Valentine’s Day in June!

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Oh, love ! The proof of your true love will come on Valentine’s Day… If you forget… You are taking a risk! And how to provide material proof of love? Well… With a bouquet of roses!!! It’s easy though!

Love day.

With a bouquet of roses, you are immunized for a whole year! Normally, love is proven on a daily basis… but hey, our conventions preferred to invent a day to solve the problem. And the tradition is not from today…

In the Middle Ages, we had the right to celebrate the Brandons. The girls chose a “Valentine” to accompany them on the first Sunday of Lent. And there the young people were singing and dancing around a fire. The revelers then had to jump over it, the one who did not have the clothes burned would be married within the year!

Long before, at the time of the Celts, the same festival took place at the same time, it was called the Beltaine festival.

Gradually, to celebrate the upcoming event, gifts were offered to future brides (and grooms).

The gift, you know it, goes from the word of love whispered hastily at breakfast, to the night in a 5-star hotel and through the box of chocolates, the sweet word and… The bouquet of roses .

For us gardeners, this bouquet of roses calls out!

A choice

Everyone chooses according to their budget. The average is 11 euros and 46 cents. The majority of the French mark the occasion with an intention of less than 50 euros… Let’s remain reasonable. But still, it is 96% of French people who exchange gifts on this holiday.

In retail, 47% offer confectionery and chocolates, 17% jewelry, 35% go to restaurants. The rascals-coquines who offer clothes and underwear are only 14%. And for flowers… we are 34%. A third of French men and women mark the day mainly with a bouquet of roses. These percentages don’t add up to 100. Yes, because there are the perfect people, like you and me, who show up at the restaurant on Valentine’s Day with jewelry, flowers and underwear. … Love is beautiful.

For flowers, men are the most fond of roses, 73% of them offer plants to their loved one.

200,000,000 roses sold that day is roughly the number recorded, compared to 600,000,000 throughout the year!

Pink !

To come back to more pragmatic things, this rose market holds our full attention. Because the figure is colossal and it employs a whole bunch of gardeners around the planet.

In February, the roses do not come from our garden… We will have to wait until June before making a bouquet of homemade roses!

So you have to either grow them in regions that are warmer than ours, like in Africa, or find a solution to add a little light and heat the greenhouses like in the Netherlands to get the bouquet intended for the love of our dreams!

Kenya takes the lead with 35% of imports. Next comes Israel with 13% and Ethiopia is not far behind with 12%. Rest assured, China is lurking in the shadows and is beginning to develop this culture. And almost everything (60%) passes through the Netherlands.

The tradition is strong, there are a few florists and a few online sales sites who try as best they can to offer French flowers, to respect the local origin, but what do you want, the bouquet of buttercups, that doesn’t do it yet… Can the lover afford such a risk? Without rose, no love ???

So what do we do ???

Forgetting to declare our flame on the pretext that roses do not have a good carbon footprint??? It’s impossible ! And yet, some of us ask the question.

The rose from Africa consumes miles, and the European rose consumes heating. If we add the water and the pesticides used with the resulting pollution, here we are with a flower that is not very “green”…

What if we offered the rosebush directly? I grant you, it is still much less glamorous !!! We’re still not going to offer chocolates or jewelry? We are gardeners at heart and there is only the flower to speak of love.

Finally, these essential proofs of love symbolized by the rose come at the wrong time. If Valentine’s Day was in June, instead of Father’s Day, the problem would be solved. And at the same time, we move Father’s Day to February… The ecological impact of the drill would be the same.

So… If, like me, you think we can move Valentine’s Day to June, let us know, and we’ll create the June Lovers’ Club. CAJ sounds good, doesn’t it?

Roland Motte… Gardener!