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Support your Sacramento-area flower farmers

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED JUL 2, 2019

This arranged bouquet was made by Amanda Kitaura of Bloom. Kitaura has
a micro-farm at her Pocket/Greenhaven home. (Photo courtesy of Bloom)

Sacramento Valley Flower Collective features locally grown blooms

Want a farm-fresh bouquet? Buy local.

Finding locally sourced flowers in the Sacramento area is relatively easy. Growers are all around us. They may even be neighbors.

This is American Flowers Week, a celebration of flower farmers and their beautiful crop.

Locally, several flower farmers have banded together to create the Sacramento Valley Flower Collective ( http://sacramentovalleyflowercollective.com ). Farms of all sizes are part of this group dedicated to bringing flowers from field to vase in the Farm-to-Fork Capital.

The collective lists growers, wholesalers and florists who sell locally sourced blooms and greens. There are suggestions for wedding and event planners looking for garden roses, lilies, sunflowers or other local, seasonal flowers.

Some members, such as Full Belly Farm in Capay Valley, grow produce as their primary crop with flowers on the side. Others, such as Happy Road Farm in Loomis, are small, family-run operations, dedicated to heirloom and unique flowers.

Amanda Kitaura of Bloom has a micro-farm – started in her Sacramento backyard. She grows prized dahlias and other old-fashioned favorites in planter beds at her Pocket/Greenhaven home. She also enlisted backyard space from friends and relatives.

“I have a suburban farm,” explained Kitaura, a former speech therapist. “I grow at four homes. We’re small; I don’t have acres and acres. … It’s small space but high density, as much as I can fit.”

Kitaura concentrates on growing her own filler flowers that add distinct personality to her bouquets. “Good filler is harder to find,” she noted.

A Sacramento Valley Flower Collective member, Kitaura sells her flowers online at www.bloomsubscription.com . Subscribers receive fresh locally grown bouquets weekly, monthly or by special order. Prices start at $35 for a large arranged bouquet on a subscription basis; special orders start at $50.

When she needs more flowers to fill her orders, Kitaura buys them from other local flower farmers.

“There are tons of reasons to buy local flowers,” she said. “You’re supporting the local economy in your area; you’re supporting your neighbors’ hard work. Local flowers smell so much better. They’re not flown in from somewhere. They’re not chemically treated to last for weeks. They’re beautiful.”

These seasonal bouquets carry a sense of time and place as well as beauty.

Said Kitaura, “They look like they came out of someone’s garden, because they did.”

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Keywords:

American Flowers Week gardening Sacramento farmers markets Yolo County farm to vase Loomis farm to fork Capay Valley flowers

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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3

November still offers good weather for fall planting:

* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.

* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.

* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.

* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.

* Plant garlic and onions.

* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.

* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.

* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.

* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.

* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.

* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.

* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.

* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.

* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.

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