Soggy in Texas.  Am in Fredricksburg.  The rain is gone but it’s gonna be chilly till sometime tomorrow and I don’t have a coat and .we couldn’t even find a sweater in the stores yesterday…Burr.  But had a great day.  Road trip across Texas and then some window shopping in town.  We ate at the Fredricksburg Brewery and had some great German food and wine.  Everybody was nice–Hi Chelsea.

Ever wonder where your flowers come from, that great bouquet of roses from the hubby and kids for Mother’s Day for instance.  Chances are they’re from FloraHolland—yes your roses are probably from the Netherlands.  FloraHolland exports flowers and plants at the rate of 12 billion a year (20,000 varieties).  According to Coffee News (Lake Conroe edition) their warehouse is the size of 400 football fields and is open to visitors.

But these flowers don’t all come from the Netherlands.  The company imports from Kenya, Ethiopia, Israel, Belgium, Ecuador, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Zimbabwae, and Italy.

Of flowers grown in the US, 75% come from California.

Surprisingly Christmas/Hanukkah is the number one holiday for flower purchases.  Mother’s Day 2nd, then Valentine’s, Easter/Passover and finally Thanksgiving.  http://www.aboutflowers.com/holiday-statistics.html

Most are bought for home decorations or as a gift for others.

There’s an urban legend out there  that the reason why brides originally carried a bouquet was to hide their body odor.   But according to the sources I looked into flowers have been carried since Roman times (and they left ruins of baths all over Europe and Africa so I don’t think they had an issue with that).  More likely it was a sign of fertility and added to the whole look of the events.  But they probably weren’t imported from Holland.

Flowers have some weird names like the Sinking Corpse Lily which has the largest single flower in the world and smells like decaying flesh–luckily its very rare (eck).

So are there collectible flower related items?

Flower Fairies Plate Fairies fairy …$38

Antique  Flower Basket Cast Iron Door Stop Ribbon On Handle …$76

Sanrio Hello Kitty Wrist  Watch Flower 1976, 2003  $195

Japanese Beautiful Silk Obi  \ Maru OBI Obi Sash Wisteria Flowers $280

Vintage Grandmother’s FlowerGarden Quilt  $295

Hummel Meditation Hummel with Flowers TMK2 Hummel Large 7.25 …$695

The Kadupul Flower is one rarest and can’t be purchased as it doesn’t last that long.  2nd is £160,000 – Shenzhen Nongke Orchid ($268,448) a  completely man-developed flower.

 

Flower where you are and you could be imported to a better place.