Like many California flower farmers, Lupe Rico has been in a frenzy over the last few days — cutting most of the 30,000 marigolds he grew on his Colma farm in time to sell for Día de los Muertos celebrations.
“This year, we grow a lot because we always come up short,” says Rico, a second-generation farmer. “We put some more this year, and we’re going to see what happens.”
It’s impossible to imagine Día de los Muertos, which begins Wednesday, without marigolds. These many-petaled flowers adorn the altars made for the holiday. The flowers’ bright orange color and sweet, earthy smell are believed to help lure the souls of the dead from their graves.
Rico sells his flowers at the San Francisco Flower Market, a wholesale market housed in a row of cavernous warehouses in the city’s SOMA neighborhood. The market has over 4,000 registered buyers.
In the days before the holiday, Rico says, the warehouse will fill up with marigolds.
“You’re going to see orange everywhere,” he added.
Many regional flower wholesalers say marigold sales have gone up in the past few years. One likely reason is the 2017 Disney film Coco about Día de los Muertos.
“This is kind of funny, but I will say after Coco, [there’s been an] increase of people interested in the traditional Mexican Day of the Dead. It’s been so popular,” says Raul Dueñas, the account manager for Rafa’s Wholesale Flowers, which also sells at the SF Flower Market.
Dueñas, also a floral designer, says a spate of restaurants, schools and hotels have been asking him to install marigold displays this year, and his business expects to sell 2,000 more bunches than they did last year.
Lisa Filice, the owner of Regional Farms, a flower wholesaler based in Gilroy, says she’s noticed a notable uptick in marigold sales, too.
“If Walmart has Día de los Muertos decorations, it must be big, right?” she says.
Among the Bay Area’s rapidly growing Indian population, marigolds are also often used in wedding garlands and for the holiday Diwali, which falls on Nov. 12 this year.
“Whether it’s driven by supply or driven by demand, it’s clear that we’re selling more and more marigolds,” says Alexander Peter Bottemanne, a flower industry consultant.
According to Bottemanne, in recent years, Ecuador has emerged as a major exporter of marigolds and other flowers that used to be grown in California. He says higher land prices in California have caused many flower farmers to sell their land or switch to more profitable crops than flowers.
Despite the uptick, marigolds aren’t driving huge profits for most local florists, like Mauricio Vivas, owner of Tony Rossi and Sons Flower Shop in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood.
“Our sales probably go up maybe about 10%,” he says. “It’s not that much of an increase in our sales just because of the price of the flower. It’s not a very expensive flower.”
One bunch of marigolds sells for about $10 to $15, as compared to a bunch of roses, which sells for more than twice that amount.
But Vivas contends it’s still worth having the festive orange flowers on hand.
“It brings people, and then they buy something else that we have at the store,” he says, pointing to papel picado, candles and other items typically used to decorate community altars and private ones in the neighborhood.
Vivas, who is from Michoacán, Mexico, also has a personal connection to marigolds. When he picks up a bunch of them, he says, the hairs on the back of his arm stand up.
“It’s like if I would have been there when my actual ancestors were doing the same rituals that we are doing now,” he says. “I feel like I was there too.”
Vivas added that he just loves marigolds.
“If you see this flower from far away, it will just brighten up your eyes. It’ll just kind of make you happy,” he says.
Lupe Rico, the farmer from Colma, says he’s made an altar to remember his father, who died this year and whom he worked alongside at their farm for over 40 years.
“So when I’m cutting flowers right now, I say, ‘Dad, I’m cutting the flower that you used to cut,’” he says, holding back tears. “I feel in peace.”
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