"Cymbidiums from New Zealand: "the diamond of the cut flower industry"

After the four most important floral holidays; Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter and Mother's Day, the market typically slows down a bit in Canada and the demand for flowers tends to decrease. However, this is not the case for cymbidiums. In the summer months, cymbidiums, and in particular the ones from New Zealand are popular for weddings and events in Canada. According to Louise Gadoury, marketing at Sierra Flower, the cymbidium is often considered to be the diamond of the cut flower industry.

Photos from Facebook: Sierra Flower Finder.

Upholding the reputation
"During this time of the year when a lot of weddings are taking place, Cymbidiums have the reputation of being a very luxurious flower and brides demand them to be perfect. In order to uphold this reputation, it is very important that they look absolutely spotless when they are delivered to the customer", says Gadoury. Therefore, not only are the temperature conditions inside the greenhouse are essential, but also the conditions in which these flowers are being transported. According to Gadoury, packaging and cold chain management throughout transport is extremely important to keep the cymbidium fresh. When importing flowers into Canada, Sierra Flower is constantly monitoring their cold chain management. "We use, for example, Thermocrons which are temperature logging devices that are put in the boxes to make sure the temperature is being kept stable throughout the whole shipment process, from farm to warehouse."

Why New Zealand
Cymbidiums are available in many parts of the world, but Sierra Flowers prefers the New Zealand varieties, this time of year. "From now until November, the cymbidium production in New Zealand is at its peak and the quality is very high." According to Gadoury, they rarely have any problems with these flowers. "At the farms in New Zealand, they conduct tests on any new variety to see if they are genetically strong enough for commercial use. If they are weak, or if the quality does not meet their high standards they will not ship them out, they will only ship the best of the best. They strive to uphold their reputation", says Gadoury.

Cymbidium Production at New Zealand Bloom Supplier of Sierra Flower.

When the season is over in New Zealand, Sierra Flower starts importing cymbidiums from other countries. "Towards the end of the season, in the fall, we are going to look for African cymbidiums and for Valentine’s Day they usually come from the Netherlands", says Gadoury.

Sierra Flower
Sierra Flower is a wholesale distributor in Canada and distributes flowers to the Eastern part of Canada. "The bulk of our flowers are grown in South America, but we also import a lot of flowers from around the world”

For more information
Sierra Flower
Louise Gadoury
Email: louise@sierraflower.com
www.sierraflowerfinder.com