hi i'm kyle i'm the orchard and farm manager at wilson's orchard and farm and today we're
going to talk about a new direction we're kind of moving in and that is cut flowers last year
we did a small trial with just three different types of flowers we didn't weed it very well
wasn't on irrigation so it kind of stunted by some of the hot weather but one thing we did
found is it is very successful and people seem to enjoy going to a cutting cut flower garden
so we decided to expand that a little put a little bit more time and effort into it and that's what
you see behind me right now so this is probably about a quarter acre of cut flowers we have
we went ahead and planted them on this weed barrier um a little bit by like landscape
fabric but um supposed to allow water and air to pass through it more easily we should be able to
roll this up and reuse it at the end you also see these tubes here we have these on drip irrigation
it's especially important for starting these plants off one thing we kind of did and we'll
get into later is we did expand the amount of plants that we planted but we wanted to
make them uh easy to grow because we can't always give them the attention they need we
water them heavy to get them started but a lot of these will take care of themselves
even in hot dry weather so that's kind of one thing we selected for so this field is right next
to our creek in addition to that this is where we had our ice skating rink so we kind of made a bowl
and leveled it out for the ice skating rink in the winter and then that led to the fact that uh in
uh oh early july we had a flash flood the creek came up clear over its banks had all these flowers
under water and i was i was pretty sure that we might not see him come back but luckily for us the
soil's kind of sandy here the water dropped very quickly it was up above them for about an hour and
then within another hour it was clear of the field so these guys have been through a little bit but
right now they're just humming along so as i was saying before one of the reasons we selected the
flowers that we did was for uh ease of growing and that is very true of what i'm standing in front of
here behind right now zinnias so these are in the daisy family uh in astor and they are native to
the grass and shrublands the dry grasslands of southwest united states mexico down through
central america with the center of diversity being in mexico so being from dry shrub lands it's very
heat and drought resistance you need some water to get them going but after that they can kind of
start taking care of themselves and another thing we selected for was a wide picking window so these
started early july blooming and they'll keep going until the cold weather nips them so we'll have a
very long window for these very grower-friendly flowers to keep going for us this particular
zinnia is one called banari's giant it is a mix obviously of different colors it is a cup flower
cultivar meaning it's bred for long stems that uh so fit nice and floral arrangements some of the
more landscaping zinnias will be more compact and tight but these as you can see with some of these
grow up nice to get a nice long stem for floral arrangements a wide variety of colors
nice big head for a zinnia make it an excellent selection for a cut flower garden
all right the next selection we have uh shares a lot in common with what we just talked about
zinnia it is also native to meadow shrubland in mexico it is also a member of the astor family the
daisy family um it also has a long picking window and also is really grower friendly in that it can
hold up to the heat and drought and a little abuse that we can throw at it which i often do
so we have two varieties here to my left is a versaille mix as you can see it comes in whites
pinks uh and like i'm bad with colors but kind of pink purple blend and it is a single flower
it is very prized among cup flower growers in that it has a long and sturdy stem so you can
handle it kind of vigorously and it won't break or wilt or anything for you then the other one we
have here is called the double click mix and this one is a double flower so and what that
means is flowers have four whirls they have the sepals which are below the petals the petal whirl
um i'll show you on a single and then they have the male reproductive whirl
and the female reproductive world so on a double flower some that are fully double will have all
turned into petals but we still have the sepals we have the flowers and then on the inside here
you can see that male the pollen producing part of the flower is absent that has turned into
petals so that's a mutation these are never going to be able to produce seed on their own but it's
a highly valued mutation among flower growers roses often have double variations along with
many others but so that's why this one looks so much more bushy and full than
than this other one here and again that's double click mix and the other is versailles mix
all right next what we have here is celosia name is derived from greek for burning because of the
flame-like appearance of some of these flowers and celosia they think is native to africa it's in the
amaranth family and i've heard it's actually even edible um that has like a the leaves
have like a spinach like flavor but once they start going to flower um that becomes
bitter and not very palatable so won't recommend eating these in particular um there's a couple
different categories of celosia what we're in front of right here is the plume category think of
it kind of like plume of a bird plumage feathers and the mix we have is pompous plume so we have
a variety of different colors pinks reds purples a few oranges whites and yeah so these will
produce flowers over a long window for us kind of the more you cut the more you get and yeah that's
pompous plume the other type of celosia we have growing here is the cox cone slosha or coral
or brain and that gets that name from that weird brain like appearance of the flower head there
this particular one is called chief mix reds yellows uh i think we got yeah mostly
reds and yellows in here it looks like with some oranges and yeah they just get these
really cool sometimes huge brain looking guys um at the tip make a great like centerpiece with
some stuff flanking around in an arrangement but very kind of unique looking flower i'll say that
all right here i am behind our globe amaranth as the name would imply it is a member of the
amaranth family it has a unique kind of round little uh dr seuss looking puffball
flower unlike a lot of amaranth would have the traditional sort of spike flower it's native
to central america now grown around the globe like a lot of members of the amaranth family
edible but this particular selection has been bred so long for flowers i doubt it's
very tasty or i would not recommend it anyway this is the qis mix we have qis stands for
quality and seed i believe they're a breed plant breeding company but yeah
nice range of colors oranges whites purples some very vibrant so and these make kind of a nice
texture piece in a floral arrangement and yeah i find them quite attractive
all right here we have another member of the amaranth family again when we were
selecting this we wanted stuff that's very grower friendly amaranths are very grower friendly
in fact a lot of the weeds that farmers and gardeners can play and complain about are amaranth
this particular one is velvet curtains so named you can see some of them start that'll be drooping
velvet this beautiful deep purple color excellent at in floral arrangements and it's very easily
dried it makes great dried flowers that you can sell or enjoy uh through the fall and winter after
these guys are done and yeah as you can see these spikes can get quite large and impressive and
the foliage itself is also attractive this is a group of plants native to north america they're
in the aster family or the daisy family as you can kind of see from the flower daisy resemblance
they are named to a variety of different habitats in north america from all the way to the southwest
up to midwest and new england these particular black-eyed susans we have here are not hardy
to our area we do have black eyed susans that are hardy in the midwest but these are
warmer native to warmer areas in north america and are grown as annuals here so this one here
is uh indian summer it's got a very beautiful deep brown center and uh very large for a black
eyed susan flower head and then to my left we have another variety called cherokee sunset
it has some very interesting sort of brown orange kind of muted colors in addition to
some double flowering so flowers have four whirls sepals petals a male reproductive world and a
female reproductive world and in double flowers um one of those worlds there's a mutation where it
becomes petals instead of that reproductive world and on some of these cherokee sunset it looks
like the male reproductive whirl has been lost you get more petals to get a very showy flower for us
you