Cultivation Of Crops: roses

Showing posts with label roses. Show all posts

Feb 29, 2016

Observations on the cultivation of roses in pots

Observations on the cultivation of roses in pots
By:"William Paul"
Published on 1866 by

This Book was ranked 17 by Google Books for keyword CULTIVATION.

Oct 13, 2015

Rosehips: Autumn's Darling

American Grown bees CA Grown fall arrangements Fall Colors Lady Aster Rose Hips roses Willow Creek

Rosehips: the plant of a million uses. Well, maybe not a million, but its reputation as a great source of Vitamin C precedes it by centuries with ancient and modern use in tinctures, jellies, wine, and more. Take a walk down your local grocery tea aisle and you'll be sure to find some herbal rosehip tea.

However, rosehips are not just for flavoring foods, they are also for spicing up bouquets. And in the world of Sun Valley, rosehips are through and through a fall specialty branch!

So what exactly is a rosehip? Is it a rose or isn't it? Scientifically speaking, the rosehip is the swollen ovary that contains the rose seeds. It is the "fruit" of the rose. If you cut open a rosehip you will find it is full of reproductive seeds.

Rosehip bloom being pollinated

Rosehips develop on wild roses as the petals drop off. These wild roses may not look like the "traditional" roses you are accustomed to, but they are indeed classified as roses (and aren't they pretty?). The species of Rosa we use are specifically bred to create big, beautiful hips, which is why the regular rosebushes in your neighborhood will not produce anything quite like them.

We grow these plants at our inland Willow Creek Farm, which is located 45-minutes away from coastal Arcata. This canyon in the hills provides an ideal climate of early springs, hot summers, and an extended autumn which gives rosehips plenty of time to mature.

Rosehip blooms in summer

We prune our rosehip bushes down to the ground every winter, and then we wait. As the weather begins to warm in late winter/early spring, they begin to grow back and by summer, the flowers are blooming and the bees are buzzing. We maintain bee boxes from a local keeper on the farm, so the bees are happy and our rose hips are happy!

Bee Box with protective wires to keep the bears out!

Once the flowers are pollinated, the pink bloom falls off and the seed pod (the hip!) begins to form.

We harvest rosehips as early as August and as late as Christmas, and the month of harvest determines the color of the berry. Early in the season, they start out green; as they progress, they begin to resemble Fuji apples--partially green with reddish swirls; then they develop a beautiful reddish-orange hue and finally, a saturated cherry red. It's almost as if they know what colors are fashionable per season and act accordingly!

Rosehips in Autumn

We have been growing and testing rosehips for many years, and have found that one variety in particular, called Amazing Fantasy, produces the strongest berry in our climate. Once cut, Amazing Fantasy Rosehips can keep their color, shape and luminosity for several weeks.

Our strong rosehip program is bolstered by the fact that agricultural restrictions forbid the importation of fresh rosehips into the United States. We are proud to be one of the few producers of this truly American Grown crop, and you too can feel good when you support this important agricultural movement.

Design wise, rosehips are extremely versatile and fit into the fall and winter color palette perfectly. Check out the dramatically beautiful autumnal arrangement created by floral designer, Pieter Landman. You can see how they add texture and a punch of focal color.

The "Dress This Nest" blog also featured our rosehips in a great DIY-tutorial in flower arranging. Once you get started, you'll see that perhaps there ARE a million uses for rosehips!

Jun 24, 2014

Mighty Mites Protect Sun Valley's Rosehip Crop

#AmericanGrown Flowers mites Rosehips roses Willow Creek

In part two of our "Robin Goes to Willow Creek" series, we hear about the mighty mites that protect our rosehip crop.

Our Willow Creek farm is home to one of my favorite crops: rosehips. When I visited two weeks ago, I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the flowering roses and the smell of roses in the wind. But I’m not the only one who favors these plants. Spider mites, tiny crawlies measuring less than a millimeter in size love making their homes on the leaves of these plants. A female spider mite can lay upwards of 20 eggs in a day which will hatch in around three days and begin laying eggs of their own in about five. These mites feed voraciously on the leaves of whose undersides they occupy and can cause big trouble for those who choose to grow plants they favor.

You can almost smell these beauties.

One surprising way to combat these spider mites is with more mites! And that is just what we are doing at our Willow Creek Farm. Last week I got the layman’s rundown on the predatory mites we are using to keep those pesky spider mites at bay. This year we are employing the help of two types of mites; neoseiulus californicus and phytoseiulus persimilis. Like the mites on which they prey, these mites are small in size but big in reproduction!

Our Willow Creek farm is a great place to be a on a sunny day.

The neoseiulus californiucs, as you may have guessed from its name, is native to this area and will lay between two and four eggs a day during its twenty-day lifespan, or 40 to 60 eggs in total. Fortunately for this mite and for us, their development is accelerated when the two spotted spider mites are regularly on the menu. These mites will reach adult stage about three times as fast as the spider mite which means they can consume them faster than the spider mite can reproduce, making them a perfect predator to keep our roses happy long enough to form the gorgeous rosehips we’ve been producing year after year. Another plus of this type of predatory mite being native is that it can survive our winters and will make a comfortable home for itself in the cracks of branches and proliferate the following year.

Unlike the neoseiulus, the phytoseiulus persimilis is not native to this area so it won’t hang around with us through the winter. These guys earn their keep by eating seven spider mites or up two twenty eggs per day and living on average 30 to 36 days. This gives them more than ten days more than our native neoseiulus to feed on those pesky spider mites. Their prolonged healthy appetites help keep our rosehips happy which keeps us happy, too!

Leaf inspection

Before leaving Willow Creek, I recruited team leader Vicente, to help me inspect the undersides of the rosehips for the eggs of the predatory mites that had been released just a few days prior. No luck this time, but I expect to see them during my next visit (how can I resist those gorgeous pink blooms?!)

Pollination is important for rosehips.

By the time the rosehips are ready to ship in the fall, the predatory mites will have devoured the spider mites, the neoseiulus will have evacuated the rosehips for the neighboring trees where they’ll nest for winter and the phytoseiulus will have naturally died out, leaving the rosehip leaves intact and beautiful for you and your customers.

Check out our rosehip Resource Page to learn more.

Apr 24, 2014

Chasing the Rose: A Book Review

books roses

In a far corner of my garden, tucked behind a spruce tree, an old pink rose grows rampantly. I give it little attention and mostly forget about it until I see it blooming with abandon in early summer.

I got the rose from my aunt, not once, but twice.

The first time she gave me a start of the rose, she said it was from my great-grandmother's garden. I planted it in my first garden, happy to

Jun 9, 2013

Rose Day at May Dreams Gardens