The price of roses

[snopes]

Comment: Is this really true? Seems a little out-of-proportion that one
parade could even partially drive up the cost of roses, especially since
many of the floats use other flowers.

"Prices on roses always go up for Valentine's Day, in part because the New
Year's Rose Parade uses up millions of the flowers on floats. Growers
have to hurry up and force feed roses to grow in time for Feb. 14."

[nancyfancypants]

I have no source to back me up, but I doubt that the parade has anything to do with it. I would think it has more to do with demand for Valentine's Day. They charge more because they can get away with it.

[FullMetal]

besides which, I'm sure the roses wouldn't have blossomed yet (for new years) that are destined for valentines day. I'm certain that the flower growers know their trade well enough that they plant enough roses that will be ready for valentines day, and enough for the rose parade, as well as for every other day of the year. if that were the case roses would be more expensive for all of january, when it's really not. prices are higher due to simple supply and demand economics. a fixed supply, a high demand, = higher prices.

Not to mention that roses aren't the only types of flowers/plants used on the floats during the Rose Parade, right?

[Morrigan]

No, they aren't. They use multiple types of flowers, leaves, seeds and more.

Morrigan

How do you "force feed" a flower? Threaten it with a pistil?

[ganzfeld]

According to various Internet sites, about 1.5 billion roses are sold each year and about 1.5 million are used in the parade.* How much would a 0.1% increase in demand increase prices? (* Obviously, these numebrs are questionable as estimates of both seem to vary greatly and, frankly, I didn't look around much!)

[nancyfancypants]

Originally Posted by PrometheusX303

How do you "force feed" a flower? Threaten it with a pistil?

[Tarquin Farquart]

Are roses even in season in January/February?

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by Tarquin Farquart

Are roses even in season in January/February?

Everything is mostly always in season somewhere, or can persuaded to be using artificial heat and light. It's just a question of how much you are prepared to pay either in growing or transport costs. Roses in January/February probably come from tropical or souther hemisphire climates.

Teso South African sprouts available in June for £2 per kilo for example. Or Janury plums and peaches from Argentina and South Africa.

[MacLloyd]

Originally Posted by Eddylizard

Everything is mostly always in season somewhere, or can persuaded to be using artificial heat and light. It's just a question of how much you are prepared to pay either in growing or transport costs. Roses in January/February probably come from tropical or souther hemisphire climates.

Teso South African sprouts available in June for £2 per kilo for example. Or Janury plums and peaches from Argentina and South Africa.

I still remember seeing vast fields of roses outside of Bogota, Colombia back in the early 80s. When I asked why they were growing so many roses, I was told that as long as Americans would buy them, they would grow them.

Guess that philosophy applies to other agricultural products as well.

Mac"fields of roses are much prettier than fields of wheat"Lloyd

[Jaime Vargas]

Near my hometown there's a coastal town where they grow lots of flowers. Practically every carnation sold in Spain comes from there, but they also grow many other varieties, including some tropical species. The real funny thing is that they sell many flowers to the Netherlands...

...including many of the ones who later appear in Spanish flower markets as "product of Holland". So a florist from Valencia might be importing from the Netherlands a box of flowers which were really grown just a mere 800 km away in the same nation. Neat.

Jaime

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by Jaime Vargas

Near my hometown there's a coastal town where they grow lots of flowers. Practically every carnation sold in Spain comes from there, but they also grow many other varieties, including some tropical species. The real funny thing is that they sell many flowers to the Netherlands...

...including many of the ones who later appear in Spanish flower markets as "product of Holland". So a florist from Valencia might be importing from the Netherlands a box of flowers which were really grown just a mere 800 km away in the same nation. Neat.

Jaime

Many years ago I worked for a fruit import/packaging company that imported primarily Spanish produce (it was a subsidiary of a Spanish company.)

We won a contract to supply Marks and Spencer in Spain.

So the produce would travel on a lorry all the way from Spain. We'd net it or punnet it or whatever, then put it on a lorry and send it all the way back to Spain.

My failure to comprehend this madness was compounded by the fact that we also received shipments of produce from our Spanish parent pre-packaged for Marks and Spencer UK. So they obviously had the packing and labelling facilities.

I wonder why they went out of business.

El Sigh!

[RealityChuck]

I question the first part of the statement. Roses are very often on sale leading up to Valentine's day, and this year a lot of local florists were undercut by nonprofits selling roses as rundraisers. Competition aside, if the local fire department can get their hands on roses despite never selling them (which means they have to find suppliers, as opposed to florists, who know who the wholesalers are), it's hardly a sign there's a shortage.

[Griffin2020]

Roses are out of season at Valentine's Day (at least in the US). Most of the blooms come from Central and South America (such as Ecuador and Chile).

[KathyB]

I used to inspect cut flower operations in one of my previous incarnations.

Roses for cut flowers are usually grown indoors, in greenhouses. The greenhouses have no floors; the rose plants are grown directly in soil, or rather beds of specialty soil mix. There are some hydroponic roses. Flower production is regulated by the pruning schedule, hours of light, and temperature. This has to be pretty precise for a day like Valentines Day--you have to get the roses harvested within a week before the day. You can't do this when you grow roses out of doors.

Cut roses are grown from specific rose varieties. A sort of trellis is made out of rope or wire to keep the stems straight.

The main reason that countries like Ecuador have become major suppliers is not seasonality--it is cost of production. Labor costs and, especially, energy costs to heat the greenhouses are much cheaper in many countries. Energy savings amy be due to a warmer climate or to just plain cheap gas or electricity. You don't want TOO warm a climate; then you will be spending money to cool the greenhouse. The cost of production has to be significantly cheaper to offset the cost of transport.

[Judecat]

At the card and gift shop I used to work at anything we could stick a red ribbon and bow on got marked up 300 percent for valentines day. Candy in a heart shaped box got marked up 300 percent. Even helium baloons got marked up 200 percent. Mind you this was the percent over the usually 500 per cent mark up for every day.

Originally Posted by the Magnetic Fields

Buy more stock in roses
Millionaires will always woo
Don't be shocked if roses
make a millionaire of you

From 69 love songs...