SALACHE, Ecuador — On rose farms high in the Andes, at 9,000 feet, the clock is ticking toward Valentine’s Day. We are on the equator, in the central highlands near Cotopaxi, an active volcano, where growing conditions are perfect. Ash from past eruptions has created rich volcanic soil. There are no seasons to contend with. The temperature stays evenly warm. The sun shines overhead 12 hours a day, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., all year. Roses grow straight and tall.
Across the valley and up steep mountainsides, giant hoop houses look like big Slinkys covered in white plastic. In one of those greenhouses, at Naranjo Roses, Maria Licto is giving us a tour. Naranjo’s manager of post-production is all business, not revealing her warm smile until the end. Ecuador’s economy is suffering as oil prices decline but in this deeply religious country with traditional values, women are finding opportunity in the burgeoning rose industry. Her company is one of the largest and 80 percent of its 300 employees are women, says Licto, who oversees everything between harvesting and shipping to markets worldwide.
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In Europe, especially the Netherlands, growers focus on genetically developing new rose varieties every year. But here it is all about mass production for export, she explains. That gorgeous bouquet for your sweetheart or mom? It probably came from a farm like this in Ecuador, or from Colombia (the world’s top exporter of flowers) or Kenya, their two biggest competitors.
“We are cutting 80,000 to 100,000 roses a day in high season,” Licto says in Spanish that’s translated for us by Marco Castro, from Quito, our guide for the week. Castro says high season means Valentine’s Day in the United States, but also in Ecuador, where it has taken root over the past 20 years. Of Naranjo’s annual production, 30 percent is for Feb. 14. Then there’s International Women’s Day (March 8), Mother’s Day in the United States and Russia (May 4), and in January, the Pasadena Rose Parade.
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In the greenhouse, everything is orderly. Even the dirt looks just swept. Six-foot-tall plants branch left and right from the center aisle in military-perfect lines.
These roses were selected for their global popularity and durability. Licto explains how hybridization produces multiple levels of flowers nonstop. Hardy root stock is planted in beds of 50; each bed is maintained by one person who prunes, checks for pests, and harvests. Crouching in the dirt, she shows us where on a stalk, about 10 centemeters up, a knife was used to slice and insert a cutting of the desired variety. Grafts are wrapped until they take hold. As the plant grows, the process is repeated every 20 centemeters above that.
“Why doesn’t it smell like roses?” someone asks. The greenhouse has a pleasant earthy scent because hybrids have no fragrance.
Walking along, we dodge bundles of fresh-cut roses suspended from an overhead cable as workers rapidly shuttle them from greenhouses to a post-production warehouse. Each bunch of 24 is identical in color, swaddled in plastic mesh. Gorgeous bouquets of red or yellow, purple or white.
Licto cites more numbers. On 27 hectares (66.7 acres), her employer produces 47 varieties for export to its major markets: China, Spain, Russia, Bulgaria, Canada, Germany, the United States, and beyond. Ecuador produces some 500 varieties in all.
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Naranjo’s agricultural system was adapted from banana farms on the coast, says our host. She crouches again to indicate slim pipes in the soil. A drip irrigation system prevents water spots from forming on leaves. It’s computerized, as are liquid organic fertilization and humidity. If the greenhouse gets too hot, above 68 degrees, plastic windows are opened to let in a breeze. Mites, a common problem, are controlled by releasing different, biologically beneficial mites. Pesticide is sprayed minimally to kill fungus.
“Fifty percent of our production is red roses. They are the most popular everywhere,” says Licto. But every color can be altered. Petals contain melanin, she explains. By playing with the amount of sunlight and UV filters in the plastic overhead, the farm can produce different shades dictated by the latest trends. For China, where white is the color of funerals, harvested white roses are tinted vivid multi-colored hues by splitting the stem ends in thirds. Each part is dipped in a mixture of dye and light chlorine that is absorbed within hours, edging a single bud’s petals bright blue, purple, yellow, and hot pink.
The moving bundles are washed in a long tank before entering the airy warehouse where Licto is in charge. Picture an airplane hangar with a corrugated roof and a Latin radio station booming. Most workers wear bright yellow heavy rubber aprons, boots, and gloves over mauve and orange track suits.
It’s hard not to be impressed by such a highly efficient operation. When I ask to take a picture, sorters pause to smile but immediately resume their tasks. They take rose after rose from its bundle, measure each against a yardstick, use a hand tool to remove lower leaves and thorns, and shelve flowers by color, shade, and stem length. All in 10 seconds. Tops. Others package flowers by the dozen for market and send them by conveyor belt to two women who slice stem ends uniformly with power saws.
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In a cooling room, packaged roses are chilled to 38 degrees. Until delivery, they’ll stay that way in refrigerated trucks and cargo planes departing daily from the new Latacunga-Cotopaxi International Airport that Castro says was built almost exclusively to export fruit and flowers.
It takes 45 days to grow roses, says Licto. Two weeks before a shipping deadline, cutting and packaging begins. Shipments arrive in one to three days, depending on destination. In a vase, if the water is changed and stems are angle cut daily, they’ll last 15 days, she says.
So, how much for a bouquet? Right now in Ecuador, they cost $9 a dozen, or 75 cents a stem, double the low season price. In Boston? Much more.
Janet Mendelsohn can be reached at janetmendelsohn75@yahoo.com.