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Columbian Flower Exporters Association
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Asocolflores and Texas A&M
agnews.tamu.edu
Visit the Columbian Flower Exporters Association
Asocolflores
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October 5, 2007
Fannin Street markets
Thorns
on Houston's Flower Row
Florists face
triple threat: taxes, trains and a city's changing habits
By CLAUDIA FELDMAN
Copyright 2007 Houston
Chronicle
The
24-hour flower shops on
Fannin
Street are peaceful at 2 a.m. Rows of
bougainvilleas,
bromeliads
and roses glow under fluorescent lights. The commuters who normally
thunder past, the customers who like to stop and poke, are at home
asleep. It's so quiet one could bowl in the street. Mahmood
Hasanzadeh, better
known as
Mo, leans against the counter of Country Rose Garden, one of the four
shops open but devoid of customers. He's been on duty since midnight,
and read a newspaper from his homeland, Iran, watered a few plants and
contemplated his future and that of Flower Row.
"I like grocery stores,''
says the
man who has spent a quarter-century working on the half-mile stretch of
Fannin. "I'm tired of flowers. I think these shops are going down.''
Houstonians have a soft spot
for
this cluster of indoor-outdoor stands because they add a hint of
romance, a touch of drama and a dab of sophistication to the heart of
the city. But Mo, also known as the mayor of Flower Row, may be right
in his dire predictions. Back in the day, 1989 and
1990,
there were roughly a dozen bustling flower shops on Fannin, stretching
north from Bissonnet to U.S. 59. Since then the number of shops has
shrunk to five, and those are starting to look a little like spindly,
untended plants themselves.
Politicians, urban planners
and
real-estate experts say the land in Midtown has become so expensive
that so-called "interim'' businesses such as flower shops, car washes
and parking lots can't survive for long. The theory is landowners can't
afford the rising property taxes; those with leases can't handle
soaring rents.
Another complication is
MetroRail,
which has stripped the shops of valuable parking and scared customers
who are afraid to cross the tracks. Also, there's been a quantum leap
in the number of flower outlets all over the city. Those who want
posies need look no further than their neighborhood grocery or strip
shopping center.
Then there's the Internet.
None of that, however, is
as
weird
or interesting as Flower Row. Or Mo. He's in his
50s and
balding,
married twice, divorced twice. At one time he owned
three
flower
shops up and down the street, but he lost them all. That
was the cost, perhaps,
of the
divorces, the friends who couldn't be trusted, the hard life lessons
slowly learned. Mo works midnight to 8 a.m.,
or
later if the morning crew is slow to arrive. He doesn't mind the odd
hours, he says. He's a night owl. He'd be up all night, anyway. He
sleeps from morning until
early
afternoon. Then he catches up with friends from businesses up and down
the street and in the surrounding Third Ward. To relax,
sometimes the
friends meet
at a sports bar way out on Westheimer and play shuffleboard with
near-professional skill. They learned the game at the Flower Row
icehouse, the Fannin Totem. When that enterprise was on its last legs,
customers served themselves and paid for their beers on the honor
system. The Fannin Totem was an
institution
or an interim business, depending on your point of view. It's an empty
lot now.
A price for everything
One of the ghosts of Flower
Row
can be spotted just south of Southmore and Fannin. From the corner,
passers-by can see a lonely Subway, and beyond that, remnants of a
vacant flower stand and scraped earth, grass and hurricane
fences. Since Fannin is one of the
gateways
to the Texas Medical Center, many flower stands have taken root and
flourished over the past 50 years. If the word on the street is
correct, however, none of the businesses was as successful as Flower
Garden No. 1. Like the other shopkeepers on
the
street, the couple who owned the store sweated and toiled 24 hours a
day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
But they woke up one lucky
day
several years ago to find men in suits asking to buy their property.
They made a fortune, according to the rumor up and down Flower Row.
True or not, the story makes it easier for those left in business to
endure Valentine's Day, which is chaos; Mother's Day, which also is
chaos; and every Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's. And Easter.
