Roses were in demand and dear across Calcutta on Valentine’s Day and Bengal’s traders struggled to meet the demand.

The longer sticks from Bengaluru sold at ₹50 a piece and the smaller Bengal variety at ₹20 to ₹25 but most still preferred Bengaluru over Bengal.

A dozen home-grown Minipol varieties of roses are sold for close to ₹250 across most retail markets. The price of a single piece varied between ₹20 and ₹25.

“Roses have remained expensive for the past few days. On Friday, we sold the Dutch variety at ₹50 a piece and the local one at ₹20 a piece,” said Abhijit Bose, a flower seller at New Market.

“The demand for roses usually remains high. This time it was higher.”

Florists said stems of the home-grown variety are around 6cm and last up to three days. The Dutch variety, in contrast, comes with longer stems — around 14cm — has more petals and last over a week.

Traders said over 1 lakh Dutch roses arrived in the city from the Karnataka capital over the past few days.

Despite the pinch, buyers have opted for it because of the wider choice of colours and longevity of the bud.

The demand began mounting ahead of Rose Day and peaked Friday for the V-Day celebrations.

“This year, people have been looking for lighter varieties of pink roses from Bengaluru and deep red ones. The demand is unbelievable and people are ready to pay more because it’s V-Day,” said Shreyansh Jain of Ranisha Flowers on Wood Street.

The domestic variety of the roses had its takers but the demand was largely across markets on the city’s fringes and suburbs.

Minipol roses were sold between ₹7-8 for one piece in the wholesale markets. Traders picked up bunches and sold them in the retail markets between ₹15-20 apiece.

“This is the peak and the demand for roses will start falling as marriage season and other festivities are over. Unfortunately, we don’t have good storage facilities for flowers,” said Narayan Chandra Nayek, general secretary of the Sara Bangla Chashi O Phool Byabsayee Samity.

“To store flowers, you need a setting with controlled temperatures. A godown with air conditioners was set up in Panskura (East Midnapore). It has been lying defunct since the pandemic.”

Since the demand for roses has remained largely seasonal, the cultivation in Bengal has remained mostly restricted to a few districts like parts of East and West Midnapore, Howrah and Nadia and a few pockets in Darjeeling and Kalimpong in north Bengal.

Farmers mostly choose small plots of land, extending up to an acre, for producing the local variety of roses.

“They don’t want to risk investing in setting up greenhouses for growing the Dutch varieties,” a senior official in the state food processing and horticulture department.

Bengal grows around 112 crore rose sticks annually against 161 crore sticks of tuberoses because the demand for tuberoses is almost throughout the year, the senior official of the department said.

“The trend is to grow marigolds and tuberoses more than roses because of the year-long demand for these flowers. The state government is now encouraging farmers to start cultivating orchids in north Bengal.”