An early Saturday morning alarm, two kids and my mother in tow, we headed north to Santa Barbara for the Raoul Textiles Sale. Afterwards, a little worse for the wear, as if right out of a stampede at  Filene’s, I was happy to discover the Carpinteria Growers Association hosting free behind-the-green(house)-door tours of some pretty fantastic flower nurseries. Most notably was Westland Floral, growers of cymbidium orchids and gerber daisies among other varieties of flowers that make up many of the bouquets offered at grocery stores nationwide.

Cymbidium as far as the eye can see.

These cymbidium blooms are getting ready for their Mothers’ Day harvest. Each plant is over 50 years old and sports its own shears, dangling from the elastic grow line overhead, to prevent cross-contamination.

Pink gerbera daisies.

Personally, I am usually pretty satisfied with myself when something even grows under my watch. But for these nurseries, farmers know exactly how many blossoms they will get out of each plant in its 5-year life span. Each of these Gerbera plants will have a new bloom approximately every two weeks. That’s about 130 flowers in its lifetime.

Rainbow of gerbers.