Cuban orchid grower breeds beauty in time of crisis
Outside the home of Lorenzo Suarez in San Miguel de Padron, a rundown neighborhood on the outskirts of Havana, trash piles up on street corners, sidewalks are cracked and paint peels from the facades of storefronts. Inside, a jungle-like beauty pervades. The blossoms of 100 different species and hybrids of orchids, exquisite in their delicate beauty, some yellow, others blue, some spotted, others striped, create a splash of color at each glance, Reuters shares.
“Every flower is different. Their colors, their sizes, the way in which they are cultivated. It drives me wild,” says Suarez, a 50-year-old orchid expert and agricultural engineer whose large greenhouse is an urban oasis in a country whose economy has been stricken by blackouts and shortages.
Almost anywhere else, an operation the size of Suarez’s would constitute a commercial venture, mass-producing flowering plants for sale to other dealers and consumers. But in Cuba, with little market for orchids and few garden shops, Suarez finds his motivation elsewhere.
Read more at Reuters