Eucalyptus ~ The Mystery of Mellano & Company’s Baby Blue Euc

The year was 1856. Having evolved in the arid lands of Australia, a hardy shrub was  being introduced to California. By 1873 extensive plantations existed near Santa Barbara. Through 1877, some 44,000 seedlings were planted in Alameda County. Then from 1886 to 1888 more seedlings were being distributed for free by the State Board of Forestry. In total, an estimated 65 varieties of this plant took root in California. Then, in the early 1970s, a Northern California nursery happened upon a unique selection of this bluish-gray, kabob-like shrub. Surely this was not native. Where had it come from?  How exactly ought it to be germinated? No one knew the secret. But the nursery certainly had a fine crop on their hands.

Hmmm…the mystery to the origins of Mellano & Company’s Baby Blue Eucalyptus!

Indeed, it’s believed that the parentage of our Euc is the Eucalyptus Pulverulenta—the very plant discovered by that Northern California nursery. As with any good secret, the seed eventually got out! It took over a decade but we’ve been growing our Eucalyptus, about 25 acres worth, going on 26 years now (give or take).

We pick our Baby Blue Euc year-round. Our biggest harvests are in advance of the spring holidays, after which time we primp, prune, water and fertilize the plant. Some 6 to 8 months later, it’s ready to pick again. The Euc crop is probably at its best in the winter months, when the tips harden. Stronger, rigid tips ensure that bunches ship safely and that shelf-life is fully maximized.

Eucalyptus is actually in the Myrtle family and, as such, it’s not uncommon to witness shrubs reaching 25 feet tall. In the 1980s market conditions changed to favor the smaller-leaved Baby Blue form of this crop. This was especially true for retail consumer sales, where the Euc became quite popular as a supplement in flower arrangements. Our Euc is merely one of several native Australian plants that we grow here at Mellano & Company. Normally a virile, hardy plant, the plant has had to fight off the likes of the tortoise beetle and the blue gum psyilld in the past. These pests chew at the Euc’s leaves and can cause a lot of damage. We have introduced  bio-controls—in the form of natural predators (other insects)—that are working quite well to help keep this crop healthy. With any luck, a century from now our Baby Blue Eucalyptus will be strong as ever. Mystery solved.

Delicate Riceflower

One particular flower here at our San Luis Rey farm is certainly near and dear to my heart. The Riceflower is a delicate and beautiful shrub from Eastern Australia.

Riceflower is pretty distinct looking. Our very best cultivars have long, slim, straight stems that branch into numerous flower heads. The heads are relatively flat but with dozens of pink or white buds that open into tiny, papery-textured flowers. It should be no surprise that the Riceflower belongs to the Daisy family.

Our Riceflower is propagated from cuttings here at Mellano & Company; seedlings we find to be invariably more difficult. In our eight seasons of farming Riceflower, we’ve come to perfect our formula for a robust crop. We allow for two feet between plants and a good seven feet between rows in our drip-irrigated acreage. Not overwatering this plant is critical to its success. Actually, there are two things for which Riceflower shows much disdain: 1) wet feet, and 2) root-knot nematodes! I know, I know—the common roundworm is usually quite beneficial for controlling other pests. But it’s downright lethal to the Riceflower. So is water-logged soil. So, yes, good drainage is essential.We’ll typically start harvesting our Riceflower in mid-March. Each variety flowers at its own unique rate, so, here again we must monitor them regularly, even daily as harvest approaches, because timing is so key. Buds picked too young will surely droop. On the other hand, if left in the field too long, Riceflower opens up to the rays of the sun and the flower’s quality drops off sharply. Once picked and bundled, a 1.5 pound bunch is graded to 80cm.

Okay, so to recap, here’s our formula: Precise Timing + Ample Drainage – Roundworms = A Superior Crop of Riceflower. Until next time, may you enjoy your Riceflower blooms!

Introducing Mellano & Company’s Design Guru ~ Michael Daniels!

