Our discussion for CA Insights this week will be ‘transitions’…
As we approach the summer, the flower business is in the midst of many transitions. Our first is that we are leaving the holiday driven time of the year and entering summer. Prom and wedding season are a time when the demand for flowers is high and very specific. Growers have been planning their planting schedules to accommodate these demands. Although the flowers that are available at this time of year are relatively predictable, colors may not be as simple! In recent years California growers have become more involved in color trends and try to plant accordingly, especially in flowers that have 12-14 week growing cycles. This can help to ease the stress of wedding order fulfillment. They also try to have more than one option within any given color. So, when asking for colors always try and stay open to options and possible substitutions of like flowers.
The second transition is weather. We are now going into a 4 month period of longer growing days. The ability of certain flowers to thrive is often based on luminosity, basically how many hours of daylight the flowers receive. In addition, the rainy season (if you can call it that!) is over and we experience very arid conditions and good temperatures throughout the summer. This means there are many more types of flowers available from California now through September.
Lastly, growers transition how they grow their flowers in summer. Many fields that are empty during winter because of extreme weather are now planted and thriving with summer flowers such as rudbeckia, scabiosa, sun flowers and amaranthus. Growers also remove plastic covering from their hoop houses and replace them with better ventilated and sun protecting shade cloth. This allows flowers like delphinium, dahlias, matsumotos, lisianthus and dianthus to have good air flow, while also protecting them from extreme sun!
So, as we move into the summer there are many reasons to be excited about the quality and variety of flowers that we have to offer to all of our customers!
Chrysanthemum crop transition from plastic hoop to shade cloth hoop
Field grown Rudbeckia flowers transition from hoop in winter
Red Amaranthus in the field for Summer
Scabiosa flowers in the field for summer
