>> "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom"
is brought to you by...
Albertsons Companies...
with additional support from the
following...
CalFlowers...
Dollar Tree...
Sunshine Bouquet.
♪
♪
>> Fields of flowers are the
focus of today's
"Life in Bloom" --
from the spectacular,
world-famous fields in
California to smaller fields to
grow in your own garden,
to hang on the wall,
even on a field of flatbread.
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I'm J Schwanke.
Welcome to "Life in Bloom."
Who hasn't dreamt of roaming
through fields of flowers as far
as the eye can see?
Hundreds of thousands of people
have visited the
Carlsbad Flower Fields in
California to live out that
particular dream.
And we'll take you there in this
episode.
But we'll also take a look at
ways to create our own fields of
flowers -- literally and
figuratively.
Why limit the imagination?
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Together, let's cultivate our
own field of flower dreams, on
today's "Life in Bloom."
♪
How large are the flower fields?
>> We farm approximately 40 to
45 acres here in the flower
fields.
We're a little limited because
obviously development has come
in and kind of crept up on all
sides.
Fortunately, this land is
protected.
The city of Carlsbad, through
the landowner, us, the growers,
and the city of Carlsbad, this
is protected to continue to be
the Flower Fields.
So, we're very fortunate to have
this location here.
>> How many stems of flowers are
we looking at?
>> You know, I couldn't even
answer that question.
We pick about 5 million stems
because we produce about
500,000 bunches out of these
flower fields.
We don't even touch 10% of what
is here in the fields.
So, to calculate what's actually
out here, in terms of stems of
flowers, your guess is as good
as mine.
♪
So, what we're looking at today
is probably a hundred years in
the making.
In the early '20s, a man by the
name of Luther Gage moved to
Carlsbad, and he was a traveler.
He loved plants.
He loved flowers.
And in his travels through Asia,
through Europe, he had become
familiar with the ranunculus and
got some seeds.
So, he came here to Carlsbad and
planted the seeds and fell in
love with his ranunculus crop.
His next-door neighbor was a
vegetable grower, and they were
the Frazee family.
And the Frazee family had a
young son, a teenage son, named
Edwin, and Edwin loved these
ranunculus crops that his
neighbor, Mr. Gage, was growing.
And so, he would go over, and
Mr. Gage would teach him about
selecting seed and growing the
ranunculus.
Edwin had to drop out of school
and take over his father's farm
after a while, and ranunculus
became his signature crop.
The ranunculus didn't look back
then as they do now.
And, really, what the ranunculus
looked a little bit more like
was more like a poppy, and you
can kind of see in this flower.
This doesn't really look like
the ranunculus we're used to
coming out of this field.
There's less petals, kind of
more of that poppy look.
So, over the years, what
Mr. Frazee would do is he would
basically select a nice flower
and grab seeds from there.
And little by little, he would
find fuller flowers.
Mother Nature would provide to
him maybe a flower with an extra
layer of petals.
And so, over the years, through
this sort of selection, he
produced a much fuller
ranunculus.
So, the other thing that
Mr. Frazee had to work with was
less color.
There were just some shades of
red, some shades of yellow, and
some shades of white.
Again, through selection, he
created color.
So, a lot of the colors that
you're seeing today was thanks
to selections that he made.
So, you're really seeing many,
many, many years in the making.
What's different about these
fields than most flower farmers
is you get to see the color, and
that's because most flower
growers are growing the crop for
a cut flower.
Our ranunculus fields are a
little different.
Our crop are the bulbs.
And so, what we're doing is
we're planting these fields from
seeds.
We're letting the flowers bloom.
They're dying back, and we're
digging up the bulbs.
Most flower growers would cut a
flower before it's really open
because it has to go through the
process of the cold chain to the
wholesaler to the retailer into
the client's home.
Here, we're not so worried about
that.
It's the bulb that is the crop.
♪
>> Why do you think the flower
fields are so popular?
>> People love coming to be part
of it.
And here, part of the community,
people just get to come, walk
around, and enjoy it, whether
it's a bunch of schoolkids
learning about it.
We have a ton of neighbors here
in the community that come daily
and do their power walking, and
it's a beautiful thing.
Not very many people get to see
fields of flowers like this,
especially in southern
California.
You kind of picture that being
in Amsterdam or being, you know,
so far away.
And here we get to have it right
in our very own backyard.
♪
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>> Who could resist arranging
with ranunculus after a visit to
those fantastic fields?
I had just the opportunity
inside the
Los Angeles Flower Market.
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How about a flower field inside
a glass?
This cocktail's ingredients
include elderflower, lavender,
and rose.
We'll start this cocktail with a
shaker filled with ice.