Hello, I’m Michael Daniels, and I’ll be giving you a look into my world and design vision through this blog.  So, let’s get started!

I’m excited to introduce my debut blog post. I’m leaving for a vacation in Maui, so it’s been a crazy week! What do I write about to keep all of you interested? I really just want to keep it personal and talk about how my design aesthetic relates to my everyday life. Hopefully sharing with you will help you in your own home floral designing endeavors!

Campanula- Designed for a Large, Open Room

I thought I would start by sharing the story of how I created the flowers for my recent birthday party. I had about 50 people at my home – many of them are in the floral industry. The pressure was on – you know if you’re in the industry you will be judged.I always design flowers and objects to make me feel good, never to impress others or overshadow my home. When I work on flowers for my home its very different experience than doing something for a client. For me, certain flowers evoke a mood, a memory and a sensation. I like to share the feelings I get from my selections. I love color and I gravitate towards strong saturated hues of Orange, Green and Blue. For my party I was drawn to white and green. My house has a lot of glass and most of the backdrop you see through the large windows that run the whole width of the great room is nature- shades of green. I also wanted the flowers to enhance the environment, rather than the guests’ eye going right to them. Also with this palate you can do more flowers in the home without it looking like a flower shop or a funeral home…with the right balance of scale and proportion.

Saturated Colors Create Warmth

I arranged single-flower arrangements en mass, like full-bloom white Campanula in a cement pot and thirty stems of white and green Hydrangea in a big white milk glass vase. For my kitchen island, which I used for the bar, I did a tall story of Calla Lilies, Hyacinth Greens & Asian Pears. They really played nicely with the height if the room, drawing the eye up. Some flowers I only really like for fragrance, and Tuberose is one such flower. A mass of them in a small powder room can be delightfully intoxicating. In a large space you can layer fragrances without them being overbearing. For example, small accents of blooming Hyacinths on side tables tease the nose. I also like to mix a single candle fragrance throughout the house. My new favorite is a limited addition candle By Diptyque “Curiosities”. I bought up the last ones at the Diptyque Madison Ave. boutique in New York on my last trip there in February! The candle has a woody note mixed with the fragrance of charcoal, paper, amber and old wood. The combination of Tuberose, Hyacinth and the contradiction of the Diptyque candle created an unexpected fragrance. Having a room with a great inviting fragrance can really set the tone for an event – it welcomes your guests into your home.

Flowers Should Compliment Decor

The most important thing for me was the fact that I didn’t feel the need to tweak any of the arrangements – I actually made them all 2 days before. I often do this to cut down on the stress of preparing everything the same day. It also allows me to see over time if there’s anything I need to change. I loved all of them and was very happy with my work.The funny thing is that only one person out of 50 commented on the flowers during the party – I took it as a compliment. It meant they blended in with all the other aspects. If something really sticks out jarringly, it usually means there’s something strange, design-wise, going on! It also could have been that everyone was so concentrated on the great food, especially my killer birthday cake, baked by Suzy Cakes in Newport Beach, CA. It was the moistest red velvet ever. Anyway, I am off to pack for my trip to Maui and when I return I will be filled with inspiration!

Subtle Touches...

Until next time…

The Sensual, Sensitive Lily

Lilies Love Bright, Indirect Light

Spring is here! WOOT! Easter Lilies are a bold, beautiful sign that winter is behind us and summer is on the way! A symbol of purity and grace throughout the ages, the regal white lily graces millions of homes and churches every year. Whether given as a gift or enjoyed in your own home, the Easter Lily serves as a beautiful reminder that Spring is a time for rejoicing and celebrating. Throughout history Lilies have been part of some crazy tall tales- mostly concerning the sacrament of motherhood. Roman mythology links it to Juno, the queen of the gods. The story goes that while Juno was nursing her son Hercules, excess milk fell from the sky. Although part of it remained above the earth (creating the Milky Way constellation), the remainder fell to the earth, creating Lilies.

