A Local Flower Farm!

Flower as crop:  these are past saleability

A garden club I belong to had the opportunity to visit a nearby working commercial flower farm this past week.  It was a fascinating morning.  I'm still walker-dependent so Beloved kindly drove me and took the photos.

Irrigation is via an elaborate drip system that can be moved or adjusting in multiple ways according to the crop and season:

The farm produces fresh flowers for local florists using minimal, natural pest controls such as soil nematodes or Bt.    Flowers imported from such regions as South America are typically immersed in vats of pesticide and fungicide prior to shipping.

Scabiosa flowers are one of the flowers grown.

It was time for the farm to pull the Ranunculus crop, which mostly failed this year across multiple growers in multiple states.   Viral infection in the corms?  Growing flower as a crop is much different than growing them to beautify a garden.  For early spring, the farm grows Ranunculus and Anenome flowers.

 Crops are rotated throughout the growing field for soil health.

Lisianthus plugs had just gone in.  This is one of the only crops not grown from seed.  Lisianthus takes a long time to grow so the farm uses plugs.  These plants will be producing heavily in August into September.

The major pest at this farm is, surprisingly, Crows.   They find small seedlings delicious and can quickly yank and eat an entire crop.  The farmer protects tender young seedlings via screening, wire, and row-covers. 

And uses mini pompoms as scare-crows:

 

The attention to timing is constant.  Florists need a steady, reliable supply of flowers.  The farmer covers and uncovers shade cloth constantly according to the weather to either slow down or speed up production.  Seeds are planted successively, week by week, for two crops a year:  spring into summer, and fall into winter

An old outbuilding acts as a potting bench for seed starting among other tasks.  

Don't we gardeners all wish we had something like this?

While Sweet Peas are poor cut flowers, lasting only a couple of days, their charm and fragrance makes them irresistible.   The farmer grows them for a "Cut Your Own" event for families.

California had a thriving florist flower industry throughout the 20th century.   During the Bush administration, in order to try to reduce the flow of narcotics from South America, cut flower import fees, tariffs, and regulations were slashed to encourage cut flower farming instead of coca farming.  This hastened the end of florist flower growing in California.  

In the past few years with the farm-to-table movement and the environmental cost of air shipping, forest clearing, and pesticide use, a new "farm-to-vase" industry has appeared.  This farm is part of that.

Here's the surprise:  this farm operates successfully on a family's 3/4 acre property that also is their home. 

Flowers the farm produces include:  Sunflowers, Dahlias, Larkspur, Bells of Ireland, Stock, Celosia, Cosmos, Zinnias, Strawflowers, Nigella, and Scabiosa.

It was a wonderful and educational event.  Many thanks to the family for hosting our club.  The farm's website is here and they are also on Facebook and Instagram.