TUCKERED RIGHT OUT!

We are tired! Sooooooo TIRED! Every one of my Darvonda peeps is working so hard to get those poinsettias out to market. Just look at how tuckered out they all are......
Have you ever seen anyone so TIRED in all your life?! That's what happens when you only get an hour of sleep before your next delivery......or feeding......

The Wee One understands that you gotta work hard if you wanna get things done.......don't ya Wee One?

We are busy packing up poinsettias till all hours of the night right now. It's crunch time! If we don't sell these plants now, we'll never get them all out to market before Christmas is here.
Everyone pitches in. Everyone stays late. What an amazing crew we have at Darvonda!
But WAIT! Even though all the plants are ready to go.......that doesn't mean the job is done. After all the packing is finished in the warehouse, my dedicated peeps just keep on going. Here they are helping me pack up a load of specialty greens to be shipped out to Alberta for a special occasion......

We're out in the cold and dark finding the perfect branches for making garlands because.........
well........because we've got a truck leaving for Alberta tomorrow and my SISTER needs these branches for a big SHINDIG she's having this weekend. Crazy as it sounds, she's having a big anniversary party at her place in Edmonton and she want's to make Christmas garlands with her guests but can't find any greenery in her neck of the woods. Good thing someone dropped off a great big pile of their landscape refuse in my parking lot because it will come in very usefull.......
The Wee One is a bit skeptical about how these GARLANDS are all gonna turn out but I promise you, with my sister Rosa, aka Martha Stewart from the Alberta prairies, these greens will be amazing!
I'll keep you posted on how her big SHINDIG turns out!

Vivaldi, Handel and Mel Torme......A Great Combo!

What a difference a few years can make. It doesn't seem that long ago when I took this picture of my kids, all full of youthful enthusiasm posing with their instruments. Can it be that just a short 15 years ago Junior started to take violin lessons? And every consecutive year thereafter, each of his siblings picked up the bow and fiddle to study right along side him?Everyone studied violin with the same teacher year after year.

Well, all except Danny Boneduce.......
He was determined to buck the trend......go his own way.....break away from the pack!


But we still had to go to the Langley Community Music School day after day and year after year.
All the broken strings, tears of frustrations, forgotten music, pre-concert jitters and crazy hard work really does pay off, people. It really, REALLY does. All that hard work and determination definitely brought about a wonderful METAMORPHOSIS in this band of 5 ragamuffin kids.

Last night I got to watch all 5 of my kids play with the Chilliwack Symphony Orchestra right alongside their beloved teacher. I must admit, I shed a few tears. What a wonderful concert it was! Maestro Clyde Mitchell and Paula Dewitt put on an amazing show. Don't believe me?! Check this little snippet out........



Here my babies stand with their teacher and mentor after the concert. It's really overwhelming to think that so much wisdom and beauty is passed on from generation to generation by dedicated men and women so PASSIONATE about the music they play. We are indebted to them for passing on the music of Vivaldi, Handel and.......Mel Torme!



The choir just belted out those tunes like it was a walk in the park!

Here's Danny Boneduce with Opera Diva behind him just tuning up for a night of wild fun and frolic punctuated perfectly by Clyde's enthusiastic BATON!

But if you think that all this amazing music comes together without a whole lot of work before hand, you would be sadly mistaken.

Rehearsals were long and arduous.......

but Junior made it is calling in life to keep the ladies in Violin 1 and 2 entertained as usual!

I got to come along to the weekly rehearsals so I could take care of the Wee One between feedings. We've had some serious discussions about which instrument she will take up when her time comes.......
So far, I think she's leaving her options open!

Now don't forget to stop by Between Naps on the Porch to check out all sorts of WONDERFUL Metamorphosis!

http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/2009/11/welcome-to-46th-metamorphosis-monday.html

My Morning Coffee. I'm Lovin' It!

I have a particular way that I like to start my morning. It's a bit odd, I have to admit. Every morning I hop in my car on my way to drop the kids off at school. After they pile out of the car I head to the local McDonald's for my morning coffee. I know, I could just make myself a coffee at home in my Tim Horton's coffee maker (it only takes a minute to brew a fresh pot) but there is just something about their coffee and muffin deal that keeps me coming back time after time.

This morning is Saturday but......I just NEED my McDonald's MUFFIN and I need it BAD! So, even though there's no school today, I head off to get my MUFFIN FIX! "I'll take 2 coffee's, one is black and the other is a single/single". They know me so well, I don't even have to tell them what goes in my coffee!

