On April 23,1996, the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued a United States Letters Patent to Esmeralda Farms (XL Group, Inc.) for a special method of packaging flowers.

We developed a special packaging method in an attempt to overcome two significant obstacles facing the floral industry; Botrytis and the fragility of the flowers themselves.The transportation of flowers from the farm to the retail market entails constant handling and movement, resulting in shifting of the flowers and damage to the fragile flower heads. The method of packaging used by most growers allows the flower heads to come in contact with each other, thereby increasing the possibility of head breakage and bruising. Also, the wrapped flower bunches can shift during transport, causing the flower heads to contact the shipping box and become bruised. To help prevent movement of the bunches against the ends of the box during transportation, some shippers secure the bunches with a wooden cleat. However, this cleat may damage the stems of the flowers by rubbing against them. In addition, the cleating step is very labor intensive and difficult to remove. Esmeralda's method for Packaging Flowers, specifically roses, overcomes these obstacles. Roses shipped in this method will almost never bruise or break during transportation. In addition, it eliminates the cleating step and aids in the control of Botrytis. As this will benefit everyone, from growers to the consumer, in terms of supplying fresh and unblemished flowers, we will provide others with the opportunity to share our invention.

Our packing facilities are on line with our farms via satellite. If they pack a box, we can go onto any computer and look up the precise by bar code.