Organic Flowers: Why Should you Care

October 21, 2009 · Filed under Flowers, Natural, Organic, The Farm · Tagged , ,

Conventional agriculture uses chemical inputs and machinery.

Chemical fertilizers and pesticides are energy-intensive.

That is the rough equivalent of the emissions of 88 million passenger cars each year.

That is more than the total number of cars in India, China, Australia, Canada and Mexico.

=If everyone converted 10% of their diet to organic, we could capture an additional 6.5 billion pounds of carbon in soil.

=That is equivalent to taking 2 million cars off the road each year.

In a Nutshell
In a Nutshell

DO THE MATH.

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Better Soil, Better Earth

October 14, 2009 · Filed under Natural, Organic, The Farm · Tagged , , , , ,

It is alarming how in a few weeks, Metro Manila and most of our Northern provinces were inundated. The storms have struck us in places that matter: our homes, our loved ones, and our means of livelihood. Farms everywhere are taking a brunt of the disaster. And people are only realizing now how essential agriculture is to our way of life. When roads to Baguio became impassable, our vegetables and fruits could not get to us. Restaurants, groceries and markets were at a loss, they had too little supply, and thus could not feed everyone’s need. Green beans soared to 300% more its normal price. And that’s just a small bean! A few days more of the city being cut off from us and we would have suffered an onslaught of high prices in basic commodities. It was the same scenario in our flower shop, where I saw florists, restaurants and wholesalers, panic buying, because flowers from Baguio did not come.

We rarely give our food sources a thought. Farming is not given its due honor, as really, the source of what is basic to us: food. We are assured that food will be at the markets and grocery stores, and prices will stay the same because food is not scarce, and vegetables and fruits will always be grown, harvested, and delivered to us. Except now we have a direct experience of how it is when we are cut off from our food sources. We are to experience more and more of it as a great number of farms were damaged by the storms and lost their food production for the next few months.
And now, climate change and its devastating effects are looming on the horizon. What happens if we keep having extreme rain, prolonged droughts, unusually strong winds, and our farms are unable to keep up with our food needs?

Climate Change and Organic Farming
bamboo
Our way of life has made it quite impossible for keeping climate change at bay. “Three hundred fifty parts per million (350 ppm) is the recommended safe threshold for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Today, at 386 ppm, we’re over the limit.” That is why we saw the flooding in Metro Manila, a city that we never thought would be submerged. And that is why, storm after storm came, ravishing our farms and mountains too. “To avoid further expensive climate chaos we must deploy the most creative and innovative technology in the world to rapidly pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. And [sustainable, organic, biodynamic,] regenerative farming is it.”

There is hope in climate-friendly farming. We need agriculture to pull off more carbon out of our atmosphere. “Organic farming could pull forty percent of global greenhouse emissions our of the atmosphere each year.” Picture that. And that’s a whole chunk of help. “Farmers who are building soil organic carbon can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at rates of 2 tons of CO2 per acre.” When we practice sustainable, organic or biodynamic agriculture, we nurture our soils with creative techniques such as crop rotations, cover cropping, organic fertilizers, and mimic nature’s innovative but gentle methods. Compare this to conventional farming where chemical companies burn fossil fuels to produce synthetic fertilizers, which are flown all over.

Real farmers build real soils. Real soils hold more carbon and hold more water. Real soils perform better in very dry or very wet weather. With good soil, we build a better earth, resilient to the very uncertain climate that awaits us. And that means more healthy food for our growing world.

Inspired and taken in part from Organic Farming Could Stop Global Climate Change

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If only there were trees, plants and good soil

October 7, 2009 · Filed under Natural, The Farm

Despite years and years of study, I realized I am as ignorant about nature as a seven year old.    Years spent memorizing mathematical precision and the science of the heavens, and yet I know very little about what causes a flood.  Why they never taught me about nature’s wondrous cycles and interconnection, I still do not know. Thirty years and a post graduate degree, and finally, I learned what it takes for a city to be submerged in water and mud.

Picture this image:  When it rains, the water that pours is drank by the soil, trees and plants.  The excess water, called a runoff, runs away to water channels like rivers and streams.  A flood occurs when two things happen: (1) our soil, trees, and plants cannot drink all the water; (2) and this excess water that runs off, cannot be carried by our water channels (or in modern times, also held by our water reservoirs.) The water then runs to our lands.

