Tulips are for love

Gunnison Valley grower producing flowers year-round

By Katherine Nettles

Move over red roses, tulips are in town—and they are grown along with other unconventional but equally beguiling flower varieties right here in the Gunnison Valley. Andrea (“Annie”) Amrich, owner of Janniebird Farm in Gunnison, has taken her summer flower production into year-round operation for the third year now, and is producing a bounty of winter tulips available for Valentine’s Day and beyond.

While the summer fields have laid dormant since October, Annie’s winter bulb operation is based out of a former storefront that was once a florist shop near the hospital.  She uses the back for her grow light operation, the walk-in cooler for bulb and bloom storage, and the front area hosts winter workshops like bouquet and wreath making.

Annie is passionate about growing locally and ensuring her flowers are safe for sniffing on tabletops around the valley.

“It’s super important for people to know about the flower industry. Most of the flowers come from South America, and the conditions are really poor. They take a lot of water from communities that are growing the flowers, because it’s a huge industry. They use a lot of pesticides, and there are children who have neurological diseases from working in the fields and there are women having miscarriages from working in the fields. So, then they cut them, ship them dry and when they get to the United States they have to be dipped in insecticide before they come into the country.”

Annie wants to bring awareness around this industry and support those working to produce flowers locally instead. “There are only two of us that grow flowers in the valley,” she says. Annie points out how much longer locally grown flowers last than imports that have been dry shipped and rehydrated. “We don’t use any chemicals. For fertilizer we use compost tea, fish fertilizer, worm castings—it’s all organic. Our environment has such a toxic load that any way we can reduce that is important. I want people to know that if they want flowers, this is an option for them.”

She has succeeded in offering flowers year-round, except for a couple weeks in January. From paper whites to amaryllis, to tulips and lilies in the shoulder season, “We really have something blooming almost year-round,” says Annie. Her current blooms include light pink and deep purple, single and double tulips and parrot varieties with fringes. “And right now for Valentines Day we have probably 2,000 bulbs,” she says.

This year, she has added ranunculus and anemones to the menu as well.

After Valentine’s Day, the tulip harvests will continue as Janniebird’s four-week winter tulip CSA (community-supported agriculture) begins. The CSA offers shares to 30 members at a time. “They are the people that get the best and first choice of the tulips,” she says. “Sometimes I have just enough for my CSA and there are no extras, so when they are in the CSA they are guaranteed their flowers—even when it’s cold outside.” A second, spring tulip CSA follows, all with Gunnison pickups at Doubleshot Cyclery and Crested Butte pickups at Daily Dose on Thursdays.

Extra bundles go to Sugar B’s boutique on Main Street in Gunnison, and to pop-up shops and other events around the valley.

Janniebird’s bulb season started in October, when Annie and some assistants planted 9,000 tulip bulbs in dozens of crates. She placed about 3,500 under her house, an 1894 Victorian, to simulate winter for anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. Staggered timeframes keep the blooms coming for the successive winter holidays, from Christmas all the way through Mother’s Day.

Annie says when she doesn’t have blooms of her own, she likes to bring in flowers from other growers such as those in the Colorado Flower Collective on the front range, whose members mostly grow flowers organically as Annie does. “It’s like I imagine it would be in Amsterdam or any of the big flower markets where you can go in and just shop,” she says of the collective. “Or I have flower farmer friends there who have stuff before I do, and if nobody in Colorado is growing something when I need it, then I will get some conventional flowers,” she says.

Looking ahead to spring, Janniebird is expanding to a new field at I Bar Ranch. “That’s going to be a big community space. If people do want to get their hands in the dirt, we’re going to need a lot of help prepping that this spring,” says Annie. The I Bar garden will be used for perennial flowers over 6,500 square feet near the established camping area. And Annie will continue growing at her main, original flower field at South Main in Gunnison all summer.

More information about tulips, the CSA and newsletter sign-ups can be found at janniebirdfarm.com