Will all of this soon be a bad memory?

A crevasse on Queen Anne Road near Encke Flowers.

Yes, we know it's March and all. Baseball's spring training has been underway for a couple of weeks now. Spring, by rights, should just around the corner. By writing that, did I just put a hex on the whole enterprise? We managed to get through the Valentine's Day holiday relatively unscathed, weather-wise (always a worry for florists...) and we're looking forward to Passover, Easter and Mother's Day. What are the chances the snow is over?

I've had some spirited debates with some of my customers who asserted that this past winter is proof positive that global warming is a myth. It's hard for some folks to deal with facts when ideology is clouding the picture. I'm definitely not saying that the Left is immune to ideologically-based perceptual distortions, but the Right's adamant refusal to accept the obvious in the case of climate change is a classic case of "my mind's made up, don't confuse me with the facts..." I mean, even former Governor Schwarzenegger in California says it's time to deal with the crisis. (Or has his proximity to a Kennedy warped his Reaganesque sensibility?)

The instability of the climate has wreaked havoc with the floral industry this season, with cold snaps affecting the California crops such as snapdragons and stock. Rose prices are higher than ever based on a lack of rainfall in Colombia and Ecuador prior to the huge Valentine's Day harvest.

Fittingly, perhaps, the social/political upheaval in the Middle Eastern and North African oil producing countries is driving fuel costs and therefore flower costs ever higher. Fuel is a huge percentage of the overall cost inputs in cut flower production. Cheap fuel and cheap labor are the key ingredients to making flower growers base themselves in South America. When the cost of these inputs start to go up substantially, we may begin to see a resurgence to local greenhouse flower production in the US. Encke Flowers used to work acres of greenhouses in Bogota, producing for the flower market in Manhattan. After 105 years in business and the disappearance of the greenhouses, I'm wondering if I should be looking for suitable properties to start growing again...

Encke Flowers at its original location on East Fort Lee Road in Bogota, NJ. Circa 1920.