Gerberas Season

Every year in March and April is the Gerbera flush, but it always seems to catch us by surprise, “Where did all the gerbs come from!?”  

Here is a little video from Jimmy Zheng the head grower, and Artemio Garcia, his gerbera foreman to let you know we got them: so go ahead and buy them at Kitayama Brothers.

FLORICULTURA

Last Thursday I attended two events, the first was a visit with my brother Stuart to Floracultura.  Floricultura is a Dutch company with an amazing orchid plant facility in Salinas, CA.  This facility is fascinating to visit and completely automated  and mechanized.  

The President, Kees Schoone said they must make back their investment in 15 years, so they can rebuild it again.  None of our greenhouses are less than 25 years old.  The difference between them and us: they are factories under glass, and we are farms under glass.

CALFLOWERS HAPPY HOUR

After visiting Floricultura, I attended a happy hour at Jaliscos in Watsonville sponsored by Calflowers (formerly NORCAL).  I hope it is a new tradition that is modeled after an old tradition. The old tradition was flowers growers in the Watsonville area would get together after the holidays to share a drink and compare notes about the holiday.  

There were about 32 in attendance and it was nice to see some of the faces from years past and present.  Thank you Calflowers and let's do it again!