Exotic Flowers Awareness

"The awareness of exotic flowers has percolated to the middle class. Roadside vendors are seen selling rare blooms at busy intersections of roads and traffic signals. Young boys and girls weave between cars selling flowers and dry materials which homemakers use for creating floral arrangements for their homes. House-proud career women and society women agree that flowers are the best form of interior design and cost relatively less than expensive novelties. The proliferating exotic flower and plant shows also prove that this business is growing phenomenally." The result of this boom is that many Indian states boast huge floriculture industries. For instance, in the last 10 years, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and other states have become prime growers and exporters of hi-tech luxury flowers for the local and the European market. A business which has gathered momentum only since 1992, hi-tech floriculture yielded an export income of Rs 150 crore to India in 2002.

Until the beginning of the nineties, Bangalore was called the Garden City of India. Its rose gardens were famous. Today, Bangalore has also become the city of exotic blooms, including tulips, which made Holland a famous country among flower lovers. Delhi where the flower business flourishes because of the diplomatic corps and governmental as well as business functions, has a bustling wholesale market in Connaught Place. It is considered to be the biggest in India and conducts business worth Rs 1 crore each morning in the peak season from October to January each year.

Flowers come to Delhi from the surrounding states of Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Kashmir. The flower business has also changed the face of Pune, whose sprawling environs offer a vast landscape comprising hundreds of hectares devoted to growing hi-tech flowers. Pune, Kolhapur, Nasik, Lonavla and other areas of Maharashtra have caught on to the magic of growing flowers for not only the domestic market but on a large scale for export to the European market. Earlier, exotic flowers were imported from Singapore, Thailand and Sri Lanka but now, the Indian industry offers all the flowers needed and the import has reduced considerably.

Flowers for export and hi-end consumers in India — anthuriums, tulips, lilies, gladioli, gerberas, iris, amaryllis, hyacinths, zantedeschias, carnations and several other varieties — are grown according to the latest European technology, with plants germinated and cultured in a protected environment in fully-equipped laboratories. Several Indian companies have collaborations with European flower growers, who supply not only the technology but also seeds or mother plants. These are grown in-vitro, somewhat like a human foetus, and then planted in the correct soil in a polyhouse. The flowers, when ready by international standards, are cut, packed and transported in refrigerated vans within hours to the airport. Export quality Indian flowers are flown to Holland, which is the world’s largest flower market. In Holland, the blooms are auctioned and then distributed all over Europe. Holland is the world’s hub for the flower industry, being a leader in growing tulips and other exotic flowers. Its floriculture technology is the world’s best. Holland’s floriculturists collaborate with Indian hi-tech flower cultivators to provide Europe with a plenitude of rare flowers in the winter when Europe’s gardens are frost-covered and barren.

Young agro-scientists are also drawn to this industry because of its glamour, ever-new technology and export potential. Many are turning their traditional fruit orchards or flower farms into hi-tech floriculture poly-houses and are launching new business ventures. Though Holland and Israel in Europe and Colombia and the USA in South and North America are leaders in the world market, it is predicted that India will soon earn a top place among flower-exporting countries.

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Exotic Flowers Awareness