Budding Enterprise : Wholesale Flower Center in Carlsbad Weathers Its First Seasonal Rush

Flower growers, wholesalers and retailers in San Diego and southern Orange counties need not transport their delicate goods to the cramped and distant quarters of the Los Angeles Flower Market any more.

Instead, they can deal through a new wholesale distribution center on Avenida Encinas in Carlsbad, which opened on Dec. 3 and which, earlier this week, weathered its first Valentine’s Day onslaught.

The period between Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day traditionally generates more than half of annual profits for the flower industry, and the new center, which is 75% full now, hopes to be in full swing by the end of that flowery season.

“Whatever I can do by Mother’s Day is my main business,” said Gabriele Rogers, manager of the 154,000-square-foot center, which provides a home for 35 flower growers and wholesalers. The dozen remaining exhibition spaces can be leased at prices ranging from $.55 to $1 a square foot, Rogers said.

“Generally, Valentine’s Day itself is slow because the retailer will have no time to come here to buy,” Rogers said. “We had no roses for sale today because they were all sold out” earlier in the week.

But the rest of this week could be busy because “Valentine’s Day fell on a Wednesday, (and) florists will continue to fill orders until the weekend when people celebrate on Friday and Saturday,” Rogers said.

The center includes an auction run by 30 more flower wholesalers and growers who sell everything from lilies to liatris and proteas, to pincushions.

And, of course, there are roses.

Rod Manson, who wholesales flowers to retailers at Southern California universities, sent 3,000 roses to a single bookstore at UCLA on Valentine’s Day--30 times what he sells on any other given day.

“That’s the outrageous difference between Valentine’s Day and every other day in the year,” said Manson, who has been selling flowers for four years. “On Valentine’s Day, I’ll sell 10 times what I’ll do in a normal week.”

On Monday, Manson paid $29 for a bunch of 25 roses that will eventually sell for as high as $5 each on Wednesday. Last month, he paid $8 for a similar bunch of flowers.

“Valentine’s Day makes or breaks every florist in the country. The week before Valentine’s Day is the same as what Santa Claus goes through in the week before Christmas,” Manson said.

This year, however, the new center made business easier for flower distributors, Manson said. Before the center came, Manson would have to drive to individual growers to compare prices and buy flowers.

Now, flower growers can carry their wares to the center where they are displayed--and sold--to distributors.

“It is so nice not to have to drive from Solana Beach to Carlsbad on every back road to get carnations and then drive 10 more miles to get baby’s breath,” Manson said. “This is heaven. I save an hour every day just in North County driving from one grower to another.”

And its not just the convenience that has distributors and growers singing the praises of the center.

“The Los Angeles Flower Market is a rat-hole, and it stinks,” said Dave Dahlson of Jack Mayesh Wholesale Florist. “Here, it’s clean, and I can leave my truck unlocked and not worry about the battery being stolen.”

Dahlson, who has been at the center six weeks, said business isn’t quite booming now, but he expects it will be soon.

“We saw that it had potential. It’s one of those things where, if you don’t get in early, you might not get in at all,” Dahlson said. “We’re not doing great right now, but we’re definitely not losing money.”

Rogers estimates that 500 to 700 of San Diego County’s about 1,500 growers and distributors now visit the center daily to trade in San Diego County’s $120-million a year cut flower and foliage industry. Besides spacious parking and trucking facilities, the center has three coolers shared by distributors and growers.

Henry Viveiros of the Flower Market, a Bay Area trade publication, said the center could attract those disenchanted with the traffic and the deterioration at the Los Angeles Flower Market.

Viveiros said the $12-billion nationwide flower industry has been growing at an annual rate of 10% for the last eight years, and the Carlsbad center “has a lot of potential” to take advantage of it.