Insights from farmers and ranchers across the Golden State, including members of the California Farm Bureau.
Jon Reelhorn Fresno County nursery grower
This is our peak season for harvest in the nursery landscape, the greenhouse, where plants are in bloom. Customers are in nursery garden centers. People are in their yards. Our peak season in the Central Valley starts about Feb. 15 and goes till about June 1. We do half our business in three months. It’s an important time for us. We’re a medium-sized grower. We sell to independent garden centers and small chains, so a lot of our plants are done on speculation. Last year, it rained all March, so we got a very slow start. This year, we’ve had good weather, and consumers still want the product. I wish we would’ve been more aggressive going into spring. Last fall, I was cutting back 10% or 20%. This spring, it looks like we could have used more plants. It’s a good problem to have. When people were staying home during the pandemic, our business skyrocketed because people worked in their yards. While it has declined, we gained millions of gardeners. In that respect, it’s still strong. We feel fortunate that people value plants in their yards and their communities. Color is what sells. Homeowners love color. They love roses, flowering trees and perennial flowers. That’s typically where we focus. We do a lot of roses. We do David Austin roses, which is an English garden rose. It’s very popular. We’re going to grow what people buy. If they want a fuchsia, which is a water-loving plant, we’ll still grow that. But we grow a lot more drought-tolerant, low water-use plants. Fruit trees, berries and edibles have been great. Lots of the perennial flowers that we grow, lots of pollinator- and bee-friendly plants are absolutely popular. The butterfly weeds are very user friendly. That’s a good market for us, as are artichoke plants, strawberry plants, berry plants and all types of pomegranates and fruit trees. In California, those products are generally still a strong market.
VOICE OF CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURE
yf&r farmpac Clay shoot Fundraiser
PODCAST WITH GARY SACK
Benefiting the Fund to Protect the Family Farm (FarmPAC ® )
California Farm Bureau is excited to bring you the Voice of California Agriculture podcast. Hosted by Gary Sack, the podcast brings general farm and food news alongside updates on legislative matters impacting California’s family farmers and ranchers. LISTEN NOW ON APPLE PODCASTS OR SPOTIFY! Visit cfbf.com/podcast to access the podcast links.
Saturday June 15 2024 Raahauge’s Hunting and Sporting Clays 25835 County Road 8, Dunnigan, CA 95937
Registration Open $100 per person $450 for a team of 5 includes traps and lunch Limited to 100 shooters
sponsorship opportunities available
For more information and to register, visit www.cfbf.com/farmpac. Contributions or gifts to FarmPAC are not tax-deductible. Paid for by California Farm Bureau Federation Fund to Protect the Family Farm (FarmPAC ® ).
April 17, 2024 Ag Alert 5
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