SECRET GARDEN
Flower auction in Burnaby
A growing trend, not only during the Christmas season but all year round, is the popularity of freshcut flowers.
Scientific research confirms that cut flowers bring a sense of happiness and comfort. The Society of American Florists partnered with researcher Jeannette Haviland-Jones of Rutgers University on some groundbreaking research to examine the effect of flowers on human emotion and well-being.
Over a 10-month period, some very interesting results were discovered. Haviland-Jones and her research team found the presence of flowers triggers happy emotions, heightens feelings of life satisfaction, and affects future behaviour in a positive manner. Flowers are a natural and healthy moderator of moods.
“Common sense tells us that flowers make us happy,” Haviland-Jones says, “and now science shows that not only do flowers make us happier than we know, they have strong positive effects on our emotional wellbeing.”
Where do our fresh flowers originate? Many come from United Flower Growers in Burnaby, which hosts the largest flower auction in North America and ranks in the world’s top 10 flower auction houses.
Started in 1963 as a co-op, the founding growers of UFG created an opportunity for potted plant and cut-flower growers to send their products to a Dutch-style auction where buyers could purchase a great diversity of product early in the morning and have it back in their stores in a timely fashion.
Auctions are held three days a week, beginning at 6 a.m. The buying gallery at UFG has four fast-moving auction clocks, all running simultaneously. Unlike a traditional auction, a Dutch-style flower auction has the clock set at the highest price. The price keeps dropping until the product is purchased, usually in mere seconds, and then seamlessly the auction moves on to the next lot. The process is all computerized.
During most of the year, around 110 buyers attend each auction, while up to 160 buyers purchase online from anywhere in the world. In the peak season of spring, however, a buyer could be competing with 250 to 300 others, each trying to get quality products at the best price.
With over 1,000 transactions per clock per hour — one every two to five seconds — a buyer really must be on their game.
United Flower Growers CEO Bob Pringle said buyers can choose from a selection of over 1,500 different varieties of cut flowers, and roughly the same number of potted plant varieties. He says cut flowers are “absolutely” a growth industry — no pun intended.
According to Statistics Canada, B.C. farm-gate flower sales for 2015 ( both greenhouse and field grown) amounted to $44 million, and UFG accounted for $32 million through the auction and direct and greenhouse sales. Pringle said B.C. is one of the few provinces in which the industry is growing.
“We have some of the most innovative, creative growers in the country who are always searching for trends and finding new products to grow,” he said.
The most in-demand cut flowers in terms of value are tulips, mums, lilies and gerberas. Pringle sees growth in two areas: outdoor crops and seasonal cuts.
He says sales of outdoor tulips, peonies, hydrangeas, dahlias, kales, sedums, sunflowers and lisianthus have grown significantly. Seasonal crops like cut fruit branches, red-berried deciduous holly and skimmia are some examples of the new opportunities.
Pringle said that in Holland, garden bouquets containing one of many varieties are hugely popular, and their wrapping is noticeably more natural, using bio-degradable paper instead of plastic.
Who is buying this amazing volume of flowers?
“We cater to the independents,” Pringle said, “especially independent grocers, garden centres, florists and designers who use significant volumes for weddings and specialty events. We also sell to grocery chains, and our wholesale customers often supply the larger chain stores.
“B.C. is our primary market, but we also ship into the three western provinces and Ontario. Seattle is a very strong market and so are Oregon and California. We’ve even sent salal (cut from coastal forests) to Hong Kong. We have one client who supplies cruise ships where our flowers grace the tables and displays on board.”