From the Farm to the Counter
Names That Travel
The name on the flower should reach the person selling it. Today, it usually doesn't.
Why This Matters
A Flower Without a Name Is a Commodity
A bottle of wine reaches the store with its grower, its region and its year on the label. A bucket of roses usually reaches the flower shop with none of that. The farm knows the variety, where it was grown and when it was cut. Somewhere along the chain the name comes off, and the florist is left selling "red roses" like everyone else, including the grocery cooler down the street.
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What Changes When the Name Arrives
When the grower's name and the variety name travel with the flowers, on the box label, the invoice and the sleeve, the florist can tell the customer what they are holding: who grew it, where, and why it lasts. That is knowledge a grocery cooler does not have and cannot fake. It gives the grower a name customers can learn, and it gives the customer a reason to walk into a flower shop.
Take for instance Washington Bulb. What if we could teach customers to ask for tulips by Washington Bulb? That question would bring them to a flower shop, not a grocery store, because the florist is the one who knows the grower. None of this needs new technology. It needs the names to stay on the flowers, and florists who carry them the last few feet to the customer.
"A florist who can say who grew it is selling something a grocery cooler can't."
What Should Travel
Most of what a florist needs to know is already written down at the farm. It just has to stay with the flowers, on the box label, the invoice and the sleeve.
The Grower's Name
The farm that grew it, on the box and the invoice, all the way to the shop.
The Variety Name
Not just "red rose." The variety, so the florist can recommend it and find it again.
Where It Was Grown
The country and region, and the climate that shaped the flower.
When It Was Cut
The harvest date, so the florist knows how fresh the flowers really are.
How Long It Lasts
A realistic vase life from the grower, so the florist can promise it honestly.
The I Speak Flowers™ Mark
On the boxes and trucks of the growers and wholesalers who back the flower shop.
Who Carries the Name
Every link in the chain handles the name for a moment. Each one can pass it on or let it drop.
Growers
Your farm name and variety names, printed on every box and invoice. When a florist asks for your roses by name, the name has to be there to ask for.
Florists
The last few feet. You're the one who tells the customer who grew it, where, and how long it will last. A grocery cooler can't.
Distributors & Importers
Keep the grower's name and variety on the label as flowers are repacked and shipped. Carry the I Speak Flowers™ mark on your boxes and trucks.
Marketers & Exporters
Put the grower's story where the florist can use it: a card in the box, a name on the sleeve, a line on the invoice.
Our Mark, and How It's Used
I Speak Flowers™ is the World Cut Flower Commission's mark. On a shop window it means one thing: this flower shop meets the standard florists wrote. That decal is free to every shop that qualifies, member or not, and only flower shops can carry it.
Everywhere else, the mark is a licence, one annual price per location. Members put it on shirts, boxes, vans and websites. Growers, wholesalers and importers can license it for their boxes and trucks at the same price per location, but never the window decal, because a warehouse is not a flower shop. Later, the Cut Flower App can carry the same names for the people behind the counter.
"On a window, the mark says a shop meets the standard. On a box or a truck, it says the business behind it backs the flower shop."
- Want to protect your own farm or variety name? Talk to an intellectual property attorney. The World Cut Flower Commission is not a law firm and does not give legal advice.
Put Your Name on the Box
Growers, wholesalers and importers: tell us you'd like to carry I Speak Flowers™, and keep your names on the flowers all the way to the shop.
- © 2026 World Cut Flower Commission. All rights reserved.