North across Palm,
there's
the
Nehemiah Center, which offers assistance to children of all ages, and a
muddy lot that used to be a flower shop. Now it's the footprint for
Casa Di Verona, a planned 20-unit midrise. The cheaper units are
expected to go for about $250,000. Cross Wichita and there is
the
graveyard of Flower Garden No. 2. The "for lease" sign gives a number
and below that, a message. "Call Bill." The
property recently was
purchased
by the co-founders of the adjacent Czech Center Museum Houston, Bill
and Effie Rosene. One day, the Rosenes figure, the center may need room
to expand. In the meantime, they would love to lease the space to
someone who wants to operate a restaurant or, maybe, a coffee and
kolache shop.Customers could grab a dozen,
mixed,
to go, then mosey over to the Country Rose Garden, the shop Mo runs at
night and owner Alex Moini rules by day.The difference
between his
flowers
and those sold by the other flower-shop owners, Moini says, is quality.
In a somewhat softer tone, Moini says he hopes to remain in the flower
business, despite the cut-throat competition, despite the long hours,
despite the rising property taxes.
If Moini views his flower
business
as an island, one man's struggle, the hot-pink shop across Rosedale,
Rosewood Flowers, is a family circus. The ringmaster is Reza Nouri.
His
sister and brother-in-law own the business, but he is the one who keeps
the customers laughing or, at the very least, satisfied.
"I a crazy guy," says Nouri,
another
Iranian."That's one reason I stay."Ask Nouri the
difference
between his
shop and the others and he says, "I don't say we're the cheapest. But
we work with the customers. We go with the customers' circumstances.
Say there is a funeral, and the customers don't have sufficient money.
They don't walk out empty-handed even if I have to sell at cost."Nouri
says the frustrations
in his
life stem from peddling a product that's perishable and dealing with
the trains that he says interfere with business."At
Metro," he says, "they do
the
foolest things."The good news, Nouri says, is
that
he still loves flowers after 17 years in the business."They
give you a positive
attitude,"
he says. "Something growing, something living, is very nice."Also,
he likes to laugh with
his
customers. Some men come into the shop
at 11
p.m., and they tell Nouri they are in trouble, they are late, they need
something so their wives will let them back into the house.When
they ask for advice,
Nouri
steers them toward the red roses."Two things the ladies
like,"
Nouri
says, "are diamonds and roses. I would say 99 percent of the time,
roses work. Maybe even the men get a couple of kisses."Nouri
says the family has no
plans
to sell, but everything has a price."I offer you $10
million for
your
shoes. Are you going to sell your shoes? Yes."
A different dream
Across Arbor and Rosedale,
pushing
north to Wentworth, is one of three shops called Fannin Flowers Inc.
All are owned by Manouchehr Khodadadian, known to everybody as Manouch.
Arguably the most successful
florist
on Fannin, Manouch dresses casually — usually shorts and a golf shirt.Since
he is the boss, nobody
tells
him what to wear, what to do or when to work, though he knows the job
requires 14 to 16 hours a day, at least six days a week.That
is wonderful, he thinks.
The
American dream.When Manouch was young, he
intended
to live the Iranian dream." All of us, all the Iranians
on this
street, we all came in the mid- to late '70s, and we intended to study,
get our education and go back home. Then came the revolution in Iran.
It was a bad situation — we couldn't go back. And we had to make a
living somehow." Manouch and the others took
the most
basic jobs on Flower Row, selling carnations in buckets. The ambitious
ones saved their pennies and eventually rented, then bought, flower
shops of their own.
