Every October Bob Fancher of Riverwalk Floral Designs in San Antonio, Texas "has a lot of fun" festooning his shop with "comical skeletons" — this year he is even adding spooky decorations he picked up in Bali. But he's not just decorating for Halloween — his unearthly adorments also are in honor of Dia de los Muertos.

Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a festival celebrated in Mexico and parts of the southwestern U.S. during All Saints Day, Nov. 1, and All Souls Day, Nov. 2. Traditionally, families honor the lives of their departed loved ones in several ways, such as visiting cemeteries (sometimes staying all day) and decorating graves and altars with offerings — including flowers.

"We do see an increase" in sales during this time, says Sara Aguilar of Heaven's Scent Florist in Laredo, Texas. "We carry traditional Mexican flowers — like cenpasuchil, which we only carry for this holiday," she says, referring to the long-stemmed marigold that is most popular for decoration during Day of the Dead.

One of the places where the holiday is particularly popular is San Antonio. Alicia Rocha of A&R Floral Designs says that during these days "sales are above the usual." In 2006, Spring Garden Flower Shop in San Antonio was called on to decorate a local hotel with the traditional marigolds, although the store does not usually stock them. The flowers' strong scent "gives us headaches," jokes Oralia Espinoza of Spring Garden.

Not every Southwestern florist, however, gets business from the holiday. "We haven't really done anything for that," says Desarae Terrazas of C.R. Blossoms in Las Cruces, N.M. 

Others are concerned that business on Day of the Dead is declining. While Elizondo Flower Shop in San Antonio still has "our faithful customers ... who count on us" for Day of the Dead flowers and does "supply a lot of churches and university chapels" for the holiday, Sylvia Ornelas of Elizondo says that it is not as big of a holiday as it once was. "There are a lot of vendors" near graveyards that "give really low prices ... that does affect us in a way," Ornelas says.

Gloria Garza of Garza's Floral & Gift Shop in Laredo, Texas agrees. "It used to be a big holiday, but more and more it's going away ... there are a lot of smaller vendors that are closer to the cemeteries and less expensive," she says.

Another problem is the dwindling number of local cenpasuchil growers. Ornelas says there is only one local grower left — Verstuyfts Farm — and is worried about the expense of importing them from another state, or Mexico. "It is getting hard to get marigolds for our customers," she says.

Aguilar gets hers from Mexico but must order early in order to ensure supply. Neither the cost of the product nor the lure of longer-lasting silk flowers, sold at other vendors, divert her customers away from the real thing. "The people that are more traditional [are not so concerned] about the expense of a fresh arrangement," she says.

--Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org

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