Save money by looking for fresh cut flowers grown abroad

We tend to think that fresh cut flowers need to be sourced from local growers. But, with modern packaging and fast international transport, this is no longer the case. A chrysanthemum, for example, can be cut today in a country like Ecuador, and carefully placed in a beautiful  floral arrangement in the US tomorrow. And in fact many millions of dollars worth of these striking flowers are doing this each year.  Colombia, Costa Rica and Ecuador supply 99 percent of the US imports of chrysanthemums each year, to a value of $75 million. And since these three countries are low-wage economies the growers there can send these flowers, and many other varieties, into the US are very competitive prices. Which the wholesalers and retailers inside the  US can pass on to their buyers. So a careful buyer should be able to source fresh cut flowers at good prices if they look for imported blooms from Latin American countries.