De Ruiter East Africa speak 'Big Five Red' and more this Valentine's Season

Valentine’s Day 2019 is celebrated on Thursday, February 14th. Nothing compares to the joy of celebrating Valentine’s Day with the love of your life. Valentine’s Day is the day of love and must be celebrated with fun and happiness. Although a number of people find it a cliché, Valentine’s Day should still be celebrated for it is special! There are many ideas for Valentine’s Day which you and your partner can celebrate the day with to have fun and excitement, one of the most commonly celebrated ways is to share beautiful flowers with the one you care for, something the rose breeder De Ruiter puts a lot of thought into.

It has become common practice to give red roses to your valentine on this specific day, growers have been preparing for months to meet the ever increasing demand for red rose varieties on Valentine’s Day. Preparation in variety selection, nurturing the crop & timing the flush for maximum yield as many growers rely heavily on the returns on this specific day.

De Ruiter has an impressive portfolio of ‘Red’ varieties, many of which are grown in East Africa & will find their way into auctions, florists & people’s homes throughout the world. Varieties such as; Ever Red®, Rhodos®, Cupido®, Red Kamala®, Furiosa®, Red Calypso®, Red One®, Sentimento®, Spectre® & Red Knight® to name some of the larger commercially produced red rose varieties from the rose breeder De Ruiter.

In recent years, De Ruiter has been hard at work on a new marketing concept ‘THE BIG FIVE’, grouping five of the main colours (Red, White, Yellow, Pink & Orange) represented by one of the big five animals (Lion, Elephant, Rhino, Cheetah & Leopard).

With the celebration of Valentines & red roses the preferred colour on this special day, two of De Ruiter’s premium varieties Rhodos® (100ha) & Ever Red® (90ha) are already widely known in auction houses in Europe & have consistently achieved top prices for some years now. Furiosa® (85ha) & Red Calypso® (40ha) are just a few of De Ruiter’s largest commercially grown red intermediate varieties commonly found in supermarkets globally.

De Ruiter is not only introducing new varieties in the red segment, the company is very active for all colours. Specifically for Valentine we could note varieties in the pink segment, where apart from the existing variety Pink Rhodos, a mutant of the well-known red variety, Wham, Celeb, Opala and London Eye are also presented to the market.

In the special shape segment, the Vuvuzela range and X-pression are popular choices, characterized by their bud shape and colour combination. These strong characteristics already yielded De Ruiter the name of 'color breeder'. "We still are," says Örjan Hulshof, Sales and Marketing Manager, "but we're also looking for an all-round supplier of a complete rose assortment for the whole market. Our pay-off is 'creating flower business' for a reason."