Roses in Miami

Roses in Miami: Colombian volume, Ecuadorian length and the right bouquet

In the 2018 Valentine's season, Miami's airport cleared more than a billion cut-flower stems, nine in ten of all the cut flowers the US imported over the six weeks before Valentine's Day. About three quarters of them came from Colombia, under a fifth from Ecuador, home to the longest rose stems anywhere. Roses in Miami are chosen by origin, colour and size, and each section below answers one of those questions.

Colombia's volume, Ecuador's length: the roses that clear MIA

Many imported roses in Miami come through MIA: in the 2018 Valentine's season Miami International Airport cleared nine in ten of the country's imported cut flowers. Colombia supplies most of that volume.

Ecuador supplies the length instead: its farms cut the longest stems in the trade, from about seventy centimetres to a metre and beyond. That's why a rose grown there is sold here under its country's name rather than a variety. The Roses by Type section keeps the two apart, alongside Dutch imports such as 25 Dutch White Roses and the occasional French rose.

Red dominates the colour mix. Red stems make up roughly half to three-fifths of what Miami's airport clears before the holiday rush each February. Across the US as a whole, 65% of the roses bought for Valentine's Day in 2022 were red.

Victorian flower dictionaries gave each shade its own meaning — red for passion, pink for a gentler affection, white for purity, yellow for friendship — though no single version of that list was ever agreed. Raspberry sits between pink and red, the shade behind a bouquet such as 17 Raspberry Ecuadorian Roses. About half of the roses sold in the US each year move through two peaks, before Valentine's Day and before Mother's Day, a rhythm Miami's flower calendar follows closely.

A dozen, a mix with chamomile or a giant of one colour

An Eastern European stem-counting habit doesn't carry over to Miami: a dozen is simply a dozen, no superstition attached. Roses by Quantity and Roses by Height scale the bouquet up from there, by stem count or by length. Giant Rose Bouquets sets aside the largest arrangements, for anyone who wants a single statement piece rather than a dozen.

Mix Rose Bouquets pairs roses with other flowers, as in the Bouquet with Misty Bubbles and Chamomile, where the chamomile is already in the name. The same cargo that lands roses at MIA carries hydrangea and gypsophila on the same flights.

Rose delivery in Miami: a ribbon-tied box or designer wrapping

Roses wrapped — in designer paper or in plain coffee wrapping — suit a recipient who already owns a vase at home. A rose box from the flowers in boxes range is handed over at the door instead.

Delivery zones reach north along the coast too, into Sunny Isles Beach and Aventura, covered on delivery across Miami rather than priced here. Summer humidity affects cut flowers too, part of the same seasonal pattern as the calendar above.

Before a courier leaves, the florist photographs the finished bouquet so the sender can check the shade. Most orders go out the same day they're placed, and the exact delivery window shows on the bouquet's own page.