Top Five Stylish Halloween Flowers

Top Five Stylish Halloween Flowers

autumn Autumn Colors burgundy Cotinus fall Halloween Hypericum orange art tango lilies Rosehips Sunflowers z-callas zantedeschia

I love Halloween.  Not only is it full of mischief and fun, it has a style all its own.  As one of the first "events" of the 2016 fall season, Halloween is full of changing color, mystery, and delight.  Today, we're talking flowers with a focus on FIVE of the best seasonal blooms for all your spooky arrangements.

Orange Art Tango Lily

Orange Art Tango Lily bouquet featured in Flowers& Magazine

1. Orange Art Tango Lily

One of my favorite fall flowers is the unique Orange Art Tango Lily, a wonderfully bold Latvian Asiatic hybrid featuring saturated orange petals with thick brushstrokes of dark burgundy in the throat. It's a stunning flower by itself, and its dramatic color scheme can work in all styles of autumn-themed bouquets.

2. Sunflowers

The best Halloween colors are warm, saturated, and full of contrast. Sunflowers, of course, are solidly autumn. Their fiery yellow, red, and orange petals paired with giant black, green, and taupe eyes provide a distinctive textural juxtaposition. They're gorgeous, fun, singular, and perfect for Halloween.

3. Celosia

Other things to look for in Halloween flowers are texture, unusual shapes, and vibrancy. A perfect example is our line of Bombay Celosia, which comes in electric hues of orange, red, hot pink, yellow, and lime green. Their brain-like appearance is perfect for Halloween decor, but they can also lend an  elegant, inspired feel.  According to AIFD designer Walter Fedyshyn, its "velvety texture makes any arrangement look like a work of art."

Bombay Celosia

 4. Fall Berries: Rosehips & Hypericum

Continuing on the theme of texture, some excellent autumn berries which provide pops of colors and depth are rosehips and hypericum.   These focal points are tried-and-true fall favorites and come in a variety of colors to add just the seasonal touch you need.

Sunflowers with Pumpkin Hypericum and Red Rosehips (L-R)

5. Dark Purple Accents

Dark purple hues, such as burgundy and maroon, resonate with the naturally changing autumnal ambiance.  A great example is royal purple cotinus, whose dark, earthy leaves have a bright red, iridescent edging--it provides a great backdrop to warmer autumnal shades.   

Royal Purple Cotinus paired with Royal Sunset Lilies

Zantedeschia, or z-callas, also offer a great range of dark maroon and burgundy blooms.  They have an incredible vase life, look stunning on their own and also when paired with other autumn favorites such as brassica and bells of Ireland.

Burgundy Zantedeschia, on its own and paired with Bells of Ireland and Crane Red Brassica

Sun Valley's division of hand-crafted bouquet design, Sun Pacific Bouquet (aka Sun Pac), is answering the call of autumn with the use of some of these fall favorites.  Their 2016 Fall Bouquet Collection features flowers such as warm-hued lilies and sunflowers, backed by seasonal greens and burgundy hypericum and cotinus.

Wild Fall Bouquet and Black Spider Bouquet by SunPac

When creating your fall arrangements this year try your hand with some of these five autumnal elements; and of course, do not forget the best part of Halloween bouquets--spooky fun.

Summertime in Willow Creek

Summertime in Willow Creek

Cotinus fuji golden spirit Rosehips royal purple cotinus summer flower farming summer flowers Willow Creek

The last time I was in Willow Creek it was winter.  It was cold and the majority of the farm was pruned, flat, and waiting...But now, smack dab in the middle of summer, our Willow Creek Farm is crawling with activity, growth, and color! 

Willow Creek: Winter to Summer Transformation

So, what's hot in Willow Creek? Well, right now we are pulling in tons of our Fuji rosehips, whose berries resemble small green apples with a little bit of red, hence the name, Fuji. Designers love these red-and-green-hued rosehips which are perfect for the summer color palette. 

Fuji Rosehips in Willow Creek

Rosehips develop after their wild, pink flowers are pollinated and the petals drop off.  Once the bloom is gone, the seed pod (or hip) begins to form.  The species of Rosa we use are specifically bred to create big, beautiful hips, which is why regular rose bushes will not produce anything quite like them (to learn more about how we care for Rosehips, click here).