This morning I decide I have time to read the Vancouver Sun while I drink my cup of Java. It's Saturday. The housework can wait!

Now, I can tell you that THIS..........does not happen every morning! That's Grower Girl in the newspaper today, showing off our gorgeous plants. Doesn't she look PROFESSIONAL?! She could be the next Vanna White of the Horticulture industry, wouldn't you agree?

Now I'm off to change my clothes since I spilled my coffee all over myself in my excitement. Just one more reason why I should probably make my own coffee at home in the morning. It's too easy to spill in the car.

Just in case you'd like to read the WHOLE article written by Steve Whysall at the Vancouver Sun, just stop by his BLOG and check it out.

http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/inthegarden/archive/2009/11/27/nothing-beats-a-plain-red-poinsettia-for-christmas.aspx

My Love/Hate Relationship With Poinsettias

Talk to any grower that produces poinsettias and you will find out that we all share a very intense love/hate relationship with this particular crop. Not only are they hard to grow, they are hard to ship and hard to keep alive in the store. Besides that, our margins are always very tight. Every year I ask myself the same question at this time of year. "WHY do we grow poinsettias?!"


Of course, there is a logical answer to that question but before I answer it, I want to give you a quick tour of our Head Office facility as it looks today. A batch of 20,000 6" plants are hanging precariously above our shipping and packing areas, swaying gently as they move forward towards a water station positioned at the back of the warehouse.


I bet you're wondering how we check on the plants when they hang so high above our heads, aren't you? Well, we take this long, long, rolling staircase and position it just by the watering station. Usually I'm wearing my highest heals when I wanna check on things up there but fortunately today I was a wee bit smarter and wore my flats!

Would you LOOK at the view you get from up here?! You can see every square inch of the 100,000 square foot warehouse from this spot. From way up here I can see all that product getting packed and ready to sell for tomorrow.
From this angle, I can see that there are no trucks standing at any of our loading bay docks right now. That's because they're all on the road delivering from here to Alberta. The poor logisitics guy is working some serious overtime hours these days!

Here you can see my peeps working on dressing up our poinsettias in a beautiful container with a decorative pick and some extra papers to give it that christmas glamour.
Our new Lean Flow system is working like a charm and our production is just moving along like clockwork. Here is a whole bunch of containers lines up and ready to be paired with a lovely poinsettia that is bound to go to my favorite Big Box store for weekend sales!

So WHY do we do poinsettias when they are such a tricky crop. Actually, I got an email from a customer who bought two of our poinsettias in Quebec at my favorite Big Box store, supplied by one of our new partner growers out there. This wonderful lady was so happy with her gorgeous poinsettia arrangement that she made the effort to thank us for the beautiful design. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! What a wonderful ray of sunshine in a very busy and nerve wracking Christmas season.......and THAT explains why we do poinsettia. 'Cause they are BEAUTIFUL!

But, just so you know how stressful the winter season is for us growers, here is a photo of me a few nights ago when we had a very, VERY bad storm. All our alarms went off at each of our 3 locations. Everything was battered and bruised by ferocious gusts of wind. Not only did we lose plastic on one of our greenhouses.......but a chunk of that same greenhouse went flying across the parking lot and smashed a HUGE DENT in my mercedes.

Gotta love the POINSETTIA season!

Make sure you stop by The Inspired Room for more Holiday inspired posts. Click here

http://theinspiredroom.net/2009/11/26/diycoastal-beach-chic-christmas-decor/


PS: I also just found a post from "Up A Green Tree" that just makes me smile! She's been reading my blog and having a blast checking out the greenhouses via the internet. Check out her post on Darvonda at the following link:

http://auntlindacrummitt.blogspot.com/2009/11/winter-is-pointsetti-season.html

Milking Parlor Make-over - Christmas Edition

I cannot believe Christmas is right around the corner, can you?! We've been busy shipping poinsettias to the Big Box stores and revamping the Milking Parlor for retail sales for the past few weeks. It's enough to keep a gal REALLY busy.

The other day I got to help out with a bit of decorating and display and I am just so excited about how every thing turned out in the Milking Parlor. I mean, it went from THIS.........

to THIS.........

in no time! I call this the POINSETTIA WALL OF FAME. Doesn't it make you feel like running out to your nearest Garden Center to buy a couple of these babies?

Just to show you a little more of what a metamorphosis the Milking Parlor went through over the last month, check this out. From THIS..........



to THIS........

From a warm Autumn day.......
To a frosty Winter's eve.......
From the bold YELLOW's and ORANGE's of Fall........
To the SPARKLE and GLITZ of Christmas....