The Great Flood in Metro Manila was thus the result of intense rains that poured a huge chunk of water, which (1) cannot be drank in one big gulp by our teeny weeny trees, puny little plants, and inexistent soil; and (2) the excess water had no river or stream to carry them.  In fact, our rivers and coasts had overflowed, and our dams had to run off its excess water too.

I wish I could keep writing about the city’s lack of trees and plants, but this is our Flower Farm blog and so I will write about an equal champion against floods, the soil.    Throughout history, we have created floods as a direct result of soil erosion.  Soil erosion is a natural occurrence.  As long as there are rains and winds, the soil will be carried off in pieces.  But, nature is wise and never wasteful.  What the soil losses through erosion is always balanced by new soil.  If you look at virgin land masses, you will always see how nature forms a mantle of vegetation to protect the soil.  When rain falls on this protective mantle of grass or fallen leaves, some of the water’s moisture can still evaporate before it reaches the ground.  Nature also has a troop of trees, grasses and roots that help to hold the soil in place even amidst the slaughter of rain and wind.

Calla Lily Buffers!

Calla Lily Buffers!

How do we learn from nature’s subtle but nurturing ways?  I see now that when we engage in commercial farming without regard to the soil’s natural processes, we partially or wholly destroy nature’s protective canopy.  Intense cultivation digs up vegetative covers of the soil, removing the soil’s umbrella from too much rain.  When we dig up trees, grasses and roots that surround our farm, to give way to our crops, we shoo away nature’s defenses.  Our farm has a lot to learn but we have started some methods that simulate the marvelous processes of nature.  One way to hold back flood is to restore the vegetation in our soil.  We do this through crop rotation, cover cropping, and using bulky organic manure. We cover our crop beds with the leaves of legumes. To prevent the water from running off, we plant nitrogen-fixing legumes and calla lilies beside the water canals in between our greenhouses.  These legumes and lilies act like buffer zones to slow down run off and trap the soil, so that these are not washed out by the rain. Our canals are dug at critical places on a slope so excess water falls into the canals,  and through the natural contours of the land, the excess water irrigates the plants in the beds.  These are some of the methods we use and everyday nature readily gives us a clue.  I admit I am quite a beginner in understanding the mind-boggling ways of nature.  But I am a willing learner.  Because who else would teach me about something so simple, and yet so grand?

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Get your Hands Dirty

September 15, 2009 · Filed under Natural, Organic, The Farm · Tagged , ,

The soil is teeming with life. In a handful of dirt, you will find earthworms, centipedes, beetles, millions of fungi and bacteria, air and water. We truly know that good soil makes bigger and stronger plants. Most of the plant’s nourishment comes from the soil. When they have ample and the right amount of minerals and nutrients from the soil, plants are able to defend themselves from pests and diseases. This is because organic matter feeds the bacteria and fungi in the soil. The bacteria and fungi, in turn, break down the compost into compounds, and minerals, to small portions so the plants can absorb them. Thus, the more minerals and nutrients in the soil, the more the plant can take up.

However, improper farming practices have taken a toll on our planet’s soil. We only have thirty percent (30%) of farmable soil left in our planet. Thirty! Our soil is rapidly being depleted. Not only this, nature takes approximately five hundred (500) years to build one inch of top soil and a good crop yield takes an average of six inches of good top soil. How do we destroy our important resource? We lose or contaminate the soil by erosion, pollution, and through the voluminous use of artificial fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides. For example, in conventional farming, pests and disease are controlled with pesticides and herbicides. These chemicals kill the bacteria and fungi, which reduces the mineral content of the soil dramatically. To counteract this, they use a chemical fertilizer that contains only nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium – NPK. Plants can grow with these limited available minerals but they are less nutritious and far more susceptible to disease. It becomes a vicious cycle of more pesticides and more chemical fertilizers to sustain life. This method is especially absurd when you realize that the same effect can occur naturally on its own and provide us with a healthier outcome.

We need to recognize the fundamental role of soil in life and know that it is crucial that we maintain and develop our soil’s fertility. How do we respect the soil? Natural farming methods such as organic farming and biodynamic, when practiced sustainably, nourishes the soil more than it destroys it. Some of the methods we use at the farm for soil fertility are: (1) adding more nutrients to the soil through manure, compost and green waste; (2) suppressing the use of artificial fertilizers and pesticides; (3) composting through organic material; (4) using seaweed and fermented fish waste as foliar spray; (5) using legumes as cover crops. Cover crops protect the soil from wind, water and nutrient loss; and (5) crop rotation because different crops put in or take out different nutrients.

