“In Hollywood, brides keep the bouquets and throw away the groom.”
-Groucho Marx
The first thing you notice when you step into the Sun Valley Oxnard headquarters, just about an hour from the glitz and glam of Hollywood, is the smell. The incredible aroma knocks you off your feet. You look around, what is going on here? Why doesn’t the Arcata farm smell this good?
You take a closer look, oh, they are making bouquets. There are racks of eucalyptus,
salal,
bear grass and all sorts of other fragrant greens. People are busy snipping them to just the right height to combine with stacks of lilies, tulips, irises, snapdragons and sunflowers. Whoa, this is quite a big production!
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| Our Oxnard bouquet makers, with eucalyptus and rosehips. |
What most people don’t realize is that on a flower farm, you don’t get to enjoy the scent of the flowers all that much. The flowers are picked when the buds are developed, yet not quite open. So if you go stand in a cooler brimming with ultra-fragrant Oriental Lilies you don’t smell anything special. These flowers will open up perfectly and their fragrance will enchant the person who takes them home, however, in the cooler they are just patiently waiting for their time to shine. This is not the case in the Oxnard bouquet division, the wonderful smell of the all the different elements is truly captivating.
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| Our Oxnard bouquet makers, with tulips, snapdragons and sunflowers. |
Our farm in Oxnard has a little different vibe than Arcata, everybody has sunglasses either on or perched above their foreheads, this is a fashion accessory you rarely need in foggy Humboldt County. Getting to the farm you realize that you are in a serious agricultural area. Field after field is being plowed and shaped to grow strawberries, raspberries and a few flowers. According to Oxnard General Manager,
Gerrit Vanderkooy, this land was all citrus groves, specifically lemons, up until the seventies. At that point, people started removing the lemons and planting huge fields of more profitable berry crops, it was at this same time that the first Dutch style greenhouse was built in the area.
Sun Valley now has three non-contiguous pieces of property we cultivate. We have named them, Home Ranch, Channel Islands and Golden Coast. If you are familiar with Southern California geography, you know the Channel Islands are just off the coast. I thought it was a long shot that we were actually growing flowers out on the Channel Islands, since most of them are a
National Park. I did have a pleasant vision in my head that the Channel Islands Farm was near Channel Islands Beach. The farm would have a sweet view of the Islands as they lay off the coast in the warm waters of So-Cal. Add surfboards, guitars, bon fires, icy cold beer, along with some flowers, and this topped my list of “must see” things to do in Oxnard.
We hop into “Old Red” the mud caked Ford pick-up truck which will take us to the Channel Islands Farm, I immediately think, “Well, this ride isn’t going to impress anybody at the beach.” As we attempt to pull out into heavy traffic, my thoughts change to, “Well, I may die in this muddy truck.” Gerrit punches the gas pedal, and about 2 seconds later the truck lurches forward. I notice with a bit of concern that Gerrit is steering one way and “Old Red” is going the other. The truck miraculously straightens out onto the road.
Full steam ahead, I figure when we get to the beach, I may just have Gerrit drop me off behind a sand dune or something. We bump off the paved road onto a dirt track surrounding a huge swath of land in tidy rows. “Mmmm," I think, "taking the back roads to the beach, cool.”
A minute later the truck comes to a stop by a stand of iris, Lane and Gerrit hop out, Lane pulls one stem out of the ground and starts inspecting the bulb development with his pocket knife. Then they dive into crates of bulbs to see if they are at the ideal stage to be planted. Lane and Gerrit are discussing rhizomes, weather conditions and soil conditions, while I start having a realization.
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| Gerrit and Lane, with Casa Blanca Iris bulbs, ready to plant. |
We walk the length of the field, team members are busy planting
Telstar iris bulbs in the fertile soil. Besides the lack of beach, the scene is rather beautiful. The rows of bulbs are being planted by hand, surrounded by palm trees, raspberry fields and the mountains of the Los Padres National Forest rising in the distance. There is something intangibly peaceful about standing out in the fields. Perhaps it is the quiet, or the breeze, or the potential which the soil holds. I still can’t put my finger on it, but I see why farmers, whether flowers, wheat, cotton or whatever, do it. There is a quiet spiritual experience to be found out among the rows.
We hop back in the truck to head back to Home Ranch. Old Red’s engine pouring on more horsepower that somehow gets lost before it reaches the rear wheels.
“So Gerrit, why do you call this field Channel Islands?”
His finger points up from the steering wheel to a passing street sign which reads,
Channel Islands Boulevard.
“This is not the first time I’ve explained this question” he replies, with a knowing smile as his eyes laugh behind his sunglasses. “You want to head over to Golden Coast?”
