You can study global trade. Or you can step inside it.
A real-world learning experience in global trade, systems thinking, branding, and entrepreneurship.
Rose Import LAB™ is a real-world learning experience where students explore global trade, systems thinking, entrepreneurship, and product development through roses, coffee, cacao, and botanicals.
Students do not simply study supply chains.
They learn to observe them, trace them, analyze them, and eventually participate in them.
The founding cohort will observe the early stages of a real sourcing network as it is being explored and documented in Colombia.
By the end of the program, students begin building something real.
By the end of the program, students begin building something real.
Throughout the experience, students develop their own product concept, sourcing idea, fundraiser, or brand story using real-world observation, systems thinking, and market research.
As they move through the program, students begin thinking less like consumers and more like builders, observers, and entrepreneurs.
Some students may:
sell roses
create a fundraiser
develop a simple product concept
test customer interest
build a brand story
present a trade idea publicly
or explore future sourcing opportunities connected to Colombia
The goal is not perfection.
The goal is learning through action, observation, adaptation, and real-world experience.
Rose Import LAB™ is designed to help students begin seeing how ideas move from curiosity into reality.
As a founding cohort member, you’ll receive on-the-ground documentation from our Colombia sourcing trip — including farm visits, grower conversations, sourcing evaluations, partnership discussions, and the real logistical decisions involved in building an import business.
Students will observe how products, relationships, negotiations, logistics, and decision-making interact inside an active global supply chain.
This is not a simulated business exercise or a textbook case study.
It is a real system being explored and documented as it unfolds.
This experience is designed for people who want to become more observant, adaptable, creative, and capable in the real world.
Students begin learning how products move through systems, how businesses create value, how brands shape perception, and how opportunities emerge through observation.
Over time, many begin thinking differently about:
business
consumer culture
global systems
risk
branding
relationships
and their own ability to build something meaningful.
A four week immersion in how global trade actually works
Each week builds toward something real
Week 1 - Foundations of Global Trade. Understand how products actually move across borders—and where value is created, captured or lost.
Week 2 - Farm & Production. Go inside Colombian rose farms with our team on the ground. See how quality, yield, and decisions at origin shape everything downstream.
Week 3 - Logistics & Import. Break down freight, cold chain, and customs - the constraints that separate operators from observers.
Week 4 - Build your concept. Develop a viable go-to-market plan: pricing, margins, sourcing, and positioning you can execute immediately.
Continue exploring the specifics of what we uncover inside the LAB
This Isn't Studied. It's Stepped Into.
Inside the LAB you will see:
-Our experimental Rose Import LAB™ farm updates
-Real production, packing and cold chain
-Insights from our team members in Colombia and the USA
-The full journey of a rose, from cut to vase
This is as close as you can get to the source without booking the flight yourself.
Designed for builders, not consumers
This is for
Curious, high-energy adults and entrepreneurs
Homeschool families and parents seeking real-world learning for their teens (12+)
Florists, event planners, and creatives rethinking their craft through supply and sourcing
People who know there is more happening beneath the surface of global trade
This is not passive learning -you’ll leave having built something real.
The Skill That Let’s You See What Could Easily Be Missed
The biggest opportunities don’t announce themselves.
They show up quietly: a supplier hesitates, costs shift, small players disappear, larger ones expand.
By the time it is obvious, it’s already over.
In the 1980s, US route growers started noticing something.
Imports were getting cheaper. Production was getting faster.
Reports said the industry was stable. On the ground, it was already changing.
Today, most roses sold in the United States come from Colombia.
Another shift is happening now. Most people won’t recognize it in time.
We know that garden roses grown at the Alexandra Farms in Bogota, Colombia are grown with most minimal use of pesticides. This is one of the reason why we prefer to work with their flowers in the LAB. We source their garden roses from wholesalers such as the JRose and Empire cut flowers at the iconic New York City’s Historic Flower District.
Carlos- on the ground in Medellin and Santa Marta
Carlos is part of our team in Colombia. He works directly with farms, sourcing, and movement across supply chain.
Through him you are studying global trade from a distance -you’re seeing how it actually operates, in real time, from origin to shipment.
You are not learning about a system. You are stepping inside it.
Week 2 Farm & Production
Working with product in real time.
Quality. Structure. Decision.
In this video, the Rose Import LAB™ participant are studying roses sourced from McArdle’s Floral and Garden Design in Greenwich, CT. The mountains views are from our last trip to Santa Marta in Colombia. This is where we visited a potential cacao farm for Rose Import LAB™.
And beyond LAB
Rose Import LAB™ also offers coffee and cacao importing classes, plus white label options for those expanding their own brand. After the four-week experience, participants may place small scale orders to begin their own projects. (Minors with adult supervision welcome) Keep reading to find out more→
I am excited to share the magical experience of following the journey of a rose with you. See you at the LAB.
-Heidi, founder of Rose Import LAB™
Follow the Rose is an introduction to systems thinking through the journey of a single flower. Using roses as your lens, you’ll begin to see how agriculture, logistics, culture, branding, and global trade connect beneath the surface of everyday life. Through guided observation, journaling, and real-world examples from Colombia and the floral industry, this class trains awareness, pattern recognition, and a new way of understanding how products move through the world.