Another tradition has it that the Lily sprang from the repentant tears of Eve as she went forth from Paradise. In churches during the Victorian era, however, (and this just cracks me up) the very conspicuous stamens and pistils were removed because they were seen as overt symbols of sexuality that might move the congregation to impure thoughts.

While most people just toss out their Lily after the holiday~ they actually have the potential to live on for quite awhile. BUT you have to work a bit for it! Kinda like a high maintenance girlfriend, but if you love Lilies like I do, they are worth the extra effort and careful treatment!

The first thing you need to know is that the natural blooming period for this plant is June or July. They are forced by growers for the Easter season, therefore they are very sensitive to the amount of light and water they receive.

Watering:

Don’t drown your girlfriend—I mean Lily! Never let it sit in standing water. Take any plastic or foil covering off of the pot to allow the water to drain out.

BUT- Lilies will fail to bloom if the air is too dry so a great idea is to set your Lily in a saucer filled with small stones- both for drainage and to create some humidity around the plant.

Light:

Easter Lilies thrive in bright indirect sunlight. Blossoms will quickly wilt if placed in direct sun.

Turn the pot every couple of days to prevent your Lily from earning the name “Eileen”.

Temperature:

Lilies like cool daytime temps of 60-65 degrees, and slightly cooler temps at night.

Never place your Lily in an area where it will be exposed to drafts from windows or heaters.

But wait-there’s more!

Trying to get a second indoor bloom out of your Lily plant is difficult. The better idea is to re-plant outdoors!

Once your Lily has finished blooming, place the pot in a sunny location in your home until the danger of frost has passed (usually after May 15^th). Choose a sunny spot outside and prepare a hole with good drainage, one part soil, one part peat and one part perlite. (A raised bed is a perfect spot).

Set the entire pot and plant into the ground until the foliage has died back, then remove it from the pot and plant it directly into the ground. Gently spread the root ball to loosen the clumped and matted roots. Plant it a little deeper than what it was growing in the pot, with the bulb about three inches below the soil surface. Lily bulbs should be planted 6” deep and at least 12 to 18 inches apart in a deep enough hole that the bulbs can be placed in it with the roots spread out and down, as they naturally grow. Work the prepared soil around the bulbs making certain there are no air pockets around the roots. Water thoroughly after planting! Cover it with soil, mulch, and cut the stems back to the ground. Feed monthly with an all-purpose 10-10-10 water-soluble fertilizer.

Over 12 million Easter Lilies were grown and sold in the United States and Canada last year. Wow, with that many Lilies, the Victorians would be suffering from fits of impure thoughts everywhere they turn!

Easter Lilies at the Mellano and Company Wholesale Location at the Los Angeles Flower Market

A Rainbow of Alstroemeria at Mellano & Company

As one of our most popular cut flowers here at Mellano & Company, Alstroemeria are ornamental flowers that resemble miniature lilies. With a plethora of showy hybrids, and thus a diverse array of different markings and colors—ranging from white to purple, orange to apricot, pink to lavender and many, many others— Alstros are becoming more and more popular. Today they are often used in bouquets and flower arrangements in the commercial cut flower trade.

Elegant Alstroemeria: "Rebecca"

Mellano & Company is proudly recognized as the largest grower of Alstroemeria in the U.S. However, by comparison to the South American harvests, especially those in Chile and Brazil, ours is a mere drop in the bucket. But what makes us stand apart is the way we grow our Alstros, different than down in South America and different than in other U.S. locations where the flowers are grown under the cover of shade cloth or plastic. Instead, through 30-plus years of varietal selection, we’ve learned to grow our Alstros completely outdoors. The higher light intensity results in stem and flower quality par excellence! It’s every bit worth the slight risk of damage from our occasional hot Santa Ana winds or the rare hailstorm. Alstroemeria prefer cool temperatures with many varieties going dormant in the summer. So while we pick this crop year-round, we do experience peaks and valleys in production. Our biggest harvest typically occurs in April.

Over 60 Color Varieties!