Rosehip Flower and Subsequent Berries

As the season progresses, so will the Rosehip's color, transforming from the fresh, summertime green-red combination into an autumnal reddish-orange hue (perfect for fall!) and finally, developing into a saturated cherry red.  What's really cool is that their changing complexion stays in line with each season's color scheme, keeping rosehips in high demand for fashionable, seasonal arrangements. 

Rosehip Field

So, now is the time to act on the Fuji variety; soon, the berries will morph into autumn's red-orange hue, and as the foliage drops off, the berries will turn to red, and before we know it, the magical rosehip season is over for yet another year.

Seasonal Rosehip Color changes

And what else is happening in our Willow Creek Fields besides the Rosehip Harvest?  One of my favorite crops to explore is our plots of ten-foot-tall Cotinus.

Ten-foot-tall Cotinus

The Royal Purple Cotinus in Willow Creek has grown well over my head and towers above its neighboring rosehips.  Its burgundy-purple sheen absolutely glows in the afternoon sunshine and its height makes quite the impression.

 While the upper side of each leaf is a bright burgundy, the underside is a muted silver-green (as you can see in the photo to the right).  Each leaf is framed by a bright red, iridescent edging, giving the entire branch a unique, dramatic, and contrasting presentation.

And how it loves to grow! Royal Purple Cotinus is drought-tolerant, extremely resilient to pests and fungi, requires minimal fertilization, and performs magnificently!  We start harvesting the stems around June and continue to pick through summer, usually stopping by the end of October. 


...and it gets better.  In the last couple years Sun Valley has added a new Cotinus variety, Golden Spirit, which I like to call the "wicked green Cotinus," and taking a look at the photos, you can see why.  This variety of Cotinus is brilliantly colored and gorgeously green.

Golden Spirit Cotinus

They act similarly to the Royal Purple cultivar, though because they are so light in color, we have had to make a few practical changes.  Royal Purple Cotinus is grown in open fields, allowing its dark leaves to really soak up the sunshine.  But, like any fair-skinned friend, Golden Spirit needs its complexion protected with shade cloth, otherwise the leaves will burn.

 

Golden Spirit Cotinus under Shade Cloth

Last but definitely not least, I took a peak at our extensive Ilex crops which are well on their way.

Come September, our orange and gold varieties will be ready to rock fall floral arrangements; followed closely behind by the harvest of our red Ilex (perfect timing for Thanksgiving and December Holidays).  Stay tuned, as we'll be giving you another Ilex update as these "winterberries" start rolling in the following months.





But, wait! It's still summer!  And while Fall and its autumn-hued Rosehips and Ilex are around the corner, 'tis the season for fresh Fuji Rosehips, giant Royal Purple Cotinus, and glowing Golden Spirit.

Until next time, this is Lady Aster signing off in beautiful Willow Creek.

 

Ilex and Rosehips, A Farm Photo Essay

Ilex and Rosehips, A Farm Photo Essay

Ilex Rosehips trinity river Willow Creek

Farmers are no strangers to sunrise. In fact, I would be willing to bet that most farmers find the predawn light the nicest time of day. The winds are calm, a lingering wispy fog dances across the landscape and there is a crispness in the air that will vanish like the stars when the sun rises.

Geese welcoming the day.

Last week, I arrived at our farm in Willow Creek, California at about 6 AM. I was ahead of Vincente and his picking team so the gate was still closed. I jiggled the lock until it came free and then I was able to pull into the dark dirt road that leads to the ilex and rosehips. The fields are at the end of a twisty road, which leads down from a ridge to the Trinity River bed.

Ilex bushes, heavy with berries

The first thing you are aware of as you step out of the car, is that you are not alone. My headlights likely scared off a black bear, the tell tale signs are everywhere... and the evidence is fresh.

Taking photographs in the early light of dawn is a rewarding challenge. With the sun moving surprisingly fast below the horizon, you know you only have a set amount of time, before the light changes from the "magic hour" to just ordinary flat daylight.

Rosehips catching the light.

