Mother's Day flowers follow long trail to U.S. homes

ATLANTA - If you&#39;re telling Mom you love her with flowers, that message arrives courtesy of a small army of people, deployed from South America to Miami. <br> <br> Most of the roses, carnations, mums and other flora en route to American mums this week are grown in Colombia and Ecuador, refrigerated, trucked to planes, flown to South Florida and distributed through an elaborate network designed to deliver flowers thousands of miles before they begin to wilt. <br> <br> Tom O&#39;Malley is the vice president of Latin American air cargo for UPS Air Cargo, a subsidiary of Atlanta-based United Parcel Service Incorporated. <br> <br> O&#39;Malley says, ``They can get from the farm to the distributor in Miami in as little as 18 hours.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> UPS has moved into the forefront of the flower-flying trade with its acquisition of Miami-based Challenge Air Cargo. The company, since renamed UPS Air Cargo, flies a 14-jet fleet among 16 Latin American countries and the U.S., bringing 110 million pounds of flowers to the U.S. each year. <br> <br> Perishables, mostly flowers and vegetables, comprise 80 percent of the company&#39;s import cargo. <br> <br> O&#39;Malley said its two daily flights from Ecuador are partially loaded with flowers year-round. But in the crunch times -- February and the first week of May -- UPS Air Cargo&#39;s freighters from Colombia and Ecuador are filled to the brim with flowers to meet the demand. <br> <br> Mother&#39;s Day -- formalized 88 years ago with a proclamation from President Woodrow Wilson -- remains a yearly bonanza for florists, sitting midway between Easter and the peak of early summer weddings.