Alaska agriculture includes a blooming flower industry
August 25, 2014
Nancy Tarnai
907-474-5042
8-26-2014
When you think of agriculture, does your brain automatically jump to food production?
That’s understandable, but in Alaska, greenhouse crops, including flowers, play one of the largest economic roles in the agricultural pie (42 percent of cash receipts in 2012).
A shining example of greenhouse production can be found at Chena Hot Springs Resort. This summer, in spite of near-record rainfall, the resort is spectacularly bejeweled with flower beds, flower pots, flowers everywhere.
That doesn’t happen by accident. Each year, the creative Chena crew plans the seed and cutting orders, grows the flowers in the greenhouse and designs the finished products.
“We select a wide array of adaptable varieties, so chilly rain or hot sun, there will be plenty of blooms no matter the weather," said Eric Cook, Chena greenhouse manager. "I have been surprised by the resilience of and ability of the vast majority of the flowers to bloom and grow despite the rain, mellow light and cool air.”
While it was a challenging summer, the results are still eye-catching. That will end soon when the inevitable frost hits, but for now, the flowers add an enchanting addition to the property.
The resort has over 250 varieties of flowers in 55 genera, embellished by herbs and vegetables that are mixed into the lot. “Whether or not you’re a botany buff, there is plenty to enjoy,” Cook said.
Just for kicks, Cook planted some new things this summer, like the petunia called Black Magic. “It has turned out to be truly the blackest petunia I have ever seen,” he said.
He is enthralled with a wine-red castor bean, called Carmencita Bright Red, with large leaves similar to devil’s club. “That makes it a hard-to-miss addition to our sea of sunflowers, black-eyed Susans, coreopsis and other sunny flowers of our rock lake garden,” Cook said.
The pool-front garden was designed with the flowing waves of the aurora borealis in mind, planted with the shade-loving begonias, impatiens, fuchsias and scented geraniums, backed by the perennial lamium named White Nancy.
Cook described the Chena method of planting as the Rocky Mountain meadow design. “This is where you throw the plants out in an uneven mix, giving the bed a natural, informal look,” Cook said. “It is great since it is not overly technical at the time of plant-out and looks great even if a variety or two underperforms in a given year.”
He structures the beds using the skeleton, flesh and skin concept. “I put larger accent plants in the back or center, depending on the where the garden can be viewed from. That is the skeleton. Then fill in with medium and then small plants to make up the flesh and skin. And if the bed is elevated, add some trailing varieties over the edge.”
There are more than 70 basket combinations and hundreds of baskets. The theme for the central part of the resort is the midnight sun, with orange and burgundy and orange and red daring combinations. “We also sparked more yellow into our color schemes and did some fun sets of rainbow colors,” Cook said. “Our brightly colored begonia baskets have been a great new addition as well. We continued the tradition of the giant tidal wave petunia baskets, jumbo bloom master lobelia baskets and the long dappled light Creeping Charlie baskets in the Activitorium (convention center).”
The guests are delighted, Cook said. “It is fun to create a splash of beauty that everyone can enjoy. We have the unique opportunity to have geothermally heated greenhouses, which gives us extra time in the winter and spring to start our flowers from seeds and cuttings in-house, which gives us so many opportunities to explore new horticultural territory. Hopefully we can continue to refine the process in the future and throw in some new surprises in the years to come.”
This column is provided as a service by the UAF School of Natural Resources and Extension and the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. Nancy Tarnai is the school and station’s public information officer. She can be reached at ntarnai@alaska.edu