With a 7:00 wake up and a 7:30 departure from the hotel, day 2 started off bright and early.  We gathered onto the bus and took an hour and a half trip to a flower hacienda called Jet Fresh. A hacienda is like a farm but it has a dining hall, living facilities, laundry, and leisure activities for the employees who live there.  Flowers however, weren’t the only things this farm has as we were immediately greeted by geese, cats, dogs, and even a few llamas.  

Firstly Juanita, who is the manager of the hacienda, brought us into her office and explained the processes of growing the flowers.  From predicting which roses will sell the best and then buying the royalties of the roses from the breeders, it was clear that the rose business is no easy venture.   This became even more clear when Juanita gave us a tour of the entire farm. 

We first looked at the baby plants and the farms’s botanist showed us a grafting technique which completely changes what kind of rose will grow. As we walked through the rows, I had an interesting conversation with Juanita about the local indigenous people who also grow roses. The indigenous people pose as small, but unfair competition to Jet Fresh as they don’t go through the same processes of buying the rights of certain flowers.  This sparked an ethical quarrel in my head as the livelihoods of so many indigenous Ecuadorians rely on sale of their roses, but they are technically doing it illegally. 

Once we finished walking through what felt like endless rows or roses, we made it to the end of the farm where we saw a small river.  Juanita told us that this is where all the left over water goes after watering the roses and that there are even trout in the river too. Juanita then showed us a retro Volkswagen that looked straight out of Scooby Doo. She said that they had a big party on the farm in 2022 called the Hippie Psychedelic Rose and needed the Volkswagen for the theme. 

As we passed by thousands of more roses on the way back to the front of the farm, I noticed a zip lines system that they have to transport the bouquets of flowers from the back to the front of the farm. Juanita then explained the importance of proper employee treatment, especially with Ecuadorian women. They offer free brith control in the form of a shot and free feminine products for all the women at the farm. It was great to hear how ethical and kind Jet Fresh is to their employees.  

We then were taken to the packing center where we learned how the roses were sorted and packaged for their customers worldwide.  The coolest part of this tour was when we got to see certain roses get dyed in all different colors and patterns and then they surprised us with our very own customized University of Pittsburgh stamped roses. 

Lastly, as we headed to the bus, we were surprised again with an array of Ecuador’s fruits and homemade goods from the farm. We all tried so many new foods and enjoyed our last few moments at the farm.  Our visit to Jet Fresh not only taught me about the production process and business aspects of the rose industry, but also importance of roses in Ecuadorian culture.