It has been said that flowers are the best way of expressing one’s feeling but the soaring prices of flowers in Ranchi are preventing people from demonstrating their gratitude to their dear ones. Cyclone Phailin that has destroyed a huge amount of flower produce in West Bengal has left the state in major crisis.
A student of St Xavier’s College Rishi who decided to please his mother on her birthday by presenting a bouquet of orchid said, “I was astonished to find the rate of orchid bouquet. The orchid bouquet which was available at `150 few months back was now available at `300- 350. I wanted to make my mother happy on her special day so brought only two sticks of orchid for her.”
Not only orchids but the price of common flowers such as rose, marigold and jasmine has gone up drastically in recent time. Rose sticks which costs `5per stick are now available at `15. Marigold garland worth `15 is now available at `30.
Raju Sarkar, a florist, said, “Rose and Jasmine are brought from West Bengal as due to Phailin the entire crop gets destroyed supply of flowers from this area is at negligible quantity. As the wedding season has commenced so to meet the demand the flowers are brought from Bangalore.”
Echoing him, another florist said, “Once the new crop is ready and supply from West Bengal and it’s adjoin areas start the price of flowers are likely to come down.”
Despite, wedding season the sale of florist is not showing a growing graph. People prefer artificial flowers over real ones. Manoj Ranjan said, “The price of artificial flowers is quite low as compared to that of original one. If a car decoration with original red rose costs `5,000 then in `2,500 only one can get a beautiful car decorated with artificial flowers. In this economic downturn it is proving feasible for the people.”