“I had to essentially throw the book away on growing roses”

Fausto Falconi sincerely believed his many years as an agronomist (soil and plant scientist) would have prepared him well for the challenges of starting his own organic farming and rose production business in Cayambe, Ecuador just North of the capital city of Quito. He was so wrong.

“I had to essentially throw the book away on growing roses,” Fausto revealed.”I really had to start from scratch when it came to growing organically.” Fresh Cut emerged from that beginning as one of the best organic rose growers in the world, a difficult task in the extreme, yet here they are doing what many have said could not be done: growing roses 98% free of normal chemical controls. Their goal is to be using 100% natural controls in the very near future.

The Ecuadorian flower grower community has long recognized the importance of only using approved chemical controls in their growing operations, minimizing their use, and taking great care to protect their workers from exposure to these chemicals. Why then go to so much trouble to grow roses without chemicals, when no one will be eating them?

…a leader in Organic Rose Production.

“We wanted to not only be a leader in quality roses, we also wanted to become a leader in the production of organic roses,” explained Fausto. “Taking care of human beings and nature comes hand in hand with the development and wellness of our main resource: people, which guarantees an optimum product with the highest productivity level.”

That decision to grow the best organic roses resulted in Fresh Cut literally having to start from the ground up, because they realized the first step toward their goal was with the growing medium, the material in which their roses would be grown. In other words, they believed in order to grow the finest roses, they had to start with the finest possible soil – soil in balance, as it occurs naturally in nearby forests.

It took years of trial and error to find which combinations of growing materials worked best. And that work is on-going. “Take this soil in your hand,” Fausto suggested. “Can you feel the life it contains?” I scooped up a handful of the nearly black growing medium and, having spent serious time in the garden, could understand why his roses loved this stuff.

Between the rows of rose plants, vegetation is literally composting before my eyes, much like would take place in a natural setting. And, these roses! Beautiful, intense colors and straight stems with healthy foliage which will be cut, bunched and then bathed in natural solutions to prevent molds and other things from damaging the flowers.

Fausto made his point once again: “Taking care of nature and human beings guarantees highly productive plants that produce these gorgeous, healthy roses.”

And it all starts with living soil.

Episode 3: The Road Less Traveled

Written by

Terry Johnson

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Related posts:

1. Ecuador Rose Grower Nurtures Flowers With Love
2. Valleflor: The Road Less Traveled
3. Organic Flowers: The Greener Way

I travel quite a lot. During flights from one city to another, invariably, a fellow passenger strikes up a conversation, which leads him or her to ask what business I’m in. When I say I’m in the floral industry, many times they ask, “Are you a florist?”

White Roses With Huge Blooms | Image: FlowerChat.com

No, I tell them; I’m involved in helping to improve the methods by which flowers are handled from farms to their arrival in markets in North America. Then I explain that most flowers sold here come from countries in South America. My fellow passengers are almost always surprised. “I had no idea” is a common reply.

Ecuador Rose Insider View: Greenrose Flower Farm

My most recent trip had an envious destination: Ecuador rose farms. I joined a small group of people who specialize in handling, importing and selling fresh flowers who were traveling to this South American country, a representative democratic republic bordered by Colombia to the north, Peru to the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. After a four-hour flight from Miami, we landed in Quito, the capital, at an elevation of 9,350 feet — the highest capital city in the world. Quito is positioned in the northern central part of the country.

Red Roses Freshly Harvested | Image: FlowerChat.com

First thing in the morning, we headed north from Quito toward the Cayambe flower-growing region, which gets its name from the very prominent Cayambe volcano. Permanently capped with snow, the volcano — at 15,387 feet — is the highest point in the world crossed by the equator and the only point on the equator with snow cover. The 60-mile drive took us over mountain passes with scarce vegetation down into fertile valleys with tree-lined roads. Many of the trees were eucalyptus, said to have been brought from Australia by an Ecuadorian president about 150 years ago.

As we approached the Ecuador rose farms, we were informed that the surrounding villages are growing and prosperous because of the flower-growing industry. The flower industry represents a major export of Ecuador, totaling about $680 million annually, which is nearly one-quarter of all agricultural exports. The flower business is also a sizable employer, especially of women, who make up more than half of all flower-industry workers.

Fresh Roses Ready for Shipping to Florists | Image: FlowerChat.com

Ecuador Rose Grower Has Heart

As we pulled into Greenroses’s organic growing facilities, it was obvious that it was as impressive as any flower farm I had ever seen. The setting, with the Cayambe volcano in the background, was truly spectacular.

We were greeted by the owner, Jose Javier Pallares, who explained that his farm was the best possible place to grow flowers in the world. “At 10,000 feet, there is the right kind of light, moderate temperatures and, most importantly, a great water supply from the mountains and the volcano,” he explained. He mentioned that he had a great view of the Cayambe Volcano from his office window. I made a mental note, remembering that I had a similarly great view of Mt. St. Helens from my office window in Portland, Ore., in 1980. It was quite a shock when it erupted and sent ash everywhere. Of course, the Cayambe Volcano’s last eruption was in 1786.

As with all of the Ecuador rose and flower farms today, worker’s well-being, their safety, the environment and the surrounding community are very important to Greenrose. Javier is noticeably proud of his workers (many of whom have been with the farm since its beginning 16 years ago) and of the gorgeous roses they produce. And why shouldn’t he be? Every rose is a natural jewel with full blossoms, straight stems and lush, dark-green foliage wrapped in beautiful, protective packaging for markets in North America and countries as far away as Russia.

Fresh Cut Roses Being Processed on Farm | Image: FlowerChat.com

And each carefully grown rose comes with a sincere message: From Cayambe with love to you.

