NPR: Planet Money Podcast: #603: A Rose On Any Other Day

February 22, 2015 6:51 PM

Red roses are a unique product — a commodity worth double the price for a very short, 24-hour period: Valentine's Day.To cash in on this demand, flower growers have to figure out how to make millions of roses bloom exactly the right amount, at exactly the right moment, in the middle of February — get them from farms in Africa and South America to your doorstep.On today's show: the logistical miracles and wild risks behind getting red roses to your Valentine.
posted by bq (2 comments total)

Ugh... that guy buying roses in the flower shop "otherwise you look like a cheapskate." I'm going to go ahead and assume he's straight and guess that he has a gold digging money grubbing trophy wife that he should dump, or he has a reasonably cool wife that he disrespects enough to imply that she's a money grubbing whore on national public radio.
posted by sparklemotion at 10:55 AM on February 23, 2015

I like PM episodes like this that explore the hidden side to an industry/market. I knew that Valentine's day was a big deal for florists but I had no idea it was tightly timed and precariously planned.

I also knew before this that cut flowers weren't always eco-friendly (not to mention sorta wasteful), but I got major eco-guilt from listening to this! I had surgery recently and a friend sent me flowers from a local shop that only buys locally-grown flowers. They were really beautiful and I plan to use the shop myself - now I am even more inclined to!
posted by radioamy at 8:48 PM on February 23, 2015 [2 favorites]