The red hues of the ilex and rosehips seem to attract the limited light, as the saturated berries possess a quiet luminescence.

You can't help but feel close to the land; the only sound is your own foot steps, the rhythmic drone of the river and occasional honks from geese sleeping in the reeds along the river's edge.

Ilex berries close-up

So much of the flower world is tied to spotless photo shoots, crystal vases and arrangements which almost look artificial. As I peer through the view finder of my camera, I see the farm as part of an eco-system, and part of a natural community, with the farmers as care takers. The sparrows are awake now popping in and out of the bushes, red berries clutched in their beaks.

Over the course of a year we grow many crops here, beside ilex and rosehips. Cotinus (which we are still harvesting!), Viburnum, Snowberries and other crops that like hot days and cool nights.

The Trinity River

The tone of this small farm is set by the river. The Trinity flows steadily past the fields, making its way to the confluence with the Klamath River, then on to the Pacific. Home to eagles, otters and salmon, the river still flows strong even after a dry summer.

I hear another sound echoing down the valley, the sound is man made. I look up to see a John Deere trudging slowly down the ridge, towing a trailer which will soon be filled with bright red berries, the sun still hasn't shown except on the tip of the opposite side of the valley.

Farmers commute

The days work begins, not at break neck speed, but at a steady, reliable pace. The work will follow the course of the sun across the sky, until it dips below the horizon on the far side of the valley. These days will be repeated, through the fall, moving to where the rosehips and ilex are the ripest and ready to pick.

I make my way back up the road, slowly gaining elevation as I climb out of the valley. Something pulls at my attention. Instinctively, I set up the camera on the tri-pod, the geese I heard earlier are grouping up to continue their journey south. Just as I think I have missed the moment, they decide to take one more tour of the farm, forming a perfect "V" over the ilex.

Click.

Geese over ilex.

    

Mighty Mites Protect Sun Valley's Rosehip Crop

Mighty Mites Protect Sun Valley's Rosehip Crop

#AmericanGrown Flowers mites Rosehips roses Willow Creek

In part two of our "Robin Goes to Willow Creek" series, we hear about the mighty mites that protect our rosehip crop. 

Our Willow Creek farm is home to one of my favorite crops: rosehips. When I visited two weeks ago, I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the flowering roses and the smell of roses in the wind. But I’m not the only one who favors these plants. Spider mites, tiny crawlies measuring less than a millimeter in size love making their homes on the leaves of these plants. A female spider mite can lay upwards of 20 eggs in a day which will hatch in around three days and begin laying eggs of their own in about five. These mites feed voraciously on the leaves of whose undersides they occupy and can cause big trouble for those who choose to grow plants they favor.

You can almost smell these beauties.

One surprising way to combat these spider mites is with more mites! And that is just what we are doing at our Willow Creek Farm. Last week I got the layman’s rundown on the predatory mites we are using to keep those pesky spider mites at bay. This year we are employing the help of two types of mites; neoseiulus californicus and phytoseiulus persimilis. Like the mites on which they prey, these mites are small in size but big in reproduction!

Our Willow Creek farm is a great place to be a on a sunny day.

The neoseiulus californiucs, as you may have guessed from its name, is native to this area and will lay between two and four eggs a day during its twenty-day lifespan, or 40 to 60 eggs in total. Fortunately for this mite and for us, their development is accelerated when the two spotted spider mites are regularly on the menu. These mites will reach adult stage about three times as fast as the spider mite which means they can consume them faster than the spider mite can reproduce, making them a perfect predator to keep our roses happy long enough to form the gorgeous rosehips we’ve been producing year after year. Another plus of this type of predatory mite being native is that it can survive our winters and will make a comfortable home for itself in the cracks of branches and proliferate the following year.

Unlike the neoseiulus, the phytoseiulus persimilis is not native to this area so it won’t hang around with us through the winter. These guys earn their keep by eating seven spider mites or up two twenty eggs per day and living on average 30 to 36 days. This gives them more than ten days more than our native neoseiulus to feed on those pesky spider mites. Their prolonged healthy appetites help keep our rosehips happy which keeps us happy, too!

