Sri lankan floriculture industry

Typically, floriculture is defined as Science and practice of growing, harvesting, storing, designing, marketing of cut flowers, potted flowering plants, foliage plants, bedding and garden plants, cut cultivated greens and propagative materials.
The floral industry is one of the major industries in many developing and underdeveloped countries. The present day floral industry is a dynamic, global, fast-growing industry, which has achieved significant growth rates during the past few decades. In the 1950s, the global flower trade was less than US$3 billion. By 1992, it had grown to US$100 billion. In recent years, the floral industry has grown six percent annually, while the global trade volume in 2003 was US$101.84 billion.
Traditionally, the center of flower production has been near their largest consumers: the developed world, where Japan, Western Europe and North America were both major producers and consumers. The major consumer markets being Germany (22 percent), the United States (15 percent), France (10 percent), the United Kingdom (10 percent), the Netherlands (9 percent), Japan (6 percent), Italy (5 percent), and Switzerland (5 percent).
The floriculture industry in Sri Lanka started around 23 years ago and was a very small industry with just a few companies. Today it is a very significant industry, touching close upon one billion rupees on exports last year. There are 3500-4000 people directly involved in the industry. While the floriculture industry was not taken very seriously for some time, its contribution to the economy was highlighted in last year’s budget.
There is a huge growth potential for this industry in Sri Lanka. If this potential is fully met, the turnover can be doubled. The industry's global growth rate is about 15 per cent annually but in Sri Lanka it has been 4-5 per cent over the last few years.
Flowers are mentioned in the social fabric of our country and no function is complete without flowers. Also it is a important industry which earning foreign money through the exporting
Currently it is a growing industry in Sri Lanka. It is growing at an annual growth rate of 10% per annum. And also this industry becoming a profitable agri business in Sri Lanka.
There is a demand for floricultural products locally (weddings, ceremonies, social events etc…). but main target is to export. Therefore Sri Lanka produces wide range of floricultural products including cut flowers (fresh or dried), cut foliage, potted plants, bedding plants and planting materials. These products are mainly export to three destinations are Asian Market (40%), European Market (44%) & Middle east Market (13%)
There are lot of floricultural plants species are grown in commercial level as well as in home garden level. Attempt of preparing this floriculture album is to identify several floricultural plants by morphologically, taxonomically and charactifically.