Summer Flower Fields on the Farm

So much of the detail work of flower farming is tied to time spent sitting at a computer. Today, I decided to break free of the routine, and take an early morning bike ride around our Arcata farm.

I grabbed the rickety Schwinn farm cruiser, and pedaled off with my camera to see what was happening in the fields.  Some days its easy to forget why you got into the flower business.  Riding across the farm, looking for patches of color across the landscape is a great reminder about the beauty of flower farming.

The clouds were still hanging pretty low, but the soft light of a brisk summer morning made the flowers stand out.

I passed a field of iris, with a few yellow blooms flashing like a golden flare.

Golden Beauty Iris

Next, I came to the peace of a fallow field. We are lucky to be able to leave much of our land to regenerate nutrients. The grasses are green from the thick fog that keeps our area moist to the touch, hoping off my bike, my shoes and pant legs got wet as I looked around.

Farm Cruising!

Riding across the field, I saw a sea of red on the horizon. I knew it was our crocosmia crop dancing in the gentle breeze. I bounced across the field to a dirt road that led me to a wonderful sight.

Lucifer Crocosmia

The Lucifer variety in bloom is truly a site to behold.

Wowza!

You can point your camera in any direction and find inspiration. Even looking away from the flowers... where I found a fresh raccoon track. I think they must share my love of these flowers.

Raccoon tracks on the farm

Back in the saddle, I wandered up to something which is truly news worthy. Sun Valley is growing old fashion, California spray hypericum. We will be reporting more on this story, but this classic is coming back, and we are leading the charge to bring this CAGrown botanical, back to United States production. It's looking gorgeous!

#AmericanGrown Hypericum

  This is the epitome of summer flower farming.

Flower farming at its finest.

I continued on, pedaling west across the farm, in the distance you could see the sand dunes that hold back the pounding, pacific waves. I scared up a few quail, ...they were too quick for a picture and the scare was mutual.  I got to a quiet spot and turned my lens south towards Humboldt Bay. The sun was starting to come through the clouds, the road south laid out before me, beckoning me to ride a little further.

Don't forget the magic of flowers, don't forget that they come from the the same land we walk on everyday, don't forget that out in the valleys and coastal lowlands of California all sorts of people  have been drawn to the art and science growing flowers simply for people to enjoy.

Cheers to more days like this.