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Roses in Barcelona: the Sant Jordi rush and the rest of the year
Roses in Barcelona follow one date more than any other. By Mercabarna-flor's forecast, about seven million roses sell across Catalonia on Sant Jordi, 23 April, close to 30% of a year's rose sales. The other seven tenths go out through the rest of the year, bought for a person rather than a date, so the choice starts with colour, stem count and height.
Mostly Colombian, partly Ecuadorian: whose roses Barcelona buys
The same forecast breaks down where Sant Jordi's roses come from:
- Colombia — about 80%
- Ecuador — about 15%
- Netherlands — about 5%
Mercabarna-flor is the wholesale market at Sant Boi near El Prat airport, and it trades with florists and shops rather than the public.
Prices move with the season for reasons that have nothing to do with the flower itself. Before that Sant Jordi, air freight cost more and Colombia's minimum wage had gone up, and both costs run straight through to the rose on the stem.
Barcelona's range names a country where it actually matters. Ecuadorian roses, among them the 19 White Ecuadorian Roses, grow in the Andes at 2,800 to 3,000 metres, which is why their stems tend to run longer. Dutch roses, such as the 25 Dutch White Roses, come from greenhouses instead and usually reach 40 to 70 centimetres. The rest of the roses here don't carry a country in their name.
At JFLOO, florists buy the flowers for an order only once it has been paid for.
Tradition fixes the colour for just one day. On Sant Jordi the rose is red, tied with an ear of wheat and a ribbon in the colours of the Catalan flag; once a man gave it to a woman, and today the giving runs both ways.
On any other day the colour follows the person rather than the calendar. The roses by colour range holds white, pink, raspberry, red and white-and-pink stems, among them the 11 White and Pink Roses and the 11 Red French Roses.
Victorian flower dictionaries gave red the meaning of passion, pink a gentler affection and white stood for purity, though no single agreed list of meanings ever existed.
One rose for Sant Jordi, any size for the rest of the year
Sant Jordi itself calls for one rose, handed over on the street. The rest of the year is about scale instead, and Barcelona's roses are sorted by stem count from a short bouquet to a large one. Height is chosen separately, which is where an Ecuadorian stem's extra length comes in, and a further range sorts the same roses by the shape the florist ties them into. The very largest bouquets sit apart from the rest, as giants.
Roses don't have to stand alone: a mix brings them together with other flowers, lisianthus among them, through roses mixed with other flowers.
Every bouquet is put together once the order is paid, and the florist photographs it before the courier leaves; the centre gets free delivery, while other delivery zones are priced separately. Once the roses arrive, a fresh diagonal cut and changing the water every day or two help them last, and for where a vase stands in a Barcelona flat, the flowers hub has more.
