Fast-paced floral industry.

AuthorWilliamson, Elaine B.
PositionAlaska flower industry

Fast-Paced Floral Industry

Say it with flowers. I love you. Get well soon. With deepest condolences. Congratulations. Flowers speak our deepest emotions; they mark our important milestones. From the first pastel-colored bouquet in a ceramic baby shoe to the lilies that cover a casket, flowers appear at every step in our lives. Sometimes we buy them for no reason at all.

Despite the personal significance of the floral commodity, the flower business is -- like any other business -- full of mundane details such as waybills, delivery schedules and 24-hour ordering via fax machines. While customers sleep, on the other side of the world vendors haggle over the price of petunias.

In a complex and efficient delivery system, 24 hours after a greenhouse worker cuts a posy, it and a thousand others are being delivered to a retail florist shop thousands of miles away. The flower business never sleeps.

The biggest market for flowers is the United Flower Auctions of Aalsmeer, Holland. Enormous warehouses hold thousands of multicolored varieties cut no more than one or two hours before. Wholesalers and their agents examine the flowers, making selections based on what looks good, what moved well to retailers last week, and sometimes simply based on a gut instinct of what they hope will sell. Part science, part art -- the wholesalers work from instinct and memory, and always are aware the clock is ticking.

Within an hour of selection, the flowers are packaged in large boxes and delivered to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. From there, they move on commercial jetliners to the farthest corners of the world.

Flowers bound for Alaska generally arrive via KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. The big blue 747s leave Amsterdam and arrive in Anchorage late morning local time, the next day. The 9-10 hour flight over the North Pole carries flowers for two of Alaska's major consumers, Cedars Wholesale Floral Imports and Carrs Quality Centers.

When a shipment arrives in Anchorage, it is picked up by an agent or broker and held for customs inspection. A blue-uniformed man with the U.S. Customs Service opens 20 or so cardboard boxes stacked in the corner of a warehouse and paws through wads of plastic and packing material.

"We check 10 percent of each variety of flowers," says Mike Garra of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He looks for soil on the plant stems that might be carrying fungus, as well as fungus or bacteria on leaves or flowers. As he examines the plants and flowers...

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