Mum’s the Word in Family Business

There are a lot of other things Ron Muranaka could be doing, but he grows chrysanthemums for the florist trade because it’s what he wants to do.

Muranaka Mums, on a 12-acre ranch in Yorba Linda, is one of a dwindling number of growers in Orange County. The company grows mums for the cut-flower trade and only sells at the Los Angeles Flower Market. Flowers are priced at $5 to $7 a bundle, depending on the variety. And the prices haven’t gone up in five years.

Ron Muranaka is a third-generation flower grower. Heading the family business are Shig and Mitsi Muranaka, Ron’s parents. His brother Dennis and his sister Carolyn round out the family operation. They all learned the business on the job, and Ron’s degree in business keeps the company solvent.

All the flowers begin as cuttings. Inside one of the 22 greenhouses on the ranch, cuttings receive the humidity they need from a “fog-producing machine,” as Ron calls it.

The cuttings take about two weeks to root and about four months to grow to the point of being harvested.

Mums are a “short-day crop,” meaning they bloom naturally in the fall or when days are short. To produce a crop year-round, plants are covered with black plastic from sunset to sunrise February through September.

Chrysanthemum plants grow to about 3 feet tall if supported by a wire framework. When harvested, they are pulled from the ground--roots and all. The lower leaves are stripped off, and the plants are bundled into groups of five. The roots and the bottom 6 to 8 inches of the stalks are chopped off before the plants are placed in buckets of water and transported to refrigerated storage.

A freshly cut plant will have five or six flowers in various stages of opening and numerous buds. If kept in water, it should look fresh for three to five weeks.