We'll add 2 ounces of
lavender-infused vodka.
Then, we'll add 2 ounces of
elderflower liqueur.
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We use an ounce of rose
simple syrup...
and half of a freshly squeezed
lemon.
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We'll shake this and then pour
it into a glass with
flower-filled ice cubes.
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We'll finish it with tonic
water.
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It's aromatic, slightly sweet,
and refreshing.
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Here's a fun project using
vintage flower pins, or more
formally called "brooches."
I found a deal on this
collection online, but maybe you
have your own collection,
or perhaps you know someone who
is looking to rehome a
collection.
There are pins on the back of
all the brooches.
So, what I did was I used a
wire cutters and cut off those
pins so that the pins would lay
flat.
♪
Then I laid them out on the
background to see exactly where
I wanted them to go.
I'm using a shadow-box frame
because of the dimension of the
pins.
I painted the background so that
it would match my ribbon.
Then I started at the top,
gluing the individual flower
pins into place.
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I have this wonderful plastic
rhinestone ribbon, and I split
it so that I had single,
individual strands.
It's gluable, and it's plastic,
and it's never gonna tarnish.
So, it's great for this process.
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The process takes a little bit
of time, but it's just like
flower arranging.
It can be very relaxing, and
it's fun to craft with flowers.
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I also found some butterfly
pins, and this beautiful bee pin
was a gift from a friend just
for this project.
I'm using a low-temp glue gun
because I don't want to burn my
fingers.
But, also, it makes some webs,
and I try and take some of those
webs off with a bamboo skewer as
I'm working along.
I'll remove as much as I can,
but then I'll go back in with my
heat gun.
A blow dryer works great, too,
set on high.
The heat melts down those glue
webs, and they completely
disappear.
It's a great trick for getting
rid of glue webs when you're
crafting.
This is a beautiful dupioni silk
ribbon, and I'm just gonna make
two loops and glue it where the
streamers come together.
Then we slip it into our frame,
and we have a wonderful keepsake
for years to come.
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Sometimes, we can bring the
field of flowers to our table,
with an arrangement.
The container we're using today
is a wedding basket, and it was
sent to me by a friend.
She apologized because most of
the silver plate had worn off.
But what I did was grab some
gold paint and painted over it,
and I have a brand-new container
that's repurposed.
It's a simple way to repurpose
and recycle a container.
So, for our arrangement today,
we're gonna use different types
of flowers, and when I think
about fields of flowers, I think
about the greenhouses that were
outside our home.
And those greenhouses had roses
and carnations and
chrysanthemums that grew inside
them.
We had fields where we grew
hydrangeas and other types of
field flowers that we could use
in arrangements.
So, this arrangement is inspired
by those fields of flowers.
We're gonna make it in
flower foam.
So, I've soaked a piece of
flower foam.
And I'm gonna bevel the edge.
I always do that, because
beveling the edge makes it
easier for us to insert flowers
all the way around.
It's a lot easier with those
smooth surfaces than trying to
go into a hard, fast right-angle
corner.
We're also gonna use some
ninebark.
This is from my local field of
flowers, right out in the
backyard.
And it'll be a wonderful foliage
to go with these other flowers.
♪
I grew up in a house next to our
family's greenhouses.
That meant I could run through
the flowers every single day.
We also had lots of land, about
seven acres.
And everywhere you looked, there
were flowers.
Even in the winter, I had the
luxury of the hidden meadows
inside the greenhouses.
In the summer, the back lot,
which you couldn't see from the
street, was filled with flowers,
too.
So, this bouquet reveals the
memories of those secret flower
fields around my house.
♪
Many of the flowers I'm using
today, like the alstroemeria
or the chrysanthemums or the
mini carnations, have long
laterals.
What that means is, each
individual flower has its own
stem.
So, cutting those apart allows
me to place them individually.
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In this arrangement, I was able
to group the specific flower
types together.
That way, when you're looking
over the arrangement, it's like
you're viewing a field of
flowers with different
plantings.
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Today, I'll show you how to use
flatbread as a canvas to create
your own field of flowers.
So, I did my flatbread the easy
way.
I used a packaged mix, and I got
it all laid out in my pan.
And now we simply need to
decorate with our vegetables.
We'll use chive as stems and
grasses.
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We'll use scallions as fatter
leaves.
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And we can even place a whole
scallion on as a stem for one of
our flowers.
We can use a whole onion to
create a rosette shape.
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We can use a pepper
as a flower.
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We can use a black olive as the
center of our flower.
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Put some mushrooms growing along
the bottom.
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Then we can take our tomato.
We're gonna make a ribbon by
peeling it.
