New in the Field: Grandicolor

Our fields are looking a little more colorful these days thanks to ‘Grandicolor’, a new hybrid protea from Australia. This beautiful cultivar is a combination of P. grandiceps and P. aurea, a very unusual and unique cross to say the least. Its greenish-cream bracts, which deepen to peach at the base, have a delicate pinkish rim and conspicuous hairs like the grandiceps and surround rusty-red centers. Grandicolor produces dainty, petite blooms off and on from autumn through spring. The egg-shape foliage is small and leathery with a silvery-green hue and the stems straight and upright like the aurea.

From our field to the vase Grandicolor lives up to its name!

In the Field: Emu Tree

During a recent field trip, clusters of long pink flower spikes caught our eye. These giant Emu Trees, also known as Hakea francisiana can grow stems up to 8 feet tall. The vibrant flowers bloom within the blue-green foliage and the long sweeping style of the branches ensures that they are predominately displayed, never failing to attract attention.

They take their name, francisiana, from George William Francis a Victorian botanist who established a herbarium and was the first director of the Adelaide Botanical Gardens in Australia. This hakea has been in cultivation for years but is mainly suited to Mediterranean-like climates and it flowers best in an open, very well drained areas. Francisianna is tolerant of moderate frosts and its blooms are very attractive to pollinators. Use it as a feature shrub in the garden or as an accent flower in arrangements.

In the Field: Pinita

Pinita just recently entered the Protea scene and has done so with quite a splash! Considered a hybrid queen, this flower is a blend of P. magnifica (queen) and P. longifolia. Pinita has a medium-to-large bloom with a slightly waxen appearance, obviously more longifolia influence and lacking the woolly beards of the magnifica. The floral bracts are beautifully flushed and tipped in a bright chili-pepper pink, then shading to cream at the base. The central peaked dome is heavily tipped with black, providing for a strong and interesting contrast.

Pinita looks great mixed with other protea or combined with an array other colorful flowers and foliage. Here's are just some of the lovely ways we've found her being displayed!

Video Shoot: Behind the Scenes with California State Floral Association

While I’m usually content wandering the fields with my camera photographing flowers, this week a video crew came out to the farm and made my field trip extra special! If you’re big on cameras, drones, flowers and farmers, follow me into the fields, where the ‘action’ took place. With a recipe from the California State Floral Association (CSFA) calling for California flower farmers and protea (plus a couple of colorful flowerbeds), the Windsong Production crew captured our story and photographed the flowers we are so passionate about growing. I invite you to take a glimpse behind the scenes as the cameras rolled.

Harvesting protea – Great shot of a ‘field bouquet’.

Temperatures are rising – Keeping the protea hydrated!

A bird’s eye view from the drone.

Can’t resist this ‘flowerbed’!

A quick photo of Nick Matteis (CAGROWN), Mel and his brother Ramon.

Filming amidst the Pink Ice.

Mel, sharing his story, his passion.

Chatting about the many hats I wear on the farm.

Another awesome ‘flowerbed’!

A few final field shots.

Making time for Mel’s favorite ‘pastime’ – Bouquet making!

Thanks to Sara and the entire Windsong crew for making this field trip a fun adventure! And, kudos to our friends at Rainbow Protea for sharing some of their beautiful flowers with us. Can’t wait to see the video!

Spring’s Bounty: King Protea

Now that May flowers are in full bloom, we’re thrilled to finally be able to meander through the fields and harvest one of the season’s hottest wedding flowers – King protea! It’s safe to say we’ve been seeing these awesome protea being used in wedding bouquets and centerpieces at least a dozen times a week - and we’ve got the Pinterest board to prove it. There’s a little something there for every King connoisseur, from featuring a single stem to creating more lavish designs with an array of fabulous blooms. If you’re as crazy about these chic flowers as we are, you’ll certainly want to keep scrolling.

It’s time to take a quick stroll as well – Enjoy!
(Click here for video)

Spring Outing: In the Field with Taylor Morgan

On warm, sunny days we love heading up into the hills to share the beauty of flower farming with friends and acquaintances. For the ultimate April excursion, we teamed up with Taylor Morgan from Garden Collage, to forage through the fields in search of ingredients for an incredible spring bouquet.

Taylor writes for Garden Collage a new type of lifestyle gardening publication whose mission is to bring back the garden into peoples’ lives and inspire readers to incorporate a new, dynamic concept of “gardening” based on a collage of perspectives from a global community of gardeners. And, since we have a pretty amazing garden here in Rainbow we thought she’d enjoy a little of our perspective!

The perfect ingredients for our kind of spring bouquet – Enjoy!