All but Rosewood Flowers
are
open 24
hours. It's not really important that he does very little business from
midnight to 6 a.m., Manouch says. Every little bit helps. And the lone
employee on duty doubles as a security guard. "Otherwise,"
he says, "we get
cleaned out." At 46, Manouch is still a
young man,
but he admits the hours grind him down. "Most of our
business is
after 3 or
4 in the afternoon, on the weekends, during holidays. It's hard on the
family. I have a wife and two kids. My wife works with me in the shop,
but on holidays, I don't see the kids."Valentine's Day
is the best
and
worst of all, he says. "It's sad, but I don't give my wife anything. We
have to work so much and we're so tired, we're just glad when it's
over."He rolls his eyes, a true
American
dad, when asked whether his kids work in the shops, too. "My
daughter, she runs the
cash
register once in a blue moon," he says. "But this new generation ...
they don't want to work too hard." Manouch figures he
will sell
flowers
until he retires at 60, or until someone buys him out. If he is still
young when that happens, he'll consider another business, one with
shorter hours, one with a product that doesn't spoil. Maybe,
he says, mostly
joking, "I'll
sell shoes."
claudia.feldman@chron.com
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Genetic engineering of cut flowers
In the past, roses were
simply yellow, red or white.
Blue
roses could not exist these plants are unable to produce blue pigments
naturally. By means of gene technology, this goal has been reached.
This is not all: in labs around the world, designer cut flowers are
being created with exceptional colours, with prolonged shelf-life, with
added fragrances or with built-in frost protection. GM cut flowers can
be bought in the EU as well.
According
to the
Australian corporation and market leader Florigene, owned by Japanese
group Suntory, novelties sustain the industry. With help of gene
technology, new creations could enhance their high market potential.
Today, about $ 40 billion are converted yearly with cut flowers, of
which roses have a market share of $10 billion. Plant growers have gone
to great lengths for centuries in the quest to grow a blue rose but
Florigene is the first corporation that has been able to do so.
Even
though this
new rose is rather violet than dark blue, the company believes to be
close to the goal. This colour change in roses was effected through the
transfer of a gene found in violets that controls the production of the
blue pigment called Delphinidin. Simultaneously, rose genes that
usually produce red and orange pigments were made inoperative.
In 1996,
Florigene already had made the first genetically modified, market-ready
cut flowers. A pale, violet-coloured carnation with the name of
Moondust was presented by the company. To date, five more species of
carnations have been added that feature different tones of violet and
blue. Four of these species are permitted for marketing within the EU.
To date, over 75 million of these flowers were sold worldwide.
Further
products
are being developed at other corporations. More than two dozen field
tests with new designer plants have been permitted. Among them are
light blue torenias, bronze coloured forsythia, and yellow petunias.
Using gene-technological methods other new characteristics are underway:
-
New fragrances: At the
University of
Florida, experiments as being conducted to return to roses scents that
have been lost during breeding.
-
Prolonged shelf-life:
Researchers at
the University of Hannover in Germany are developing methods to delay
the withering of Flaming Katies and Canterbury bluebells.
- Improved resistance: The German corporation,
Ornamental
Bioscience, is working with petunias and poinsettias that are able to
endure low temperatures and drought. The flowers are so able to
tolerate long – haul transports. Petunias made by this company are
already able to withstand minus 6 degrees Celsius without being
damaged, but will not be ready for the market until 2011.
For the
EU,
there are also clear labelling regulations for gene modified cut
flowers. The carnations ‘Moonlite’ must carry a label with the remark
that ‘this product is a genetically modified carnation’ and is ‘not
suitable for consumption by humans or animals’.
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Socially-Conscious
Flowers: Flowers Help to Support Displaced
Colombian Families Through the School of Floriculture
BOGOTA, Colombia, Feb 04,
2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The National Retail
Federation estimates more than a third of Americans (35.9 percent) will
purchase flowers this year to celebrate Valentine's Day. What many
sweethearts may not realize is flower purchases help to support
displaced families thousands of miles away. The Colombian Association
of Flower Exporters, Asocolflores, supports a program to provide
assistance to Colombian families who have been forcefully displaced
from their homes.
