TIL most wedding flowers actually come from the same few farms in Colombia

I've been a florist for 8 years and always assumed all those wedding roses came from local growers in season. Last week I was looking through a supply catalog and saw a note that said over 75% of cut flowers sold in the U.S. come from a single region near Bogota. I did some research and found out farms there ship millions of stems every week just to meet demand. It kind of blew my mind because I always thought local farms were the backbone. Has anyone else looked into where your bulk stock actually comes from?

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david7395mo ago

My jaw hit the floor when I found out the same thing. I used to buy roses from a local farmer with a "grower direct" label on them (felt so good about it too). Turned out those were just repackaged from the same Colombian mega farms, shipped in cooler trucks. Pretty sure my "local" roses traveled further than my vacation flights last year.

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amyh215mo ago

I read that 80% of US roses come from Colombia and Ecuador but still get sold as local.

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