PMA Picture Book

PMA Picture Book

2016 farmer's market Floral industry PMA Fresh Summit produce marketing association Sun Valley trade show wildflower bouquets

Hey there Flower Friends,  we just returned from Orlando, Florida where we attended the Produce Marketing Association's annual trade show, "Fresh Summit." This is one of the most fun, diverse, and colorful trade shows of the year--over 20,000 attendees come to check out booths by flower farmers, produce farmers, shippers, suppliers, buyers, and everyone in between--yes, it all comes together at PMA's Fresh Summit.

We covered our booth in rustic wooden signs, lights, and thousands of American-grown flowers--our own World of Color set to wow the crowd.  Our booth was styled after a Farmer's Market with three distinct themes:

•  4th Generation Flower Farmers: Lane comes from four generations of tulip farmers, and this honors that tradition with Tulips, Iris and Lilies.

• Sun Valley Flower Patch: Our Flower Patch featured a huge collection of flowers and botanicals, such as matsumoto asters, delphinium, cotinus, and ilex.  We pick our farm-fresh products regularly and have an amazing selection of flowers available every day of the week.

•  WildFlower Bouquets: Our wildflower bouquets our created at our Oxnard farm.  At PMA, we featured seasonal bouquets with a range of price points and recipes, and all consistently styled in a way that consumers love. This display in particular had people oohing and ahhing all day!

 But enough talk! Let's take a look through our 2016 PMA Picture Book:


Sun Valley's Farmer's Market

Some of our wooden Farmer's Market signage

Time for Iris

   

Tulips from a 4th generation flower farmer

Just 7 more weeks until December! 

 

Wildflower Bouquets

 The Big Picture 

Sun Valley Booth

Bird's Eye View of the Floral Pavilion

Sun Valley PMA Dream Team

This trade show was full of ideas, education, and resources about the future of the floral landscape, but what we really loved was the joining of experts, leaders and decision makers from every link of the fresh supply chain. Trade shows like this give all of us  the opportunity  learn from each other and be inspired by what we all bring to the table.  We hope you enjoyed this Fresh Summit Picture Book as much as we enjoyed being there!

Bloom Check Sustainability

Bloom Check Sustainability

American Grown Bloom check CA Grown Cut flowers Sun Valley Sustainability

Sun Valley just made a change that is good news for you, good news for your flowers, AND good news for the environment--we have officially switched over to Bloom Check.

Okay, so what is Bloom Check? Bloom Check a certification program all about sustainable farming practices in the US.  More specifically, it the gold standard in the sustainable certification of fresh cut flowers and foliage.

For retailers and consumers, it means the flowers you buy are grown under the highest standards for flower production, cultivated with respect for the land and dignity for the people who work it.  You are buying the best--and kindest--flowers that America has to offer.

For us, the flower farmer, it means we've met the most rigorous standards for growing flowers in the US.  We have gone through an extensive audit to ensure that we are using best practices with regards to water use, air and soil quality, wildlife protection, as well as societal impacts on our team members and community.    We have earned the right to wear the Bloom Check badge of honor on our (flower) sleeves, and we wear it proudly.  

Look for this sticker/logo on the flowers you buy

So, what are these rigorous standards? 

To ensure objectivity, the standards, accreditation, and audits for Bloom Check are conducted by a third-party certifier, Protected Harvest.

Protected Harvest is an independent, nonprofit organization which judges sustainability based on nine different production management categories: field scouting, information sources, pest management, field management, weed management, insect management, disease management, soil and water quality, and storage.
 

Not only that, we must stay below a certain number of toxicity units per acre.  Highly toxic pesticides are prohibited, and earth-friendly biological methods (good bugs vs. bad bugs) are encouraged.  Also, each handler of the crop must undergo a chain-of-custody audit that follows the crop from field to retail.  This extra step ensures that ALL levels of flower production (including storage, packing, and transportation)  is done as sustainably as possible.

Yellow Sticky Tape as non-invasive bug control

How is Bloom Check different from other sustainable certifications?

Origin matters!  Bloom Check is specifically designed for flower farmers in the United States, giving you the assurance that your flowers were not imported from another country on an air freighter or big boat.  Moreover, because Bloom Check is specific to American Grown flower products, the farms must also adhere to regulations put forth by the USDA, EPA, CDFA, State Water Board, Coastal Commission, and more  This gives consumers an authoritative guarantee from Protected Harvest and tens of regulatory government agencies that the Bloom Check flowers you buy are sustainably grown, with no shortcuts.

