The Juniper Fund

Beginning on July 8th, I started posting a daily Happiness Type on our Facebook page every day until Happiness Happens Day on August 8th at Kitayama Brothers. 

We will donate 5% of our 8/8 sales to The Juniper Fund.

You're probably wondering WHY did I used Happiness in this campaign.

I don't know Melissa Arnot or David Morton, the founders of The Juniper Fund, 

but I sensed that they are happy to help others. 

And in our own ways, we wanted to help them not just with a donation, 

but also share their efforts in Nepal.

Meet Melissa and David

Linda Nguyen

Kitayama Brothers

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Fun ‘N Sun - Jellyfish Delight

Night at the Aquarium

Fun ‘N Sun Aquarium Dinner

One of the big events at this year’s Fun ‘N Sun will be the dinner at the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Thursday July 30^th.   My family and I love going to the aquarium and it is amazing that CalFlowers was able to reserve this incredible venue.  I have visited many aquariums throughout the world and I think this is the best.  

Jellyfish

I have a special affinity for the jellyfish.  They float around sedately and surrealistically, and possibly can help you achieve that “serenity” we are all seeking.  

Plus...jellyfish come in many sizes, shapes and colors, just like flowers and people!

Fish

Of course the aquarium has plenty of fish, big and small. The opposite of the jellyfish are the sardines swimming in endless circles around and around with mouths wide open looking for that elusive reward.   Hmm my problem is?! as much as I like the jellyfish, I spend most days looking like a sardine.

RHK

Kitayama Brothers

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The Floral Hat-Trick

July 18^th was the day that over 50 volunteers from Girl Scout Troop 611 of San Jose, California came to Oak Hill Cemetery to do a cemetery clean up and place flowers on over 1,000 graves. 

The event was organized by Bob Uenaka, of Cupertino Florist, and Lynette Honda of the San Jose Buddhist Church.  Over 6,500 stems of beautiful California Grown Flowers and Greens provided by Kitayama Brothers Farms were made into bouquets and distributed around the cemetery.

Flowers made the day, according to organizer Lynette Honda.

  

Kitayama Brothers feels that this is a triple win: 

Honoring the families represented at the cemetery, 

boosting community spirit, 

and a beautiful use of flowers from the California Floral Industry.  

Using the tag line from sports, “This is truly a Floral Hat Trick.”

Dave Kitayama

Kitayama Brothers

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2015 KB Cup “Iron Designer” Is…

The ONLY details provided and 10 entered.

Here's the KB Cup behind-the-scene story.

Two months of brainstorming, behind the scenes work to marketing and promoting of the 2015 KB Cup Floral Design Competition resulted in an exciting and fun event at this year’s KB Open House. A blog on our KB Open House coming soon. (KB is a part of the annual Monterey Bay Greenhouse Growers Open House Tour)

I love and believe in the KB Cup Floral Design Competition because it benefits everyone: giving back to our community (all of KB proceeds are donated to Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks), supporting our floral industry by educating and entertaining the general public, recognizing the amazing talents of designers and of course, an opportunity to showcase KB grown flowers.

In order to truly appreciate the KB Cup "Iron Chef" Challenge, let me share all the details behind the final results. Typically, I do not post anything this long and lengthy, but in this case, I believe it's a journey worth reading for 10 minutes. Like and share if you agree.  

In the Blind - Judges & Competitors

On Tuesday 6/16, 

our judges: Steven Brown AIFD (City College of San Francisco

Environmental Horticulture/Floristry Department Chair), Jenny Tabarracci AIFD, CFD

(Instructor/Designer - City College of San Francisco Environmental Horticulture/Floristry) and Susan Ishkanian, AIFD (Freelance Designer) received the final details.

Yes, we also kept the "secrets" from our judges! 

On Friday, the day before the competition, our competitors found out the KB Cup will not be a two-level divisional competition, instead it will be one competition for all. SURPRISE! 

During the random table selections, I discovered an empty table. Talk about being spontaneous, 5 minutes before the competition, Lily Lum-Chan was cheered on (some would say peer pressured) to compete. It was meant to be, Greg Lum had some extra tools for her! 

Creativity under Pressure

No glue. No tape. No wires. No prep-work. Oh My! No clue until the day of the competition and per round surprises. The only allowed tools were scissor, plier, pruner, stemwrap and knife.  

The competition theme was Designing for Men ~ Happy Father's Day. Our designers were given only one foam to use for the entire competition. 

Round 1 - Designer's Freestyle - 15 minutes to select 15 stems and design (9" dish)

Round 2 - Top 7 were given a Mystery Box - 10 minutes to think, be creative and design (6" container and 1 stem aspidistra, 1 stem KB mini calla lily, 1 stem KB gerrondo, 1 stem KB stock and 1 stem KB lisianthus)

At this point, the pressure definitely went up a notch or two...5 stems?! 10 minutes?!

Final round - the top 5 received the 2 secret stems (1 KB mini calla lily, 1 KB gerbera) and the 1 secret small prop was a golf ball with holes! They had 15 minutes total to select 8 more stems using all 3 secret items to create a design for a golfer's dinner party. (1/3" cage w/foam)

A few of the competition designs here. 

We'll be posting many more pictures throughout the week.

 3rd Place ~ So-Yeon Kim (Student – City College of SF Floristry Dept)

2nd Place ~ Lily Lum-Chan, AIFD

People's Choice Award ~ Greg Lum, AIFD, EMC (Flowers Indeed!)

The 2015 KB Cup Winner ~ Hee Joo

She defeated 9 other talented designers among them... 

the 3 years in a row KB Cup Floral Design Competition Winner,

Greg Lum.