From last year's Christmas display in the WAREHOUSE........
To this year's more intimate setting in the old MILKING PARLOR. What an amazing transformation! My sister-in-law Fifi has been dreaming since SUMMERTIME to get things in top shape for the big CHRISTMAS rush.


Please take note of the long line of chandelier's down the center of the milking parlor. I am absolutely positive that the cows who used to reside in this establishment would have started producing top of the line EGG NOG straight from the udder had these babies been hanging here from the get-go.......

Am I right fella's?

But now I have a bit of a problem. Since we did so much Christmas decorating in the RETAIL, I'm not too inspired to do my own stuff at home. I would love to make my living room look like THIS.......


Or my mantle look like THIS........
But I don't own a mantle and I don't think the Big Guy would appreciate me painting the walls RED just for Christmas. I think I am going to have to have a heart-to-heart discussion with my granddaughter in regards to my Christmas decorating dilemma. Somehow when I'm with her, all my troubles just disappear! I think it's her perfume or something. Just one sniff of her chubby little cheeks and my brain waves clear INSTANTLY.

And as a parting shot........here's to a BLUE Christmas for those who love BLUE.

Poinsettias By The Thousands

This week we finally started shipping POINSETTIAS! I know, you're thinking "It's not Christmas for a LONG time!" but that's because you're not growing hundreds of thousands of the colorful christmas plant at your place like I am. If you were, you'd be saying things like "I can't wait till we can start shipping those babies" or "I wish people would start decorating for christmas a little early this year". I should know. I've been talking like that for a month already.

It suddenly dawned on me that I'd better get out into the greenhouse BEFORE we started shipping to take some pictures to share with my blogger peeps. It's just so BEAUTIFUL in here when we are full up with color. All those CRAZY COLORS are something amazing to behold..........Don't you just LOVE a PINK Poinsettia?.......And the one color we growers all love to hate, WHITE........Why do we love to hate it? Well, because there is no PURE WHITE poinsettia available and that's what everyone wants. White poinsettias tend to be a little on the yellow side and that just reminds me of YELLOW SNOW. Catch my DRIFT?! Yellow snow.......drift.......did you get that little pun in there? I crack myself up sometimes!

Back to the serious topic of POINSETTIA SHIPPING, for the next month or so I am going to be running of OVERLOAD. During the Christmas shipping season my "To Do" list remains a mile long, no matter how many hours I work in a day.

Remember how I mentioned that we were missing a container AGAIN this year?! Well, it has been found. SCRATCH THAT off my "To Do" list.

And do you also recall how I told you I was helping to nurse someone back to health? Turns out Junior caught the H1N1 virus on his flight to Montreal where he went to visit one of our partner growers. Did he ever catch a HIGH FEVER! Nothing would help to bring it down to a reasonable level. He's on the mend now, which is great because.........he can't AFFORD to be sick for very long. He's got POINSETTIA'S to sell before December 24th rolls around.

Now make sure that you run down to your favorite Garden center/Florist/Big Box store nearest you to buy your poinsettia and show your LOCAL GROWER some LOVE! You'd be doing us a really BIG favor.

Good thing I've got my little STRESS RELIEVER prescription close at hand.......

The Secret to Handling Stress

Do you ever get so busy that you're not sure where to start? Have you ever had that feeling that there's just way too much to do and not enough time to do it? My "TO DO" list seems to be growing by leaps and bounds the closer we get to Christmas. Wanna see my "TO DO" list?

-Nurse one of my kids through a 104 degree fever all night long
-Nail down Christmas pricing for those last minute poinsettia shoppers
-Finalize all the poinsettia shipping details with our partner growers out in Eastern Canada
-Go shopping for decorative pots to sell to our last minute customers
-Pick up new Sunday suit for Danny Boneduce who grows an inch taller every week
-Catch up on my wash since I won't have time available the next 4 weeks for that kind of thing
-Disinfect all the surfaces in the house so no one ELSE gets a 104 degree fever
-Get ready for tomorrow's Christmas Season Kick-off luncheon with all the staff
-Find another "LOST AT SEA" container that is gonna kill me if it doesn't arrive soon
-etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.....

Lucky for me, I have found a secret formula that helps me de-stress instantly. It's a powerful solution that I should bottle and sell to the whole world. I'll make millions with this anti-stress potion! Can you guess what it is?!

It's the smell of this little miracle that cures all ailments. The minute I lay my eyes on this sweet bundle of joy........all my stress dissipates! Am I a lucky lady or WHAT?!