Our second stop on our Grower Tours was at Trommel Greenhouses.
Jeremy Trommel grows alstroemeria, a flower that we have in our cooler every week!
We love having alstroemeria in our cooler. This is a great, affordable flower that fills in arrangements beautifully and we always recommend alstroemeria for any arrangement.
When we first arrived at Trommel Greenhouses, Jeremy and his wife were busy picking alstroemeria. It was perfect timing for us to see how it all gets done! And I must say.. the way they have everything set up is brilliant!
When picking their alstroemeria, they have a cart that rolls along the heating pipes in the greenhouses. This way they can bring the cart with them as they pick down the row.
Once they have a handful of alstroemeria, they lay them on a fabric piece that is attached to the cart. When the bundle of alstroemeria starts to fill up, they wrap up the bundle and trim all the stems to the same length and in water they go!
For growers, florists and consumers, this step is always crucial for cut flowers.
Once any flower is freshly cut, putting them into water as soon as possible is a must.
The cart that Jeremy uses while picking does just that. This is something as a consumer we want to know is getting done properly and at Trommel Greenhouses it definitely is.
Not only are the carts an awesome way to get the job done, Jeremy and his Dad designed and built water tanks for the alstroemeria. This way once the bundle of alstroemeria is full, they can easily place them in a tank of water.
This is why Trommel's alstroemeria is such amazing quality. It is no secret that imported flowers are shipped out of water, but even some those growers don't put there cut flowers straight into water until after they are graded. This causes the cut flower to open up more quickly and not last as long. This is why we love Trommel's alstroemeria, we know that they have been taken care of since the first few minutes of being picked!
Now after the greenhouse has been gone through and all the stems that are ready are picked, the alstroemeria is then wheeled into the grading room and they start to separate and grade the freshly picked alstroemeria.
Just like the snap dragons and stocks at Raveneck's greenhouses, alstroemeria is placed in groupings of 5 stems in a machine that elastics them and cuts them to the same length.
They are then sleeved by hand and placed into buckets.
We visited Trommel Greenhouses during spring break, so most of the family was working in the greenhouse getting everything ready for the flower auction and orders!
We love using Trommels Greenhouses alstroemeria whenever we can. The quality of their alstroemeria is always amazing. Not only do they know how to grow their alstroemeria to premium standards, they take the time and care to do all the steps to have healthy cut stems that last for a very long time!
Thank you Jeremy and family for having us!
Photos and video by Ashley Michelle Photography and Sugar and Spice Photography