Top 5 Valentine's Day Mishaps

Top 5 Valentine's Day Mishaps

Valentines Day valentines day disaster valentines day humor

With the big day exactly a week away, I'm sure many of you are feeling the burn: sleepless nights, 5000-calorie afternoons, and days where it seems nothing will go right. Stress relief is what the Flower Doctor has ordered, and the prescription is some Valentine's Day Humor. Specifically, Valentine's Day Disaster Stories, because, after all, misery loves company.

So this week, we present our Top 5 Valentine's Day Mishaps, from the most tame to the most horrific. 

5)  Not Very Punny Funny.

 "I complained to my boyfriend of 10 years that I never get flowers so the next year I got a box of assorted "flours." He thought he was funny—I wasn't laughing."
- T.B.

 Lesson Learned: Just....save your puns for another time.  (That goes for everyone, all of the time).

4)  DIY Disasters

Pinterest has inspired hundreds of thousands of individuals to try their hands at something new and creative.  These people tried baking.

 

Lesson Learned: Hey, don't be afraid to think outside the box! But if it's something you've never done before...do a test run. 

3) Love on Fire

According to the Daily Mail, a man in Kent, England wanted to surprise his girlfriend at her apartment with chilled champagne, flower petals, and lit tea candles spelling out her name across the carpeted floor. However, when she arrived home...... 

 Lesson Learned: Fire lights other things on fire. Especially when no one is around to stop it.

2)  My Bloody Valentine

There's not an ounce of romance in this Valentine's Day disaster.   On February 14th, 1929, a delivery of bootleg whiskey was expected at George "Bugs" Moran's headquarters (a longtime, bitter rival to gangster Al Capone).  Instead of a whiskey delivery, "Machine Gun" McGurn and three of his men entered Moran's headquarters, killing seven of his guys.  This was the last confrontation between the rival gangs, and is now known as the "St. Valentine's Day Massacre."

 Lesson Learned: You may feel like a co-worker, family member, or partner is really just asking for it this Valentine's Day.......just don't. It's so messy. 

1) The Original Valentine's Day Disaster 

In the time of Emperor Claudius II (268-270 AD), St. Valentine was a holy priest in Rome. The emperor had banned all marriage and engagements, because he believed they made young men unwilling to join his army. St. Valentine continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret, and paid for his romantic gestures with his head.  

  Lesson Learned: See? Even the very first Valentine's Day was a disaster.


Feel better?

..... No?

How about now?

Gambling, Flowers and the Weather

Gambling, Flowers and the Weather

Califonia grown Doug Dobecki flower farming gambling Holiday planting Iris Lane DeVries Lilies Matsumoto Asters Oxnard santa claus Tulips Valentines Day

“I don’t have to go to Las Vegas, I’m a farmer.” –Lane DeVries


While most of the nation is working on their list for Santa, stringing up lights on the house or preparing for Hanukkah, here at Sun Valley we are already looking ahead to Valentine’s Day. As flower farmers, we have to have our crops in the ground well ahead of any holiday event. Of course, Valentine’s Day is to flowers, what the Super Bowl is to football. You have to have your team functioning at the highest level and all systems must be “go”. All your training and sacrifice has been leading up to this moment for the wild ride which kicks into high gear just about on Ground Hog Day.

Baby Iris, these will be ready for Valentine's Day.

Now the gambling begins. Flower farmers have an extremely perishable crop, much more so even than food. We wager every time we plant a bulb, wagering that that flower will be sold, after we give it all the love, attention and resources a flower needs to grow. There is nothing sadder than tossing out a bunch of flowers which were grown, but never purchased. This is sad on many levels, especially the economic one.

We track Mother Nature’s cycles so we have a historical context to work with. Seeing how the weather patterns effect the flowers growth and harvest rates is a constant job. Anticipating the first frost, knowing when a big weather system is going to move in, planning ahead to know that the shorter days are going to create a need for more time in the ground for a flower to reach maturity, all of this is a science. However, Mother Nature is not a scientist. She is crafty, wily and always happy to throw a curve ball at you.

Walk onto any farm in the world and ask the simple question, “What is the weather going to be like tomorrow?” and prepare for an onslaught of information, debate, charts, Doppler radar print outs, almanac readings and a fair amount of superstition. In our office the weather guru is Doug Dobecki. Better have your facts straight if you are going to talk weather with Doug. If you didn’t notice that low pressure building off the Philippines which could bring rain to our Oxnard Farm or didn’t notice the cold front lingering in the Aleutian Islands that could set back our tulip production by a day or two next week, you are going to get a weather clinic. It is even rumored that Santa Claus calls Doug on the 24th of December to know how warm to dress.




Flower farming is a job done with two hands. One hand is harvesting the flower which will bloom today; the other hand is planting the bulb, which will bloom in the future. There is very little time for rest this time of year, as we harvest for the holidays and plant for Valentine's Day, in February we will be picking for Valentine's Day, while we plant for Mother’s Day. And so it goes, as the earth travels in its yearly journey around the sun.

We are about 11 weeks out from Valentine’s Day, so our enormous the lily crop is in the ground. A lily takes between 12-16 weeks to reach harvest, and what a beautiful flower for all you Cupids out there. Our iris crop is in the ground as well, since an iris takes about 14 weeks in the winter months to reach harvest. Our tulips are already rooted, and sitting in the cooler, waiting to be put into a warm greenhouse in the weeks just before Valentine's. Of course, all these numbers are just educated guesses, if there is a cold snap, the flowers will slow down and we will be sweating to get them to harvest in time, and vice versa, if it  suddenly gets unseasonably warm and sunny, then the flowers will be ready to pick in late January…uh-oh.


