(soft music) - [Narrator] J Schwanke's Life in Bloom is brought to you by Albertsons Companies.

With additional support from the following companies, the Ball Horticultural company.

Cal Flowers, Design Master color tool, Golden Flowers.

Sunshine Bouquet, and TheRibbonRoll.com (upbeat music) - On today's Life in Bloom, we'll peek into my flower pedigree as a fourth-generation florist.

Review my collection of vintage carnation items and take you to a family-run carnation farm.

Then I'll make an arrangement and we'll see how carnations are new again.

(upbeat music) I'm J Schwanke, welcome to Life in Bloom.

"Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light."

Red carnations are one of my favorite flowers, and is exciting that we'll be talking about carnations today.

My grandfather was known as Carnation Joe Green, he always wore a red carnation every day.

As a kid my family grew carnations in our greenhouse, so I could walk through the carnations every single day.

I love the fragrance, I love the color, I love the way that they look in an arrangement, it's an interesting flower.

And today on Life in Bloom, we're gonna talk all about the carnation and teach you some amazing things.

And of course, we'll have fun along the way.

(upbeat music) Flowers, they've always been a part of my life.

I can't remember a time without them.

Picking flowers, arranging flowers, working next to my mom and dad and the great part is it's my life's work.

I truly am the flower guy.

Whether it comes to collecting or cooking, yeah, I'll cook with flowers.

I'll also make cocktails with flowers and I love to decorate with them.

Certainly, Life in Bloom is about flowers, but I love carnations.

As a kid, we had greenhouses of carnations right outside my door, and I'd wander out into those every single day.

My grandfather would go out there and pick a carnation, and he'd wear one every day.

So, no matter where I was I'd think about carnations.

I loved their smell, I love the way that they look and certainly they have evoke lots of memories.

Carnations are one of my favorite flowers.

It's a perfect reason to dedicate a show to them.

(upbeat music) I was actually born at a flower convention, and that's a true story.

My mom and dad were the executive directors of the Nebraska Flora Society.

And one snowy evening in Nebraska, they were running a convention and suddenly my mom went into labor.

The bad news was, the roads were closed because of the snow the good news was, that there was a general practitioner there who delivered me in room 386 of the hotel.

(soft music) That landed me dead center into a flower family, which was really wonderful.

My great-grandfather had started our family business in 1896.

(soft music) Charles and Katie purchased a bankrupt greenhouse that grew palms for people's Victorian homes and soon that business blossomed.

Charles and Katie had four children, one of which was my grandfather Carnation Joe Green.

They called him Carnation Joe Green because he always wore a red carnation.

And he married Lily Olsen, Lily Olsen was my grandma.

And she was named after a lily, not an Easter lily but a tiger lily.

(soft music) Carnation Joe and Lily had three daughters, one of which was my mom Joey.

And Joey and Mel continued to run the family business.

I'm actually a fourth generation florist.

So, I've been arranging flowers for as long as I can remember, and I've always been around them.

Having beautiful flowers around is part of our family history.

The great part is, flowers have always been my job but they're also my passion.

There's nothing better than being surrounded by beautiful flowers, that's the great part about Life in Bloom.

(upbeat music) Mel and Joey decided their Little J would be the perfect pitchman for the family flower business.

I appeared in newspaper ads for many years.

(upbeat music) Carnation Joe and his Lily, my grandparents were always ambassadors for flowers, and I take on that role today, that's what Life in Bloom is about, making sure that people enjoy flowers in their lives every day.

(upbeat music) A few years ago I had the opportunity to visit Akiyama nurseries, the last commercial carnation grower in the United States.

Although, Akiyama is now closed you can still obtain carnations from small domestic farms, they just aren't commercially grown in the United States.

(upbeat music) How large is a Akiyama nursery?

- The total acreage here is 10 acres, there's about 100,000 square-foot of carnations space but 80,000 of it is being used.

We grow 14 varieties of the standard carnations and 12 varieties of the mini carnations.

(upbeat music) - [J] Why did you choose to grow carnations?

(Kiiko speaking in foreign language) - Just to experience rows carnations so.

- [Ben] My grandfather and his father started growing carnations in Sunnyvale, and we're trying to figure out the year but it was-- - [Kiiko] 62 (speaking in foreign language) - [Ben] About 1962.

(Kiiko speaking in foreign language) Yes, so my parents moved here from Japan in 1962.

- 63.

(laughing) - Or 1963 and then got a job with my grandfather and great-grandfather.

(upbeat music) - [J] We don't see crops that grow like this, this is different for us.

- [Ben] Yeah, a lot of it we need like these wires, bamboo, the string, everything to kind of make these quadrants.