"As an industry, we are
committed to any programs that will help to support the people of our
country," said Augusto Solano, President of Asocolflores. "The School
of Floriculture gives Colombian families the unique opportunity to earn
back their independence and dignity. And flower purchasers help to
support this initiative by simply buying and enjoying beautiful
flowers."
The School of Floriculture
promotes the creation of jobs and allows participants to earn an income
and start a new life. Beneficiaries begin the training process and join
Asocolflores member companies as apprentices receiving a salary while
they train in flower production techniques. After one year, apprentices
may choose to accept a permanent job in the company.
With an investment of US $1.8
million, the School of Floriculture has benefited more than 1,631
families to date. In addition to funding and assistance from
Asocolflores and member farms, the program counts on financial and
technical support from the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF)
and financial resources from the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID).
Alex
Monsalve's Story
Alex Monsalve, once a
displaced person, is now a floriculture worker. Alex was able to help
his family get ahead in life despite being forced from his home, one of
the most difficult situations one can live through as a human being.
And just like him, there are thousands of Colombians living in the
countryside surrounding big cities such as Bogota, Medellin, Pereira
and Cali, who have been able to give their children a future thanks to
jobs in the flower industry, one of the agrooindustrial sectors
offering workers new opportunities.
"In July of 2004, I was
displaced by violence from the Department of Antioquia. It was hard to
leave behind everything I had worked a lifetime to achieve. Even more
so, I have a family and did not know what the future would bring. I
arrived at a cousin's house in Madrid, Cundinamarca, in Colombia, with
my family, who a few months before had gone through much of the same
experience. Although my cousin offered us help and support, he was just
starting to get back on his feet as well."
"In the meantime, I began
looking for a job, but my lack of experience in the cultivation of
flowers kept me from getting my foot in the door of the floriculture
industry. I worked odd jobs, but it was difficult because I was a day
worker without a fixed income."
"In November 2004, my cousin
mentioned a program that aids families who have been displaced from
their homes, the School of Floriculture. It all seemed like a bunch of
pipe dreams and idle talk. He told me that a group of people from SENA
Human Resources visit the companies to take people under their wing to
help them learn and train in their field. The tricky part was getting
through the interview. With nothing to lose, I showed up at the
appointed hour and took a tough comprehensive test. They talked to me
about the Floriculture School, what its mission is, the commitments
involved, responsibilities taken and benefits to be had."
"I'm now a floriculture
worker in Colombia, the main supplier of fresh-cut flowers to the
United States, and one of the most important suppliers to Europe,
Russia and Japan. I'm glad to be working in an industry that generates
thousands of jobs and offers a positive image of Colombia, a country
seeking a new future."
Established in 1973 to represent the
interests of the Colombian flower growers in world markets, the
Colombian Association of Flower Exporters (Asocolflores) represents
more than 70 percent of total Colombian flowers exports.
FOR
MORE INFORMATION VISIT: Colombian Association
of Flower Exporters and Florverde
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Hallmark to close city's
flower, gift distribution centers
By Jane Roberts
Friday, March 14, 2008
Hallmark,
which for nearly 100 years has expressed America's
best wishes, is exiting the online flower and gift business it started
in Southaven. By late April, Hallmark expects to close the distribution
center at 5645 Pepperchase Drive and lay off the last of 35 employees.
Hallmark is also exiting the catalog gift
business it runs out
of the 106,000-square-foot warehouse it has leased in Southaven since
it decided to branch into online/mail-order gifts and flowers in 2001.
Hallmark.com will still exist, O'Dell said, offering
stationery, premium e-cards and customized photo cards.
The company is a family-run business and is not
required to
report earnings as publicly traded companies are. O'Dell would not
comment on market share or what portion of sales come from its catalog
and dot-com business. Hallmark was one the last players to enter the $2
billion
online flower business after it tried selling flowers in its stores in
the mid-1990s, said Terril Nell, floraculture professor at the
University of Florida. "They know the
personal expression business, and they have
done well in it. The floral industry has become a global business and
the logistics has to be done properly or it's not successful," he said.