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Something Fishy Lurking in our Soil

August 25, 2009 · Filed under Natural, Organic, The Farm · Tagged , , ,

Our farm uses a lot of fish emulsion as natural fertilizer. Fish emulsion has high organic nitrogen. It’s a great soil conditioner and provides bacterial food to feed the soil’s microherd. You read it right, the soil eats. We always see the soil as living. (Sometimes I feel sad thinking about how advanced we are in science, knowing a lot about outer space, worlds outside our own, but we know very little about our own soil. There are so many microorganisms in the soil, thousands of them, still unnamed by science.) Fish oils also give a substantial supply of beneficial soil fungi. The fish bones also supply extra calcium.

How do we make the Fish Emulsion?

We use fresh fish scraps from the nearby market, using the juices, sauces or oils that come with these. The liquid is used to breed beneficial microbes and supply extra proteins to the emulsion. We also use fresh seaweed, which has a lot of nitrogen. These parts are composted in a bucket with other brown matter such as sawdust and leaves. We also add molasses to the mixture build up microbes, and speed up decomposition. The brown matter molasses controls the odor and absorbs organic nitrogen from the fish. The bucket is stirred daily to get air into the mixture. Remember air allows for better decomposition and better aerobic microbial growth. The bucket of fish is then made to rot for at least one week.

When all this is over, we dilute our fish emulsion at a 1:1 to 1:5 ratio. The fish emulsion is then used to spray on leaves and drench the soil. Whenever we spray the leaves, we let in small portions of nutrients into the plant through its leaves. Whenever we drench the soil with fish, we build up the soil’s microbial activities, supplying lots of nitrogen to the roots and topsoil. What more, using fish emulsion as our foliar spray helps us get rid of pests too. They hate the fishy smell, no matter how miniscule. We poke holes in the soil to get more oxygen in the soil too, and further increase organic matter decomposition, while increasing the activities of microbes in the soil. Our soils love their daily dose of fish meal. The earthworms too!

Don’t forget that you can actually make your own homemade version of our fish emulsion for your house plants or garden. The resulting mix is as unique as every flower farm or every garden.

Lisianthus, also known as Paper Roses

Lisianthus, also known as Paper Roses

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Pesky Potions: Getting Rid of Pests the Natural Way

August 14, 2009 · Filed under Flowers, Natural, Organic, The Farm · Tagged , ,

I recently wrote about the voluminous use of pesticides in plants and flowers. We also loathe pests and insects. Through the years, we have learned a few tricks to get rid of pests the natural way.

Healthy plants and healthy soil: One of the easiest ways to control pests in the farm is to prevent them from coming in! We have learned that healthy plants have healthy defenses. Just like us, when we are weak, we are more prone to sickness. Weak plants are either already infected, or will attract even more predators. What we do in the farm is pull out or dispose of weak plants. Do note that your most important defense is to have a healthy soil. Healthy soils grow strong and vibrant plants. We keep our soils in tip-top shape by natural composting methods such as mulching and using compost or natural fertilizer to the soil.

Minimize insect habitats: Make sure that you do not have breeding places in your area for insects. In our farm, we regularly clean our greenhouses, making sure they are free from debris and weeds, which are breeding places for insects.

Keep the leaves dry: Insects and fungus thrive on wet leaves. Wet leaves also spread disease. In our farm, we use drip irrigation methods to water our plants. Drip irrigation delivers the water to the plant’s roots without wetting the leaves. How is this done? Tiny holes are inserted at various points in a hose, allowing small quantities of water to trickle slowly into the soil over long periods of time. Another advantage of this method is saving water. Unlike sprinkler systems, we use 30-50% less water, applying these directly to the area where the plants need it the most. Drip irrigation also prevents soil erosion and nutrient run-off.

Take advantage of beneficial insects: There are actually some insects or pests that are good for the farm or your garden. For example, LADYBUGS eat aphids, mites, whiteflies and scale (the worst pests for flowers.) That is why we just love ladybugs and take care of these insects in the farm.

Make your own homemade pesticide barriers or sprays:

Flypaper: Do you know that ANY heavy paper or cardboard, painted with yellow and coated with anything sticky can be an effective flypaper? In our farm, we use recycled hard plastic containers, paint these yellow and then put sticky substances on them. We just hang these in our greenhouses and catch pesky aphids and whiteflies!

