The origin of National Flower Day is undocumented. No verifiable founder or establishing organization has been identified. The March 21 date aligns with the spring equinox.
CHAPTER 01
The American flower industry
The commercial cut flower industry in the United States began in California in the late 1870s, pioneered by Theodosia Shepard, a Ventura housewife who began selling garden flowers commercially. California's Mediterranean climate allowed year-round production, and immigrant families — Chinese, Japanese, Italian, and Dutch — expanded and transformed the industry over the following decades.
In 1912, fifty-four Japanese immigrant growers founded the Los Angeles Southern California Flower Market, one of the largest in the country. For most of the 20th century, American flowers were grown domestically, with farms concentrated near major cities in the East and in California's coastal valleys.
That changed on October 18, 1965, when the first shipment of Colombian cut flowers arrived in Miami. Colombia's high-altitude equatorial climate produced ideal growing conditions with abundant light and mild temperatures, while labor costs were dramatically lower than in the US. The Andean Trade Preference Act later eliminated tariffs on Colombian flower imports, accelerating the shift. By the 1980s, Colombia was the leading supplier of cut flowers to the United States, and many domestic growers had shut down or shifted to potted plants and specialty varieties.
By 2024, the United States imported a record $1.98 billion in cut flowers. Colombia supplied over 80% of imports at $1.59 billion, followed by Ecuador at $693 million. American growers produced only about $350 million domestically. California still leads domestic production at 60% of US cut flower sales, but many of its growers now focus on specialty varieties too delicate for long-distance transport.
In 2025, new tariffs were placed on Colombian imports (from 0% to 10%) and Ecuadorian imports (from 6.8% to 15%), creating uncertainty in an industry operating on thin margins.
