Fair-trade roses are this year's option for conscientious Valentine's Day shoppers, said Tanya Cole, owner of Tiger Lilly Flowers.
Cole moved her business from Central Avenue to her home so she could spend more time with her 19-month-old son.
Cole said she found out about fair-trade roses from a friend in the floral business and called the supplier, Fair Trade Certified. Her experience on a rose farm made her more eager to carry fair-trade roses.
"I worked on a rose farm here in the States, which is probably better working conditions than those in South America, but it is super high-labor, and it is high-chemical-use," Cole said. "Technically, when you spray certain chemicals, you're not supposed to go back in there until 12 hours later. Well, these women were going back in there three hours later."
Cole said the difference between commercial roses and fair-trade roses is easy to see.
"Their foliage is a lot healthier, greener, nicer-looking," she said. "A lot of the commercial roses have this fuzzy haze of chemical residual that is all over the leaves where they can look kind of spotty."
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Cole said a fair-trade rose costs more but that the extra money supports women working on rose farms by providing benefits such as paid maternity leave and child care.
"They are a little pricier during the regular time. But actually, for Valentine's Day, they had really competitive prices," Cole said. "For me, during normal times, a rose is $2.95, and these roses will be $3.50."
Cole said she will miss being across from UNM because many of her walk-in clients come from there.
"I'm sure that people are going to be bummed because faculty, staff and departments at UNM would order stuff from the shop every year for graduation," Cole said. "And there is a woman in the Biology Department where her class dissects flowers every semester."
Cole said she still plans on delivering to UNM even though most florists won't because of parking. She said she is expecting a rush for Valentine's Day because of the last-minute nature of the holiday.
"Last night, for instance, I was cleaning roses and putting flowers in water up until 11:30, and if I was still at the shop on Central, I would be at the shop until 11:30," Cole said. "It was really nice to just be at home and do that."
She said moving home has helped her carry on with the plans she made for her business when it opened in 2003.
"I had a vision for my business, and carrying fair-trade flowers I'm totally psyched about," Cole said. "If I could carry the roses and get it to the point where I could grow my own flowers and also be composting the green material - (that's) something I have always wanted to do."
Cole said the downturn in the economy has had an impact on floral designers everywhere.
"Everybody is ordering half of what they ordered last year, and I am just going to have to account for the fact that I don't have walk-in business anymore," Cole said.
Even though the fair-trade roses cost around 50 cents more, she plans to carry them on a regular basis.
"Hopefully, that can be a selling point for conscientious shoppers," Cole said.
