When you work in the flower biz it's nice to see a growing operation to keep in touch with where the flowers come from and what kinds of challenges the grower has to overcome to bring you a perfect flower!
We walked through the rose greenhouses, said hi to the chickens, checked out the hydroponic growing versus the older in-ground growing, viewed stephanotis vine, shivered through the cooler, and inspected the orchid houses and even the boiler!
Everybody asked lots of questions and the day was made even more memorable by the gorgeous sunny spring weather and the row of blooming cherry trees at the entrance to the farm.
Thanks to all of you who devoted your time to this tour!
Spring at the farm comes in with gobs of cherry blossoms on the yoshino cherry allee which lines the drive. Dad planted those trees back in the 1980's and they look so beautiful right now.
Cymbidium season is getting underway. Check out what we have - lots of colors and some sale specials at the flower market.
Have a wonderful weekend -
What did they find out?
Well, it doesn't work. They tested Mountain Dew, also sugar treatments. Sometimes bad things happen, including the growth of black sooty mold fungi due to the sugar.
Another interesting organic treatment based on cinnamon turned out to injure plants quite severely.
It's good to have these scientific tests so we don't waste a lot of time and money fooling around. But it's depressing that so few of these organic ideas really work.
Lots of growers in attendance, a few from the west coast but mostly from the south.
One interesting subject - ethylene gas and horticultural products - ethylene is a gas that is emitted by ripening fruit and other things - most famously by ripening bananas.
Jim's brother is an ethylene expert - believe it or not.
He works for a banana company and they use ethylene in the large banana warehouses. Shipping them green protects them from damage - then when they need to be ripened they actually pipe in ethylene.
Mostly with flowers ethylene is something to avoid. That's why we recommend never to store flowers with bananas and other ripening fruit, also to avoid storing them in the refrigerator with fruit. Our employees are not allowed to store their lunch fruit in the flower cooler!