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Number of roses sold annually in the United States: 1.5 billion
Colombian-grown roses sold annually in the United States: 0.9 billion
The carnation is associated with gratitude; the poppy with sleep, death, and dreams; the tulip, depending on its color, can be a sign of royalty, wealth, or a Perfect Lover; the violet stands for modesty and simplicity. Many of the traditional flower meanings can be traced to Mary Worley Montague, wife of Britain's Ambassador to Turkey in the early 18th-century and popularizer of smallpox vaccination, who published a guide to the Ottoman court's 'flower language' selam on her return to London in 1716. But the rose's link to love and Valentine's Day long predates Montague, and makes it by far the most popular of the commercially-sold flowers -- according to the Department of Agriculture, Americans bought about 3.9 billion cut flowers in 2005, and 1.4 billion of them were roses.
Almost all these roses came from South America -- Colombian gardens around Bogota accounted for 900 million stems, and employ 110,000 people; Ecuador ships another 400 million -- and 200 million of them sell in the week before Valentine's Day. Each year around this time, accordingly, 30 or more commercial airplanes filled with roses leave from Bogota's El Dorado airport daily to be distributed by truck and plane via Miami and Los Angeles to about 20,000 florist shops around the United States.
The patterns in most other flowers are similar. Domestic greenhouses grow almost all the potted green and flowering plants bought in the United States, but cut flowers mainly come from abroad. Colombia and Ecuador rule the world of carnations as well as roses; most orchids come from greenhouses and outdoor farms around Bangkok; two-thirds of our 50 million imported lilies come from Costa Rica. The Netherlands dominate the tulip business, with about 470 million of the annual 490 million bulbs. Most lilies, daisies, irises, and gladioli sold in the United States are locally grown, though. The total import bill for flowers and potted plants comes to about $1.4 billion, roughly equal to the import cost of firearms and military ordinance; the $20 billion in total annual spending on flowers, potted plants, seeds, and bulbs is more than half the $34 billion national bill for air travel; equal to the GDPs of small countries like Nicaragua and Madagascar; and five times the $4.2 billion spent on all 2004 political campaigns combined.
The California Cut Flower Commission says that "diamonds may be 'a girl's best friend,' but flowers remain the romantic token of choice." They would say that, though. CCFC, whose 295 members produce a quarter of America's cut flowers, has facts and statistics on American flower-growing and flower-buying:
http://www.ccfc.org/news_events/news.aspx
The U.S. Foreign Commercial Service's Colombia office explains the Andean flower business:
http://www.buyusa.gov/colombia/en/pastevents.html
The Department of Agriculture summarizes flower-business trends:
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/floriculture/Trade.htm
and with detailed statistics at:
http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/MannUsda/
viewDocumentInfo.do?documentID=1448
Colombia's Association of Flower Exporters:
http://www.colombianflowers.com/site/home.php
Thailand's Royal Orchid Expo 2006:
http://www.royalfloraexpo.com/index.asp
The Netherlands' Flower Council (includes a quiz on color theory):
http://www.flowercouncil.org/us/Specialties/
And a list of traditional flower meanings. PPI does not guarantee accuracy:
http://plantanswers.tamu.edu/publications/
flowers/flowers.html
