CALIFORNIA'S GOLD: CALIFORNIA FLOWERS (TV)
Summary
One in this series of travel programs featuring host Huell Howser, who tours California, exploring the state's diversity. In this episode, Howser explores the state's impressive flora, starting at Exposition Park in southern Los Angeles, which was built in 1927 and boasts over 145 different types of roses. He then drives through Sutter Creek and arrives at Daffodil Hill, a large family-owned garden that features around 350 varieties of daffodils. Muriel Thebaut explains that they usually open for the season around the middle of March, weather permitting, adding that daffodils "take care of themselves" and in fact flourish better after a tough winter season. Some of the garden's flowers are up to fifty years old, and the breed is generally considered to signal the beginning of spring with their appearance. Howser chats with a number of tourists about their enjoyment of the spot, including a Welsh woman who explains that daffodils are her national flower. Thebaut explains that early pioneers often brought their preferred seeds with them across the country and that the hill was formerly a rest spot for stagecoaches, adding that modern-day visitors are very respectful and rarely try to pick any of the flowers.
Next, Howser heads south to the coastal town of Carlsbad and arrives at a ranch famous for its wide and vividly colorful ranunculus fields, in which the flowers are carefully organized by color and give the impression of an enormous, vibrant flag. Grower Mike Mellano explains that they harvest roughly five percent of the flowers for sale, but their main export is the bulbs, which are shipped all over the world. He notes the challenge of keeping the fields free of weeds, as well as of "rogue" flowers, meaning blossoms that are the incorrect color for their particular spot. Paul Ecke Jr. explains that visitors' preferred flower color is often determined by their countries of origin, and Howser talks with a number of guests about their interest in the ranch and about their favorite hues. A couple of amateur painters attempt to reproduce the ranch's striking imagery in pictures, and though Howser notes that many guests compare the scene to the tulip fields of Holland, Ecke points out that California's weather is far more favorable. The program concludes with some aerial shots of the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: KCET-TV (Los Angeles, CA) / PBS
- DATE: June 5, 1994
- RUNNING TIME: 0:28:58
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:54889
- GENRE: Education/Information
- SUBJECT HEADING: Education/Information; Nature; California
- SERIES RUN: PBS KCET - TV series, 1991-2012
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV - Commercials - Home Savings of America
CREDITS
- Huell Howser … Producer, Writer
- Phil Noyes … Associate Producer
- Huell Howser … Host
- Muriel Thebaut … Interviewee
- Paul Ecke Jr. … Interviewee
- Mike Mellano … Interviewee