That way when the flower grows up we have to cage it all up so-- - [J] And so you the flower in between it.

- Yeah, physically so as we're caging a lot of the shoots in so they will stay inside these little quadrants.

Actually at the same time, we'll be trying to dis bud these little side buds and take these off also.

And take them off.

- [J] So the strength goes to that one flower.

- Yeah, that way a lot of the energy, the fertilizer the strength that doesn't go to the side ones but it all will go into the main bloom.

- Great, how long have the greenhouses been here?

- [Ben] This was the first greenhouse my dad built in 1972, - My grandpa always told me he said that "Carnations are great flower because they last a long time, "they smell good, they have great color, they hold up well."

This is an awesome example of creating that very specialized flower that's that.

- Yeah, yeah.

- [J] What do you like best about your job?

- I know it's not working with dad.

(laughing) What do you like best about your job?

- Never ends.

- Always something to do?

- Yes.

(Isamu laughing) - He likes to work, every day so, we can be tired because of him.

- It's a family business and it's good and bad because we live on the nursery and work on the nursery, so it's not like you really get to get away so we're working here seven days a week.

But a lot of it goes back to family.

I just I enjoy being able to be at work but then have the flexibility of maybe taking time off and doing things with my children.

When we sell the carnations to people, they seemed to, their faces kind of light up there seems to bring some kind of joy to either the occasion, the room, they're gonna take it to a party right.

And it just seems to liven up a room.

(upbeat music) - Here's a simple arrangement that anyone would feel confident trying using carnations.

(upbeat music) Carnations have always been a favorite the thing I love about them, is the color range, there are all sorts of different colors of carnations and they're reminiscent of Italian ice colors.

I like to think about a gelato stand where I'm looking at all the different colors.

As an example, we've created an arrangement today with two of those colors.

I love how we can color-block carnations together.

And again when they're used short like this, the colors dynamic and they last a long time.

So today, what we're gonna do is use these beautiful carnations, to create a wonderful little garden in this tray that looks like rows of carnations.

In some cases they come very tight, and as they progress they open up.

If we have something like this that's not quite as fully open as our other carnation, we can gently open that up by pushing it back with our fingers.

Carnations are durable, that's the great part about them.

So, they can allow us to do that opening process and not be harmed.

So now let's create our arrangement using these beautiful carnations.

I've taken my glass tray and I've filled it up with about 3/4 of an inch of flower foam, the flower foam has been saturated with flower nutrient water, and I'm gonna place my carnations inside there.

You'll notice that I've dropped it down about a half an inch below the edge of the container, that way my flowers are gonna rest right at the edge of the container and the calyx will drop down below.

(upbeat music) One of the things to remember when you're cutting your carnations too, is to cut between the nodes where the leaves appear on the stem.

We like to cut in between those because it's easier for the flower to take up water.

If we cut right at a node, it's difficult for the water to be transmitted through that node with those leaves.

So now you can see we've got the great rows of carnations in our vase.

And on the side, we can see our foam and the edge, so we'll add ribbon to cover that up.

(upbeat music) Carnations last a long time so you can expect something like this to last about 10 days.

Now, we'll display this on a beautiful wood tray.

I love carnations, and this arrangement with the carnations in the rows reminds me of the greenhouses when I was a little kid.

I can almost smell those same greenhouses again, beautiful carnations growing everywhere.

(upbeat music) As you can tell from the scrapbook page I've always had an affinity for carnations.

My family grew carnations at our family flower shop, a greenhouse of carnations was right outside the door.

And red carnations were always a part of my life.

My grandfather, Carnation Joe always wore a red carnation and so did my dad.

So whenever I was at grandpa's house or even in my own home there was always a red carnation in a glass at the sink.

My dad would pick a carnation in the morning and put it in his lapel, when he got done at the end of the day he'd take it out and cut it and place it in that vase.

So as I grew up, there was always that glass with a carnation in it.

So, I always look for red carnations and in fact I've started to collect them.

Maybe red carnations aren't your thing, but there's certainly a lot of collectible things that have flowers on them, and you can stylize it to yourself and your personal tastes.

Collecting items that have flowers on them is another great way to incorporate flowers into your everyday life.

Most of the items you see are vintage.

I don't see a lot of red carnation things happening today, but there certainly were a lot of them historically.

So whether it's a metal tray or a paint-by-numbers painting, or an old portrait that has carnations as an accent.

Red carnations seem to pop up all the time.

One of my recent acquisitions is this compact, it's from England and it had three red carnations on the top.

Speaking of glasses, this carnation glass has red carnations on it, it'd be perfect at the counter with a couple red carnations inside.

And tablecloths that have them as borders or handkerchiefs.

