I went to buy flowers the other day, but when I got to the market, the long-lasting ones I usually pick looked like they were on their last legs. I was frustrated because I always go for the tight-budded Alstroemeria. They’re known for their longevity. If I choose them well, they take a day or two to open and last a couple of weeks. That’s about sixteen total days. That means my eight-dollar investment ends up costing me roughly fifty cents a day, which, as a bargain hunter, I’m perfectly happy with.
I poked around several other types of flowers and the more I poked the more frustrated I became. Buying flowers isn’t like buying a watermelon or a tomato. You can’t thump them or squeeze them to check their firmness. I was looking for signs of wilting when I noticed two guys with name tags talking to one another. I approached the two, asked if they were flower guys, and after receiving a “yes”, I said I’ve got some questions.
“What would you like to know?”
“How often do you get flowers?”
“They come in every day on the produce truck.”
“Is there a way to tell what flowers came in on what day?” I talked as I walked, pointed to my favs, and said, “I normally buy these, but they look horrible.”
That’s when he pulled out his phone, opened an app, looked at a tag on the flowers and said, “They were cut eleven days ago. See that number? That indicates the date it was cut. It’s the flower’s Julian number.”
He followed that with an examination of three or four other tags and told me when each bouquet had been cut. That’s when I asked about some violotta roses. They looked pretty and fresh. Turns out I was right. They’d been cut three days ago, and were the freshest on hand, so I bought them even though I knew they wouldn’t last as long as my favs.
When I got home, I asked my artificial intelligence friend, Al, about Julian numbers. I had an idea, but I wasn’t sure. This is what he said.
Fresh‑cut flower companies often use Julian day numbers because:
- It’s unambiguous. There’s no confusion about month/day formats.
- It’s easy to sort. The higher number = the newer product.
- It’s perfect for inventory systems.
- It avoids mistakes when shipping internationally.
- Each Julian day number is unique and sequential so they’re perfect for tracking freshness.
If a flower was cut on “Julian day 150,” everyone knows exactly which day of the year that is. It’s the 150th day regardless of country or calendar format.
This is not the Julian calendar developed in the days of Julius Ceasar. It’s the Julian day numbering system, which is modern and widely used in agriculture, astronomy, and manufacturing.
Several years ago, Budweiser beer promoted “born-on dates”. The concept was simple. They contended that “fresh” beer was better tasting. If you examined the born-on date, you knew when the beer had been bottled. It wasn’t a mystery code, but rather a straightforward timestamp. It was a simple idea, but it stood out because no one else was doing it. Suddenly freshness wasn’t just a behind‑the‑scenes detail. It was important.
The campaign worked because people appreciated the honesty. Checking a beer’s born‑on date felt a little like checking things out in the produce section. Consumers could take a quick glance to make sure what they were picking up was fresh.
If the Budweiser people knew what the flower people know, they might have adopted the Julian number system. Since they didn’t, they probably didn’t know.