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Show .Lakeside Review Progress Edition Wednesday ECONOMY March 11, 1987 ') a IE: J ij nj. Everything's coming up roses LYNOIA GRAHAM Review correspondent And the desert shalL.blossom as the rose" Isaiah 35:1 Several acres in LAYTON north Layton are blossoming like a rose, m fact exactly like 172,000 rose bushes. Those are the six acres covered with the greenhouses of Desarose, one of the largest growers and distributors of roses in the nation. Desarose is the dream of Bryce Bennett, operator. partner and chief enthusiast of the rose distribution facility. Yearly, hundreds of thousands roses are of shipped from Layton to wholesale floral distributors throughout the nation and Canada. Each rose is carefully cultivated and cared for by hand at the Layton greenhouses. Bennett said he knew even as a youth that he had a natural gift for working with plants. He graduated from Colorado State University in 1962 with a bachelor's degree in floriculture. Later he completed a doctorate in botany at Utah State Universi-tfull-bloo- long-stemm- m ed y. While a student in Colorado he met his future wife, JoAnn, She works with him at Desarose, as do his father and some of his children. By 1973 Bennett had formulated the Desarose concept. During that year he began to convert an old potato field into his dream. One acre of greenhouse was constructed the first year along with a small office complex. In 1975 another acre of greenhouse was added and two more were built in 1977. More space for offices and heating was also incorporated into the building schedule. In 1980 the final two acres of ground were covered with greenhouses for a total qf six acres under protective cover. Bennett said at one time he had thought of adding more acreage but new technology and careful growing can produce more roses per acre and currently his emphasis is on accomplishing that. The miles of beds covered by the greenhouses contain nothing but roses. Bennett said a quality rose is the most difficult cut flower to grow, even more difficult than orchids. The sandy soil of north Lay-to- n provides good drainage for the rose roots but much care must still be given to produce bumper crops. Not only must the crop be carefully watched to assure good growth but it must be controlled to be in the right stage of bloom for the market during specific times of the year. Bennett said he heaved a sigh of relief when the last of 120,000 roses were shipped for Valentines Day. When a new plant is placed in the beds it is watched by the 40 to 50 employees of Desarose. New growth is pinched back to insure the plant will grow a healthy base, with thicker wood. Later it might be allowed to grow to 8 or 10 feet high as roses are harvested. If a plant produces well it could have a home in the Desarose greenhouses for nine or 10 years. A good plant can offer up to 20 roses per season. When it begins to slow in its production or cant meet the requirements for stem length, it is removed and destroyed. While it is growing and producing it can face some real hazards. Weeds, insects, nutrition, water, heat, cold, carbon dioxide levels and humidity all must be controlled. Every two minutes a computer is fed information for temperature and humidity. It can then make automatic adjustments to keep the growing atmosphere perfect. Machines are in place to water and fertilize the plants. Weeds are pulled by hand if they cant be treated chemically. All of the machinery and technology is most helpful but it doesnt take the place of Ben- netts careful eye as he spends about half of his 12- - to workday roaming through the greenhouses in search of new ways to increase production or of ways to avert disasters. One major disaster did occur 14-ho- ur in 1894 when an electrical problem started a nighttime fire that destroyed two acres of greenhouses and plants. Those greenhouses were rebuilt and replanted. A major failure in temperature control could also be tragic. Bennett said if the outside temperature was at freezing or below and the heating system failed, it would only take a matter of minutes to completely wipe out the rose crop. But surprisingly enough, the humans who so carefully tend the roses can be one of the biggest threats to production and profit. Twice each day, including all weekends and holidays, workers go over each bed of producing roses and look for those buds that are at exactly the right stage for cutting and shipping. If the rose bud is picked to tight it will shrivel and if it is too open when cut, it will not last through shipment and delivery to the customer in quality form. Each stem must be cut at the right length and in the right way so the cut flower is at its peak for sale and so the plant can quickly produce another flower. Bennett said a worker must comprehend how important each rose is to the business. After the roses are cut they are in bundles carried upside-dow- n not larger than 100. When the bundle is complete the worker wraps it in a piece of packing material to protect it and the rose stems are placed in buckets of water. A large number of Bennetts employees are youths and wom- en who quickly learn the best way to cut roses without tangling with the thorns. Bennett said he has tried to get employees to share their secrets for avoiding the thorns with new workers but most cant do it It just seems to be instinctive and each person quickly learns it for himself, he said. Leather gloves and denim arm coverings do help, however. After they are cut the roses are placed in large coolers until they can be graded and sorted. At sorting tables women check each rose, grade it and place them in bundles of 25. The variety, the length of stem, the date, and the employees packing number are placed on the label. Then its back to the coolers until they are placed, 600 to a box, in cartons and trucked to the Salt Lake International Airport. Between 30 and 40 boxes are flown out daily. Seventy percent of Desarose roses leave the state. When Bennett isn't busy watching for new production techniques or finding problem spots he often takes time to analyze the rose market. Favorite rose colors and varieties go in Pag design by Jeff Larsen trends, to some degree. Colors which are no longer popular must be discarded and new varieties put in their place. He said orange roses are not as much in vogue as they have been in the past. Current favorites are salmon and butterscotch colored roses. favorite But the is still the red rose. Four of the six acres are planted in a red rose called Royalty. In the re- maining two acres are planted the other 21 varieties of roses Desarose produces. Northern Utahs weather is most of obliging to the time. Bennett said the rose can tell that its spring and are showing it through their growth patterns this year. In the past they havent been so fortuitous with an early spring, however. During one particularly foggy winter Bennett was forced to drop the temperature to cold storage and let the roses rest until the sun finally came out. He said the plants can only go three or four days without sun or they will suffer damage. Bennett has devoted a small section of one greenhouse to what his wife terms his fun house. There he has planted several small beds of a variety of other cut flowers to see how they will produce in this area. rose-growin- g See ROSES, page 2E . |