Cutting Showy Blooms Is No Job for Sissies

Ann goes after the big buds at scenic Idaho flower farm.

Budding bouquets. On a busy workday at Spring Valley Flower and Bulb Co., Ann cuts plume-like eremuras before they bloom.

Eye-catching purple allium makes a long-lasting statement in floral arrangements.

By Ann Kaiser
Editor

While it’s very beautiful, harvest at a flower farm is no walk in the park. Teresa Romriell Hopman hinted as much when she invited me to come cut peonies, eremuras and alliums at her family’s Spring Valley Flower and Bulb Co. near Caldwell, Idaho.

Set on 75 acres sloping down to the banks of the winding Snake River, the farm was established by Teresa’s parents, Geneve and the late Kenneth Romriell.

I swing a 12-inch knife at the thick, long stems of spiky eremuras (pronounced “airy mur´ ahs”) as tall as I am. No way can these flowers be gathered daintily. I’m helping the family crew cut 15,000 eremuras today, which sounds monumental to this new field hand…

8:00 a.m. » It’s late May and their peonies are mostly picked. “But there are enough left for us to get a few buckets first thing,” says Teresa. I say “pea´ o knees”…she says “pay o´ nays”—but no matter how you pronounce the name of these old-fashioned beauties, more than an acre of them in white and pinks makes a lot of bouquets.

She teaches me to look for tight, firm buds to cut. “You should just be able to see the petal color under the bud’s green covering,” she says. I find one that promises to be a rich fuchsia and go after it with my pruners.

“Cut the stem low,” she directs. “In April, we take the side buds off the plants so the main buds will grow larger. I help Mom with the flowers from April through October. My brother Clint is her full-time partner, and for harvest, the whole family pitches in.”

8:30 a.m. » The fresh, sweet fragrance of peonies wafts as we cut along the row, filling 5-gallon pails. They let at least a quarter of the flowers bloom out, which helps the plants build energy for the coming year.

Peonies Put “On Hold”

9:00 a.m. » I’m amazed to learn cut peonies can be held in the cooler for up to a month before they are shipped—still fresh and colorful—to the wholesaler! We take the peonies we’ve cut out of the water buckets and pile them carefully on their sides on wire shelves.

Floral family. Romriell crew of Genalea (left), Teresa, Heather (in front of Editor Ann), Sherri, Clint, Geneve and Allan.

“All the leaves are left on when peonies are cut for storage. Before sending them to market, we strip the lower leaves, then put the stems back in water. They’ll open as beautifully as those that have not ‘rested’ for a while,” Teresa says.

9:30 a.m. » After peony harvest, the Romriells roll right into the eremuras, cutting them into field bins that hold 2,500 to 3,000 stems. Not familiar with these exotic flowers, I find out they grow from bulbs to a height of 5 or 6 feet.

“The common name is foxtail lily,” says Teresa. “As you see, eremuras have long, flexible, plume-like flower heads made up of hundreds of florets that open in whorls from the bottom to the tip. We grow them in white, yellow and shades of pink and orange.

“They are used in big, showy arrangements in hotel and office lobbies. We truck ours to a wholesaler in Portland, Oregon, 8 hours away.”
Eremuras are also cut before they bloom. We work in teams—a cutter and a carrier—with mom Geneve, brothers Clint and Allan, their wives and some of their children.

Following Teresa, I cradle 5-foot stems she cuts. Ten is a heavy bundle…15, and I feel like a weightlifter. Oomph! I cringe when she says, “When you have 25, carry them to the bin behind the tractor.”

I trudge and stumble uphill with my load—we’ve gotten a ways ahead of the tractor. Keeping a foothold in the sloping field’s soft, sandy soil (great drainage for the crop) adds to the challenge.

At the bin, Geneve helps me even the bottom of the stems and stand them upright, neat and tight, in the bin. It has several inches of water in the bottom.

By the time I get back to Teresa, she’s cut another dozen and laid them carefully for me to pick up.

10:00 a.m. » Now, I take a turn cutting. I learn to measure the flower head with my arm. At least 10 inches will grade “medium”—that’s from my elbow to the bottom of my palm.

Towering flower. Ann finds a tall eremuras already in bloom. This exotic flower blooms in whorls of florets from the bottom up.

Peonies to be shipped are cut as tight buds by Ann and Sherri Romriell.

Teresa Romriell Hopman and Ann load armfuls into a field bin.

“The lower rings of florets should look puffy and show some color, but not be open,” Teresa reminds me. Many are not that far along, a few have already started to open. Bypassing several that don’t fit the qualifications, I find my target and take a whack at its stalk—an inch or more thick at the base—with my foot-long knife.

“Hooray!” I holler, when I finally cut through…on the third try.

Cut…carry…cut…carry. I get bolder with the knife, but mistakenly hack through the stem I’m after plus one nearby that’s not ready. Can’t get too reckless.

1:00 p.m. » After a welcome lunch break, Teresa and I cut Allium giganteum, harvested in bloom. The stunning purple pom-pom flowers stand at attention.

“We grow 5 acres of this popular ornamental onion,” she says. “Our fields are just coming into bloom. The flowers are not as big as usual because of a damaging frost last spring. Some years they grow to eye level. Alliums will last a month in a cut bouquet.”
She warns, “Be careful, the red syrup-like liquid that bleeds out of them will stain your clothes.” As we cut these fun flowers, my fingers become stained.

Field Is Abuzz!

After the eremuras, alliums are easy to cut and give off a faint chive-like aroma. The plants’ low-growing leaves don’t get in the way, and we tote a bucket to hold them. The water in it turns red.

Honeybees are everywhere—every bloom has at least one visiting. At first, I’m leery of getting stung. But Teresa assures, “They won’t bother you if you just go about your business.

“Later in summer, we dig the allium and divide the bulbs, replanting what we need for our next year’s crop and selling the rest wholesale to companies like Jung Seed, Flowerbulbs & Perennials Direct, and Brent and Becky’s Bulbs. Similarly, we dig the eremuras roots in a rotation every few years.”

3:00 p.m. » Back we go to cut and carry with the eremuras crew. A few that have started to open reveal a sunny yellow color in this section. Sticking up among them is a huge peach-colored plume—an interloper! Teresa gives me a plastic ribbon to tie around the stalk.

“We mark any ‘surprises’ like this to dig out and move later. It might be a new variety that has crossbred in our fields, or just a bulb mix-up,” she says.

5:00 p.m. » I help tuck buckets of peonies and allium around six bins packed tight with eremuras and wave as one
of Teresa’s brothers pulls out with the truckload of flowers.

I’m bushed, but it’s been a bouquet of a day! Teresa and her family surely know how to grow ’em—and pick ’em!

 

 

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Photography By Joe Jaszewski