Floriculture in Canada

The worldwide floriculture industry is worth well over 30 billion U.S dollars and demand as well as production are on the rise. Though Canada is not one of the major floriculture producers worldwide, this sector remains of importance to the nation.

Sixteen years ago the Canadian floriculture industry was valued at $904 million CAD. To give a more recent figure, Canadian floricultural farm cash receipts in 2013 totalled $1.09 billion CAD. In 2011 there were 2,278 floricultural farms in Canada. Of the provinces, Ontario has the greatest share in this industry—nearly 45% in 2004. Correspondingly Ontario dominates in exports to the U.S. 9,500 people of mainly Dutch and Danish background were employed by Ontario’s floriculture industry in 2004. Southern Ontario’s strategic location within 12 hours by road of half of the U.S. urban population is cited as one of the major sources of its success in floriculture. Clearly the floriculture industry is quite important to Canada and especially to Ontario.

St. Catherine’s, Ontario based J.C. Bakker and Sons Limited Wholesale Nurseries is one example of a company in Ontario’s floriculture industry. This nursery is the top rose propagator in Ontario and makes frequent exports to the U.S.A. According to its website, this nursery employs 45 full-time personnel as well as 80 or more workers seasonally. The company also supplies roses to many garden centres across Ontario. J.C. Bakker Nurseries supplies these roses in two main forms—either as bare root plants, which take up less space and are bagged in bundles of 5-6 plants, or in one and two gallon pots which take much more space. The bare root plants are generally shipped in early March and must be transported in climate controlled trucks which prevent their freezing or overheating.

The nursery produces many varieties of roses but one which stands out in particular for its fragrance and cutting flower production is the Rosa Aus Eglantyne. The Rosa Aus Eglantyne is an ideal and useful rose. It is one of the English Old Rose hybrids developed by David C.H. Austin in the 1990s. This group weds the beauty of the old English varieties with the workability of the Modern varieties. The Eglantyne plant is notable for its upright growth. It was fascinatingly named after Eglantyne Jebb the founder of the Save the Children Fund. The plants have a strong tea fragrance and large pink flowers. J.C. Bakker and Sons Ltd. Nurseries sells these plants in the bare root form for $3.50 CAD and in one and two gallon pots for $10.10 and $10.75 CAD respectively. This J.C. Bakker Nurseries product has the unique attributes of a plant which might be valued and used around the world.

...
Wikipedia