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Flower business in Abu Dhabi in full bloom

ABU DHABI — With the winter season setting in, flower business in the capital is in full bloom.

Flower and natural plant lovers can find a complete range of landscape solutions for their villas and houses — indoor and outdoor decorations, plants for gardens, carpet grasses and maintenance equipment — at the Irani market in Port Zayed in the capital.

Flower lovers throng the shops everyday these days to buy new saplings and flowers for decorating interiors, exteriors and balconies. In a country where most of the time people have to fight hot and humid weather, the natural beauty of plants and flowers is too compelling to resist.

Owners of most of the 20 shops in the flower shops at the Irani market said since the start of the winter season, the business has been brisk. They expect the business to stay good in the coming six months.

“Flower sales are usually good in Abu Dhabi in the winter season. In the summer, we have to wait long for any customer to drop in. Many days, no customer turns up at all,” said Zakir Hussain of Salman Plants Sales, who has been in flower business in the capital for six years.

“In summer, if you plant a sapling, there are very less chances of it growing up to its full size. That is why many people buy flowers in bulk for their gardens and homes and keep changing them frequently. Last summer, we brought in other plants but they did not sell,” Hussain said.

The flowers which are popular among Abu Dhabi residents are gardenia, jasmine, rose, bougainvilla, exora, miki and celosia.

The prices of flowers vary according to the size and kind. A small sapling of jasmine or bougainvilla is priced between Dh1.50 and Dh2, while one box of 40 small flower saplings costs around Dh40.

These flowers are brought here from Dubai, Sharjah, and Fujairah, where there are big nurseries which import saplings from abroad and nurture them.

A good number of flowers brought from countries like the Netherlands, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and India are available in the market here.

“In winter, we sell flowers and saplings worth at least Dh500 per day. Sometimes, the sales go up to Dh2,000-3,000 per day,” Hussain said.

Indoor flowers

Though there are thousands of flowering plants for the gardens, parks, lawns, balconies and terraces, a large number of people opt for saplings that suit indoor decorations, thanks to the hot and humid weather in the country.

Most of the indoor flowers and saplings are imported from the Netherlands. These are very sensitive and cannot survive in the open. Most of them have to be grown in an air-conditioned environment.

Indoor flowering plants which are kept in the air-conditioned environs are cycas revoluta, maranta, schefflera, gerbera, kalanchoe, ficus robusta (rubber plant), codiaeum and araucaria heterophylla, and spati, lemon tree and money plant. These are imported from Holland. These are nurtured with extra care and special non-smelling soil and insecticide sprays are used for their care.

Al Hosn Flowers’ Mohammed Saeed said, “We have a variety of indoor flowers and saplings. Our business has been very good, with sales averaging Dh1,000.”

Some shopkeepers do business worth Dh70,000 per month in the winter season while some others register sales of about Dh40,000-50,000.

Jafer Mohammed of Dawn Garden Flowers at Mina Zayed, said, “On an average we sell flower saplings and other plants worth Dh70,000 per month in winter.”

According to Mohammed, the prices of imported plants are higher than those which are brought from other emirates of the UAE. The price of a sapling imported from Holland may range from Dh15 to Dh800 or more. For instance, a cycas revoluta (medium) sapling costs Dh800, while one gusmania costs Dh50 and a robusta of 50cm is priced at Dh15.

Judy Abuhijleh, a US citizen who has been living here with her husband for the past 12 years, said, “I love blooming and colourful flowers and I buy them from here. I prefer to buy flowers which come from India and Sri Lanka, which are also available in the US. As we do not have a garden here, we put these flowers in our balconies. We find a pretty good variety of flowers here.”

Salim Mustafa Mohammed, a national living in Abu Dhabi, said, “I love flowers and plants. Most of the time I come here to buy saplings of flowering and other plants for my garden and decorating my home.” He said the prices of imported flowers and saplings are very high while the local ones are not suitable for the interiors.