Did you know many of the flowers sold across the country are grown right here on the Central and South Coast? A stone’s throw from the rumbling trucks and fast-moving traffic of the 101 freeway in Santa Barbara County is a sight you might expect to find in a tropical forest. Thousands and thousands of orchids growing. Westerlay Orchids in Carpinteria covers 21 acres and produces over 2 million orchids a year.
With Mother’s Day coming up at the weekend, this is their busiest time of year. Around 200 thousand plants per week are being boxed ready for distribution, compared to their usual 40 thousand weekly, says Toine Overgaag, the Owner and President. It’s a family business that has been in the community for nearly 50 years and has grown to be the biggest orchid farm on the West Coast.
"My parents grew flowers in the Netherlands, " explained Overgaag. "We moved here in 1978, and my parents founded this as Westerlay Roses, and we converted to orchids in the early 2000s."
Overgaag explained they made the change at a time that methods for growing orchids were improving, and growing roses was becoming economically challenging with higher labor costs here than for competitors in Ecuador and Columbia, who then ship their roses to the US. "Most cut flowers are grown abroad and shipped to the United States. Potted plants cannot," he explained. The plants are grown in large greenhouses locally.
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