Neem Extract: We use a lot of Neem in the farm. Neem has remarkable powers for controlling insects. Its extract is used as a safe and natural pesticide. It is so unique because Neem does not immediately kill the insect. Instead, it alters an insect’s behavior or life processes in ways that can be extremely subtle. Eventually, however, the insect can no longer feed or breed or metamorphose, and cannot cause damage. Because of this subtle method, our crops, people, and animals are protected.

Fish Emulsion: We have replaced chemical pesticides with mixes of our fish emulsion. What is it? Fish waste, yes you read it right, foul and messy fish entrails! We gather all fish scraps from the markets, grind them, and mix them with an enzyme. We screen out the bones and decant the oil, and what remains is fish silage. Also, enzymes already in the ground fish continued to digest and break down to amino acids. More than a pesticide, it doubles as a great fertilizer. Fish emulsions are wonderful sources of nutrients!

So there. You can actually rid yourself of those pesky flies and insects without spraying yourself and your pretty flowers with chemical concoctions! All it takes is some creativity while you harness the wisdom of nature.

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Sowing with the Sun, Moon and Stars

August 7, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized

“All things have their season, and a time to every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to reap”. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2)

August Astrological Calendar

August Astrological Calendar

Do you still read your horoscope?  Do you find yourself constantly checking out a person’s Ascendant Sign, and concluding: “oh, you’re definitely a Scorpio.”   I definitely become very emotional on a full moon, and it’s no wonder why we have legends of women turning into werewolves and howling at the moon.  Just as any living thing, flowers, the soil, water, the air, all these are influenced by cosmic forces: the stars, moons and planets.  Our farm takes these subtle influences into great consideration.  Aside from experience, conventional wisdom and science, we look to the heavens to determine the optimum days for sowing, pruning, and harvesting our flowers.  Ancient wisdom tells us that towards a full moon, when the moon is waxing, we sow our seeds.  Before the New Moon, when the moon is waning, we do our transplanting.  Why?  During a full moon, and I am sure most of you know this already, there is a substantial increase in the water. We take advantage of this increase in water in the air, by sowing our seeds a few days before the new moon. In a new moon, the water movement is downwards, towards the earth.  That is why we transplant, so our roots when transplanted, are able to hold on to the soil.  There are other ancient practices that we follow such as avoiding fertilization when the moon crosses the sun’s path, or taking advantage of days when the moon is in certain places in the zodiac.  Leaf growth is greater when the Moon is in the water signs (Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces.) Root growth is best in Earth signs and so it is best to sow when the Moon is among Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn.  Air signs promote the growth of flowers (Libra Aquarius or Gemini)  It’s both very simple and complicated.  It’s both scientific and spiritual.  For example, when controlling pests, we also look to the moon.  Fungus thrives when there is too much water or warmth in the air.  These are the times when there is a full moon.  And so, we prepare the soil, pull weeds, and fight pests during the new moon.  Not all pests are harmful though and so we control which ones are left, as beneficial pests (but that’s another story.)

Some commercial farmers might laugh at our practices, telling us that this is too strange or ephemeral.  They smirk and then go about their daily lives, reading their horoscopes and practicing feng sui.  They even use their charms and amulets, the golden cat that waves at you as you enter stores.  I just shake my head and go about our farming business. Farmers throughout history, from the ancients, to our Sagada farmers, to our regular farmers in our rural areas, practice their own methods,  a substantial portion of this, folk and ancient wisdom.  They dance and sing, offer to the Gods, listen to the winds, look up to the sky, and read the stars.  Our flowers are vibrant and living.  They look to the sun for food, to the water and soil for nourishment, they thrive because nature makes it so.  What could be better then than working with the very cosmic forces that make them grow?

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Truly GREENhouses!

August 4, 2009 · Filed under Flowers, Natural, Organic, The Farm · Tagged ,

We have taken a step farther and have consciously built our greenhouses to be as green as they could be. All our greenhouses are constructed in bamboo. Yes, bamboo! Not those tall, rigid, imposing steel structures, not even concrete, not even hard wood. We do not cut trees!

One of our GREENhouses with a View

One of our GREENhouses with a View

WHY BAMBOO?

Prevents global warming: Our greenhouses made entirely out of bamboo captures carbon dioxide and stores it. This is because planted bamboo gets CO2 from the atmosphere. When a plant breathes in CO2 and exhales O2, the plant takes the C-carbon atom and converts it into plant matter through photosynthesis, storing the carbon in the plant. When the plant dies and decays, the carbon is eaten by bacteria or insects. The greenhouses could then be seen as a carbon sink, storing the carbon in the bamboo poles.