ProFlowers and 1-800-Flowers own the lion's
share of the
online market; both have distribution centers in Memphis. Hallmark,
some sources say, may have 5-10 percent of the
dot-com flower market -- which is growing about 15 percent a year --
three times faster than the brick-and-mortar business.
Hallmark came in with the idea of being the
gold standard and
targeting a high-end demographic, said Erick New, who owns the Garden
District but was a consultant to and then head of production at
Hallmark.com until 2003. "Then they began to change their market to
focus on the same
market as 800-Flowers and ProFlowers, which tends to be younger and
more budget-minded," he said. <> New and
another
expert who was also a
consultant in the
Hallmark.com startup days say Hallmark was so fastidious about
protecting its name that it chose to manage the details -- including
the supply chain -- itself. They also said Hallmark did not have flower
experts on staff. "They were pretty ambitious. The flower
business is very
perishable and very variable. It's almost impossible for one company to
vertically manage all the details," said Brian Myrland. He owns DB Manufacturing outside Madison, Wis.
As late as the
1990s, it specialized in flower processing equipment; Hallmark.com was
a client. "They built the Taj Mahal in Memphis, a huge
facility with
state-of-the-art coolers and conveyor belts moving goods based on bar
coding," he said. "I knew something
was up because about six
months ago, I got a
call from an insider at Hallmark wondering if I had any resell
capacity," Myrland said. Hallmark expected the business could be so big
that it didn't
want to risk it by not having the right infrastructure, he said. "It built adequate space right from the start
and then spent
the rest of its time chasing the business," he said. The
business is based entirely in Southaven.
Hallmark is
negotiating to get out of its lease.
Source: www.commercialappeal.com
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Study
Indicates Flowers' Fragrance Diminished By Air Pollution
4/15/2008
Air pollution from power plants and automobiles is destroying the
fragrance of flowers and thereby inhibiting the ability of pollinating
insects to follow scent trails to their source, a new University of
Virginia study indicates. This could partially explain why wild
populations of some pollinators, particularly bees – which need nectar
for food – are declining in several areas of the world, including
California and the Netherlands.
The
study appears online in the journal Atmospheric Environment.
"The
scent molecules produced by flowers in a less polluted environment,
such as in the 1800s, could travel for roughly 1,000 to 1,200 meters;
but in today's polluted environment downwind of major cites, they may
travel only 200 to 300 meters," said Jose D. Fuentes, a professor of
environmental sciences at the University of Virginia and a co-author of
the study. "This makes it increasingly difficult for pollinators to
locate the flowers."
The
result, potentially, is a vicious cycle where pollinators struggle to
find enough food to sustain their populations, and populations of
flowering plants, in turn, do not get pollinated sufficiently to
proliferate and diversify.
Other
studies, as well as the actual experience of farmers, have shown that
populations of bees, particularly bumblebees, and butterflies have
declined greatly in recent years. Fuentes and his team of U.Va.
researchers, including Quinn McFrederick and James Kathilankal, believe
that air pollution, especially during the peak period of summer, may be
a factor.
To
investigate this, they created a mathematical model of how the scents
of flowers travel with the wind. The scent molecules produced by
flowers are very volatile and they quickly bond with pollutants such as
ozone, hydroxyl and nitrate radicals, which destroy the aromas they
produce. This means that instead of traveling intact for long distances
with the wind, the scents are chemically altered and the flowers, in a
sense, no longer smell like flowers. This forces pollinators to search
farther and longer and possibly to rely more on sight and less on
smell.
The
scientists calculated scent levels and distances that scents can travel
under different conditions, from relatively unpolluted pre-industrial
revolution levels, to the conditions now existing in rural areas
downwind from large cities.
"It
quickly became apparent that air pollution destroys the aroma of
flowers, by as much as 90 percent from periods before automobiles and
heavy industry," Fuentes said. "And the more air pollution there is in
a region, the greater the destruction of the flower scents."
