Ornithogalum Revealed!

Ornithogalum Revealed!

#americangrown #CAGrown ornithogalum dubium Star of Bethlehem

Now Harvesting Bird’s Milk!  What? What kind of bird has milk?  Is it like milking a cow?  Do their wings get in the way? 

 

Don’t worry, Sun Valley hasn’t gone into the bird milking business.  Birds Milk is actually the root of Ornithogalum’s botanical name.  Ornith pertaining to birds; galum pertaining to milk.  It is a tall spiked flower, with star-like florets grouped on a leafless stem.

Florets Galore!

The season for this durable and versatile flower is really heating up at our Oxnard farm.  The crop is predominantly the white variety; however, we are also harvesting orange and yellow.  Different varieties are native to South Africa, Southern Europe and the Middle East.  There are many references to Ornithogalum woven through history.  The ancient Greeks boiled, then ate the bulb and also prepared the young shoots as a substitute for asparagus.  It has been a staple of peasants in the Middle East for centuries, right up to current day. 

 

The idea of “Bird’s Milk” has come to symbolize something very rare.  The origin of the name has been attributed to old Slavic folk tales, where a beautiful princess tests the ardor and resourcefulness of her suitor by sending him out into the wilderness to find and bring back the one fantastical luxury she does not have: bird's milk.  Bird’s Milk even has it's own Facebook page which has over 6,000 fans, due to the term also being appropriated by a Polish candy maker.  Who knew?

Lucky for you, we have plenty of Ornthogalum coming in, so no need to tramp around in the wilderness, just call your sales rep.

Many of you know this beautiful flower as “Star of Bethlehem.”  However, our varieties are a bird of a different feather; our sales rep JW Brown described our Ornithogalum as “Star of Bethlehem on steroids.”  A traditional Star of Bethlehem's unopened bud is about the size of your pinky finger, our ornithogalum buds are as big and long as an Oriental lily bud, reaching 6 inches long with serious girth.  Once the florets start to open, the show begins.  Our white variety features wonderful straight and thick stems, with a long series of  blooms. Our orange variety, named Ornithogalum Dubium is known for it's wild nature and it's strong personality.  The orange is also known as the Star of Africa.

Dubium Ornithogalum

All the varieties of Ornithogalum share a common trait.  Unlike most flowers, they do not need a lot of water in the vase.  Coming from arid regions, they are used to dealing with dry weather.  That said; it is still wise to keep your Ornithogalum in water.  Ornithogalum is also known for an exceptionally long vase life.  The florets open up progressively, and this process can take up to three weeks.

I called down to Gerrit VanderKooy, our lead grower in Oxnard.  I got him on is cell phone, as he was out in the iris fields overseeing a great harvest (Psst! It’s iris time!).  He was kind enough to explain a few key points in growing Ornithogalum. He explained that water and nutrients are important, but the two factors that really make the difference are light and temperature.  These plants want it warm with lots of light, making this crop really blossom as we move into the longer days of spring. This plant is native to hot, dry climates so we do our best to mimic these conditions.

10 stem bunches

After cutting the flower the work doesn’t stop, since these bulbs will have multiple year-long crop cycles.  He makes sure that the energy keeps going into the bulb, by maintaining optimum growing conditions, even without flowers to harvest until next year.   In the fall and winter, we will do our best to mimic a winter desert climate, which is light and cold...this is where things get tricky!

Gerrit is very proud of the crop we have this year, it is the best in Sun Valley’s long history.   This crop will be coming in strong through May, so better get, while the gettin’ is good!

What Happens on the Farm in Spring?

What Happens on the Farm in Spring?

#americangrown #CaFlowers #OriginMatters Asiatic Lilies Easter flowers Freesia Gerberas Iris LA Hybrid Lilies ornithogalum dubium Oxnard

"The air is like a butterfly
With frail blue wings.
The happy earth looks at the sky
And sings."

- Joyce Kilmer, Spring

Spring officially starts tomorrow! And not a moment too soon, am I the only one feeling like this was a longer than necessary winter? Longer days mean more time after work to play in the sun and warmer temperatures all around.  The earth’s northern hemisphere is now tilting toward the sun, so shake off that chill of winter, and hold on.

As flower farmers this means we have to make some pretty dramatic changes in response to the changing seasons. One great part of having two farms spaced about 600 miles apart is that we have the ability to grow our crops where the weather is ideal. This gives Sun Valley top of the season availability, no matter what season it is.

For the last several months we have been growing Iris at our Oxnard facility. Now as it gets warmer down south, we will start iris production in Arcata as well. This parallel production will give us a steady supply as spring and summer bring warmer weather to both our farms, by mid-June it will get too hot for iris down south, but for spring we will be producing heavily both north and south.

In our hoop houses, we will also be bringing the majority of our Asiatic Lily and LA Hybrid Lily production north after about Mother’s Day. Now though, we will be running substantial production on both farms, as the climate is great in both locations. Crops that like the warmth such as Delphinium, Dubium and Matsumoto Asters will be coming on strong as these longer days lead to more light and more warmth in Oxnard.


Ornithogalum Dubium Orange...perhaps the hardest flower name to pronounce. 

Our freesia crop, which is one of the most temperature sensitive crops we grow, will be coming back to Arcata after Mother’s Day as well. If you aren’t familiar with freesia it is really worth getting a few bunches to watch them develop. It has an unusual, yet subtle scent which varies by variety. The vase life is remarkable, as the florets open up over time and there are great color options. I wrote about freesia last fall, but it continues to impress me as a beautiful and versatile flower.

Freesia, very easy to pronounce!

Tulips always stay in Arcata, except for a smattering of hoop house French Tulips that we grow in Oxnard during winter. Our big gerbera program is always in Oxnard, this is due to the growing infrastructure they need, as well as the growing expertise in Oxnard. Our lead gerbera grower, Gerrit Vanderkooy, grew up in Holland in a family which specialized in gerbera growing, so his knowledge of this particular crop runs especially deep. This generational knowledge is another key to maintaining steady production of our core crops.



Gerbera's Grown at our Oxnard farm.

 In Arcata, I asked our head grower Tim Crockenburg, what happens differently as we joyfully roll into spring.

“Spring is volunteer iris time in Arcata, we have big fields of bulbs that come up naturally every year. Frosty nights are few and far between, and the warmer days lead to healthier crops.”

What about in the greenhouses?

“We are using the grow lights less on the Orientals as the days get longer, currently they are still growing pretty slow. The most important factor in lily growing is the temperature. As it warms up they will come to harvest quicker.”

How are we looking for Easter and Mother’s Day?

“This year we are right on schedule. We always anticipate easing into spring, so we have planted our blocks with enough cushion to ensure that we will be in great shape for Easter…and then for Mother’s Day we will really kick it into high gear.”

Springtime in California is truly something to behold. No place on earth holds forth with so much potential. Whether in the high peaks of the Sierra, the rugged coastline at the edge of the Pacific Ocean, or in a backyard in San Francisco, spring is more than just a symbol of hope; it is as close to a true rebirth we will ever know. As the buds on the alders in Humboldt County explode from dormant branches and the mountains of the Los Padres National Forest above our Oxnard farm turn vibrant green, we can all breathe a sigh of relief that we are once again taking leave of the wet cold, winter and embracing the anticipation and optimism of spring.