When thousands of Connecticut residents present their sweethearts with a dozen roses on Valentine's Day, they'll be making more than one person smile. Fresh-cut blooms from Roses for Autism in Guilford also support a unique job training program for young adults on the autism spectrum.
The group is "growing possibilities" as well as flowers, says retail manager Lori Gregan. Roses for Autism is the first business for Growing Possibilities, a nonprofit founded by Ability Beyond Disability.
The non-profit leases 50,000 sq. ft. of greenhouse from Pinchbeck's Rose Farm, where it grows 16 varieties of roses, many of them fragrant. All are delivered within hours of cutting. "Squeeze this bud," Gregan instructed. "See how firm it is? It will last more than a week," unlike imported roses that spend days, even weeks, in refrigeration and often flop within a couple of days at room temperature.
The Roses for Autism program revived the last cut-rose grower in the Northeast. In operation since 1929, Pinchbeck Farm had shut down its vast greenhouses in October 2008, battered by a crippling recession, foreign competition, and the scarcity of trained horticultural workers.
A year later, one immense greenhouse was back in production, and will produce 2,200 dozen fresh-cut roses for Valentine's Day 2011. The crop totals about a million stems a year. Red is by far the most popular color, but the company also grows white, pink, blush, lavender, peach, and orange roses.
Eight young adults on the autism spectrum are employed in the greenhouse operation. One runs their web site and computer systems. Others cut, grade, bundle, and package roses for sale, handle walk-in retail customers, or deliver flowers to dozens of wholesale customers around the state.
"We want to give them work skills," Gregan said. They're learning "to get to work on time, get to work every day.... and the social skills to work with other people." The training isn't much different from the days when Gregan ran a store and trained new crews of teen-agers every spring.
"We're working outside the box in some ways," Gregan said. According to the text books, her training isn't supposed to work, she says. Yet it does. Previously painfully shy employees now greet visitors with a firm handshake, something they just didn't know how to do a few months earlier. Several spend an hour on a bus to get to work every day. They're learning the flexibility needed in a workplace, where the routine may change from day to day.
The non-profit's goal is to help people on the autism spectrum learn new skills and find permanent jobs in the community. But it's doing that by running a successful business. Tom Pinchbeck, grandson of the farm's founder, is head grower, providing the horticultural knowledge to keep the rose plants producing. Roses for Autism takes care of marketing, hiring and training, running the web site, purchasing supplies, payroll, deliveries, and the thousand details of running a small business.
Roses for Autism specializes in cut bunches of roses, and recently added fragrant lilies to its growing line. The staff can prepare mixed bouquets, if customers call ahead. Valentine's Day is the biggest sales day of the year for florists, so Gregan suggested pre-orders to avoid disappointment.
The interest in local food has also inspired interest in these Connecticut-grown roses, which are sold by Whole Foods, Highland Park Markets, Bishop's Orchard, LaBonne's Market, Guilford Food Center, Farmer Joe's Market, and CT Farm Fresh Express. The group also offers mixed bunches at several farmers' markets during the summer and fall.
Roses for Autism's retail shop is at Pinchbeck's Rose Farm, 929 Boston Post Road, Guilford, CT.
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