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Showing posts with label flowers for delivery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flowers for delivery. Show all posts

Apr 5, 2012

Bulb Flowers and the Celebration of Rebirth

Easter holds different meanings for everyone. For Sun Valley, aside from the traditional denotations, this holiday connotes the blooming of bulb flowers - the awakening of bulb flowers from their winter slumber goes hand in hand with the celebration of rebirth.

As you may know already, we grow our core bulb flowers (tulips, lilies and irises) year-round, but their aesthetic is decidedly springy this time of year! Might I suggest you celebrate spring's awakening by bringing some cut bulb flowers into your home this weekend?


 

[The pictures above represent some of our favorite spring bulb flowers enhanced with bear grass. They are as follows: Tulips, Stargazer Lilies, Telstar Irises and Freesias.]

"The Amen of nature is always a flower." - Oliver Wendell Holmes, 19th C American writer

Happy Easter!

Mar 2, 2012

Flowers for Girl Scouts


Next Thursday (March 8th) is International Women's Day, a global holiday that commemorates the continuing political, social and economic achievements of women throughout the world. This year's IWD theme is Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures, meaning if we can spread the message of female empowerment to young girls today, we'll have "brand advocates" for female equality tomorrow.

What better way for those of us in the floral industry to show our appreciation towards young women on IWD than to donate flowers to organizations like our local Girl Scout troops?

Theirs is a mission to build "girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place." In essence, the Girl Scouts embody the very principles on which International Women's Day was founded, and they instill these values in girls early in life. Furthermore, the Girl Scouts of America have marked 2012 as The Year of the Girl. It's hard to ignore the correlation between the two themes.

This March 8th, why don't we give a little happiness (aka flowers) to these bright young women to go along with their badges?

Sun Pacific Bouquet's Girl Power Bouquet

Feb 10, 2012

Fields of Blue


Day 10 of Valentine's Day shipping...

Yesterday was a particularly beautiful day at the Arcata farm, so it seemed an ideal time to get out to the fields and hoophouses, which tend to be a bit muddy when it rains. I wanted to get a closer look at iris, since we're closing in on Spring - one of the strongest seasons for iris.

The sun drenches the fields of our Arcata farm

Perfect day for a bike ride through the fields and hoophouses

First stop: Iris hoophouses. (Yes, my coffee came along for the ride!)

Bulbs have just been planted. Wire grid and drip tape are in place

Iris starts to peek out from the soil. This crop will be ready to bloom around early Mother's Day shipping
 
Baby irises are starting to sprout. These babies will be full grown in time for late Mother's Day shipping

Telstar just starting to come up. This iris crop will be ready for harvest mid-April

Telstar mid-growth. Expect to see the full blooms mid-March

Iris crops nearing harvest time. Soon their blooms will start to show color at the tips

Iris buds close-up. We pick iris and ship it when it is closed like this to prolong the vase life

White iris popping up in the Telstar hoophouse. We call this a "fence jumper" 

Granted, I have small hands, but Telstar Iris blooms are about the size of them!

Gorgeous day, gorgeous tour.

While the iris harvest is in full swing for several areas of the farm (in Arcata and Oxnard), many of the hoops are currently quiet and serene. I suppose those iris crops are waiting patiently for upcoming holidays. Until then, they make for a very pleasant bike ride! 


To learn more about any of our flowers, it's always a good idea to check out Sun Valley's Resource Pages. CLICK HERE for the one on Iris.






Feb 7, 2012

Sunshining Valentine's Day


Day 8 of Valentine's Day shipping...

During this two-week-or-so period we at Sun Valley like to call "Valentine's Day," I've been getting my boots dirty while traipsing around the Arcata farm trying to get a bird's eye view of the heightened holiday floral production. Last week, we took a tour of Tulipville in Arcata, so it seemed like a great idea to kick this week off with a tour of the Oxnard farm! So, I asked Melina, one of my Oxnard counterparts, to give us her own personalized tour of the crops at our sunny So Cal farm. Boy, am I glad she did. Her photographs are simply gorgeous... as are her subjects!

