Good morning on this Valentine’s Day-Ash Wednesday.



It’s the biggest day of the year for roses.

We traced a bouquet from Manhattan’s flower district back to the source, and it turns out that behind the collective show of love is a feat of logistics.

It began last summer, at a flower farm around 9,000 feet above sea level, in the mountains of Ecuador, when a rose bush began to show buds, said Stephen Faitos, who runs Starbright Floral Design, a small shop in the flower district.

About six months later, those buds were poised to bloom, and the farm opened an online auction in which florists across the world — including Starbright Floral Design, which Mr. Faitos runs with his father — could bid on the blossoms.

The roses were then cut, setting the countdown clock ticking on their 19-day life span.

They traveled by truck along winding mountain roads to Quito, were packed onto a cargo plane and flown to Miami, inspected by customs and United States Department of Agriculture officials, and flown that same day at La Guardia Airport.