Crocosmia "Lucifer": Devilish name, Heavenly flower

Crocosmia "Lucifer": Devilish name, Heavenly flower

Around the flower farm CA Grown Crocosmia farmer's market Floral industry; Philanthropic flowers Flower Meaning flowers for delivery IFE 2011 Lucifer Crocosmia Sun Valley

Just the other day, I saw the first signs of Crocosmias popping up. These fiery blooms, native to South Africa, turn our Arcata 27th Street fields into a brilliant sea of red from July through August. Their season usually starts around the last week of June, but the unseasonably cool weather we experienced throughout California earlier this year slowed them down just a bit. Aside from their seasonality, here's what you need to know about Crocosmias:

Crocosmia is part of the iridaceae family, meaning it's like a first cousin of Gladiola and Iris (about which you can learn more here). The variety we grow at Sun Valley is nicknamed "Lucifer" for its brilliant red color. Think little horns, cloven hooves, pitchfork... Yep, that Lucifer.

Saffron spice

Despite the name, Crocosmia is an eye-catching delight to see and to smell (when dried), that is, if you enjoy the smell of saffron. The name Crocosmia actually comes from the Greek words "krokos" (saffron) and "osme" (smell). If you aren't sure if you enjoy the smell of saffron because you don't know what saffron smells like, I can't really explain it in words. All I can tell you is it is not your typical floral smell! I guess you'll just have to pick up some dried Crocosmia to experience it for yourself, since the flower is more affordable than the spice!

When growing Crocosmia, warmer climates require replanting of their corms (sort of like bulbs) each fall or winter. Arcata's unique cool growing conditions that I'm always going on about allow the crop to come back strong year after year (volunteer growth). Now that they're ready to harvest, our Iris team doubles as a Crocosmia crew, which works out since the fields are right across from each other. Similar to Iris picking, the crew can tell when Crocosmia is ready to pick from the amount of color (in this case, red) showing on the flower. It's all in the family, I guess!

Just in case you are now scratching your head and saying "What about Montbretia?", I'll tell you a bit about what makes Crocosmia and Montbretia slightly different beasts. The Montbretia is smaller, orange in color, and it comes in about 30 days after Crocosmia. Also, Montbretia has a higher flower-to-pod ratio than Crocosmia. Of course, this is all dependent on the weather, which way the wind's blowing, how active our bees are for the season, how much the dogs bark at night... You get the idea. Basically, the pods vary from year to year, which affects which pods we end up distributing in the fall. More on pods below.

Sun Valley Team Member harvesting Crocosmia

As it happens, there are several ways to enjoy Crocosmia after it's harvested. Of course, the exotic fresh cut flower is interesting enough to display as a single stem, or it gives an exciting twist to an everyday arrangement. (As with most cut flowers, cut stems and place in tepid water.) You can also prolong your enjoyment by drying the flower (for simple drying instructions, click here). But wait, there's more! Once the flowers are done blooming around September, Montbretia pods come in. I'm told that the pods are great for adding texture in arrangements. They can also be painted for extra pizazz. Since my arranging skills are still limited to putting a bunch of single varieties in a vase (see examples here and here), I'm looking forward to getting my hands on some of these pods and trying this texture thing out for myself.




Crocosmia field in full bloom

That just about covers my recently acquired knowledge of the heavenly "Lucifer" Crocosmia. If you have anything to add, please let me know in the comments. And if you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'll do my best to find the answers! Our Flower Resource page has a bit more information on Crocosmia as well. Check it out here: http://www.thesunvalleygroup.com/thesunvalleygroup/pdf/SV_RP_Crocosmia.pdf




STAY TUNED: For those of you who attended IFE 2011, we will be raffling off three iPads right here on the blog TOMORROW, so make sure to watch the video! Good luck to the entrants!

Lily's Boots: The top 5 things I learned at Social Media School for Farmers

Lily's Boots: The top 5 things I learned at Social Media School for Farmers

Around the flower farm CA Grown farmer's market Floral industry flowers for delivery Iris

Have you heard the one about the flower farmer who started a blog?

Despite what it sounds like, this isn't a joke. It's KnowaCaliforniaFarmer.com, and it's the growing reality for farmers of all types. Today's consumers are demanding more and more information about where their everything comes from. Meanwhile, producers of everything are trying to find efficient ways to tell those consumers just where their bit of everything comes from. Enter Social Media, the ever-evolving online networking realm once utilized exclusively by techies and teenagers.

Now Social Media is used by just about everyone from your family dentist to your 87-year-old grandmother. And because they're all there, folks in the farming industry (yes, this includes flower farmers) have considerable potential to reach them. However, social networking doesn't just magically click for most, especially when you spend more time in the field than at a desk. That's precisely why Know a California Farmer created a series of workshops designed to teach farmers how to share their farming stories through the use of platforms like Facebook, Twitter, blogs and of course, the KnowaCaliforniaFarmer.com website.

And that, my friends, is where my boots went this week: down to the lovely and scenic Bakersfield, California, where the most recent Know a California Farmer Social Media Workshop was held.

Here were my top 5 takeaways from this workshop:

1. People like stories. I'm not referring to Dr. Seuss here (although people do like his stories). When it comes to business, people want to know the personal story behind the business. Where do you come from? Why do you do what you do? Tell people about it. They want to know.

2. The days of talking AT people are gone. Old school marketing = tell them you're the biggest and the best and they'll buy your products. Social Media marketing = develop relationships within your community and maybe they'll keep your products in their consideration set.

3. You can run, but you can't hide! "Transparency" is a word that gets bounced around a lot in the world of social media, and it basically means that being open and honest with your audience is much more conducive to building relationships than trying to keep things from them. Tell 'em where that tulip comes from and how you grow it. They'll thank you for it.

4. We're in this together, folks. The more we as farmers, whether harvesting carrots or irises, work together to share our stories, the stronger we as an overall industry become. Rather than focusing on other farms, think of your competition today as all of those voices on the web that might be speaking out against what your industry is trying to accomplish. Now set the public straight by telling them the truth about what you do! 

5. The more we talk, the more they'll listen. I'm particularly fond of this idea, since talking is one of my favorite pastimes. But what this basically means is that more social media content produced by California farmers equates to more opportunities for our consumers to get to know us. The more they know us, the more they like us! So let's get talking!

There were several more social media tips and tricks that I learned from this workshop, but these were the overarching themes that I felt were most relevant to the California farming industry as a whole. Thank you to Know a California Farmer for the education and inspiration!

Now tell me, what's your farming story?