Proflora … full of confidence and surprises
It may have been forced to take a long break because of Covid but the gap didn’t just give the organisers of Proflora the time to make some exciting changes but encouraged even more people to make sure they didn’t miss out any longer on see what the worlds second largest growing country had to offer.
For our Editor, Caroline Marshall-Foster, it was her 11th trip over to a country that has thrilled and excited her for nearly 30 years, and which has provided the UK with an amazing range of flowers for nearly 45.
Indeed, it was a Colombian of English descent, Edgar Wells, who first saw the potential of Colombia as a flower growing area, a belief backed up by David Cheevers who, as a young student, wrote a report highlighting the merits and then put his money where his thesis was and shipped his first carnations back in 1970.
Just 50 years later, whilst the US is understandably Colombia’s main market due to the closeness, 3% of their $2billion dollar industry comes into the UK directly with another 3% going into the Netherlands and shipped out to UK buyers who don’t want to buy directly.
But whilst Roses may be the main crop – accounting for 31% of the production area, Carnations are now just 12% having been overtaken by Hydrangea at just under 17% and 14% of the production area dedicated to Chrysanthemum – mostly in the Medellin region.
Perhaps most exciting is the 17% ‘others’. Because as Caroline discovered there are very few flowers that can’t be grown in the near perfect conditions that Colombia has including all year-round Sweet Peas!!
To find out about this potential game changer, which insects she now knows everything about and some other rather gorgeous new blooms click here to read her Proflora review.
