About 5,500 acres of California’s most fertile soil is being cultivated at present to produce flower seeds not only for American gardeners but for a good part of the world, too.
It is estimated that California grows nearly 90% of all the flower seeds used in the world today.
Probably no other business in existence combines such an outstanding commercial record and such a tremendous amount of beauty.
Flower Farms in June
Tourists come from all parts of the world in June, particularly to see the flower farms in bloom.
Since the farms are in mountain valleys, breathtaking vistas of the vast acreages can be obtained from the hills overlooking the fields below.
Back of the Bodger Headquarters Ranch in Lompoc, about 53 miles north of Santa Barbara, there is an overlook at about a 1000-foot elevation.
Cultivated Lompoc Valley
At this point, there is an unrestricted view of the intensely cultivated Lompoc Valley in which the Bodger, Burpee, and Denholm Seed firms farm large acreages.
The rich, dark earth of the fallowed patches, and the various shades of green in the truck crop plots, enhance the beauty of the flower crops by contrast. The overall effect is that of a huge topographical map colored with chalk crayons.
The real thrill comes when you suddenly realize that this vast expanse of color is made up of millions upon millions of cultivated flowers thriving in these conditions by special favor of Providence – that there are few like scenes in the entire globe.
The other flower field scene is also a valley floor from a vantage point, like that at Lompoc. The approach to this one is almost fabulous.
William Macdonald Seed Company
Going west out of Santa Maria, one passes the William Macdonald Seed Company fields on both sides of the highway stretching out into the distance.
Upon entering the railroad vegetable shipping center at Guadalupe, the still larger operations of the Waller Franklin Seed Company occupy every inch of land that isn’t cultivated for vegetables or sugar beets.
Going north and west out of Guadalupe in the direction of Pismo Beach, the road passes out of a forest of Eucalyptus trees and turns sharply to the right.
Arroyo Grande Valley
Then makes a gradual descent along the face of a perpendicular cliff to the floor of the Arroyo Grande Valley.
At the observation point or turnout, there is a magnificent view. In the foreground below, the valley floor looms up as a crazy quilt of colors subdued by the ocean haze.
In the dim distance, one spots a shoreline of sand dunes with the blue Pacific Ocean beyond.
Waller-Franklin Firm
The Waller Franklin firm of Guadalupe produces most of its biennials and perennials in this valley. While the acreages planted to flowers are “own less extensive here than at Lompoc, the scene is more intimate.
There is another important flower seed-producing area up north, starting at Half Moon Bay, but 28 miles south of San Francisco, which ends at Salinas in Monterey County.
Ferry-Morse Seed Company
The Ferry-Morse Seed Company has vast acreages under cultivation here, with its principal operations in the vicinity of Salinas, San Juan Baptista, and Hollister.
Its workshop, or seed-breeding station, is located a few miles south of Salinas on Highway 101.
Frank Reinelt
Frank Reinelt, one of our foremost contemporary hybridists, has his workshop at Capitola in Santa Cruz County.
It is not generally known that while he has gained international fame for the quality of his Pacific Hybrid Strains of delphiniums and his tuberous-rooted begonias, he actually breeds daffodils and narcissi as a hobby.
Before the war, most of the actual growth in continental Europe was done by farmers under contract.
Flower Seed Firms
The flower seed firms supplied the seed, then sent out roguing foremen to keep the lines pure.
The story went the rounds that since every off-type plant rogued from the field meant the loss of a certain amount of seed and a lot of wasted effort and land.
The farmers practiced winning and dining with the roguing foremen so they wouldn’t take their work too seriously.
American-Grown Flower Seeds
In California, the flower seed firms do most of the farming themselves. They contend that they can only maintain the superiority of American-grown flower seeds by close supervision of their trained crews’ growing, roguing, and harvesting.
I understand that much of the plant breeding work in the British Isles is done by the clergy and the gentry as a paying hobby. Trials there are also conducted by the seed firms, just as they are here.
All of the best flower seed firms here and abroad grow samples of seed sold during the current year to check their field operations.
California Flower Seed Growers
California flower seed growers employ an increasing number of university-trained people. Genetics was once a very uncommon field of study.
At the time, Dr. Franklin, Frank Cuthbertson, and “Betty” Bodger, one of America’s leading geneticists and a Cornell graduate, were the only people engaged in mass-producing new flower types. “We are merely glorified farmers,” she said.
One meets learned people with doctors’ degrees almost anywhere in the flower seed farms today, for this type of farming isn’t all fun.
Problems In Maintaining A Farm
- Population of weeds
- Plant pests
- Depletion of soils
- Disease control
Other problems make maintaining a staff of specialists in these special fields necessary.
Painstaking Effort
The cost, the painstaking effort involved in producing a flower seed novelty or new shade, and the time and vigilance necessary to keep a line true once a new flower is ready for sale are nothing short of amazing.
Imagine making 395 individual line selections to introduce a shade into the Giant Imperial-class of stocks.
But that isn’t all. At least 5 more years must pass before the shade can be “trued-up ” sufficiently to offer it to the retail trade. It occurs to me that I should explain why stocks do not come 100% double from seed.
The percentage is purposely held down to about 65% doubles, leaving 35% singles to produce the seed necessary to carry on. Cuttings can only perpetuate a 100% double strain of stocks.
The doubles are sterile and do not produce seed, and the quality of doubleness is only a tendency.
California Flower Seed Farms
California flower seed farms grow only half-hardy and hardy annuals, biennials, and perennials that can be handled in the open field, so the absence of greenhouses on the flower seed farms is rather startling.
The trial ground equipment consists mainly of open fields with a few hot or cold frames and a little lath.
The frames are used to produce plants of biennials, perennials, and the double and giant ruffled types of petunias for transplanting to the fields.
Tender Plants
Considered abroad as “stove” plants, a seed of tender plants is produced under glass elsewhere by specialists. I refer to the following;
- Cinerarias
- Begonias
- Calceolarias
- Streptocarpus
- Gloxinia
- Cyclamen
- Primula Malacoides
- Polyanthus
Schizanthus
Schizanthus does very well in the open field, so it, and most of the annuals, are sown in place in rows and grown with remarkable success under the same conditions as vegetables.
There are two distinct seasons at the flower seed farms. By early June, crops will be of early or winter flowering sweet peas and nemesia.
Biennials and Perennials
Most of the biennials and perennials are the following:
- Alyssum
- Lobelia
- Carnations
- Dianthus
- Calendula
- Stocks
- Snapdragons
Flowers in July and August
The first flowers of the dwarf marigolds, larkspur, and early petunias will just be coming. All of the marigolds, asters, zinnias, tithonia, petunias, and “hot weather” subjects are to be seen in July and August.
It is usually quite windy at the flower seed farms during the summer, for most of the acreage is fanned by ocean breezes.
These breezes are very important in bringing high-yielding flower seed plants to quick maturity. The setting of seed is much heavier under these growing conditions.
No matter how many years one visits the flower seed farms I have described, the thrilling views from the overlooks are.
The overall picture at eye level from a car going back and forth along the roads that separate the many fields is just like a fresh experience.
I don’t think anyone with a love of flowers could ever tire of the flower seed farms of California.
44659 by Arthur E. Novlet