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14 May | 2022 Feature I identifi ed garden roses as an item with exceptionally good potential. at was in 2006. At the same time, David Austin Roses was coming out with a few varieties of their English garden roses to be grown as cut fl owers. We started with 10 varieties of David Austin roses, as a test. We had 10 beds—nothing else. After a year of testing the varieties, David Austin told us they already had a grower in Colombia and that they allow only one farm per country to grow their roses. So we looked for other garden roses that had the shape, performance and fi gures, and that's what we started with. Four years later, the Colombian company that had the David Austin license went broke, so we pursued the license, and in 2012, we became the offi cial licensee for David Austin Roses in Colombia. FR : You have done so much in a relatively short period of time to become a standard for garden roses in the industry. J.A.: We've really innovated the industry, but it is not because we were visionaries. It's more because we were hit on the head by the market many times. ings like not producing a lot of roses for Valentine's Day was a lesson we had to learn. And there weren't many customers for cut garden roses at that time. After several years and lots of losses, we realized that we were a wedding business, not a specialty rose business, and we started making the right decisions and picking the right varieties. It's not about red, yellows and oranges for us; it's about peaches, pinks and whites. And it's about fragrance and size for us, not about weird shapes or diff erent kinds of looks. Our roses need to perform and be beautiful, and they need to be right for weddings. Since we learned that lesson, we've innovated so many things. We had the fi rst varieties with side shoots, but they weren't spray roses because the side shoots wouldn't open. ey were just part of the fi ller in an arrangement. ey were beautiful, and they were something the American market hadn't seen before. We also were the fi rst to pack roses in dozens instead of 25-packs because garden roses are more delicate. We were the fi rst to include an ethylene sachet in each box to control ethylene during shipping. Now, too, we have some really amazing things in the works, including some incredible new varieties and micro roses that we're testing. FR : Why aren't garden roses sold more for Valentine's Day? J.A.: e culture of the Valentine's Day in the U.S. is big, fat red roses. Although the industry has done a great job of convincing consumers that other colors of roses are nice, too, it still is a red rose holiday. In addition, garden roses are more expensive, and they have shorter stems. ere's the idea that garden roses can be used only for events because their vase life is short. at's no longer the case because the garden roses we grow are selected or bred for the cut fl ower market specifi cally, so fl orists can use our garden roses for daily and holiday arrangements. And they're not as expensive today as they used to be; those days are over. FR : What else is new and coming in the cut garden rose segment? J.A.: We've gone through several stages in the garden rose niche. Several breeders are now developing rose varieties that look a bit like garden roses but are hardier and easier to grow. ey call them "garden light" because they don't have all the characteristics we like in garden roses. at's big competition for us now, but the amazing cup shape of garden roses, the aperture and the fragrance are things that still diff erentiate us, and we're going to stick to growing good varieties that are beautiful, fragrant and special in some way. at said, we have started growing some hybrid tea rose varieties in wedding colors because farms that aren't in the wedding business often don't plant a lot of those colors because they're hard to sell during other times of the year. ey're important to us because our customers are wedding people. So we have a lot of hybrid teas in golden mustard hues and all the "sand" colors, and we pack them in 12 packs because we have an open point of cut. 'Westminster Abbey' is a brand new variety. It's gray, and it's fabulous—and it's a great wedding color. It's part of our sand/skin-tone line, which now comprises at least six or seven varieties. or diff erent kinds of looks. Our roses need to perform and be beautiful, and they need to be right for weddings. Since we learned that lesson, we've innovated so many things. We had the fi rst varieties with 'Juliet'

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