Leaf inspection

Before leaving Willow Creek, I recruited team leader Vicente, to help me inspect the undersides of the rosehips for the eggs of the predatory mites that had been released just a few days prior. No luck this time, but I expect to see them during my next visit (how can I resist those gorgeous pink blooms?!)

Pollination is important for rosehips.

By the time the rosehips are ready to ship in the fall, the predatory mites will have devoured the spider mites, the neoseiulus will have evacuated the rosehips for the neighboring trees where they’ll nest for winter and the phytoseiulus will have naturally died out, leaving the rosehip leaves intact and beautiful for you and your customers.

Check out our rosehip Resource Page to learn more.

Rosehip Run Down

Rosehip Run Down

#AmericanGrown Flowers #CAGrown CA OT Hybrid lilies Pieter Landman Rosehips Willow Creek

Rosehip November, autumn I'll remember

Gold landing at our door, catch one leaf and

fortune will surround you evermore

                                  -Vashti Bunyan

Rosehips are a specialty branch that Sun Valley brings to market every fall.  How do we manage to get this impressive harvest?

Shocking OT Hybrid lilies, fall tulips, cotinus and rosehips, with our Willow Creek farm in the background.

Believe it or not but it starts in the middle of winter. One of the coldest jobs on the farm is to cut back the rosehips every January. A team heads out to our Willow creek farm and prunes the rose bushes all the way to the ground. They grow back really strong through spring and start to bloom in summer. Imagine a field of roses all giving off an amazing scent, this is the upside for the same crew with freezing hands and toes in January. The blooms need to be pollinated to create the hip, so we have local bee keepers bring in hives.  As I was out there last August, it was kind of scary since there aren’t just a few bees…there are thousands, and they are drunk on nectar and making enough honey to make any Pooh Bear drool.

Bee's are brought in to pollinate the rosehips.

Once the flowers are pollinated, the bloom falls off and the seed pod (a.k.a. the hip) will form. Scientifically this is the swollen ovary of the rose plant, ready for reproduction.  We maintain a steady supply of water to the field, and as the dry, chilly days of autumn come to Willow Creek the leaves naturally brown and fall off. This exposes our big, red rosehips. The roses are bred to provide the best hips, so this is why your roses at home don’t create hips like we offer.

Our roses develop into rosehips thanks to a few happy bees.

Since this crop is grown outside rather than in a greenhouse, we can’t control the harvest as much as other crops, like tulips.  When the rosehips come in, it’s all hands on deck to get them harvested and ready to sell. Right now our crew is picking big numbers of rosehip stems, and they are selling at about the same rate. (Hint! Hint!)

CA Grown rosehips, ready to ship.

One reason this product is big for Sun Valley is that due to agricultural restrictions, rosehips can’t be imported into the United States.  You will often hear the benefits of buying American Grown flowers, however, in this case you don’t have a choice!  Sun Valley is the major producer, so check in on current availability.

By about mid-December, we must be done picking as the weather turns for the worst. A few weeks later in January, the process starts again.

Rosehips in August, still developing.

At home or in the design studio, make sure to keep the rosehips in water. They are still drinking water and will start to look a little like raisins if they don’t stay hydrated.

A beautiful autumn table arrangement, featuring rosehips, Sumatra lilies, red tulips, brassica, and a variety of Christmas Greens...all available from Sun Valley Floral Farm.

Design wise, rose hips are extremely versatile and fit the holiday color palette perfectly. Thanks to Pieter Landman who designed the two above arrangements.

To get deeper into the history of rosehips check out this post: What is Hip? 

Hollywood Flowers

Hollywood Flowers

Bouquets channel islands beach eucalypyus Gerrit Vanderkooy Iris Lane DeVries Oxnard Rosehips salal snapdragons sunflowewrs Tulips

“In Hollywood, brides keep the bouquets and throw away the groom.”


                                                                                            -Groucho Marx

The first thing you notice when you step into the Sun Valley Oxnard headquarters, just about an hour from the glitz and glam of Hollywood, is the smell. The incredible aroma knocks you off your feet. You look around, what is going on here? Why doesn’t the Arcata farm smell this good?

