Abi Fair, left, and Sandi Dirkse rise early every morning during the growing season to cut roses for about two hours before it heats up.
the responsibilities, the garden has since grown to about 1,200 plants. A long day During the growing season—typically late April through late October—they both cut roses for about two hours starting about 5 a.m. every day. They look for new, still-closed blooms. “The vase life of a garden rose, at best, is going to be five to six days,” Dirkse said. “So, we cut them super tight and send them out in that form. Every morning, we literally will cut everything we have.… If you think, ‘Maybe I can wait until tomorrow for that one,’ when it’s 100 degrees outside, that flower will be long gone by tomorrow.” After cutting, they quickly move the roses into the walk-in cooler, strip them of bottom leaves, give them a fresh cut and bundle them in bunches of 10. After filling the orders, they sell any leftovers through social media. Occasionally, a few will still be in the cooler on Fridays—cooler cleanout day—and they can take them home and enjoy them. After the morning rush, Fair leaves for her full-time
job as membership coordinator for the Stanislaus County Farm Bureau. When she returns in the evening, she replies to messages, coordinates the orders and handles the social media marketing. While she’s away at work, her mom can finish anything they didn’t get to in the morning and handle order pickups. Dirkse also can show people around the garden and answer their questions. The rest of the time is spent on maintenance, such as deadheading (cutting off spent roses to spur new growth), pruning and fertilizing. Their husbands help with big jobs, such as hauling away winter prunings, but otherwise the two women handle everything. “The hard, hard work goes to us. We have the scratches and the scars from the thorns to show for it,” Dirkse said with a laugh. “We’ve been trying for about two years now to find the perfect puncture-resistant leather gloves and we’ve yet to find those.”
Linda DuBois ldubois@californiabountiful.com
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May/June 2022
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