See for yourself...
Brassica (Kale)

An open field of Brassica

Brassica has been simply stunning this season! It's been a real crowd pleaser in the shops, and it's breathtaking to see growing in these lush, beautiful rows!

Carmine Lavender brassica
 
Green brassica


Asters - think pink.. and purple!

Pink Sea Star asters growing in a hoophouse

A hoophouse full of purple and pink Sea Star asters

Close-up of Sea Star asters
 
A row of hot pink Serenade asters, nearly ready for harvest

Pink and hot pink Matsumotos, getting ready for Valentine's Day!

Freshly harvested hot pink Matsumoto asters in buckets of water, bound for the coolers

Freshly harvested pink Matsumoto asters


Dianthus (Green Trick and Green Ball)

Green dianthus is one crop that is harvested green... and stays green!

I don't know about you, but these photos helped bring the sunshine in despite the rain and snow we've been having throughout the country. Imagine what the flowers will do in person!

A special thanks to Melina for giving us this visual delight of a tour!

If you want more information about any of the flowers you see here, check out our Flower Resource Pages on the TSVG website by clicking HERE.


Feb 2, 2012

Tiptoe through the tulips


Day 2 of Valentine's Day shipping...

If there's one thing I know already about the floral industry, it's that I never know what I'll be doing from one day to the next. One day I'm riding a bicycle through the iris fields, and the next day I'm sleeving bouquets in Oxnard. Yesterday, I found myself dodging tulip carts in the tulip greenhouse, where production is at one of its annual peaks (the other major peak being Mother's Day). I've been through the coolers, greenhouses and bunching rooms dozens of times by now, but these places are really something to see when operating at full capacity.

If you haven't witnessed this spectacle before, here's what it looks like (from my iPhone's point of view):


Ile de France red tuilps just peaking up through the soil

A row of tulips mid-growth

Rows of tulips nearing harvest time

When team members harvest the tulips, they put them on these hanging carts, which slide down rails as the team members move through the rows of tulips.

A freshly loaded cart of tulips

Tulips are harvested with the bulb still intact. This provides nutrients to the flower longer, thus lengthening its vase life.

Although this tulip is lovely, it won't make it past the greenhouse since we ship all product closed for maximum freshness.

Freshly harvested tulips go straight into coolers. As they are needed to fill orders, they are pulled into the tulip bunching room, where the bulbs are removed and the tulips are sorted and graded.

Several experienced team members work the tulip bunching lines this time of year. There are A LOT of tulips to grade!
 
The line leader ensures the tulips are graded correctly, then puts the completed order on carts designated for coolers in the warehouse

Freshly bunched white tulips in buckets on carts

French tulips have a similar story to standard and fancy tulips, but they are grown in hoophouses, and there is a special section of the tulip bunching room designated for Frenchies. It makes sense, when you consider their enormous size!


Maureen Frenchies just started to sprout up

A hoophouse full of French tulips, nearing harvest time

Like standard tulips, French tulips are placed in crates when harvested and whisked to the bunching room


French tulip bunching area. The tulips are graded and placed on those metal trays (which are extra long for those long stems!). They are sleeved in the area on the left side of this photo. 

Thanks for touring Sun Valley's Valentine tulip production with me today! Stay tuned on our Facebook page for videos of tulip bulb planting and grading!

Jan 30, 2012

The Return of the Iris

There comes a time - well, a few times - in every flower farmer's career when he finds one of his crops doesn't perform according to plan. Infinite factors, including a drought or a flood, weather that's too hot or too cold, or fluke problems with the crop itself, can have adverse effects on the flowers' well-being.

As many of you already know, this was recently the case with our iris production. A number or things didn't go quite right at exactly the same time, and we were left with little iris to show for it.

Well, my friends, spring is here in California and Iris is making a comeback! Here's a quick photo tour of the iris crops in Oxnard (taken last Thursday):







If you're ready for Iris, it's ready for you! Thanks for waiting!
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