You take a closer look, oh, they are making bouquets. There are racks of eucalyptus, salal, bear grass and all sorts of other fragrant greens. People are busy snipping them to just the right height to combine with stacks of lilies, tulips, irises, snapdragons and sunflowers. Whoa, this is quite a big production!


Our Oxnard bouquet makers, with eucalyptus and rosehips.

What most people don’t realize is that on a flower farm, you don’t get to enjoy the scent of the flowers all that much. The flowers are picked when the buds are developed, yet not quite open. So if you go stand in a cooler brimming with ultra-fragrant Oriental Lilies you don’t smell anything special. These flowers will open up perfectly and their fragrance will enchant the person who takes them home, however, in the cooler they are just patiently waiting for their time to shine. This is not the case in the Oxnard bouquet division, the wonderful smell of the all the different elements is truly captivating.



Our Oxnard bouquet makers, with tulips, snapdragons and sunflowers.

Our farm in Oxnard has a little different vibe than Arcata, everybody has sunglasses either on or perched above their foreheads, this is a fashion accessory you rarely need in foggy Humboldt County. Getting to the farm you realize that you are in a serious agricultural area. Field after field is being plowed and shaped to grow strawberries, raspberries and a few flowers. According to Oxnard General Manager, Gerrit Vanderkooy, this land was all citrus groves, specifically lemons, up until the seventies. At that point, people started removing the lemons and planting huge fields of more profitable berry crops, it was at this same time that the first Dutch style greenhouse was built in the area.

Sun Valley now has three non-contiguous pieces of property we cultivate. We have named them, Home Ranch, Channel Islands and Golden Coast. If you are familiar with Southern California geography, you know the Channel Islands are just off the coast. I thought it was a long shot that we were actually growing flowers out on the Channel Islands, since most of them are a National Park. I did have a pleasant vision in my head that the Channel Islands Farm was near Channel Islands Beach. The farm would have a sweet view of the Islands as they lay off the coast in the warm waters of So-Cal. Add surfboards, guitars, bon fires, icy cold beer, along with some flowers, and this topped my list of “must see” things to do in Oxnard.

We hop into “Old Red” the mud caked Ford pick-up truck which will take us to the Channel Islands Farm, I immediately think, “Well, this ride isn’t going to impress anybody at the beach.” As we attempt to pull out into heavy traffic, my thoughts change to, “Well, I may die in this muddy truck.” Gerrit punches the gas pedal, and about 2 seconds later the truck lurches forward. I notice with a bit of concern that Gerrit is steering one way and “Old Red” is going the other. The truck miraculously straightens out onto the road.

Full steam ahead, I figure when we get to the beach, I may just have Gerrit drop me off behind a sand dune or something. We bump off the paved road onto a dirt track surrounding a huge swath of land in tidy rows. “Mmmm," I think, "taking the back roads to the beach, cool.”

A minute later the truck comes to a stop by a stand of iris, Lane and Gerrit hop out, Lane pulls one stem out of the ground and starts inspecting the bulb development with his pocket knife. Then they dive into crates of bulbs to see if they are at the ideal stage to be planted. Lane and Gerrit are discussing rhizomes, weather conditions and soil conditions, while I start having a realization.


Gerrit and Lane, with Casa Blanca Iris bulbs, ready to plant.

We walk the length of the field, team members are busy planting Telstar iris bulbs in the fertile soil. Besides the lack of beach, the scene is rather beautiful. The rows of bulbs are being planted by hand, surrounded by palm trees, raspberry fields and the mountains of the Los Padres National Forest rising in the distance. There is something intangibly peaceful about standing out in the fields. Perhaps it is the quiet, or the breeze, or the potential which the soil holds. I still can’t put my finger on it, but I see why farmers, whether flowers, wheat, cotton or whatever, do it. There is a quiet spiritual experience to be found out among the rows.



We hop back in the truck to head back to Home Ranch. Old Red’s engine pouring on more horsepower that somehow gets lost before it reaches the rear wheels.

“So Gerrit, why do you call this field Channel Islands?”

His finger points up from the steering wheel to a passing street sign which reads, Channel Islands Boulevard.

“This is not the first time I’ve explained this question” he replies, with a knowing smile as his eyes laugh behind his sunglasses.  “You want to head over to Golden Coast?”

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