Where your Valentine’s roses came from
I always envisioned myself to be a greenhouse grower. Maybe a guy breeding new annuals or selecting new tropicals. While those things didn’t come to pass, I wouldn’t trade what I’ve gotten to do for anything. I have had the opportunity to rub elbows with many people who shaped history.
You may have seen me mention that after finishing my B.S. degree at Ohio State in floriculture, I began my Master’s degree at Colorado State in 1967. My assistantship was funded by the Denver Wholesale Florists Association – growers of the majority of carnations grown and sold in America. I was also helping maintain the breeding stock of what would later become All America Selections® Peter Pan zinnias.
Those were some great experiences. But on a personal note, Lynn and I had just gotten engaged. She was one year from finishing her Music Education degree at Ohio State and I, quite frankly, was lonely. Sunday rock hunting and arrowhead making could only take me so far.
I decided to move back to Ohio State to work on my Master’s. I tried to call my major professor there in Fort Collins. He didn’t answer, so I called one of the other two graduate students, Dave Cheever. Dave was a good bit older than I, and I hadn’t felt especially close to him. He didn’t take the message well. His response was concerning. I drove out of Fort Collins before sunrise and had no further contact with him.
The next time I heard anything of him was four days ago when I was doing some research on the Columbian cut flower industry for this Valentine’s Day story. You could have pushed me over with a pampasgrass plume. His name came up all over the Internet as the person who put Bogota on the map horticulturally. (Try it yourself!)
Unbelievable size of Columbia floral industry…
But the real crux of my story here is to show you the magnitude of the cut rose industry in Bogota as reported by NBC News several years ago. This is just riveting to anyone who enjoys seeing behind the scenes of a major industry. Just click through this link to see it!
And to answer the question I asked earlier, websites that I found say that upwards of 70 percent of the cut flowers sold in America originate in Columbia (followed not closely by Ecuador and distantly by the Netherlands and Canada). 91 percent of them come into the U.S. through the Miami International Airport.
So, I guess Dave Cheever had his facts right. It’s an amazing world we all share.