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We can take our ribbon...
and we'll coil it into a
rosette.
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You can also use little
tomatoes, then split them in
half...
and put an olive in the center
as a bud that's just starting to
open.
We can also make pebbles out of
our peppers.
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Use olives to make a little
black-eyed Susan.
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We can also use fresh stems of
basil and add them right into
our field of flowers.
You might clean up your
vegetables more, but all of this
is organic produce.
So, I left the skin on the
outside of my onions and the
roots on the bottom of my
scallions.
That's fiber, and it's all
edible because everything's
organic.
So, now we're ready to go into
the oven and bake it for 35 to
40 minutes.
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I love how everything got more
texture and dimension as we
baked it.
It's a wonderful way to turn
your flatbread into a
field of flowers.
♪
Almost anyone I meet is
transfixed with the idea that I
must have these incredible
gardens at my home.
While I've curated some pretty
incredible plants and flowers
for my gardens, the gardens
themselves might not live up to
those dreams.
Here's why.
I'm constantly cutting the
blooms and greens to create
beautiful arrangements to enjoy
inside my home.
That being said, here are some
of my favorite flowers and
plants for a cutting garden.
I live tiger lilies, and these
little guys are getting ready to
bloom real soon.
Tiger lilies is the lily that my
grandmother was named after.
She was definitely a tiger.
These are great additions to
your flower arrangements,
whether it's a tiger lily or
an Asiatic lily or an
Oriental lily.
Any of the lilies work great for
flower arranging.
♪
Lilac -- nothing compares to the
scent of fresh lilacs.
And remember to leave the leaves
on the stem when cutting.
The leaves aid in hydration.
This means the leaves help
create photosynthesis that
stimulates water uptake to the
flower.
Leave the leaves when it comes
to lilac.
Hydrangea -- everyone loves
hydrangea.
Whether pink, blue, lavender, or
white, these big, voluptuous
flowers help fill a bouquet with
color and texture.
Yarrow -- a hardy late-summer
bloomer.
These golden flowers can be
dried and used for both fresh
and preserved bouquets.
Peonies are a great addition to
a cutting garden, and I do
different types of peonies.
I have tree peonies.
I have single blooms.
And I also have the doubles.
But I love that there's a
gradation in open blooms.
Tree peonies come first.
Singles are next.
And then I have these larger
ones.
Peonies are a perfect option for
a cutting garden.
Zinnia.
Zinnias are pollinator magnets.
And there's a seemingly unending
range of colors, shapes, and
sizes.
They're easy to grow, and here's
a secret.
The more flowers you cut, the
more the plant makes.
Dahlia.
These mesmerizing blooms come in
small to extra large, called
"dinner-plate dahlias."
Cut early in the morning, this
is another plant that will make
more flowers after you harvest.
Iris.
Bearded iris, swamp iris, mini
or maxi, many varieties bloom
several times, and the unique
and interesting colors include
peach, brown, black, and
variegated.
Allium.
Many say it's a Dr. Seuss flower
because of the perfect ball of
blooms atop a single, slender
stem.
Allium add a fantastical flair
to your cutting garden.
Dianthus, or carnations, one of
my favorite flowers.
A cutting garden isn't complete
without a few carnations.
Long-lasting and fragrant,
they're a classic.
The joy I've acquired by
planting flowers and plants
suitable for cutting and
arranging is incredible.
And I hope that you'll
experiment with your own garden
and carve out a space for a
cutting area so you can
experience the joy of arranging
flowers from your very own
garden.
♪
I hope you've enjoyed our visit
to the Flower Fields and that
you're inspired to create your
own version to enjoy whether in
flowers, artwork, food, or
beverages.
For "Life in Bloom," I'm
J Schwanke.
>> Mr. Frazee told a lot of
stories about how neighbors in
this area would come and walk
the fields, and he didn't really
care because, again, the crop
was just growing and dying back.
Unfortunately, as usually
happens in situations like that,
too many of the neighbors
started coming and taking
advantage of the field, picking
flowers, and so, he would tell
some really great stories of
while he was in his fields
working, his wife would sit off
in her little beach chair and
read her book or take care of
bills.
And if there just got to be too
many people coming and taking
advantage, she would just turn
the sprinklers on.
So, that was their old way of
security, of keeping people out.
♪
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>> "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom"
is filmed in Grand Rapids,
Michigan.
>> "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom"
is brought to you by...
Albertsons Companies...
with additional support from the
following...
CalFlowers...
Dollar Tree...
Sunshine Bouquet.
♪
Closed-caption funding provided
by Holland America Flowers.
♪
For everything flowers, recipes,
projects, and more information,
visit ubloom.com.
♪