Red roses in short supply on Valentine's day

VARANASI: It will be difficult to gift a red rose this Valentine's Day. The low production of red roses in the region and the whole of northern India has caused an acute shortage of red roses in the city.
According to Govind Kumar Verma, a flourist and supplier of decorative flowers in Luxa, the long lasting winters have played a major role in this."Roses need hot and humid climate to grow. However, this year the horticulturists have faced tremendous difficulty in growing the flower. A plant that should give nearly three-four flowers a day has produced only one-two flowers. On the other a hand, it was difficult to take out even 100 red roses from a field that has a capacity of producing approximately 800 flowers a day," informed Verma.
Notably, a large quantity of flowers in the city is brought from adjoining villages specially Raja Talab, Lohta, Sundarpur, Shivpur, Babatpur and neighbouring districts like Allahabad and Lucknow. The occasional demand like for Valentine's Day is being met by ordering flowers from Pune, Bangalore, Delhi and Kolkata. But if the flourists of the city are to be believed, the climate has affected rose production in all these areas.
However there is a huge demand for roses in the town but buyers, especially youngsters
, are not ready to give a second thought while purchasing roses for their dear ones. "Valentine's Day is incomplete without the roses. Nothing can best replace the value of a rose. Even a single stick of rose is valuable for people who enjoy this manmade festival," shared Nikita, a student of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and a buyer at a gift shop in Sigra."The very first thing that comes in mind while choosing gifts for people you would want to wish Valentine's Day is a red rose. It is costly at this time but no one minds shelling out extra bucks," shared Arun, another buyer for Valentine's gifts.A local rose stick that earlier cost Rs 10 is now selling at Rs 20 and Rs 30 with decorations, while the imported red roses which usually are available at Rs 30 per stick are selling for Rs 45-50 and Rs 60 (with decorations) per stick. "The prices of bouquets with roses have also increased, and customers are told about the increased prices of the red roses before decorating a bouquet. Some customers are choosing to cut short the number of roses for that matter," informed Verma.