[Robin Hickman]

GREETINGS !!!

A FLAG Made Of FLOWERS ???

Immediately following the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, the Bodger Seed Company of Lompoc, California wanted to do something to lift the our Country's collective patriotic spirits. They decided that they wanted to plant an American Flag. Not just ANY American Flag, but a really, really, BIG American Flag. They were going to plant a really big American Flag using nothing but flowers. Lots and LOTS of Red, White, and Blue Larkspur flowers.

It's not like the Bodger Seed Company was new to the Flower Flag making business. After all the family-owned flower seed business had done it several times before: they had showed their patriotism during World War II in 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945; and then again in 1952.

So for the first time in 50 years, they were going to plant an American Flag, and it was going to be a BIG one, and it was going to be made up of thousands of Larkspur plants, and it needed to be ready for Flag Day, June 14th, 2002, and the Lompoc Valley Flower Festival that was to follow a week later!

The good people of the Bodger Seed Company on Lompoc, California knew what needed to be done and then they went out and DID IT !!!

For the 2002 Floral Flag, they planted more than 400,000 Larkspur plants. Each plant was estimated to have had 4-5 flower stems each for a total of more than 2 million flowers.

So, HOW BIG was the Floral Flag ???

The 2002 Floral Flag was approximately 740 feet long and 390 feet wide, so it's pretty darn close to the 1.0 to 1.9 Hoist-to-Fly ratio as described in Executive Order #10834. The Floral Flag covered 6.65 acres! Each of its Red and White Stripes is 30 feet wide and each of its White Stars is 24 feet in diameter!

The 2002 Floral Flag was located on "V" Street, south of Ocean Ave. in Lompoc, CA.

There are quite a few web pages and photos of and about the "Floral Flag" (or the "Flower Flag") on the internet. All you've got to do is "Google" it!

Here are three (3) photos of Lompoc's famous "Flower Flag" that I found a couple of years ago.

Aerial View :

LompocFloralFlag-Aerial.jpg


Ground (Elevated) View :

LompocFloralFlag-Ground.jpg


Satellite (Ikonos) View :

LompocFloralFlag-IkonosSatellite.jpg


Robin "You Don't Send Me Flowers Anymore" Hickman

[american_flag_uk]

yea that was pretty cool flag.. it is long gone now though

[Robin Hickman]

Hello, again !

I just re-read my entry and realized that I forgot to include the calculations for the size if the "Floral Flag's" UNION !

Sorry about that !

Assuming that the folks at the Bodger Seed Co. used ALL of the "official" dimensions and ratios as they did with the "hoist-to-fly" ratio, then the 390x740 foot (6.65 Acre) Flag's Union would have the following measurements :

Union Hoist = .5385 (7/13) x 390 = 210.015 Feet
Union Fly = .76 x 740 = 562.4 Feet

Floral Flag's Union is 210.015 x 562.4 = 118.112.43 Square Feet !

118.112.43 SqFt. = 2.71148 Acres !

Robin "And Now You Know" Hickman