Sun Valley, rosehips are through and through a fall specialty branch!   

 
So what exactly is a rosehip? Is it a rose or isn't it?  Scientifically speaking, the rosehip is the swollen ovary that contains the rose seeds.  It is the "fruit" of the rose.  If you cut open a rosehip you will find it is full of reproductive seeds.  
 

Rosehip bloom being pollinated

Rosehips develop on wild roses as the petals drop off.   These wild roses may not look like the "traditional" roses you are accustomed to, but they are indeed classified as roses (and aren't they pretty?).  The species of Rosa we use are specifically bred to create big, beautiful hips, which is why the regular rosebushes in your neighborhood will not produce anything quite like them. 





We grow these plants at our inland Willow Creek Farm, which is located 45-minutes away from coastal Arcata.  This canyon in the hills provides an ideal climate of early springs, hot summers, and an extended autumn which gives rosehips plenty of time to mature.

Rosehip blooms in summer

We prune our rosehip bushes down to the ground every winter, and then we wait.  As the weather begins to warm in late winter/early spring, they begin to grow back  and by summer, the flowers are blooming and the bees are buzzing.  We maintain bee boxes from a local keeper on the farm, so the bees are happy and our rose hips are happy!

Bee Box with protective wires to keep the bears out!

Once the flowers are pollinated, the pink bloom falls off and the seed pod (the hip!) begins to form. 
 
We harvest rosehips as early as August and as late as Christmas, and the month of harvest determines the color of the berry. Early in the season, they start out green; as they progress, they begin to resemble Fuji apples--partially green with reddish swirls; then they develop a beautiful reddish-orange hue and finally, a saturated cherry red. It's almost as if they know what colors are fashionable per season and act accordingly!   

Rosehips in Autumn

We have been growing and testing rosehips for many years, and have found that one variety in particular, called Amazing Fantasy, produces the strongest berry in our climate. Once cut, Amazing Fantasy Rosehips can keep their color, shape and luminosity for several weeks.

Our strong rosehip program is bolstered by the fact that agricultural restrictions forbid the importation of fresh rosehips into the United States.  We are proud to be one of the few producers of this truly American Grown crop,  and you too can feel good when you support this important agricultural movement.

Design wise, rosehips are extremely versatile and fit into the fall and winter color palette perfectly.  Check out the dramatically beautiful autumnal arrangement created by floral designer,  Pieter Landman.  You can see how they add texture and a punch of focal color.

The "Dress This Nest" blog also featured our rosehips in a great DIY-tutorial in flower arranging.  Once you get started, you'll see that perhaps there ARE a million uses for rosehips!

Dress This Nest with Sun Valley Flowers

Dress This Nest with Sun Valley Flowers

Ad Rem Tulip Bright Parrot Tulip Curly Sue Tulips Dress This Nest Orange Princess tulip Rose Hips salal Strong Gold Tulip Telstar Iris Yvonne King

At a recent Field to Vase Dinner sponsored by the CCFC, we were introduced to a blog called, Dress This Nest. This fun lifestyle blog is written by Yvonne King, who lives and writes in Portland, Oregon.  We decided to see what she could do with some farm fresh Sun Valley Flowers... and WOW were we impressed. 

Below is an article she wrote about our flowers. Check out these stunning arrangements and beautiful photographs. Make sure you subscribe to her blog, it's really a treat to see the creative projects she is working on.
~

A few weeks before our Thankful for Friends party, I was contacted by a representative at The Sun Valley Group.  He wanted to collaborate on a blog post about local flowers and it was perfect timing with our event coming up.

The Sun Valley Group has flower farms all over California, including Arcata, Oxnard and Willow Creek. They aim to grow their flowers sustainably and are a great local flower option for West Coast residents. Their website has a place where you can find florist near you that carries their flowers.  For Portland residents, their flowers are available at New Seasons.  Look for the blue CA Grown sticker!

Their representative agreed to send me some local flowers for the party and I agreed to arrange them and photograph them for the blog.  When he said he would send flowers, I expected a bouquet or two of flowers.

I was wrong.



