Valentine's Day: red roses are three times more expensive and do not come from France

Rafaël Benabdelmoumene // Photo credit: PETER KNEFFEL / DPA / DPA PICTURE-ALLIANCE VIA AFP 6:36 a.m., February 13, 2024

Valentine's Day is this Wednesday and the star of the lovers' celebration is the traditional red rose. But it is mainly produced on the other side of the world or in overheated greenhouses and costs three to five times more. So why not prefer French flowers? Europe 1 visited the “Girls and Roses” stand, at the Madeleine flower market in Paris.

Buying French flowers, a new habit

“These are really very fine petals, purple even or even burgundy.” Filipa, the manager, does not want to give in to the temptation of foreign flowers. For Valentine's Day, bouquets from France are the stars of its stall. "You obviously have the buttercup. It's really a magnificent flower, which comes in lots of very shimmering colors. And then we have the anemones which come from the Var. It's a fuchsia pink, a beautiful red, it's worth quite a rose,” she says.

While eight out of ten bouquets are imported, the boutique is an exception. Three quarters of these flowers are French, originating mainly from Var and Île-de-France. “Everything that is going to be Île-de-France, etc. It is cut the day before, sold the next day. So that is a guarantee of freshness for customers. Buying French flowers is also buying change. And if we buy Dutch flowers all year round, the same varieties, etc. There is no change, no excitement that helps us create,” explains the manager.

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A success for around three years, explains Marina, one of the sellers. “I would say that people are more focused on the seasonal flower, the French flower. They also want to make this effort anyway,” explains the seller. This tricolor production also allows us to rediscover forgotten essences such as the Provins rose with its fine fuchsia petals.