The Secret is in the Soil

The Secret is in the Soil

#compost dirt Lilies Redwoods soil Tulips

Confess yourself to heaven,
Repent what's past, avoid what is to come,
And do not spread the compost on the weeds
To make them ranker.
                                            -Hamlet

What happens to the flowers that aren’t up to snuff? What happens to all the leaves and stems that get trimmed out? They return to the earth, and get composted on an enormous level. Since we grow our stunning flowers in real soil, we need to be continually replenishing and refortifying our soil supply. What better way to do this than composting all our organic flower waste?

This isn’t like that cute composter in your backyard that makes your kitchen scraps into superb soil for your flower beds or vegetable garden; we compost over 15,000 tons of plant material annually. This operation involves dirt piles 50 feet high, dump trucks and bucket loaders. Have a look at what happens in our compost heaps.

At the beginning of the process, our bulbs are placed in crates with rich soil, packed with nutrients. The bulbs take off in our optimal growing conditions and after the set amount of weeks, the tulips, iris or lilies are harvested. Over the weeks of growing, crews pull out the imperfect stems and keep the area clear of debris. When harvest time comes, an enormous amount of green waste is generated. Using our lilies as an example, each stem is about 44-48 inches long, most get trimmed to 32, 28 or 24 inches. All the foliage below a certain point is also removed; when you are harvesting thousands of stems this equals pallets and pallets of organic waste.


Imperfect lily blooms that have been trimmed and green lily leaves.

This organic waste gets moved by forklifts.  It is combined and dumped into truck to be taken out to the compost area.  This takes some skillful forklift operating and seems to be a never ending task here on the farm.



After the flowers are picked out, a team comes in with forklifts and loads all the individual crates out of the greenhouse.  The crates are stacked on palletes, sometimes with some "late bloomers" still poking up.  These rows of crates get loaded on a flatbed truck and taken out to the compost lot.  Here they get dumped, and then the good crates are taken, washed, disinfected and used again, while the broken ones are recycled.

Late Bloomers

Here the compost stream splits. Tulip soil, old tulip bulbs and all green waste goes into one huge pile.  This combination is left to compost and after it breaks down, it is used to fortify the fields.  Usually being left to go fallow and return nutrients to the soil. 

The lily bulbs and their soil are diverted to a different pile.  The old lily bulbs and the dirt in which they grew are ground up and saved.  After this soil rests for a bit, it will be added back into our soil production.  The soil we grow our lilies in is truly something special.  It is part compost, then a recipe of redwood mulch, two types of fir tree mulch and spruce mulch. The tulip soil is similar but with a little coarse sand in the mix.

I recently spoke with Lane DeVries about this unlikely combination. He says about twenty years ago he started using this mix, and because of the beneficial microbes in the soil. Now, the lilies and tulips have a great natural resistance to diseases due to the soil.  Over the last twenty years, this has virtually eliminated the usage of fungicides to protect against root rot.

I asked Lane what his soil ratio is, hoping to create a special batch for my own garden, thinking maybe he would write out his recipe. Lane smiled deeply as he held imaginary handfuls of soil, "You know, a little of this, a little of that."

I realized this is like asking a fisherman where he caught his trophy fish.  The fishermen replies pointing to his cheek, "right here."

Standing on a compost heap, looking back on fresh soil and the hoop houses of Sun Valley

The same soil elements that grow the world's tallest trees, the Coastal Redwoods (Sequoia Sempervirens) also grow our tall, vibrant tulips and lilies.  Coincidence?  Not a chance.

“The ground's generosity takes in our compost and grows beauty! Try to be more like the ground.”
                                                                                                                             -Rumi

Please forward this email onto all the compost fanatics in your life.

-Lily