Two days before the party, this box showed up!  If it wasn’t labelled “The Sun Valley Group,” I would have told the deliverer that there must have been a mistake.  The box was HUGE!  I could fit my toddler inside,
maybe with a friend!



Inside the box, were TEN bunches of flowers! I really had my work cut out for me!




The types of flowers inside were:

Rose Hip: this red berry is a perfect addition to holiday bouquets, whether for fall or for Christmas.  It adds a punch of color and festivity to any arrangement.

Ad Rem Tulips: this is a simple standard tulip with sherbert coloring that has a very gentle shape.

Bright Parrot Tulips: this tulip is a stand out and demands attention.  With large two-toned petals that are ruffled in texture, this will be the star of the arrangement.

Telestar Iris‘: this iris is available year-round by Sun Valley and has a beautiful purple color and dramatic petals.

Curly Sue Tulip: this tulip has an amazing frayed texture and might be my favorite of the group.

Strong Gold Tulips: this yellow tulip is simple in shape and compliments many flowers well. I found it to work great with the Telestar Iris, the Bright Parrot Tulips and the Orange Princess Tulips.

Orange Princess Tulips: these little balls of fun remind me of a cross between a tulip and a small peony.  This is a close tie for favorite with the Curly Sue.

Salal: these remind me of leaves from a rose bush only sturdier. They have a deep green color and a shiny finish.  A clean and simple addition to any arrangement.

I am not a professional florist, but I want to prove even an amateur can arrange flowers for an event. I wanted to put together several DIY flower arranging methods for my readers, to take some of the intimidation and mystery out of flower arranging.

This first method I used is from Debra Prinzing’s book Slow Flowers.  This is pretty much a no fail method and I am going to break it down for you step by step:



1. Start with branches or twigs to structure the arrangement.  I used the Rose Hip since it has that woody quality.
2. Next, you add the foliage.  I used the Salal here.
3. Then add in the flowers.  I like to add one type of flower at a time, so I started with the Bright Parrot Tulip and finished it with the Strong Gold Tulip.



And you are done!  You have a beautiful arrangement that you did yourself! It is that easy.



So easy, that I decided to continue and make mini versions of that arrangement for my guests to take home with them.  I used the exact same process, I just cut the stems to fit the mason jars.  Also, I added in a Telestar Iris so they would have a closed flower that would open at home for them (making the arrangement last a little longer).



Here is how they turned out!





For the arrangement at my entry way, I used a similar method, although I left out the Rose Hip.  I wanted to keep this arrangement a little cleaner and with a tall, narrow vase like this one, you don’t have to worry so much about supporting the blooms as the vase does all of the work.




The completed arrangement turned out like this!



Some of the tulips needed a LOT of support as their stems were not very strong.  This simple and modern arrangement is the perfect compliment to this problem and is so easy to create.  I chose the prettiest blooms for this arrangement, since each of them get so much focus.  I love the stripes of green that two of them have and that they get to be highlighted through this display.

Cut the stems at different lengths to give the flowers different heights.  It’s okay to have them peeking out the top a bit, it only adds interest!



The last method I used was the bouquet method.  I picked this up from the amazing flower vendors at the farmers market.  They always create the most beautiful arrangements and I wanted to try to recreate their method at home.

You start with just a few blooms (that will ultimately be the center of your arrangement) and then build out from there.  I used three types of tulips, the Ad Rem, Curly Sue and Orange Princess. I tried to arrange them so they they didn’t touch another of the same type.

Once you have put together the bouquet, you can drop them into a water filled vase and be done.  If you want a tighter presentation, simply wrap them with some floral tape.  If you have never used floral tape before, it gets sticky as it is stretched, so be sure to stretch it as you wrap.

Then, cover the floral tape with decorative ribbon or string.  I used some jute twine that I had leftover from my Chalk Cloth Banner.  Once the floral tape is covered, trim the bottom and drop it into a vase that is 1/4 filled with water.


The end result will look like this.

So there you have THREE methods for arranging flowers on your own at home.  I hope this helps you out this holiday season.  Have you ever tried to arrange flowers on your own?  What are your favorite tips and tricks?
~
Thanks Yvonne and Dress This Nest!