Episode two: Roses from Living Soil.

Written by

Terry Johnson

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Related posts:

1. Roses from Living Soil
2. Flower Grower to Consumer in 24 hours: FloraHolland
3. Valleflor: The Road Less Traveled

Holland is a primary grower of flowers.

Flowers Grow in Three Main Places

About 90 percent of all flowers sold in the U.S. and Canada come from just three places: Colombia (70 percent), Ecuador (10 percent) and California (10 percent.) The sources of the remaining 10 percent include countries such as Canada, Holland, Mexico, South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia and Thailand.

How a Cut Flower Is Shipped

Flowers grow mostly in warm countries.

Step 1: Preparation

With some exceptions, most flowers are cut, bunched, wrapped and then packed in large corrugated boxes for shipping. Those flower boxes coming from other countries (with the exception of Canada and Mexico) are placed on pallets and flown to the United States.

Miami is by far the largest destination for those flower boxes, but Los Angeles Airport and New York’s JFK Airport receive flowers, as well.

Step 2: Inspection

When boxes arrive in the U.S. from where the flowers grow around the world, they are inspected by the Department of Agriculture to make sure they are bug-free and also checked by U.S. Customs. Flower boxes are then delivered to flower importers who load the boxes on refrigerated trucks that deliver the flowers to local markets across the U.S. and Canada.

Step 3: Refrigerated Transportation

In the case of Californian-, Canadian- and Mexican-grown product, boxes of cut flowers are loaded onto refrigerated trucks to be shipped to local North American markets.

Because flowers are a very perishable cargo, those in charge of shipping and distributing them keep the stems at low temperatures (ideally around 35 degrees Fahrenheit) through every step of the distribution logistics process. This procedure is called the “cool chain.” It is the same type of procedures used for shipping other perishables, such as fruits, vegetables, poultry, meat, fish and pharmaceuticals.

Flowers require great care during shipping.

All of these efforts are designed to increase the enjoyment of fresh flowers whenever and wherever they are purchased.

Written by

Terry Johnson

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Related posts:

1. Ecuador Rose Grower Nurtures Flowers With Love
2. Flower Grower to Consumer in 24 hours: FloraHolland
3. How to Make Sugar-Frosted Flowers

From a nursery in Holland to an apartment in Paris within 24 hours… How do they do it?

FloraHolland is the largest flower market on earth. With 4 000 employees, 3 000 customers and exporters, 120 000 transactions per day and 12 billion units of flowers and plants traded per year, they own a staggering 60% of the worldwide flower and plant export market!

We all love receiving flowers… whether it’s for a birthday, anniversary, wedding, graduation, or that special person expressing their love. So without a doubt, flowers play an important role in our world.

We found this 10 min video which was commissioned by FloraHolland very interesting (if you are reading this article in an email, you may need to read it on our website to see the video). We think you will be as amazed as we are, so we decided to share it with you. Grab a coffee, make yourself comfortable and click the play button…

Solving the Complicated Logistics Puzzle

In case you can’t watch the video, here is a short summary…

FloraHolland offers growers and customers a network of six national and international marketplaces (Aalsmeer, Naaldwijk, Rijnsburg, Venlo, Bleiswijk and Eelde), a national intermediary organization called FloraHolland Connect and an internationally active import department.

To keep up with the fast changing trends, FloraHolland helps the grower develop new ideas and offers advice on the practical implementation of these ideas.

FloraHolland’s auction is like a complicated logistics puzzle, which has to be solved as fast as possible day in day out. They assemble millions of flowers from Holland as well as from the rest of the world, so that they can appear on the auction clocks each day.

The flower auction is where supply and demand comes together and traders whose customers are located all over the world buy their flowers here. Within an hour of the trader placing his bid, they are ready to be shipped internationally, and not long after, the flowers are already a part of a French bouquet.

There are two ways for a grower of flowers and plants to sell his products, either via the auction clock using a daily price, or by mediation where FloraHolland mediates between the grower and the buyer and sets concrete price agreements.

FloraHolland also source some of their roses from Kenya, which make their way to the customer via the six FloraHolland markets mentioned above. They even offer a trucking and tracing service of the temperature during transport from the nursery to the auction.

Upon arrival, all flowers and plants are checked for quality, freshness and maturity before the auction.

The flowers and plants can also be bought remotely through a process called remote buying. Buyers can bid on flowers just as if they were at the auction itself. They often buy large amounts of flowers for customers such as supermarkets in this way.

Interesting Stats Extracted from the Video

• 8 000 Growers

• 5 000 Members

• 4 000 Employees

• 3 000 Customers / Exporters

• 4 Billion Euros in Sales

• 13 Auction Rooms

• 42 Auction Clocks

• 270 000 Auction Trolleys

• 200 000 000 Packaging Units (buckets, trays, boxes)

• 120 000 Transactions per day

• 60 Import Countries

• 140 Export Countries

• 20 000 Different types of Flowers and Plants

• 12 Billion Units of Flowers and Plants traded per Year

• 60% of the Worldwide Export of Flowers and Plants

We think this video was a great initiative and we applaud FloraHolland for giving us a peek behind the scenes of what must be the most powerful gear in the floral industry.

PS: Let us know what you thought of the video in the comments, and if you enjoyed this article, help spread the word by clicking the “Like” button or sharing it using the share icons below. Want to read more articles like this? Then Subscribe to our Updates, and get our articles directly to your inbox or RSS reader.

Related posts:

1. Ecuador Rose Grower Nurtures Flowers With Love
2. Where Do Cut Flowers Grow & How Do They Reach Me?
3. Roses from Living Soil