Sun Valley has always practiced sustainability, but changing our certification to Bloom Check helps us exhibit our practices with pride (and a stout guarantee). Sustainability is innovation, and our efforts to rework energy use, recycle water and soil, and take care of our employees is not only good for the environment, it's good for business.

When you buy or sell our Bloom Check-certified blooms, you can feel good that they are not only gorgeous in their appearance but also good for the earth and the future.

Dianthus: "Flower of the Gods"

Dianthus: "Flower of the Gods"

dianthus Green Ball Dianthus green trick Lady Aster Sun Valley

"Can I touch it?"

  This is THE Dianthus barbatus question.  Looking at the photos, I'm sure you can see why.  Dianthus barbatus (aka Green Ball or Green Trick) looks like a self-contained diorama of a mossy forest (and yes, it is as soft as it looks).

The history of Dianthus dates back to over 2000 years, making it one of the oldest cultivated flower varieties.  Greeks and Romans revered the plant, using its flowers for art, decor, and to build their iconic garlands.  Two millennia later, Dianthus is still highly desirable. Just four years ago, two new varieties of Dianthus barbatus--better known as Green Ball and Green Trick--have been made available to the flower market. 

These two new varieties provide bouquets with a never-seen-before texture and aspect.  They are round, focal, and green, made up of soft filaments sitting atop a strong carnation-like stem.  The difference between the two is simply size--Green ball has a diameter of 6cm or larger, while Green Trick is categorized as smaller than 6cm.

Row of freshly picked Dianthus

We grow our Dianthus at our Oxnard farm, where the warm climate works well with its growing needs.  I got together with one of our head growers, Manuel, who was able to answer my many Dianthus questions:

Q. How do we cultivate our Dianthus?

A. We start with really small, rooted cuttings, which we transplant into our hoop houses. We grow Dianthus year-round and always plant in soil.

Q. What kind of growing conditions does it need?
A. Dianthus likes warmth which is why we grow it here in Southern California. The temperate weather is perfect.  However, too much heat will kill it, so we do take steps to maintain a perfect balance of light and shade, warm and cool.  During summertime, we use shade cloth, and when winter arrives we take the shade cloth off and use plastic on the hoops in order to keep the warmth in during the cooler evenings. 

Q. How do you know when they're ready to be picked?
A.  It takes an average of 10-12 weeks from planting until the beginning of harvest, but we can tell when the plants are ready because the green heads are full, rotund, and soft in appearance.  This means the plant is mature and prime for picking.

   

Doug and Lane showing off our Green Ball Crop

Dianthus, ready to shine

These excellent cut flowers look great in table arrangements and do well accenting other colors. They are easy to incorporate, and they introduce a unique shape, color, and texture to any arrangement.  In addition, the lush blooms are incredibly long-lasting (up to 4 weeks!).  Mix them into woodsy, whimsical, rustic arrangements or pair them with elegant callas, hydrangeas, and lisianthus for an elegant feel.

Add another level to your floral creativity with the versatile and verdant "flower of the gods," Dianthus!

Inspirational Dianthus Designs:

Calla and Dianthus bouquet, photo courtesy of  Modernly Wed

Mixed Dianthus Bouquet Photo Courtesy of A Colorado Courtship

A Rustic-inspired table arrangement, photo courtesy of Ruffled

Simple, elegant table arrangements, photos via Style Me Pretty

Adorable Dianthus boutineers, photo via Inspired By This

Children of the Sun

Children of the Sun

Baja Lady Aster Mahogany Sunflower Red Sunflower Sun Valley Sunflowers Teddy Bear

A Sun Valley Riddle: What flower originated in North America, was domesticated by American Indians, commercialized by Russians, and then finally returned to North America for hybridization and commercial farming over 100 years ago?

If you guessed Sunflower you are correct! And you get bonus points if you guessed Helianthus (From the Greek: Hēlios, "sun" and anthos, "flower").

Sunflower: World Traveler
 

As mentioned in our riddle, the sunflower’s wild ancestor is native to North America, and it was the American Indians who first domesticated it into a single-headed plant in order to harvest the seeds.  However, they also saw the value and beauty in the plant for non-food uses as well.  According to The American Society of Agronomy, they used all parts of the versatile plant to make dye for textiles, oil for skin and hair, and they even used the sturdy, dried stalk as building material.  The plant itself, along with its seeds, was widely used in ceremonies. 

Eventually explorers took this exotic flora back to Europe, where it was adopted and commercialized in Russia.  Why? It just so happened that sunflower oil was one of the few fats allowed to be consumed by Orthodox Russians during Lent, and its demand shot up!  Only in the last 150 years has the sunflower returned to North America as a cultivated crop, and it was here that hybridization techniques were utilized to give us the beloved ornamental sunflower that we offer today.  

