Flowers

On the central coast of California there are micro-climates piled upon micro-climates and each area seems to specialize in some different type of agriculture. In our immediate neighborhood we see a lot of lettuce, strawberries, broccoli and greenhouse flower operations.

As a way to both educate the public about their businesses and to promote the retail aspect of some of these operations, each year a group of them hold an open house and invite the public in for tours. This year there were seven greenhouse businesses here that we open for about six hours for tours.

Julie and I toured the operations of Eufloria because we pass it almost every day driving the seven minutes into the center of our little hamlet of Nipomo and they have a very small, simple sign stuck in the ground by their entrance road that just says "Roses".

Men, if you ares still wondering how to obtain the attentions of a female just know something about roses and send a few. Better yet, take her on a rose greenhouse tour.

This operation ships millions of roses each year and literally have the growing down to a science. Our tour guide was also the sales manager for the company and President of  a statewide growers association, so not only did we learn a bunch about the growing of roses, we also learned about the politics of competition from abroad.

This greenhouse operation is controlled in ways that I had not thought about, I suppose because I had never considered how one would go about getting the maximum production out of a flower. These are all hydroponic plantings in a greenhouse environment and use a gas powered boiler system to produce extra heat when needed, but they capture CO2 generated in the combustion process and route it in a controlled manner into the greenhouse when extra input is needed for growth. Every aspect of growth is controlled and parasitic bugs are mostly managed by other bugs that eat them for lunch.  The rose stock is grown and distributed by Dutch companies who have learned how to manipulate all of the desirable characteristics. These plants will not do well at all outside or in a home because they are specifically designed to produce maximum results within a greenhouse.

There was so much more information on this tour, all of it interesting and great fun to learn.

(This is the pre-packaging stage where the staff removes any imperfections before placing the product in big walk in coolers)

Perhaps the best thing is that Julie now knows that she can pull into the parking area of Eufloria at any time and buy local, fresh roses for cheap and they can last from two to three weeks if the temperature is kept cool. How cool is that?