The times they are definitely a-changin’
The times they are definitely a-changin’
The world is changing really rapidly and it seems like even the complexity of the changes is changing. It is estimated that every 24 hours Google generates the amount of information equal to that generated from the dawn of civilization until the year 2003. Look around and notice what’s happening in the floral industry.
When I first started in this industry back in the 1960s, most of the flowers we sold were grown in local greenhouses or were seasonal field crops. Nothing was imported from South America except maybe coffee. FedEx was a concept paper written by Frederick Smith for his Yale economics class — our flowers traveled on trucks, busses and trains.
Now we have Globally Grown, American Grown, Slow Flowers, huge factory floral farms, stiff competition via the Internet and many retail and wholesale companies closing their doors. Flowers in the greenhouses in South America and Holland one day can be in your coolers the next day. Business as usual is certainly no longer business as usual.
In this issue we have stories of both tradition and of change. We cover the tradition of Mother’s Day; the making of the rose garland for the Kentucky Derby; the meeting of art and fine flowers at Art in Bloom in Minneapolis; and the sales on both U.S. coasts of the over 100-year-old Boston Flower Exchange and San Francisco Flower Market. We also cover acquisitions, consolidations and changes in leadership within various sectors of the industry. And, as usual, there are more shows and conferences to recap and preview.
Although we’ve come a long way since the 1960s, I’m sure there are more monumental changes yet to come. In the words of Yogi Berra, “The future ain’t what it used to be.”
See you next month with full coverage of the International Floriculture Expo in Chicago.
Richard Lutes is the floral editor and floral sales manager of The Produce News. He can be contacted at 763/595-9559 or [email protected].
