How a Flower Auction Works: The Clock That Runs Backwards
Why the Dutch auction clock drops the price instead of raising it — and what that means for the freshness in your vase. Explained by someone who buys there.
Most people picture an auction like in a saleroom: the price climbs until only one bidder is left. With flowers it works the other way around. The price falls — and whoever strikes first wins. This reversed principle, called the „Dutch clock“, is the reason fresh flowers can be cut in the morning and sold the same day.
1. The clock runs backwards — and that is exactly what makes it fast. At the auction a large clock hangs above every selling spot. It starts at a high price and the hand runs down towards zero. The moment a buyer presses their button, the clock stops — they get the lot at exactly that price. There is no back and forth, no outbidding: the first press decides. A single lot is often sold in under two seconds.
2. Why backwards at all? Because flowers are perishable goods. A classic upward bidding war would take hours — time a cut rose does not have. The descending method forces every buyer into an honest decision: do I press now and pay more, or wait for a lower price and risk someone else grabbing the lot? That is how the market finds a fair price in seconds. On a big auction day, tens of thousands of transactions run through this way.
3. Veiling Rhein-Maas — the clock right on our doorstep. Most people associate flower auctions with Aalsmeer in the Netherlands. We, however, buy at Veiling Rhein-Maas in Straelen-Herongen, just across the Dutch border and barely an hour from Düsseldorf. It is Germany's only flower and plant auction, a joint venture between Landgard and Royal FloraHolland founded in 2010. Eight clocks turn there — four for cut flowers, four for potted plants.
4. What a buying morning looks like. The goods are delivered overnight by the growers, often just hours after cutting. In the early morning the trolleys of flowers roll past the clocks, the auctioneer calls the lots, and most are sold by mid-morning. Buying early and deliberately gets you the best quality — the so-called A1 grade with the firmest heads and the longest vase life. Today you can also bid remotely („Kopen op Afstand“), but the trained eye on site spots freshness no screen can show.
5. The freshness advantage ends up in your vase. The whole point of the fast clock is speed: the shorter the chain between cut and sale, the fresher the flower. Buy at the auction in the morning and you can arrange the same afternoon. Those hours are the difference between a bouquet that droops after three days and one that lasts two weeks. It is why, for over 45 years, we have driven to the clock ourselves rather than ordering blind through a middleman.
6. What the clock does not replace: the selection. The auction delivers volume and speed — but it makes no decision about beauty. Whether a tulip grew straight, whether a rose is open enough, whether the colour really glows like it did on the screen — you only see that at the trolley. This is exactly where „buying a lot“ differs from „buying well“: the clock is just the tool, the eye behind it decides.
Frequently asked
- Why does the price fall at a flower auction instead of rising?
- Because flowers spoil quickly. With a rising auction every lot would take too long. With the descending „Dutch clock“ the first bidder wins — a lot sells in seconds, so thousands of lots run through per day and the goods stay fresh.
- Where is Veiling Rhein-Maas and what is auctioned there?
- It is in Straelen-Herongen on the Lower Rhine, right at the Dutch border. It is Germany's only flower and plant auction with eight clocks — four for cut flowers, four for potted plants — founded in 2010 as a joint venture of Landgard and Royal FloraHolland.
- Are auction flowers fresher than supermarket flowers?
- Usually yes — provided the chain is short. Buying at the clock yourself in the morning and arranging the same day greatly shortens the time between cut and vase. If the goods pass through several middlemen and warehouses, that advantage melts away. What matters is not the „auction“ label but how direct the path afterwards is.
- Can private individuals buy at the flower auction?
- No. Only registered commercial buyers — florists, wholesalers and exporters — purchase at the clocks. Private customers get the goods through exactly these professionals, which is why a florist who drives to the clock himself handles the selection and freshness check for you.