July 11th, 2012 
Emily 
Last weekend we visited a flower farm located a few hours away from Nairobi. The farm, Wildfire Flowers, grows three types of flowers and ships them worldwide. The farm’s biggest export countries are Japan, Ireland, and France. I’ve never visited a flower farm, and it was so interesting to see how the flowers went from farm to factory to packing box, destined for consumers in faraway countries.
How it works:
The flowers begin life out in the fields. Workers test the soil, control pests, and hand-pick the leaves that can zap energy from the flower buds. The farm grows several colors of roses, including these pink and white beauties that are custom ordered by a company in France.
The special pink and white roses.
Rows of sprouting plants.
Once harvested, the flowers are kept in buckets of treated water in a cooler until they are ready to be processed.
Roses waiting to be processed.
In the factory, workers measure each flower and sort them by stem length.
An employee measures each stem.
A machine removes thorns and excess leaves.
The machine that trims leaves and thorns.
The flowers are then arranged in bouquets and boxed for shipping.
An employee packs up a bouquet for shipping.
Flowers that are ready to be shipped.
The tour made me realize how much work goes into every bouquet that graces my table.
Posted in 
Tags: 
That had to have been a most refreshing experience! It’s interesting to learn the different ways countries interact with other countries. Roses. Wow.
Yeah, I was surprised to find out that Kenya was a major flower exporter. I thought it was going to be too dry for growing flowers here.
Beautiful pics! I guess you figured ou how to use that digital SLR…