A flower with a delicate scent and petals arranged in an explosion of exquisite shapes and colors, has fascinated several cultures for more than two thousand years: the divine flower, the flower of Gods, described for the first time in ancient Greece by the botanist Theophrastus in commemoration of Zeus with the name Dianthus.

Carnation, a flower full of magic and passion, has inspired many myths in the history of humanity becoming an icon of multiple religious, artistic, political and cultural manifestations from antiquity to nowadays.

SB Talee was born in 1962 in the magic Italian region of Tuscany, the cradle of universal art, as an enterprise devoted to the development of carnation varieties and to the production and commercialization of plants, thanks to the promotion, knowledge, and effort of two men who were the inheritors of a noble tradition in the art of carnation breeding: Forese Salviati and Palee Brunn.

In the next years, numerous growers of the Italian Blue Coast would bring SB Talee carnations to the main European flower markets, positioning the company as one of the most important suppliers of the ornamental industry on the second half of the XX century.

In 1988, Mr. Salviati’s vision led him to expand his company in Colombia, a country where the flower industry was successfully developing due to the optimal geographical and climatic conditions of the tropics. Touring the Andean region, he went from Paramo de Cruz Verde, located at 4.000 meters over the sea level, to Valle de la Unión at 1.800 meters. Not only Mr. Salviati was impressed by the mild weather of the zone, but he also realized that the natural barrier granted by the Paramo would guarantee excellent phytosanitary conditions to the plants. Multiple carnation growing and exporting companies would become the new customers of the enterprise that was born, SB Talee of Colombia.

The tropical conditions which allow to grow flowers all year round, made possible to transfer the breeding and development program of varieties from Italy to Colombia in 1998. A team of Colombian professionals achieved in some years, an innovative offer of optimum varieties for local growers, positioning SB Talee as a leader supplier of the highest quality vegetal material among Colombian growers.

The potential of the breeding program is infinite: suitable varieties for production in Mediterranean and seasonal climates, with appropriate shapes and colors for varied markets are developed for the purpose of growth and expansion of SB Talee horizons: the company takes the challenge to conquer the main carnation growing regions in the world.    

In 2022, SB Talee reaches 60 years of activity being distinguished and recognized by innovation, high quality, compliance, and punctuality in delivery of its products.

More than 3000 varieties are kept in the genetic bank of the company. Every year, they are carefully reviewed and some of them chosen as the parents that, through professional crossing plans will produce around 60.000 seeds. Four years of accurate selection and evaluation of these codes will give rise to the new commercial varieties.

The implementation of the carnation plant propagation technique with the strictest quality controls and professionalism is a central aspect of SB TALEE’s activity; this process consists of three generations: 

First generation: about 20.000 nucleus plants or Extra-Elite plants, carefully cultivated in greenhouses isolated by antithrips nets, give rise to all the productive process.  

Second generation: Maintaining the same infrastructure and biosecure standards, 220.000 grandmother plants are generated each year by the first-generation plants, as an intermediate step towards the production of mother plants.

Third generation: the company trades more than 1,3 million mother plants among growers who produce their own cuttings,and keeps 1,2 million mother plants to produce and distribute more than 52 million of cuttings to flower growers: about 125 million SB Talee carnation plants bloom each year around the world.

In its 60 years commemorative catalog, SB Talee is proud to offer more than 150 varieties of standard carnation not only represented by traditional colors but also by new lines such as Nobbio, Thrill, Pixel and Merletto, and 90 varieties of spray carnation, including the innovative lines Fiorino and Lilliput.

After 34 years of continuous development and growing in Colombia, nowadays the company counts on a modern infrastructure which complies with the highest quality standards in the industry: biosecure greenhouses isolated with antithrips nets, a modern water treatment plant, a new generation gas boiler environmentally friendly among others, are added to rigorous and professional productive processes, ensuring a product of the highest quality.

Thanks to the certification granted in 2015 by Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario (ICA), an entity of the Ministry of Agriculture, within the program “BIOSECURITY FOR THE PRODUCTION AND EXPORT OF PLANTS TO PLANT”, today SB Talee exports its vegetable material all year round to Countries such as: Brazil, China, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Korea, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, among others.

Behind all these achievements, there is an operative, technical, and administrative team that shares the purposes of the organization and its corporate values: service, loyalty, respect, responsibility and solidarity, distinguish more than 200 collaborators; some of them have created bonds with the company from generation to generation and today, they consider it as their second family.