With Alstros increased popularity at retail, as evidenced by the growing demand in the commercial trade, Mellano & Company has increased our plantings to over 25 main varieties-with 60 different color varieties! Beyond that, as an added service to our customers, our sales department recently implemented a new labeling program that allows for customers to be more precise in selecting the colors or bi-colors they desire. Now customers can select from a broader spectrum of a given color. Take the color yellow, for example; today you can select from egg-yolk yellow, lemon yellow, golden yellow, yellow with dark spots, yellow with a white throat, etc. You get the idea. That way your 32”, 10-stem bunch will be the exact color you want. It’s just another way we at Mellano & Company are bringing more value to our customers’ experience.

Alstroemeria: "Avalange"

Alstroemeria as Far as The Eye Can See

Faith n’ Begorrah! O’ Mellano and Company Potted Shamrocks!

The shamrock (Oxalis tetraphylla) is the most recognized symbol of the Irish, especially on St. Patrick’s Day, when all over the world everyone is Irish for a day! According to legend, the shamrock was a sacred plant to the Druids of Ireland because its leaves formed a triad, and three was a mystical number in the Celtic religion. St. Patrick used the shamrock in the 5th century to illustrate the doctrine of the Holy Trinity as he introduced Christianity to Ireland. In the 19th century it became a symbol of rebellion, and anyone wearing it risked death by hanging. It was this period that spawned the phrase “the wearin’ o’ the green”.

I love specialty plants like this! It only comes around once a year and has such a powerful history. Plus it’s so darn cute! Believe it or not there are 500 varieties of shamrocks. The most common are the solid dark green with a little silver patch in the middle of each leaf, and the deep burgundy colored variety. Shamrocks typically come in 4”and 6” pots and do well with low to moderate light and water. Though we may sometimes find shamrocks as pesky little pests in our lawns, they are not a ground cover plant. In the pot, a shamrock plant will grow upwards- becoming a bushy mound with new sprouts at the top. Some varieties of shamrocks also produce tiny pink and white flowers.                                                                              

I’ll bet a pot of gold that you didn’t know that the shamrock was a bulb plant! After you’ve had your potted shamrock for a couple months it will appear to be dead or dying. Don’t throw it out! It is moving into its dormant stage. Leave it in low light with minimal water for 2-3 months then harvest the bulb for re-planting. If you live inUS zone 3 you can plant it outside, otherwise it’s best to keep your shamrock indoors. Oh, and one more tip: even though I have a customer who swears her cats love shamrocks for its “catnip qualities” it is on the ASPCA list of plants poisonous to pets. Maybe she has Irish cats!

Springtime Means Ranunculus Time!

The Flower Fields at Carlsbad Ranch

A sure sign of spring—for anyone driving on Interstate 5 in Carlsbad, California—are the 40 acres of wildly colorful Ranunculus that Mellano & Company grow each year at the famous Flower Fields®. When in bloom these brightly colored flowers are a remarkable, can’t-miss sight and a great example of how through careful selection and breeding, we’ve improved what Mother Nature originally created.

A member of the buttercup family and often called Persian Buttercups, Ranunculus are native to Asia Minor and now thrive in France, Israel, South Africa, Australia and here in Southern California where breeding the Ranunculus each year requires a mixture of art and science. I consider it a labor of love. At Mellano & Company we’ve perfected our process for growing these magnificent flowers through plenty of experimentation through the years. Especially the Giant Tecelote brand of Ranunculus. Known for its vibrant colors and full “double blooms”—by that we mean double the number of petals—the Tecelote Ranunculus is showy flower with a densely layered petals. It’s an impressive flower in the field, and impressive in the vase too.

Our art, science and work begins at the end so to speak: each season after the crop has been picked, and long after the tourists have returned home, is when we harvest the bulbs. But we don’t plant the bulbs again. Nope, we wholesale them because Ranunculus bulbs are in relatively high demand by backyard gardeners who favor the popular rose-like flowers.

