Trace every stem and sapling from greenhouse bay to buyer’s box.

Cut flowers are picked in the cool hours, graded by stem length and bud stage, bunched, chilled and packed. A rose stem has a few days of useful life after harvest. Every hour in the wrong room costs vase life. The cold chain is part of the product.

Nurseries work on a slower clock. Cuttings are taken from mother plants, struck in trays, hardened off and potted, and each lot is sold weeks or months later. The first pilot can be a single bay of stems or one tray of cuttings, followed from planting through to the delivery note. We begin in the greenhouse.

Harvest crews cut at first light from numbered greenhouse bays. Stems are carried to the grading hall, sorted by variety, length and quality, bunched in tens or twenties, and sleeved. Bunches go to the cold room by pallet. Sales staff take standing orders from florists, wholesalers and supermarkets and release stock against each. Short stems drop a grade.

Between harvests, the grower’s team fertigates, prunes, disbuds, scouts for pests and sprays, and notes the bay and the product used. In the nursery, propagation staff track cuttings by mother plant, tray and date, then potting, hardening and sale. The dispatch desk prepares packing lists, labels and any plant health papers that the destination asks for. Boxes leave by evening.