George Ball, chairman of W. Atlee Burpee & Co., one of the largest seed companies in the U.S., recently called for replacing the current national flower, the rose, with a new one, the sunflower.
In his blog posting, titled The Rose Blows, Ball explains his rationale for naming a new national flower.
In the 1980’s, a huge lobbying effort went into naming the national flower. It came down to the marigold and the rose. It was a huge lobbying effort since the marigold is grown from seed and roses are grown mainly from cuttings. Different companies propagate those different plants.
Additional lobbying pressure also came from rose growers of the cut flower industry since the U.S. still had a large rose grower industry back then. Now the cut flower industry is centered in Colombia or “disappeared into the jungle” says Ball. The rose doesn’t represent America anymore.
So when President Reagan named the Rose as our country’s national flower the seed companies weren’t too happy.
Fast forward to today, Ball is promoting a new fight. He says the sunflower can kick some serious rose butt. We shall see…
Rose photo credit: Photogirl7’s Flickr.com photostream
Sunflower photo credit: Esdras Calderan’s Flickr.com photostream
Hydroponics Dictionary
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