Kaitlin A. Simpson
The Flowers of El Dorado
The production of cut flowers is closely tied to geography and the environment, despite the fact that most are grown in tightly controlled greenhouses. Because cut flowers die so quickly, historically, they were produced close to large population centers so the flowers could reach customers quickly before they wilted and died. As technology changed and flowers could travel faster and farther, the center of cut flower production shifted to climates more suited to year-round flower production -- first to California and Florida and eventually all the way to Colombia.
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With this shifting geography, mapping becomes a powerful tool to examine and analyze changes within the cut flower industry. As such, I wanted to include a page on this website dedicated to showcase the maps I have created from my data and research.
Digital Mapping Project
Cut Flower Sales by State
1930-2017
This map, created using U.S. Agricultural Census data from 1930 to 2017, helps to illustrate the movement of the cut flower industry within the United States itself. In the opening decades of the twentieth century, most flower growers were located in the Northeast and Midwest so flowers could reach consumers in major cities like New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago quickly. But growing flowers in these colder climates, particularly in the winter, proved expensive. With improvements in refrigerated shipping and the rise of the interstate system in the post-WWII years, it became possible to successfully ship flowers faster over longer distances. This benefitted growers in warmer climates like California and Florida.
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By 1950, California had surpassed New York as the top flower producing state and, as this map shows, almost all cut flowers grown in the U.S. today come from California and Florida.
How to use the map: First, center the map on the United States using the home button. Then, you can add the year or years of data you would like to see. To do so, press the layers button and check the box next to the years you want. To see the legend for each year press the legend button after selecting your layer. If you would like to see individual state data for each year, click the dot on the map for each state. You can also look at the data for all the states in a given year in one chart. To do so, select the layers button, then click the three dots next to the year you would like to see. This will open a dropdown menu. From the menu, select "View in Attribute Table." This will bring up the data in a chart. From there, you can order by ascending or descending order.
