A Picture is Worth...Tulips in Holland

AP Spiegel Online

From Amy Stewart's Flower Confidential:

• The famous Dutch flower auction at Aalsmeer handles 19 million flowers per day.
• Americans spend $1.98 billion on flowers and plants for Mother’s Day.
• 78% of all cut flowers sold in the United States are imported, primarily from Latin America. This amounts to about 2.9 billion imported stems, most of them coming from Colombia and Ecuador.
• A typical wage on an Ecuadorian flower farm is $150 per month. Wages represent less than four cents for every rose sold.