GILROY
– Step aside, Garlic Town. This week, Gilroy is Flower City.
This is the week of the California Pack Trials, a
flower-industry trade tour that has been returning to Gilroy every
spring for 35 years.
GILROY – Step aside, Garlic Town. This week, Gilroy is Flower City.
This is the week of the California Pack Trials, a flower-industry trade tour that has been returning to Gilroy every spring for 35 years.
More than 1,000 flower biz insiders from all over the world are touring the state and checking out the latest fashions, so to speak, various breeders have to offer.
“It’s kind of like a spring fashion show,” said Alecia Troy, marketing manager for Goldsmith Seeds, a Gilroy fixture for four decades.
Gilroy, by the way, is the unofficial Pack Trial capital. No other town has more exhibitions on the flower tour. Of the 21 stops, four are right here.
Out on Hecker Pass Highway, Goldsmith’s greenhouses were buzzing with people on Wednesday. The family-owned company has facilities in Guatemala, Kenya and the Netherlands, but its world headquarters is still in Gilroy. Goldsmith employs 150 people here.
This wasn’t just Goldsmith’s gig, though. This was for The Flower Fields, a leading North American flower brand that Goldsmiths shares with Ecke Ranch of San Diego, Fischer USA of Colorado and Yoder Brothers of Ohio.
On the other end of town, S&G Flowers had a baseball theme going at its Holsclaw Road breeding center, attempting to tie into their guests’ possible excitement about major league opening day.
“We tour the world to see what’s new and exciting and keep on top of it, be one step ahead of the competition if possible,” Randell Jansen, a flower grower from Langley, British Columbia, Canada, said Wednesday at S&G.
North of the city, at Gilroy Young Plants on Rucker Avenue, Kieft Seeds Holland was displaying its blossoms. At Headstart Nursery south of town on Monterey Road, Danziger Dan Plant Farm and Oro Farms were doing the same.
Two stops in Salinas, one in Watsonville and one in Moss Landing rounded out the Northern California leg of the tour.
Among The Flower Fields’ crowd Wednesday was the brand’s most prominent promoter, television garden guru P. Allen Smith, known for his gardening tips on public television, the Weather Channel, CBS’s The Early Show and a syndicated weekly program.
“It’s the most influential people in the business who come out to Pack Trials,” Troy said.
Inside the greenhouses, the sweet smells of flowers mixed with aromas of complimentary fresh coffee and catered food.
Guests wandered the rows, comparing the different brands’ blooms side-by-side and snapping photos of the new breeds for 2005.
Troy proudly displayed Goldsmith’s new, hybrid zinnias, digitalis and cyclamens. Some are bred for enhanced scent, others for larger blossoms, new colors, or hardier constitutions – all without splicing a single strand of DNA.
“The old-fashioned way works best for us at this point,” Troy said, “but you never know. … (Genetic modification) is an expensive process to get into.”
Wednesday was busier than usual at the shows. About 250 viewers had already come through The Flower Fields by the early afternoon, Troy said. The reason was obvious. Among the vehicles jamming the parking lot were two buses chartered by The Home Depot, carrying about 75 people.
Joining Home Depot staff on the buses were growers who sell to the home-improvement retail giant. Brett Johnson, a grower from Richmond, Va., was one of these. Since the Home Depot buys 60 percent of his stock, he listens to what they want.
“They want something in their mix, well then, we’ve got to make sure we come out here and buy it all up for them,” Johnson said.
“It used to be that the growers would tell the retailers, ‘OK, this is the product I’m growing, and you’re going to take it,’ ” Troy said. “Now with people like Home Depot, they’re so huge, Home Depot really wants to control the decisions. They travel together so when they’re out here, Home Depot can say, ‘Wow, this new blue petunia! I think my customers are really going to like it, and I want you to grow it.’ ”
The blooming interest of The Home Depot and Lowe’s in the Pack Trials is a sign that the flower industry has come a long way in 35 years. When the Trials began, Troy said, only the seed salesmen came. Growers showed up years later, and retailers later still.
“Pretty soon, we’re probably going to have home gardeners in here,” Troy said.
For now, though, the flower shows are reserved for trade guests and closed to the general public.
On Saturday, April 10, however, the Gilroy Rotary Club and Goldsmith will hold their annual flower sale from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Here, home gardeners can purchase the flowers that growers, salesmen and retailers have been fawning over all week. The proceeds will support local nonprofit organizations. Goldsmith is located at 2280 Hecker Pass Hwy., about half a mile west of Santa Teresa Boulevard.
For the layman, traveling the California coast to look at flowers might sound like a cushy job. It’s easy to miss how much work goes into it.
“I haven’t stayed in the same hotel (twice); I’ve been here since last Thursday,” Johnson said. “You get up at 6 a.m., get on a bus. You drive for an hour, and you walk around these things, take pictures, put in orders for an hour, get on a bus, drive for a half-hour, get out. You do that all day for six days. It’s just exhausting. And yes, I’m ready to go home.”
He won’t get to spend much time home in Virginia, however. In May he will leave for Europe for the world’s other major spring flower trial.
