Flowers are one of nature’s most beautiful creations – coming in all shapes, sizes and colors, they add flagrance to the dullest of landscapes and uplift the most distraught of emotions. They can be used in almost steps of human life and represent different things through their innate characteristics; for example, red flowers display love and affection while another color represents the grief and sorrow. These perceptions differ with every culture and community but there is unanimity regarding the importance of flowers in modern human life. They play such an integral part in our everyday lives that a number of synthetic colors have been developed in flowers (particularly roses) to complement different occasions.

Flowers have been extensively used for both commercial and public purposes. Companies harvest flowers by the tons for extracting their oils which are used in a number of cosmetic products such as shampoos, skin care products, perfumes as well as other toiletries. Flowers are further used for decorative purposes and put into bouquets to be presented on formal occasions or elaborately designed baskets containing other gifts or even single roses that are handed over to love ones as a token of affection. They may also be used to decorate places of residence as well as commercial avenues like hotels and restaurants. The area where the commercial and public use of flowers overlaps is when they are used in the public setting to add to the ambience and environment that the general public is exposed to. This has a number of recorded benefits on the mental and physical health on those who come into contact with them.

Flowers also represent a raw material that is an important source of revenue in terms of exports for a large number of developing, agriculture based economies all over the world. Harvesting flowers on a mass-scale for the purpose of export allows for the creation of jobs for the laborers who will be hired to do it, profits for the stakeholders and a monetary boost for the economy which will be earning foreign exchange through the trade. Moreover, the country importing the product will likely use it as a component to further produce another end-consumer product that will help earn them money.

Therefore, flowers are not merely something to look at – they represent a multitude of billion dollar global industries on which the livelihood of a number of people depends.