Early in the motning we gathered at the centre of Taviano. We had a meeting organized by the mayor of the town in our favourite Salento region in Puglia, South Italy. He was keen to show us the most interesting places in the area. And we were impatient to visit one of the largest greenhouses for chrysanthemums in Italy.
“Città dei Fiori” con decreto del Presidente della Repubblica – the city of flowers
A City of Flowers with a decrete by the President of the Republic – the flower industry of the town is officially praised for its importance for the local economy. This industry dates back to the 1960s and 1970s, when many emigrants from Taviano returned home from the Lugurian riviera, also known as the Riviera of Flowers, and brought home their expertise in flower growing.
If you have even wondered which are the top flower places in Italy, let me tell you. The largest flower producer is San Remo (you may know it for the famous music festival). Another very popular flower producer is Taviano. Actually, if you walk by the narrow streets of the town, there is no way to discover this fact. You need to go to the flower market or to some flower greenhouse. So we headed to the greenhouse..
Chrysanthemums from Salento
Yuri and Rudy, the sons of Massimo Mani, the owner of the factory “chrysanthemums from Salento”, greeted us at the entrance. We admit that we did not know what flowers we were to be shown. We only knew that we are going to a place where they grow “only one special flower”. So we entered the kibgdom of chrysanthemums. A place where chrysanthemums bloom year-round.
In the greenhouse it is always autumn and you can see all stages of flowers – from small plants, just above the soil, to blossoming fields of chrysantemiums. I cannot tell you a lot about the process of growing chrysanthemums but it was beautiful to start the day among so many flowers.
Rudy and Yuri took us to a tour among the flowers. we saw the Anastasia Sunny (yellow). Anastasia (white), Anastasia lime (green) chrysanthemums and Maria was not afraid to go between then and get her feet dirty with soil. After harvesting, the flowers are stored in a fridge at a temperature of 10°C where they stay fresh before being sent across all Italy and abroad.
The flower market in Taviano
It was a great pleasure to meet Yuri and Rudy. They wanted to gift us huge boquets of chrysanthemiums but it was impossible to take them on the plane. Later in Taviano we visited the huge flower market only for business customers. So on Friday afternoon we headed to the market where we found many minibuses waiting outside. It appeared that the buyers had just arrived and were waiting for the market to open. Meanwhile, the sellers were already inside, arranging their stalls. There again we met Yuri and Rudi and enjoyed our encounter.
The flower market in Taviano starts in the late afternoon and stays open only for an hour or two, until all the flowers are sold out. It is noisy as the prices are arranged on site, depending on the demand. We wished luck to the Mani family and said goodbye.
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