Soil grown Tulips in their early stage.

Another challenge our growers face is anticipating the color mixes needed. Using our stunning Matsumoto Asters grown at our Oxnard Farm as an example; here is what has to happen. A Matsumoto takes 14-15 weeks to reach harvest. For Valentine’s Day, we need to have almost the entire crop blooming in Red and Hot Pink colors for about 10 days. The weeks before and immediately after Valentine’s Day, the colors that are in demand for bouquets, weddings and such are purple, white and lavender. So it takes some serious forethought to make it all work out…luckily this isn’t our first rodeo, and Sun Valley is known for having the best year round flower availability in the industry.


Red and Hot Pink Matsumoto Asters will be ready for Valentine's Day.

Anticipating the color demands, matched with environmental conditions is just one of the interesting equations in the flower industry. Too bad they don’t have Powerball in California, with the odds we face every day, our growers would win.


Walking the farm with Lane and Gerrit this fall, I commented on how much I enjoyed seeing the crops in the ground, getting a different perspective on our Matsumotos which are an almost bush like plant. From my perspective, I enjoyed seeing the whole plant not just the stem with a flower on top. As I made this comment, both Gerritt and Lane stopped dead in their tracks, Gerrit politely said, “I like to see the flowers in a box.”

We turned and kept walking, a moment later, Lane added, “With a label on it.”

Such is the flower business, hoping against hope, stem by stem to get the flower to grow, to harvest, to market and to get the next bulb planted.

Licorice and Tulips

Licorice and Tulips

#cucumbers #Redwoods Artichokes California Flowers Dutch Eureka CA Freesia Lane DeVries licorice Mother's Day Tulips Valentines Day

I was out for a walk through the Sun Valley greenhouses today, and the normal buzz of activity was noticeably missing. No blasting music from the Spanish station, no trains of carts streaming by dangerously close and most unusual, many of the greenhouses aren’t brimming with flowers.

Boots left after an Oriental Lily pick

This isn’t to say that there aren’t busy places on the farm right now. Teams are picking lilies, tulips, iris, brassica, gladiolas, hydrangeas and freesia, but today you just get a mellow summer vibe on the Farm. Many people may not realize that summer is the official slow time in the flower growing business. It is slow for obvious reasons. People can pick flowers in their own yard, people are spending more time outside in nature and also, people are taking vacations and traveling more so they break their normal routines.

This is a blessing for some of our employees, as they get a break from the long hours they put in from November through Mother’s Day. It is a time to recuperate and strategize for the next big season, which gets going in late August, as kids go back to school and people resume their shopping habits.

While the fields lay fallow, they are actually very photogenic as remaining crops bloom out and cover crops return nutrients to the soil.


A freesia hoop house, past its' prime.  We currently have a fresh freesia crop, ready to go.

This time does provide an interesting opportunity for flower growers. What do you do to keep your greenhouses full and your work force intact? At Sun Valley we do a few different things. We spend a lot of time and effort keeping our facilities up to date, doing maintenance and cleaning.


The inglorious but necessary task of power washing our numerous carts.

The other project we are exploring is growing some traditional vegetables, especially those with a quick life cycle, so our green houses and fields will be ready to plant floral crops for the holidays.

A cuke crop in the making.

This year we are bringing in a cucumber crop, featuring several popular varieties of cukes. These will be harvested and sold to regional vegetable wholesalers. I’ve been trying to convince Sun Valley CEO, Lane DeVries that we should get in the pickle business, but apparently the Dutch aren’t as enthusiastic about pickles as I am. I envision our greenhouses brimming with delicious crunchy pickling cucumbers, then being soaked in a brine of fresh dill, garlic and pepper. Mmmm, maybe next year.

You may ask, what are the Dutch enthusiastic about?  LICORICE and TULIPS.

LICORICE. More than enthusiastic…licorice fanatics! They have the highest per capita consumption of licorice of any country in the world, almost 4 ½ pounds per person, per year. This according to about.com, read the full story of the Dutch licorice addiction here. Check it out, banana flavored licorice. (weird!)

TULIPS. Growing tulips is more than just an agricultural pursuit for the Dutch, it is a cultural passion. The reason Sun Valley Floral Farm is based in Arcata, California, is because our climate is as close to Holland as anywhere else in the U.S.  Sun Valley is rooted in innovation, and we have sought to improve upon the Dutch tradition. Our Tulips average 14-20 inches and weigh 45 grams each, where a tulip grown in Holland averages a height of 11-15 inches with a weight of 18-22 grams. See a comparison.

Lane moved to the States thirty years ago, and in a classic American success story; the student now out shines the teacher as Lane and the Sun Valley growers produce the world’s best tulips. 365 days a year.


Sun Valley CEO Lane DeVries, with our "World's Favorite" tulip.

Another surprising crop we are growing are artichokes. They are a great match for us, because we harvest some for people to eat, and then we also harvest a portion as a great bouquet accent item. The unique texture of a small artichoke head and the edgy leaves make artichokes not only a yummy foodie delight, but a non-traditional green for bouquets, arrangements and other floral designs.

Well, I started out this post mentioning that the farm was slow. As I look out my window today in the late afternoon, I see many employees wrapping up their days and heading home, many carrying artichokes. I guess we aren’t really slow, it is just a different rhythm from the sheer madness of spring or the panic before Valentine’s Day. The goal is to enjoy each season's rhythm and realize that the flowers ebb and flow, but like the sea, they never stop.

Please share this post with all your flower friends. Connect with us on the web: Facebook, Pintrest, Twitter and Google+, or visit of website www.tsvg.com

-Lily
“The earth laughs in flowers.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson