The Boston Flower Exchange is a wholesale flower market located in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...
,
. Founded as a marketplace that local growers could rent cooperatively to sell their products in a space more suited to their needs than Boston's historic
Haymarket open-air
marketplace
A marketplace or market place is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a ''souk'' (from the Arabic), '' ...
, it has been the focal point of the
floral trade of
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian province ...
for over a hundred years. Although originally a local growers'
wholesale
Wholesaling or distributing is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers (wholesale businesses) and related subordinated services. I ...
market, the Flower Exchange now features flowers and foliage from dozens of countries and has expanded to carry
potted plants,
glassware
upTypical drinkware
The list of glassware includes drinking vessels (drinkware) and tableware used to set a table for eating a meal, general glass items such as vases, and glasses used in the catering industry. It does not include laboratory glas ...
,
pottery
Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and po ...
and other floral supplies. The Flower Exchange is not open to the public and is limited to members of the trade only.
In December 2016, it was announced that the exchange will be moving to a facility on 2nd Street in
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament const ...
and changing their name to the New England Flower Exchange. The move will be final by the end of January 2017.
History
The Boston Cooperative Flower Growers Association leased the first space for a wholesale
growers' market in 1892 beneath the old Horticultural Hall, on Bromfield Street,
[ near the current Park Street T Station. Before the end of the year the location was overcrowded and the board of directors decided to lease the basement of the Park Street Church in 1894. As the success of the market continued to attract more growers and buyers, the market was forced to move again, albeit briefly, in 1903, this time to 163 Columbus Avenue. When the stalls in the newly renovated market were auctioned off, the exorbitant prices pushed some of the growers to form another organization, named the Boston Cooperative Market, which opened in the basement of the old Music Hall. The Exchange moved back to its Park Street quarters.][
The Flower Exchange was founded in 1909 when the two organizations combined in order to find a building that could better meet their collective needs. They moved once more, in February 1913, to Winthrop Square][''American Florist'', Volume 40 (1913), p. 116] before settling on the Cyclorama Building on Tremont Street in 1923, which once housed the famous panoramic painting
Panoramic paintings are massive artworks that reveal a wide, all-encompassing view of a particular subject, often a landscape, military battle, or historical event. They became especially popular in the 19th century in Europe and the United Sta ...
of the battle Gettysburg. Due to the increasingly haphazard parking situation and plans by the controversial Boston Redevelopment Authority
The Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA), formerly the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), is a Massachusetts public agency that serves as the municipal planning and development agency for Boston, working on both housing and commercial de ...
to purchase the Cyclorama building, the original home to the Gettysburg Cyclorama
''The Battle of Gettysburg'', also known as the Gettysburg Cyclorama, is a cyclorama painting by the French artist Paul Philippoteaux depicting Pickett's Charge, the climactic Confederate attack on the Union forces during the Battle of Gettysb ...
, now the main building of the Boston Center for the Arts
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most p ...
, the board of directors began looking for a new location in 1963.
In 1941 the market became wholesale only with admission by badge at the petition of group of local florists. In 1957 the first product from outside New England, anemone
''Anemone'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. Plants of the genus are commonly called windflowers. They are native to the temperate and subtropical regions of all continents except Australia, New Zealand ...
s from New York, were admitted for sale on a trial basis. The market was opened to all imported products in 1965 after the board of directors approved a petition by one of the wholesalers. Commissioned salesmen were first approved in 1958, allowing salesmen and wholesale companies to sell the product instead of than the growers themselves to attend their booths.
During the first half of the 20th century the New England region rose to prominence as a cut flower producer, cultivating many varieties of hybrid rose
A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can b ...
s and carnations
''Dianthus caryophyllus'' (), commonly known as the carnation or clove pink, is a species of ''Dianthus''. It is likely native to the Mediterranean region but its exact range is unknown due to extensive cultivation for the last 2,000 years.Med ...
in greenhouses. The New England Carnation Growers Association had as many as 125 members but rising oil prices forced many out of business and the association was abandoned in 1980.
The Boston Flower Exchange Inc. moved to its location on Albany Street in 1971. As the construction of the new building was on reclaimed land
Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamati ...
, the process greatly slowed by the discovery of many old wharf pilings, seawalls and sewers. The building has over of refrigerated space. When the market first opened there were more than 40 wholesalers accessible through a single switchboard operator.
Today
As of January 1, 2008 the Flower Exchange housed thirteen independent wholesale companies in imported and domestic cut flowers
Cut flowers are flowers or flower buds (often with some stem and leaf) that have been cut from the plant bearing it. It is usually removed from the plant for decorative use. Typical uses are in vase displays, wreaths and garlands. Many ga ...
and foliage, potted plants and floral supplies. The companies are listed on the Boston Flower Exchange website.
The scale and variety of product at the Flower Exchange has changed since the 1960s as the flower industry was one of the first to feel the effects of globalization. Now products are shipped via air and/ or refrigerated truck from nearly every continent.
Scholarship
Rachel Butterworth Deitz, a shareholder in the Boston Flower Exchange, endowed her stock to form a scholarship to give to students interested in the study and pursuit of floriculture. This is awarded annually at the stockholder's meeting.
References
;Specific
{{reflist
;General
*The Boston Flower Exchange, Inc.: 1971, A Modern Flower Facility, Devonshire Press (1971)
External links
Official website of the Boston Flower Exchange
Flower markets
Horticultural organizations based in the United States
Companies based in Boston