The Bloom’s Off the Rose : Of County’s Big Nurseries, One’s Leaving and Others Might Have to Follow

IRVINE —  Lynn Strohsahl, who has run Bordier’s Nursery in Orange County for 27 years, doesn’t want to uproot his 225 acres of flowers and plants.

But after weighing the pros and cons of staying or leaving, bottom-line considerations finally have won out: he has run out of room to expand, irrigation costs keep rising and his landlord may not renew his property lease when it expires in 1997. And then there’s that awful South County traffic.

So far, Bordier’s is the only one of the county’s dozen, large wholesale nurseries that plans to leave the area. And even Bordier’s doesn’t plan to actually move for six more years.

But others are likely to follow. The Irvine Co., landlord for two large nurseries, says it has no incentive to renew leases that expire in 1997. Together, those two nurseries and Bordier’s provide 1,200 jobs and account for a large chunk of a $135-million industry that is Orange County’s leading cash crop--four times bigger than strawberries.

“The days of the large wholesale growers in Orange County are coming to an end,” Strohsahl said.

Bordier’s most pressing problem is the refusal of his landlord, the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, to guarantee a lease extension beyond 1997. Relocating a nursery is a three- to five-year process, he said, and he must be able to plan ahead.

“The military informed us that we would be on a standard military lease--a five-year term with open bidding,” Strohsahl said. “We won’t subject our business to that.”

Two other large operations--Hines Nurseries, the county’s largest, and El Modeno Gardens--also operate on leased land. Both say they have no definite plans to relocate and hope to negotiate new leases with the Irvine Co. when their current pacts expire in 1997.

“We’d love to stay here, but we’re also pursuing alternative options,” said Doug Allen, president of Hines. One possibility that the company is exploring is asking the county to designate the nursery a greenbelt area--either at its present location or at another site--which would protect it from housing development.

Peter Changala, the Irvine Co.’s lease manager, says the company can’t promise that it will renegotiate the leases when they expire. “We don’t feel in a position at this time to extend the leases,” he said. “We wouldn’t want to preclude our option to build on that land.”

The land is the remnant of an even larger farm, the Irvine Ranch, that had been run by the company for almost 100 years. All along, the Irvine Co. has told tenants that it would allow them to farm until it decides to develop the property with houses or commercial buildings.

For many nurseries, the San Joaquin Valley is a logical relocation site because of its low land prices and cheap and abundant water. Strohsahl bought 320 acres in Kern County and says he can pay off the property for the cost of two years’ rent on the Orange County site.

Land for field and row crops sells for $2,800 to $5,000 an acre in the San Joaquin Valley, said John Kirkpatrick, a rural appraiser in Visalia. Comparable property in Orange County goes for $50,000 an acre and up.

An acre-foot of water, or 325,850 gallons, costs $7 to $10 in the San Joaquin Valley, contrasted with $204 to $205 in Orange County, said Allen of Hines Nurseries. But Orange County is a bargain compared to San Diego, where water costs $450 to $650 an acre-foot.

Nurseries recycle up to 70% of their runoff water and can reuse the water until its salt content becomes too high. In the San Joaquin Valley, water is less salty to begin with than the water from Irvine Lake that feeds Orange County nurseries. And most agree that the county’s water supply and quality is only going to get worse.

“There are going to be more nurseries up there (the San Joaquin Valley),” Strohsahl said. “That’s where the path leads if you use the same analysis as us.”

The first nursery to see the opportunity in the San Joaquin Valley was Monrovia Nursery Co. in the San Gabriel Valley. With 500 acres in Azusa and 600 acres in Oregon, Monrovia is the largest, container-grown nursery in the nation.

“We’re completely hemmed in where we are,” said Rodger Duer, a company spokesman.

He said there are types of pine trees and ferns that the nursery can’t grow because of the air pollution in the valley.

Unlike the Orange County nurseries, Monrovia owns its land. It plans to build houses and apartments there starting next year, and, for a while, the homes and plants will exist side by side. The nursery will not be completely relocated on its 11,000 acres in Visalia until 1996.

For nurseries to become surrounded by homes and businesses is only natural. That’s because they have usually chosen sites based on anticipated demand for new landscaping.

In Orange County, the nurseries followed the temperate weather and easy access to major freeways, just as new residents did.

But as local nurseries have grown bigger, they have become less dependent on development in Southern California, Duer said. “We ship 70% of our stock out of state, so proximity to Southern California is no longer that important,” he explained.

Strohsahl, who also ships products throughout the country, will spend “millions” to relocate and will face higher transportation costs.

He will also have to build more greenhouses to protect against frost up north.

In addition to the loss of jobs at the Orange County nurseries, their departure will affect suppliers of fertilizer and containers.

Retail nurseries that buy from the growers may find their costs rising.

Strohsahl said he is hoping that the six-year advance notice will allow many of his employees to move with him. He said he regrets uprooting his family.

“If we could have things our own way, we’d prefer to stay here and carry on,” Strohsahl said. “But you’ve got to be flexible.”

O.C.’s Top Crop

Nursery growers, whose crop is by far the largest in Orange County, say their days here could be numbered because of the high cost of land and water. The value of cut flowers and nursery stock has increased only 10.8% since 1980.

In millions of dollars (not adjusted for inflation) 1980: $121.9 1990: $135.1

Source: Orange County Agricultural Commissioner