Instead, at Mellano & Company we prefer to harvest and then re-plant the seed of the flower. That way we guarantee the optimal health and most superior plant possible. First we plant and grow our early harvest of Mini-Ranunculus. Then we follow that up with the main harvest, which typically lasts from mid-March through mid-May. At the peak of production we pick about 11,000 to 12,000 bunches per day at about 10 stems to a bunch. You do the math—any way you add it up, that’s a lot of Ranunculus!

Iris Varieties Thrive at Mellano and Company!

Iris 'Hildegarde'

Thirty years. Whew! That’s saying a lot considering the planning, care and know-how required to cultivate Iris. For starters, we have to be strategic about when we plant the different varieties of this beautiful flower as some are early bloomers, some very early, and some are definitely late bloomers. Other variables such as heat, sunlight and soil temperature factor into the equation-what’s right for one Iris can be plain ol’ wrong for another.In general, Iris thrive in relatively cool temperatures. We take advantage of this by planting some of our Iris in September in Carlsbad, where the soil temps are cooler than those found inland at our farm in San Luis Rey. Carlsbad’s location, with its coastal soil and relatively wet air, is beneficial to the Iris’s early root growth. When we recently incorporated the bicolor variety Apollo-which is commonly a late season crop- we planted it early, in Carlsbad, so we’ll be able to pick this one early, too, to get a jump on the season.

Iris Picked Closed for Shipping

Can you guess where the Iris got its name? As both its common and scientific name, the word Iris derives from the Greek word for rainbow, and is so named because of the variety of colors found among the many species of the flower. There’s the white variety, known as the Casablanca. The yellow is the Golden Beauty. Hildegarde is a light blue Iris- rare enough that we occasionally have trouble finding bulbs and must resort to a similar variety called Sky Wings. And then there’s the main purple varieties Purple Diamond, Hong Kong and Rendezvous. But of course you’ll also find an abundance of the dark blue varieties including the popular Telstar and Discovery.

Customers seem to like the Telstar best. But it’s  Discovery whose thick, long stems allow it to stand tall and vigorous in the springtime heat. We plant Telstar along with Blue Diamond for early production. Blue Diamonds typically show first, the Telstars fill in after that, and finally come the late bloomers, the Discoveries. Of course, a spike in temperature will spike the Telstar bloom and throw the entire production schedule off! Nothing we can’t handle, of course. Just another day’s work during Iris season at Mellano & Company!

Ready to Travel from Farm to Wholesale

Welcome to the Mellano & Company Blog!

We kicked off the new year in grand style with one of our founding partners, Mike Mellano Sr., riding in the Rose Bowl Parade! Now we are pleased to announce the launch of our freshly update website www.mellano.com as well as this ongoing blog. We’ll be talking about trends from our growers of Mellano and Company products and answering all of your questions, as well as chat about design and business trends from some of the best known names in the floral industry!

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, we are in high gear at all of our locations! From the harvest to the pre-cooler, to shipping and wholesale, we are bringing the finest in flowers and foliage to the market every day. Thanks for checking us out…come back to this blog or our website often to see the latest in Mellano and Company news as well as industry hot topics. And don’t forget to ‘Like’ us on Facebook too!!

Ornamental Kale ~ An Exciting New Crop!

Bi-Color Kale

Always looking to keep our crop mix fresh and on-trend, one of our newest products is Ornamental Kale. We planted the crop in September and we have had a healthy harvest beginning in December- expected to continue through March. Kale is like growing cabbage or cauliflower in our region, as Kale is of the same family. We grow this crop outdoors and hoophouses are not necessary.

One thing has become very clear- the cool weather really brings on the color development! The varieties we grow are red, pink, rose, white and a white/pink bi-color. We have also had great success tinting our Kale to yellow, purple and brilliant pink. The series we grow is the Crane series, which was bred by Takii Seed.

So far we have had few problems growing this crop, and designers are loving the versatility and bold statement that the Ornamental Kale offers. Because the large heads are harvested with their long, thick stems intact, it is easy to insert into both vase and Oasis arrangements.

Fully Grown Kale at the San Luis Rey Farm

Kale with Stems Intact