• Home
  • Sailing The Med
  • Blogs
    • 2016 Turkey, London France Prague >
      • Turkey London Chunnel Train
      • France beautiful France
      • France, Prague and back to Turkey
      • Ending 2016 in Turkey
    • 2015 Turkey, Greece, (maybe) and Italy >
      • From Home to Margie's Bay
      • Palamut to Leros Greece
      • Leros Greece to Skopea Lamani
      • Gocek to Kekova Roads and back
      • Leaving Turkey for Italy
    • 2014 Sailing Turkey and Greece then trip Amalfi Coast >
      • Arriving in Marmaris, luggageless
      • Deep Bay, Kas(paragliding), Fetiye
      • The Cycladic Circuit
      • Nysros, Greece, Turkey and Amalfi, Italy
    • 2013 Sailing Turkey and Greece >
      • Istanbul, Gocek to Marmaris
      • Marmaris to Gorkova Korfesi
      • Turkitreis to Gocek Lamani
      • Bozukbuku to Marmaris and Home
    • 2012 Sailing Turkey >
      • Portugal
      • Marmaris to Gorkova Korfesi
      • Kekova Roads to Marmaris
      • Bozubuku to Lisbon
      • Marmaris to the Hisaronu Korfesi
      • Gocek to Kekova Roads
      • Home to Marmaris to Gocek
      • Leaving home
    • Sailing 2011 >
      • Fetiye and all Skopea Lamani, to Marmaris, Istanbul, 15th to 19th Sept Skopea Lamani, Marmaris, Wrighteau to bed, and off to Istanbul
      • Bozubuku to Fetiye 18th Aug- 4th Sept Marmaris, Ekincik, Skopea Lamani
      • the Dodecanese to Turkey 6th - 18th August Kos, Simi and into Turkey at Datca
      • the Dodecanese 24th July - 5th August Agathonisi, Marathos, Patmos, Leros, Kalimnos, Kos Wrighteau's birthday yesterday, a big 7 year old now
  • About
  • Photos
    • 2015 >
      • Leaving home to Margies Bay
    • 2013 >
      • Istanbul Gocek and Marmaris
      • Marmaris to Gorkova Korfesi
    • 2012 >
      • Leaving home
      • Home to Gocek
      • Gocek to Kekova Roads
      • Kekova Roads to Marmaris
      • Marmaris to he Hisaronu Korfezi
      • Bozburun to Lisbon Portugal
      • Portugal 2012
    • 2007 >
      • Croatia
      • Montenegro 2007
      • Italy 2007
    • 2006 >
      • Wrighteau 2006
      • Chianti and Rome 2006
    • 2005 Croatia
  • Hydrangeas
  • Test
  WCS
  • Home
  • Sailing The Med
  • Blogs
    • 2016 Turkey, London France Prague >
      • Turkey London Chunnel Train
      • France beautiful France
      • France, Prague and back to Turkey
      • Ending 2016 in Turkey
    • 2015 Turkey, Greece, (maybe) and Italy >
      • From Home to Margie's Bay
      • Palamut to Leros Greece
      • Leros Greece to Skopea Lamani
      • Gocek to Kekova Roads and back
      • Leaving Turkey for Italy
    • 2014 Sailing Turkey and Greece then trip Amalfi Coast >
      • Arriving in Marmaris, luggageless
      • Deep Bay, Kas(paragliding), Fetiye
      • The Cycladic Circuit
      • Nysros, Greece, Turkey and Amalfi, Italy
    • 2013 Sailing Turkey and Greece >
      • Istanbul, Gocek to Marmaris
      • Marmaris to Gorkova Korfesi
      • Turkitreis to Gocek Lamani
      • Bozukbuku to Marmaris and Home
    • 2012 Sailing Turkey >
      • Portugal
      • Marmaris to Gorkova Korfesi
      • Kekova Roads to Marmaris
      • Bozubuku to Lisbon
      • Marmaris to the Hisaronu Korfesi
      • Gocek to Kekova Roads
      • Home to Marmaris to Gocek
      • Leaving home
    • Sailing 2011 >
      • Fetiye and all Skopea Lamani, to Marmaris, Istanbul, 15th to 19th Sept Skopea Lamani, Marmaris, Wrighteau to bed, and off to Istanbul
      • Bozubuku to Fetiye 18th Aug- 4th Sept Marmaris, Ekincik, Skopea Lamani
      • the Dodecanese to Turkey 6th - 18th August Kos, Simi and into Turkey at Datca
      • the Dodecanese 24th July - 5th August Agathonisi, Marathos, Patmos, Leros, Kalimnos, Kos Wrighteau's birthday yesterday, a big 7 year old now
  • About
  • Photos
    • 2015 >
      • Leaving home to Margies Bay
    • 2013 >
      • Istanbul Gocek and Marmaris
      • Marmaris to Gorkova Korfesi
    • 2012 >
      • Leaving home
      • Home to Gocek
      • Gocek to Kekova Roads
      • Kekova Roads to Marmaris
      • Marmaris to he Hisaronu Korfezi
      • Bozburun to Lisbon Portugal
      • Portugal 2012
    • 2007 >
      • Croatia
      • Montenegro 2007
      • Italy 2007
    • 2006 >
      • Wrighteau 2006
      • Chianti and Rome 2006
    • 2005 Croatia
  • Hydrangeas
  • Test

Picture
Joe and I have been growing Hydrangeas for about 13 years now, we started with bare land and covered about 1.5 hectares with green shade cloth which minimizes the UV strength to 50%, to protect the hydrangeas from the burning effects of the sun We had a big task of preparing the ground and planting out thousands of little plants.