Adding to the final moments of excitement, Greg was in the final round...

Robert announced 3rd and 2nd places, a pause to retrieve the KB Cup trophy.

And the KB Cup winner is...TABLE 10!

(Silence followed by screams was what I remembered) 

Thanks everyone, let's do it again next year!

(Left to right) Judges: Susan Ishkanian, Steven Brown and Jenny Tabarracci. 2015 KB Cup Winner Hee Joo (table 10), 2nd Place Lily Chan, 5 minutes before competition entry! (table 8), 3rd Place So-Yeon Kim (table 4) and the People's Choice Greg Lum.

Linda Nguyen

Kitayama Brothers

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Yoshimi Shibata: 100 Years of Flower Growing

Shimi Shibata celebrates his 100^th

Two weekends ago, I accompanied my mother, Uncle Ted, Auntie Heidi and Cousin Barbara to celebrate Shimi Shibata’s 100^th birthday celebration in Palo Alto. 

Yoshimi Shibata, Uncle Ted and Grace Shibata

For those who don’t know Shimi, he was the President of Mt Eden Nursery and Mt Eden Wholesale Florist. 

Shimi has accomplishments that are too long to list, but it is not an exaggeration to say that the Northern California flower business flourished because of his support of immigrant flower growers, and developing the technology to ship flowers across the country.  

Rob and Alex Shibata (Shimi's son and grandson)

Andy, Mrs. Matsui, Uncle Ted and Jun Uchida

Much of the Kitayama Brothers’ success was the result of their relationship with Shimi and his family.  My father Ray came to Northern California after WW II ended because he heard the Shibatas were hiring Japanese-Americans, not everybody was so willing after WWII.  Shimi shared his knowledge and wisdom with my father and uncles who used this experience to open their own nursery.

Over the years, we may have been competitors but there was always the respect and knowledge of how much Shimi helped our family.  

On his 100^th we all offer Shimi our thanks and continued health.

Mike Suyeuyasu and Brad Beck

George Nishimura and Jack and Mrs. Van Namenlin

The Garcia Family came all the way from Atlanta!

RHK

Kitayama Brothers

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You're Invited - Saturday June 20 (10am-4pm)

It’s that time of year again when KB doors and gates are open, and everyone is invited! 

Left & bottom pictures are copyrighted by the Regents of the University of California 

Admission is FREE and the best part is…

it’s a benefit event for Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks

Picture from Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks

Picture from Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks

This year, we’re bringing back the very popular KB Cup Floral Design Competition 

but we must have the minimums met by June 1 in order to host the competition. 

We’re looking for 1 more judge, 9 (open division) and 10 (level 1) competitors: 

already confirmed 2 judges and 1 open division.  

Click here for KB Cup details and entry form

KB Events

Part of the 6th Annual Monterey Bay Greenhouse Growers Open House

Linda Nguyen

Kitayama Brothers

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KB Holiday Report

Happy Mother’s Day 2015

Just a quick update on Mother’s Day from KB Farm.  We are having a very good Mother’s Day.  Our sales are slightly ahead of last year for the same days sales.  

We will probably end ahead because we will sell out all of our flowers by the end of the week. The quality has been very good and FRESH since we have to use the same day cut to fill orders.  Here are a couple of pictures from the packing and grading room floor.

Happy Patty bunching gardenias.

Rich going over his orders.

Post Mother’s Day

I also took a walk with Jimmy (the grower) to see what the crop will look like after Mother’s Day.  There will be plenty of gardenias, lisianthus and gerberas, so order up. 

The BIG problem will be lilies.  There will be very few pink oriental lilies because of bulb issues and the container strike holdup. I believe all lily growers will be in the same boat.  Please talk to your KB salesperson about options. 

KB Gerberas

KB Gardenias

KB Lilies

We hope everyone has a great Mother’s Day and thank you all for your orders, 

and support during this big holiday!

RHK

Kitayama Brothers

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Bouquets to Art

"Yes, I was an engineer, but I gave it up to do what I love."

"No, I'm not making money, but I am happy."

Those were the words of the floral designer, here with her design.

Every year, I look forward to the opening night gala of Bouquets to Art at the de Young 

I always admire and appreciate the beautiful interpretative floral designs, 

and am very mindful of the hard work behind the amazing finished WOW. 

Simply put: a night of wonder shared with friends... 

(catching up with old ones and making new ones)

For the entire album, like us on Facebook 

Thanks for this picture Jenny! Jenny Tabarracci AIFD

City College of San Francisco Students and their floral fashions. Thanks Jenny!

Carol & Stuart Kitayama

Linda Nguyen

Kitayama Brothers

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WFE in LA

It was a family affair at the World Flower Expo in LA on Wednesday.  Cousin Dave and Wendy (Dave’s wife) set up the booth which looked great.  Brother Scott (no picture) came to town to talk to his Ecuadorian rose grower; he made a little time for his brother.   Here is Wendy with Ben Dobbe at the HAL booth, we like the patio furniture; we are going to steal that idea for the Fun N Sun booth.

A nice surprise was young cousin Daniel came to visit us at the show.  He was great. 

He talked to the customers, posed with a flower hat, pretended he was in the flower business; acted interested and overall left a good impression. 

Cousin Janet from Green Valley, she won’t admit she is related to us (she is not, but we like her that much), and a Japanese flower importer, Hiroyuki, who was interesting.   

For a first time show, we think WFE was worthwhile attending.  It will be back and so will we.

RHK

Kitayama Brothers

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