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Why Are Some Roses So Hard to Find?

The May/June issue of Floral Management explores why certain varieties of roses are especially scarce.

Anyone tasked with ordering ‘Playa Blanca’ or ‘Quicksand’ during the height of wedding season knows some roses can be as hard to come by as Taylor Swift concert tickets. In the May/June issue of Floral Management, Editor-in-chief Amanda Jedlinsky explores why certain varieties are especially scarce.

Brides’ tastes only partially account for the sourcing scramble. “While the delicate balance of supply and demand plays a role, seasonal demand and the time it takes to propagate enough plants to make sending the flowers to market worthwhile also affect availability,” says Jedlinsky, who spoke with growers and importers.

Introducing a new variety is an expensive and lengthy process. Breeders set out to create a rose with specific traits — be it color, shape, fragrance, a longer vase life or better resistance to disease. They might start with up to one million seeds from crossed roses, which are germinated, cultivated, evaluated and — more often than not — eliminated.

After breeders identify possible winners, they send small numbers of plants to farms in Europe, Africa, Colombia and Ecuador to test how they grow in different climates. If the plants pass those tests, shoots from the mother plant are grafted onto root stock for production. “It can take years to propagate enough plants to make it worthwhile for a farm to produce and sell,” says Joey Azout, president of Alexandra Farms, a garden rose grower in Colombia.

Additionally, sometimes breeders only permit a limited number of farms to grow a new variety for a set time frame, which can limit availability. Jorge Constain, founder and president of Choice Farms, which imports a variety of roses, explains the rationale. “Is a little demand better than a little supply? If the supply is big, the variety dies,” he says. “You can’t gauge demand, and while something might be in demand at first, demand can die off,” and with it, the variety.

To learn more about other factors that affect availability of in-demand roses, read “The ‘It’ (Rose) Factor” in the May/June issue of Floral Management.

Katie Vincent is the senior contributing editor for the Society of American Florists.

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