Original
Source: University of Virginia
Source: www.pollutiononline.com
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U.S. growers fighting back against foreign
flowers
By STEPHANIE HOOPS, Scripps Howard News
Service
VENTURA, Calif. -- After more than
16 years of
Latin American countries enjoying a leg up on them, California's cut
flower growers say they have had enough. While sitting quietly on the
sidelines, they have seen their market share plummet as foreign growers
flourished through duty-free access to the United States.
Motivated by concerns that a temporary trade pact could become
permanent, growers have decided to speak up.
Investors have been wary about tying up their money in overseas
agricultural businesses that could be hurt if the trade agreement
expires. If that potential problem is alleviated, more investors might
be attracted to foreign operations -- boosting competition for domestic
growers. "What's fair and what's right is a big question mark," said
Michael A. Mellano of the Los Angeles-based grower Mellano & Co.
"Should these producers be given preferential treatment? If so, for
those of us who are fighting to remain in business, how do we remain
whole?" "We're at a crossroads," said Kasey
Cronquist, executive director and ambassador for the California Cut
Flower Commission.
It's time, he said, to look back at the last 16 years,
see who is still left in the industry and how to help them
remain.
But according to the California Cut Flower Commission,
foreign nations -- primarily Colombia -- now supply 75 to 80 percent of
cut flowers sold in the United States. They have replaced what
California growers were providing more than a decade ago.
In December 1991, President George H.W. Bush's
administration made a deal with the Andean nations of Bolivia,
Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, offering them duty-free access to the U.S.
market in exchange for assistance combating drug trafficking. It was
meant to be an incentive for Andean farmers to pursue alternatives to
the drug trade.
For the most part, domestic cut flower growers
remained
out of the discussion, believing there were larger geopolitical
interests at stake. Once Colombia had its access to the U.S., domestic
cut
flower growers were at a disadvantage -- saddled with higher costs for
land, labor and complying with stringent regulations. "But we are
survivors," said Anthony Vollering,
part-owner of Sunshine Floral, which has operations in Carpinteria and
Oxnard. "You need to adjust, be efficient, more productive, change your
crops." "The industry didn't come out angrily opposed
because
we were fighting a war on drugs," Cronquist said. "That was the greater
issue." To get by, Sunshine Floral started growing Gerber
daisies, the genus of which is Gerbera, a flower that's more difficult
for the Colombians to pack and transport. Other
growers followed suit.
Since the trade arrangement went into effect,
Cronquist
said, the California cut-flower industry has transformed itself,
producing "a boutiquey-type product, moving to things that are a little
more expensive." They pulled out their roses, carnations and
chrysanthemums, replacing them with flowers like anthirriums and
Gerberas. "You find your niches where you can do better with
other flowers and that's how you survive," Vollering said.
U.S. growers seemed to have weathered the
storm,
according to congressional research released a decade after the Andean
accord. The research concluded that domestic growers
diversified their products and were handling the trade preferences
well.
"That's the government's take on things," Mellano said.
"Finding profitable crops to grow these days is not as easy as pulling
a rabbit out of a hat." President George W. Bush, following up on what
his
father implemented, has proposed a new law that would make the trade
deal permanent -- the Colombia Free Trade Agreement.
The proposed legislation would affect more
than just
the cut flower industry. Bush says the agreement is an important
support measure for Colombia, which "faces a hostile and anti-American
regime in Venezuela." He added that the agreement would eliminate
tariffs on
certain American exports of industrial and consumer goods, leveling
that playing field. That doesn't soothe concerns of American cut flower
growers, who are worried a permanent pact would increase competition.
California growers are especially interested because
they account for 80 percent of domestic cut flower production for the
limited market share retained by American companies.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When
you look for a florist, look for the Allied Florist logo -
your
assurance of Professional Quality and Service.
Allied Florists of Houston
c/o Taylor Wholesale Florist
1601 West 21st Street
Houston, TX 77008
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