Picture
Picture

Picture
Picking is usually one of the highlights, we pick them with stems around 40 to 60 cm stems, and we bunch them into 5 stems per bunch to carry them back up to the pack shed

Picture
Then Joe carries them up to the trailer for transporting to the shed.  Sometimes we go a bit fast and get ahead of him

Picture
Sometimes when we pick when it is still wet we have to dry the flowers overnight in the pack shed, this becomes quite a nuisance, especially in a wet season when we have to do this many times
Picture
Or if it is a nice morning we have a big avocado tree by the shed where we leave them out with fans on them to dry off
Picture
There are many challenges, insects are a big problem, and fungus is another constant battle.  This means that unfortunately we must spray every fortnight with fungicides and pesticides.
Picture
It is a big area so we use weedspray to control our weeds
Picture

The flowers are then chilled, graded and packed for export

If the flowers are of medium size we pack 50 stems into a big box and 25 into smaller box.  This will vary on the size of the heads
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

A couple of packed boxes  We export most of our flowers, we use half a dozen exporters out of Auckland.  A small chilled truck collects our boxes in the afternoon, overnight they are taken to the exporters by way of a bigger truck.  Some of the exporters can be pretty hard on us, we are dealing with a fresh product so inevitably things can deteriorate especially when a lot depends of the way they are treated when they leave us. 

We fumigate the flowers but they are hardy little beasts, and many of them sleep through the fumigation.  Sometimes we even dip them in a strong solution of pesticide, which we don't like to do, but even then sometimes live insects are detected at the exporters.  One of our exporters, NZ Bloom do really well as they have a fumigation chamber with a heavy duty product, and we get a small fee taken off.
Picture
At the end of the picking season we concentrate on maintenance, replanting and pruning
Picture
4 yrs ago we started to grow pinks in bags to control their medium, our soil is a bit acidic, so this way we can force them to stay pink
Picture

So that is what keeps us busy our of our sailing season.  Here now is a slideshow with some more photos of down on the farm

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Sailing The Med
  • Blogs
    • 2016 Turkey, London France Prague >
      • Turkey London Chunnel Train
      • France beautiful France
      • France, Prague and back to Turkey
      • Ending 2016 in Turkey
    • 2015 Turkey, Greece, (maybe) and Italy >
      • From Home to Margie's Bay
      • Palamut to Leros Greece
      • Leros Greece to Skopea Lamani
      • Gocek to Kekova Roads and back
      • Leaving Turkey for Italy
    • 2014 Sailing Turkey and Greece then trip Amalfi Coast >
      • Arriving in Marmaris, luggageless
      • Deep Bay, Kas(paragliding), Fetiye
      • The Cycladic Circuit
      • Nysros, Greece, Turkey and Amalfi, Italy
    • 2013 Sailing Turkey and Greece >
      • Istanbul, Gocek to Marmaris
      • Marmaris to Gorkova Korfesi
      • Turkitreis to Gocek Lamani
      • Bozukbuku to Marmaris and Home
    • 2012 Sailing Turkey >
      • Portugal
      • Marmaris to Gorkova Korfesi
      • Kekova Roads to Marmaris
      • Bozubuku to Lisbon
      • Marmaris to the Hisaronu Korfesi
      • Gocek to Kekova Roads
      • Home to Marmaris to Gocek
      • Leaving home
    • Sailing 2011 >
      • Fetiye and all Skopea Lamani, to Marmaris, Istanbul, 15th to 19th Sept Skopea Lamani, Marmaris, Wrighteau to bed, and off to Istanbul
      • Bozubuku to Fetiye 18th Aug- 4th Sept Marmaris, Ekincik, Skopea Lamani
      • the Dodecanese to Turkey 6th - 18th August Kos, Simi and into Turkey at Datca
      • the Dodecanese 24th July - 5th August Agathonisi, Marathos, Patmos, Leros, Kalimnos, Kos Wrighteau's birthday yesterday, a big 7 year old now
  • About
  • Photos
    • 2015 >
      • Leaving home to Margies Bay
    • 2013 >
      • Istanbul Gocek and Marmaris
      • Marmaris to Gorkova Korfesi
    • 2012 >
      • Leaving home
      • Home to Gocek
      • Gocek to Kekova Roads
      • Kekova Roads to Marmaris
      • Marmaris to he Hisaronu Korfezi
      • Bozburun to Lisbon Portugal
      • Portugal 2012
    • 2007 >
      • Croatia
      • Montenegro 2007
      • Italy 2007
    • 2006 >
      • Wrighteau 2006
      • Chianti and Rome 2006
    • 2005 Croatia
  • Hydrangeas
  • Test