Grows 3-7 times faster than trees: Bamboo is not a tree. It is a grass. The fastest growing bamboo can grow up to 4 feet a day!

Extremely strong: Bamboo has twice the compression strength of concrete and roughly the same strength-to-weight ratio of steel. Imagine that! Our bamboo poles are able to withstand strong winds and earthquakes.

Weather, termite and mold resistant: Our bamboo greenhouses are naturally designed and treated with natural elements to be weather, termite and mold resistant. Our bamboo poles are treated with non-toxic borates to prevent termite and powder post beetle infestations as well as decaying fungi. Borates have been used internationally for the past 60 years as a safe and effective treatment to stop insects and decay.

Our Greenhouse

Our walkpaths: Stones, sand and bamboo!

Our walkpaths: Stones, sand and bamboo!

No nails! Just bamboo pegs!

No nails! Just bamboo pegs!

HOW DO WE DO IT? Our bamboo greenhouses are made entirely of bamboo. We do not even use nails or screws! The bamboo poles are held together by bamboo pegs. And then we use stones and pebbles for our pathways. We have designed and positioned our greenhouses to ensure that we use the least amount of energy for our crops. Our bamboo buildings use natural ventilation, and rely on the direction, strength or gentleness of winds. With this, we eliminated the need for energy-powered fans. Not only these, the bamboo poles are designed in a way that we can harvest our rainwater, which we in turn, use to irrigate our plants. We are the proud pioneers of these creative innovation in the Philippines. We only have to thank nature and the creativity of our farmers for our brilliant yet delightful bamboo houses.

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How Much Do I Love Thee? Let me Count the Ways…

July 31, 2009 · Filed under Organic, The Farm · Tagged , , ,

You adore nature.  You intensely care about the environment. And that is why you love flowers, those pretty buds that look up to you and tell you the world is enraptured in love. That is why your heart flip-flops when you receive flowers, or you go about giving everyone bundles of these wondrous gifts of nature.  But, did you know that cut flowers could have about the worst effects on the environment and farmers?  Definitely not sweet.
3RosesFB
Pesticide use in cut flowers are common although not given so much attention.   There is a secret world you do not see, the act of dousing those pretty little bundles with chemicals, poisoning the soil, and getting farmers sick in the process. As an example:

In a 1995 report, Bittersweet Harvests for Global Supermarkets, the World Resources Institute found that a number of rose and carnation producers use an average of six fungicides, four insecticides, and several herbicides. The situation is worse in certain other parts of the world, where flower-plantation workers are exposed to 127 types of pesticides. Nearly two-thirds of flower farm workers suffer from headaches, nausea, rashes, asthma, and other symptoms of pesticide-related illnesses.

A study which monitors the use of pesticides in flowers have found that:

…[F]lower growers apply almost 800,000 pounds of pesticides each year. About half is the fumigant methyl bromide, which was banned in the Netherlands ten years ago because of concerns about air and groundwater pollution. (The rest is primarily two other fumigants, metam sodium and chloropicrin, and several carcinogenic fungicides.)…

Worse is the harmful effects these pesticides have on the farmers. Farmers are said to suffer impaired vision, asthma, neurological problems, miscarriage and the like.  Pesticides on flowers can also be a problem for anyone who handles the flowers—including consumers—since many pesticides are easily absorbed through the skin.

The Philippines is yet to determine the amount of pesticide and fungicide use for flowers grown in our highlands.  It should be quite high, considering that almost all of our cut-flowers are not local flowers or endemic.  Farmers import a lot of the seeds of our cut-flowers from temperate countries. This means that they do not grow well under our tropical conditions.  Farmers would have to use a lot of pesticides to make sure they thrive in our environments, and look big and robust too.