And Happy Thanksgiving from the Sun Valley Floral Farm...and Flower Talk.

What is Hip? ...Rose Hip that is

What is Hip? ...Rose Hip that is

Cotinus Ilex Rose Hips Tower of Power. What is Hip Willow Creek

The legendary California Grown soul band, Tower of Power asked the immortal question “What is Hip” back in 1973. This song was in my CD player as I took a sunrise drive up to our farm in Willow Creek, California. Even in the predawn light, it is a gorgeous drive as you zoom up from the foggy coast into the crisp clear mountains of the Six Rivers National Forest. Winding roads and dramatic overlooks welcome you as the first glimmer of daylight starts to appear in the east.

Autumn is the time our Willow Creek Farm really shines. We grow cotinus, snowberries, viburnum, Chinese lantern, ilex and rose hips along the banks of the pristine Trinity River. Late summer through December, different crops mature for harvest.  I was here on a mission…to find out once and for all, What is hip? …Rose Hip that is.

Rose hips traditionally develop on wild roses as the flowers drop off. The rose hip, also called the rose haw, is actually the fruit of the rose. Rose hips begin to form after successful pollination of flowers in spring or early summer, and ripen in late summer through autumn. Our rose hips are bred specifically to yield beautiful rich red hips, from a light pink flower. Roses and rose hips were probably first cultivated in ancient Persia and carried to Greece and Rome, the botanical genus, Rosa, is derived from the Greek, roden, meaning "red" and the Latin, ruber, also meaning "ruby" or "red," as apparently, the roses of the ancient Mediterranean region were deep crimson.

The Rose Hip Flower, then a few months later, the Hip.

As one of the most concentrated sources of Vitamin C available rose hips are very popular in many common cold preventives and remedies. According to some sources, rose hips may have up to ten times the amount of vitamin C as a lemon, although, much of this is lost if the hip is allowed to dry. During World War II, the British government directed citizens to create a syrup from rose hips to supplement children’s diets, since citrus fruit was incredibly hard to find.

We don’t recommend consuming our rose hips, since they have been bred to appear in floral arrangements instead of tea and tinctures. We do recommend using them as a great design element, especially in fall bouquets.


The Rose Hips add texture and color to these fall bouquets created by our bouquet division. 

Rose hips usually play a supporting role in an arrangement, however, sometimes it is fun to make the warm color of the rose hips really stand out and take center stage.

Rose Hips with Sun Valley's "Cocotte" Lily.

Out in the field, you really get a feel for this versatile plant.  Coming down the ridge toward our the stands of rose hips in Willow Creek, you see the red glimmer of the fields and the tracks of black bears, who find these fruits a tasty treat. 

Coming down the ridge to the Rose Hip and Ilex fields, with the Trinity River peaking through.

Rose hips splashing color through the field. 

Fall is a great time to explore the possibilities of designing with rose hips.  Cultures around the world have been experimenting with rose hips for centuries.  Here are a few non-floral applications.

• Rose hips have recently become popular as a healthy treat for pet chinchillas and guinea pigs. These small rodents are unable to manufacture their own vitamin C and are unable to digest many vitamin-C rich foods. Rose hips provide a sugarless, safe way to increase their vitamin C intake.
• Rose hips are also fed to horses. The dried and powdered form can be fed at a maximum of 1 tablespoon per day to improve coat condition and new hoof growth.
• The fine hairs found inside rose hips are used as itching powder. 
• Rose hips are commonly used as an herbal tea, often blended with hibiscus and as an oil. They can also be used to make jam, jelly, marmalade, and rose hip wine. Rose hip soup, "nyponsoppa", is especially popular in Sweden. Rhodomel, a type of mead, is made with rose hips.
• Rose hips can be used to make Palinka, a traditional Hungarian alcoholic beverage.

The wide array of uses for rose hips, whether in floral design or in other preparations, is pretty amazing.  So to answer the the question, "What is hip"  you only need to make it to the end of the song,

Hipness is. What it is!

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