It's a fun way to incorporate flowers into the things that you collect.

Another great thing about collections is a thrill of the hunt, searching different places and suddenly you find something that you can add to your collection.

The excitement of finding that item makes it even more special.

Having this collection together would also allow me to have a themed party, very easily around red carnations.

A vase of red carnations and some of the artifacts displayed on a table, it's the perfect way to celebrate a collection.

I like to have a collection out or I like to use it, that way I can see it and I can enjoy it.

Tucking it away in a closet really doesn't do anyone any good, so having that collection out and available and accented with beautiful flowers is truly a way to bring life in blue.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] The carnation Joe cocktail.

This is simply a classic Manhattan served up, two parts bourbon, one part sweet vermouth one part dry vermouth, and bitters.

Shaken over ice.

Pour into a glass and serve with a cherry.

(upbeat music) - It's exactly like he used to make them.

(upbeat music) Dianthus caryophyllus, carnation or clove pink is a species of dianthus.

carnations are frequently called pinks in England, even when they aren't necessarily pink.

Carnations are believed to be one of the oldest cultivated flowers in the world.

Carnations have meanings just like roses.

In the language of flowers, carnations mean love, fascination and distinction.

The carnation is the official flower for Mother's Day, the carnation is the birth flower for January.

Carnations are believed to be native to the Mediterranean.

The carnation it's a classic flower, and it continues to evolve.

It started out like this, a miniature dianthus or Sweet William, that's the first kind of carnation.

And today we have green trick dianthus which is actually a mutation of a regular carnation.

Then it evolves to a standard carnation that looks like this full size, in many colors.

The spray carnation, a mini carnation with several blossoms on one stem.

I love it, when I see ones that have a roughly edge those remind me of the old carnations my grandfather used to grow.

Coquette was the variety that caused that frayed edge.

Carnations are one of my favorite flowers and I'm excited to see these new colors blooming today.

We've got a fusion that's two colors together or a mauve and raspberry peppermint stripe.

Or this beautiful purple.

Those new colors make these much more than your grandmother's carnations.

(upbeat music) As you know carnations, are one of my favorite flowers.

Nothing smells quite like a carnation greenhouse.

It smells like clove, and the blue coloration of the foliage is incredible.

Now, we have new colors that are coming.

I actually took some of these on an adventure we had, and some of the people were coming up to me garden experts and saying, "What flower is that?"

They didn't even realize that they were carnations because of the unique color.

So let's get started with today's project.

We're going to create a little breakaway centerpiece using these new colors, and then I'll show you something really dynamic.

A fun way to use carnations for a wedding or special event.

I've chosen three different colors of carnations for my breakaway centerpiece.

I start with the first color, and gather the carnations up into my hand, so that all of the heads are together.

I bind the stems together securely using craft covered wire.

(upbeat music) I cut the stems to length and drop them into the vase.

Our breakaway centerpiece is pretty easy but at the same time it's elegant.

We can do a series of those at are wedding or special event and it would be a perfect way to have those colors with beautiful fragrance and lovely carnations as part of the decor.

And now, let's take it up a notch.

Here we have a large glass bowl, and I've used half spheres and filled those with the different colors of carnations.

Setting those on the table or inside the bowl is a way to update that same look, only more modern and contemporary for a wedding or special event.

The half spheres can be stacked on the table, and imagine the creativity if you use different sized spheres you could come up with a really spectacular event.

(upbeat music) My life has truly been everything flowers and the carnation is symbolic of this.

This classically beautiful flower continues to evolve as does each one of us.

For Life in Bloom, I'm J Schwanke, see you next time.

- Yeah, yeah it was funny story too because when he was in Tokyo, before he moved here he was an eye glass salesman.

- [J] Oh okay.

- He never do farming.

- Yeah, he was never a farmer, so it's kind of odd that you get this Japanese city boy that comes to America to become a farmer.

In Japan you were like a secretary at one of the-- - Saleslady.

- Saleslady at one of the eyeglass salesmen places so then my dad would go over there to, more than likely he was just probably trying to go back just to try to hit on her or something who knows but.

(all laughing) - [Narrator] J Schwanke's Life in Bloom, is filmed in Grand Rapids Michigan.

- [Narrator] J Schwanke's Life in Bloom is brought to you by, Albertsons Companies with additional support from the following companies, The Ball Horticultural Company.

Cal flowers, Design Master color tool, Golden Flowers.

(upbeat music) Sunshine Bouquet.

And TheRibbonRoll.com.

(upbeat music) Closed caption funding provided by Chrysal.

(upbeat music) For everything flowers, recipes, projects and more information visit uBloom.com (upbeat music)