WASHINGTON — At The Modest Florist, in Baltimore, there isn鈥檛 a red rose in sight — not even on the days leading up to Valentine鈥檚 Day. It鈥檚 a business decision that owner Libby Francis-Baxter says is intentional.
The shop, which opened in 2013, sells only locally grown flowers, and as it turns out, rose-growers in the D.C. area are scarce.
鈥淯p until about the ’80s, it was very typical to have greenhouses that specialized in roses all throughout the country,鈥� Francis-Baxter says. But, she says, that is no longer the case.
In 1971, the U.S. produced 1.2 billion blooms of roses, carnations and chrysanthemums, and imported 200 million. Thirty years later, those statistics reversed, .
鈥淟ittle by little, over the decades, we now have about 90 percent of the roses that are sold in the United States actually coming from Colombia and Ecuador, with very few still produced in California,鈥� Francis-Baxter says.
Seventy percent of all flowers sold in the U.S. come from Colombia, a country .
For florists, Valentine鈥檚 Day is the single busiest day of the year — a day, Francis-Baxter says, that significantly impacts annual sales. With roses totaling of the flowers purchased on Valentine鈥檚 Day, one might find it crazy to intentionally not sell them. But Francis-Baxter isn鈥檛 easily intimidated, nor is she dissuaded from her mission.
She has a number of bouquets ready for Feb. 14, such as red tulips sourced from a greenhouse in Northern Virginia, mixed with Pennsylvania-grown Sweet William, an alternative to baby鈥檚 breath. If customers are still dead set on roses, she says she will happily refer them to other flower shops in the area.
And she鈥檚 not the only florist taking a stand against imported flowers. Last Valentine鈥檚 Day, Tobie Whitman opened , a D.C.-based flower delivery service that sources its stems from nearby farms and greenhouses.
鈥淲e find that imported flowers just aren鈥檛 as fresh,鈥� says Whitman, who is filling hundreds of flower orders this week. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e covered in pesticides, because there are different environmental and health standards in different countries; they don鈥檛 have the fragrance that fresh, local flowers do. They鈥檙e just not … unique; they鈥檙e just a mass-produced commodity.鈥�
Whitman says she enjoys educating customers on her company鈥檚 model, and finds most are open to purchasing her locally sourced options. Of course, she says, there will always be traditionalists who want to stick to red roses on Valentine鈥檚 Day. She urges them to give their partners 鈥渁 little more credit. …
鈥淚t feels like people we ask don鈥檛 want the usual, boring, plain-old option,鈥� Whitman says. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 get them all. And that鈥檚 OK. We want people to be happy.鈥�
Francis-Baxter makes it very clear that she has nothing against roses — she says she loves them.
鈥淚 remember back in the day when we did have greenhouse-grown roses, and they were something that they aren鈥檛 like today. And sadly, there鈥檚 an entire generation that鈥檚 grown up not even knowing what an actual proper rose looks like,鈥� she says.
A 鈥減roper rose,鈥� Francis-Baxter explains, has slender stems and a gentle arch from the weight of the bloom. South American varieties, on the other hand, are bred strictly to survive shipping via plane. During peak season, 30 to 35 planes transport flowers from Colombia to Miami on a daily basis, according to the .
But Francis-Baxter says she鈥檚 hopeful that if enough local greenhouses are supported, the U.S. will see the old characteristics of roses return one day.
鈥淚n the meantime, what I can offer is, everything is super-fresh; it hasn鈥檛 spent any time in the belly of an airplane or sitting on the tarmac at the airport in Miami, and you can be sure that there鈥檚 somebody behind growing each of these stems. It鈥檚 a family farmer or a multi-generation family-owned greenhouse. 鈥� So you can walk away feeling good too,鈥� she says.
