Colombia colors the world with blooms
Tourists come to Medellín to bask in ‘Eternal Spring’
With the holiday season in full bloom, a floral piece may be donning a nearby mantle or dinner table.
Odds are that those seasonal pops of color stem from Colombia. The South American nation is the second-highest exporter of flowers in the world – the Netherlands being No. 1.
According to the country's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Colombia exported $1.4 billion in fresh cut flowers globally with approximately 80% of them going to the United States in 2020.
The five most popular flowers for export are roses, carnations, chrysanthemums, hydrangeas and alstroemerias.
Within Colombia, 66% of exportquality flowers are grown in the department of Cundinamarca, where the capital of Bogotá is situated. Thirty-three percent are grown in the northwestern state of Antioquia, home to the country's second-largest city, Medellín.
Dubbed the “City of the Eternal Spring” – with high temperatures continuously hovering around 80 degrees – Medellín exudes a year-round visible love for flowers that attracts tourists near and far.
Looking for a flower festival?
There is no bigger flower moment in Colombia than Medellín's annual Feria de las Flores (Flower Festival). The 64th edition of the 10-day festival took place in August, attracting about 17,000 international visitors, according to the Greater Medellín Convention & Visitors Bureau.
The hallmark of the Feria de las Flores is the Desfile de Silleteros, a parade starting in the nearby Andes Mountains-tucked town of Santa Elena.
The parade features hundreds of local farmers carrying – on their backs – meticulously crafted floats made entirely of flowers to the center of Medellín.
In Medellín, the floats are judged and there are a number of flower-focused events, spanning orchid competitions to a flower-filled bike ride for the public. Adding that much more to the Flower Festival's regional allure, many local businesses hire farmers to create custom floral displays to place outside their shops, depicting their logos and brands.
Flower Festival aside, each December, the city installs more than 30 million Christmas lights throughout town, many dotting the central Medellín River and paying homage to city landscapes.
This year, according to EPM (the public utility company installing the lights), “Naviculture Flashes” will be a focal point, depicting pops of flowers amid an overarching theme of respect for nature.
Flower-focused activities
Beyond major festivals and holidays, there are flower-focused excursions galore to enjoy near Medellín year-round. Among them, bicycle tour company Zona Bici offers a trek through Jardines de San Nicolás, a chrysanthemum farm situated southeast of Medellín and minutes north of the town of La Ceja.
At the farm, guests can learn about the production process – from planting through export – and take a bike ride through a field of chrysanthemums.
Nearby in La Ceja, Daniel Piedrahita operates the Alma del Bosque (Soul of the Forest) farm. Colombia is home to more than 4,200 species of orchids and, at the Alma del Bosque, Piedrahita and his team have built a collection of more than 5,000 different species, with plants from Colombia, the Andean region and Asia. The grounds feature a tour through the greenhouse-protected orchid collection, fields of hydrangeas and a moss-clad nature trail.
“I have always loved flowers, I have a hydrangea flower export business, and seeing the diversity of shapes, colors and fragrances of orchids, I fell in love with that world,” Piedrahita tells USA TODAY.
“In a world as varied as that of orchids, with more than 35,000 species, growing, collecting and searching for new specimens is a passion.”
To bring Colombian flowers to an international audience, Piedrahita wrote “Entre Flores, Orquideas,” which is available in English and Spanish and features photos of some of his most prized plants.
Additionally, in April 2020, his farm launched online orchid courses for folks to improve their growing skills and add a little color to their lives wherever they may be.
Online experiences and snagging a bouquet of Colombian flowers in the U.S. aside, there is still nothing quite like seeing, experiencing (and smelling) them at their place of origin.