Where Do They Come From
by
Carmen Cosentino

From Gone are the days when all the flowers we sold in our local flower shops were grown within 40 or 50 miles of Auburn. There were commercial growers in Syracuse and Elmira and Rochester and Newark. 4 of our 8 local florists produced greenhouse and field flowers. Today, we can enjoy nearly any flower any day of the year. Computers, communications and air transportation make it all possible. On a typical day in a central New York flower shop you may find Dendrobium orchids from Thailand, Liatris from Zimbabwe, and Cymbidium orchids from Australia or New Zealand. The world is, indeed, flat. Yes, there is still some commercial flower growing in California, mostly in the Central area and in San Diego County. But each year we see more and more small growers going out. But there is still a lot of great product coming east. While much of their rose production has moved to Ecuador and the carnations and chrysanthemums to Colombia we love their delphinium and alstroemeria and daisies and specialty flowers among all the things that they sell. And a special deal growers and shippers have with FedEx gets them here the next day. Why do all those carnations come from Colombia?
Can you imagine that we import about 2 million carnations from Colombia . . .every day?
In the mid 70’s growers found that areas around Bogota, Colombia, the savannah,
provided an ideal environment for flower growing. Temperatures were stable year round, land was relatively inexpensive ($3000 an acre versus $100,000 an acre in Florida and California,) and labor very plentiful. They found that Roses grew well at the warmer,
lower elevations, pompoms and mums as you went up the mountainside and there was an elevation where the temperature hovered at about 60 degrees, day and night, all through the year. A perfect place for growing carnations.

What is so special about roses from Ecuador?
During the 1990’s Colombian growers found that just inland from the Pacific, there was a small area with a microclimate that favored rose production. An industry was born and
today we import the bulk of our roses from that area, How is this all possible. To grow a
rose 3000 miles from Auburn and make them last. Again, it is computers,
communications and transportation. And a lot of science. New varieties had to be
developed, varieties that would grow well in that area, and varieties with the traits that
the American public wanted; a wider range of colors, flowers that would stand up under
the stress of transportation, larger flower heads and stronger stems and, perhaps, most of all, scent. We wanted roses that smelled like garden roses.
Some words about the Dutch Canadians and the Niagara Peninsula After World War Two many Dutch families, uprooted by the war, found a safe haven in Canada. Many of them settled in Ontario, on the Niagara Peninsula. It had a wonderful micro- climate. It was just like the Holland they remembered. Only about 20 miles long and 5 miles wide, the area at the western end of Lake Ontario was ideal for growing fruit and vegetables, and flowers in greenhouses. An industry sprang up and today dozens of refrigerated trucks leave the area and deliver beautiful, fresh flowers from Cleveland to Boston. Sure, you’ve seen that large silver truck with a huge decal of a bouquet around
town. He’s in town 3 times a week with a fantastic selection of flowers. Yes, there are
cheaper lilies and cheaper roses, but they don’t come near to the quality that the
Canadians deliver to us.