So what should one do?  Of course, what would be perfect is to have your own flower garden and make sure you grow your flowers organically or naturally. Local tropical flowers and plants would need little to no chemicals. Then pick from your garden and bundle up your flowers!  Your other best bet is to buy flowers that have been grown with a conscious commitment to the environment and its farmers.  Flower Depot Inc. is proud and happy to be growing, tilling and harvesting its flowers with the least harm to the environment.  We have committed to grow our flowers sustainably, through practices that take care of our soil, keep our flowers vibrant and our farm workers healthy. For example: (1) Our farm has learned to rely on natural controls for soil-borne diseases and to ward off pests. Among these, we use natural insect traps, neem tree extract and beneficial bacteria and fungi to treat our soil; (2) We also practice natural methods on cover cropping, composting, and crop rotation; (3) The flower farm’s main source of soil fertility is legume cover crops, which provide nitrogen, micro nutrients and organic matter. These are plants that modern farming would have otherwise deemed as weeds. The natives have taught us to use these plants as a viable source of fertilizer. Also, the cover crops provide habitat for beneficial insects, keeping pests very low; and (4) We have learned to follow the cycles and phases of the moon in scheduling our pest management and control, taking into account that the life cycles of these creatures that coincide with the moon’s phases.  Aside from sustainable agriculture, our farm encourages careful water use, energy saving initiatives, greenhouse gas emission reduction efforts, waste management and product packaging minimization.

Birds building their nests on our roses!

Birds building their nests on our roses!

Our farm is a happy and vibrant ecosystem. In fact, our farm is home to birds (who build their nests on the roses!), toads, earthworms, snakes, bees (who have built beehives inside our greenhouses!) and and many many more. Our ultimate goal is to protect our environment and also enhance the lives of our workers, as they are free from unhealthy and toxic pesticides. We hope to transform the floral industry to growing and harvesting flowers that safeguards the environment, ecology and the well being of farm workers.

So, if you really love giving or receiving flowers, make sure your bouquets are vibrant and living, AND grown with the least harm to Mother Nature and flower farmers.

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Nature’s Bounty

July 24, 2009 · Filed under Chrysanthemum, The Farm · Tagged ,

My profession is always to be alert, to find God in nature, to know God’s lurking places, to attend to all the oratorios and the operas in nature. Henry David Thoreau

Nature gives us the answer, if only we cared to look I have always wondered why we spend so much time looking elsewhere, for happiness, healing, pleasure, or serenity. We forget that nature envelopes us, and has handed us all our answers, if only we paid attention. Take the chrysanthemum. I walk through a field of our chrysanthemums in the farm, and without even trying, my heart delights in its simple splendour. It is often called the flower of the Sun. Why? Chrysanthemums are not only delightful flowers, these charming works of art can warm and fill your stomach, have healing properties, protect you from the outside world, and while doing all this, works with nature to prevent pollution.

DSC_3280

The flowers were first cultivated in China as far back as the 15th century B.C. Tao Qian, an influential Chinese poet, reveres the chrysanthemum for its symbolism of nobleness. In the 6th century AD, it was introduced in Japan. It was venerated as the symbol of the sun and as representing perfection. It was so loved that the Emperor adopted the flower as his official seal. In Japan, the Emperor’s position is called the Chrysanthemum throne. Europe named the flower from the Greek word “chrysous” meaning golden.

Chrysanthemums have been used for centuries as tea and food. Yellow or white chrysanthemum flowers are boiled to make tea in some parts of Asia. The tea has many medicinal uses, including an aid in recovery from influenza. Extracts of Chrysanthemum plants (stem and flower) have been shown to have a wide variety of potential medicinal properties, including anti-HIV-1, antibacterial and antimycotic. In Chinese cuisine, Chrysanthemum leaves are steamed or boiled and used as greens. Others use the petals to mix with a thick snake meat soup in order to enhance the aroma. Have a problem with insects and bugs? Chrysanthemums are natural insecticides! The flowers are pulverized, and an active component (called pyrethrins) is applied in water or oil, or as a powder. Pyrethrins attack the nestockxpertcom_id34942451_jpg_e4b428d4c3bb4283f61d076fff4be142rvous systems of all insects, and inhibit female mosquitoes from biting. They are considered to be amongst the safest insecticides for use around food. As if these are not enough, Chrysanthemum plants have been shown to reduce indoor air pollution by the NASA Clean Air Study.

We are proud to be growing 20 different varieties of these flowers symbolizing the sun.  Our farm boasts of having 9 single standard varieties, 9 spray daisy types, santini spray types and button chrysanthemums. In fact, this is the most delightful spot in our farm, you see colors of all shades, from deep purples to lime greens.  We even have purple anemones!

The Chrysanthemum is just one little flower, among the multitude of gifts nature has given us.  It’s a pity we still have to wonder and look elsewhere, when we already have the answer.

Everything in nature contains all the power of nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff. Ralph Waldo Emerson

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