Although I happily admit that it’s a rarity for me, giving or receiving flowers can be applied to a whole host of emotions. Whether it be the loss of a loved one, the marriage of two lovers, a loved one who is ill, or simply Valentines Day there seems to be a flower for every occasion. The pattern that emerges is that of love, especially when considering roses. However, over a two -week research period into the Colombian rose industry, it seems that there is a lot of love being exported in the form of roses, but very little being imported. It didn’t take much detective work to find that there were a whole host of issues surrounding the flower industry in Colombia, including ‘exposing laborers to dangerous pesticides, failing to provide safeguards, and damaging the environment from overuse of natural resources’ (Tenenbaum, 2002: A240). Faced with long hours and hazardous working conditions, women like Lydia López González receive just ‘£175 a month, which only covers about 40% of her typical monthly outgoings’ (Zamudio, 2015). Before taking on this piece of research I had no idea about the complexities behind the production of cut flowers and one of the first things that caught my eye was the fact that International Flower Workers Day is the same day as Valentine’s Day.