Chasing the Sun

The demand for year-round sunflowers has transported our sunflower operation to Baja California, where the balmy climate is just what these bright babies need.  Because what a sunflower reallyloves is......well, you know, sun. And lots of it.  Sunflowers also like consistency and hate stress, so the warm, long Baja days translate into comfortable nights which give our sunflowers the consistent weather conditions that keeps them happily reaching for the sky. 

Consistency is one of the keys to a successful flower farming operation, and our ability to grow sunflowers in two Baja locations (Southern Cabo for the first half of the year, Northern Ensenada for the second half) allows for a continuity in weather that gives us (and you) a regular supply of high-quality, floral-grade sunflowers.

How We Harvest

We plant sunflowers in rows in the field, where they have room to stretch and soak up as much sun as possible.  They love the sun so much that their heads will follow its path as it races across the sky.     

 

Sunflower farm in Baja

The first thing a sunflower forms atop its stalk is its center.  From there, it begins building its petals, and as soon as one petal begins to raise its vibrant head, that is our signal that the sunflower is ready to be picked.    

Freshly picked sunflowers || Completely opened sunflowers

After picking, we hydrate the blooms for 24 hours and then ship them while they're still closed (which prevents possible damage).  Once they arrive to their destination, the first drink of water will help them open up and flatten out into their iconic shape. They can be shipped wet or dry, with or without foliage, which makes it easy for you to have your aesthetic pick of the litter.  In addition, our ability to grow them year-round (peak season June-November) has allowed us to increase the amount of specialty sunflowers in production, such as our Teddy Bear Sunflower (super soft, multi-layered petals), our fall-season red sunflowers, and our newer green-centered varieties which are all seeing an increased demand.

So whether you desire the classic black-eye sunflower, its red-hued sister, or teddy bear cousin you can let the sunshine in, no matter where you are.  

Green-eye Sunflower

Red Sunflowers

What Happens When Spring gets Super Fancy

What Happens When Spring gets Super Fancy

#americangrown #CAGrown #DLT #icecreamtulips #OriginMatters #superfancy Double Touch Pop-up tulips Queensland spring Sun Valley Tulips

It's that time of year again! Springtime has arrived and is getting all dressed up in its seasonal best. Trees, shrubs, and plants are showing off their colors everywhere, and even our tulips are getting Super Fancy.  

You may remember the celebrated variety of Ice Cream Tulips which made their Sun Valley debut around this time last year.  We sold out almost immediately. Though we are producing more bunches this season (and adding more varieties, to boot), their ever-increasing popularity is making these sweet visual treats disappear as quickly as you can murmur, "Wow."


Ice Cream Tulips are a very special Super Fancy variety, which growers and breeders know as DLTs, or double late tulips.  The "double" refers to the layers of white petals inside which slowly extend above outer pink petals, and eventually completely open to show off its full splendor.  Because of the sheer volume of petals, DLTs are also referred to as "peony tulips."




Some of the other Super Fancy varieties we have added this year are the breathtaking multi-fringed Double Touch and Queensland.  Check out those ruffled layers!

Triple-fringed Queensland

Multi-layered Double Touch

We grow all our Super Fancy Tulips in our Arcata Hoop Houses, which is necessary for two reasons: 1) The hoop houses provide plenty of natural light, which is needed to achieve those rich outer colors, and 2) The open sides allow the fresh morning air and cool evening breeze of the North Coast to circulate freely, which is necessary for proper growth of these babies.  We begin with low light in order to get these normally genetically short varieties to stretch to the desired 14-16 inch stem length.  Why are genetically short? Because most of the plant's energy goes into making those inside petals POP.

Due to the popularity of Super Fancies and how quickly they flew off our farm last year, we are pleased to announce that we will be offering more varieties like Ice Cream and Queensland--check out Pop-up Purple, Pop-up Yellow, Vaya con Dios, and Basita below.  If you happen to get a taste of  one of these bunches this year, consider yourself lucky; however, don't fret if you missed the boat--we'll be bringing these visual treats back next year.   

Pop-up Purple and Pop-up Yellow

  

Vaya con Dios and Basita

I'm proud to say that Sun Valley is on the forefront of production for these Super Fancy, Multi-Layered, Mind-Blowing Tulips.  Ice Cream, Queensland, and Double Touch will be in production until the end of May, and our hope is to continue to increase this program so that more and more of you can have these remarkable American grown tulips in your lives, so get 'em while they're hot outta the hoop house !  And remember--because these Super Fancy  tulips have really only come to market in the last few years, we are all part of forming their current story, but their future narrative is up to you.

Queensland growing in the Hoop House