Knock Knock.
Who’s there?
Iris.
Iris Who?
Iris Valentine’s Day was OVER!
Telstar Iris is one of Sun Valley’s core crops. We grow several other varieties and colors, such as
Hong Kong,
Hommes Blue,
Casa Blanca and
Skydiver, but talk to any flower professional, and one word keeps coming up.
Telstar. The big, bright blue Telstar iris is the premier iris in floriculture. So why has the Telstar risen to such popularity?
The main reason for the Telstar’s success is that it always opens. …Yes, in this uncertain world, we stand behind our Iris with a guarantee that they will open. It wasn’t so long ago that some unscrupulous breeders flooded the market with substandard iris. This led florist and consumers to shy away from iris.
Luckily those days are past us, today, when you work with
Sun Valley you get access to the largest, most reliable Telstar iris crop in the world. These blue beauties flourish in
California's rich soil. Since we have farms both at the north end of the state and the south end of the state, we have virtually unlimited year round availability. Right now the iris crop is coming on strong at our
Oxnard Farm.
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| Our Telstar Iris Field in Oxnard, CA. |
The iris are situated among vast rows of strawberries in this agricultural hub, the thick fields of iris look like a sea of green, with little blue highlights. I was in these fields last week, and it truly is something to see. The day I was in Oxnard the wind was blowing hard, and the sun was shining cheerfully. It wasn’t “warm” but after walking with a very fast paced Lane DeVries you definitely start to warm up. The dryness in the air chapped my lips, but the view was so incredibly I barely noticed.
Our team of iris pickers were working close to the access road in waist high iris. They diligently make their way through rows as they evaluate the buds. Iris aren’t cut, they are pulled with a snapping motion that generally leaves the bulb in the ground. If the bulb hangs on, it is snipped in the field. The iris get bundled into various stem bunches, 10 is our standard size. They are then placed in white buckets full of water on carts at the end of the rows.
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| Iris, just picked. |
Picking an iris at the proper time is truly an art form. An experienced iris picker can tell by both a visual inspection and also by feeling the development of the flower with his or her fingers. Visually, it is very hard to do this in the field, experienced pickers are able to see some very small nuances in the stem to make the call whether to pick or leave it to develop a little more. The logistics of picking a crop like iris are pretty wild. In ideal conditions, you actually pick iris twice a day, because just that few extra hours can really make a difference. A team will stay in a “block” for about a week, picking twice a day for 5 to 6 days, and this will generally cover the picking the early, normal and late developing plants.
As a novice, I thought I could hop in there and find the iris at perfect picking stage. Not quite…
One of the pickers showed me how they train the newbies. The key is to hold a stalk up to the sun. The sun lets you see what is happening inside the sheath of the flower. It’s almost like looking at an x-ray of the flower; there you can see the developing blue color inside the bud. However, when you are in the field you can’t actually hold each bud up to the sun. This is where skill and experience come in….these men and women have it, I don’t.
The work of picking iris is definitely hard, but the beautiful location of the fields, the great group of team members and the lovely Southern California weather, must be why you see a lot of smiles out in the field.
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| Deep in the Iris |
While walking the fields with Lane, his attention to each block, to each row, to each individual plant is amazing. He is constantly stopping to feel the soil, check on bulb development and talk to the growers about how different plantings are performing. This attention to detail shows into the final product, day in and day out.
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| Lane DeVries inspecting our Telstar iris crop. |
The iris has remained a hugely popular flower for one big reason. It represents the color blue more than any other flower.
Quick, can you think of another blue flower?
Sure with a little thought, you came up with a couple, some varieties of
freesia,
delphinium or
hydrangea, but it was more of a challenge than you thought, right?
Iris are a favorite of the flower buying public and there is a huge market for them. If you aren’t currently offering iris, perhaps now is the time.
When it comes to harvesting Iris, timing is everything. The heads must be full, which means the tip of the iris will still be sheathed by green leaves, but contains color on the inside. The sheath keeps the iris petals safe during transport, and this picking point is considered the "window pane"-- the iris is still closed, but ready to bloom within a few days. It takes an experienced eye to notice the "window pane," and once it's noticed we have to move fast. At this stage, iris develops quickly and green buds in the morning can turn to colorful heads in the afternoon, which is why our dedicated Iris team sometimes picks two times a day. This hard work pays off, and is the backbone of our successful iris program, which is one of the largest in the country.
We have been growing iris for decades, using time-tested traditions and modern technology to perfect our techniques in both the fields and hoop houses. Our proprietary post-harvest care is something special too -- we are continually testing, innovating, and improving our post-harvest treatments, and that, when used in tandem with our cold-chain management, has created a consistent supply of high-quality, cut iris for the market, direct from our farms.
When it comes to harvesting Iris, timing is everything. The heads must be full, which means the tip of the iris will still be sheathed by green leaves, but contains color on the inside. The sheath keeps the iris petals safe during transport, and this picking point is considered the "window pane"-- the iris is still closed, but ready to bloom within a few days. It takes an experienced eye to notice the "window pane," and once it's noticed we have to move fast. At this stage, iris develops quickly and green buds in the morning can turn to colorful heads in the afternoon, which is why our dedicated Iris team sometimes picks two times a day. This hard work pays off, and is the backbone of our successful iris program, which is one of the largest in the country.
