Why do Valentines Roses
cost more?
Every year
we hear complaints about the cost of flowers on Valentines Day. Let’s look at
some the reasons the price goes up for this holiday. There are several factors
that contribute to the overall cost increase. From growers in Ecuador, the Air
cargo haulers from Quito to Miami, Florida, Inspections and Customs, Floral
wholesalers, long haul trucking company, and cold receiving storage, and
finally the local florist. Each of these legs of the journey experiences an
increase in volume and associated costs for the short duration of the Valentine
holiday. Let’s take each leg and look at the challenges and costs involved.
The Growers: Roses take 7-8 weeks for a bloom to
emerge, grow, and bud into the beautiful blooms we know and love every
Valentines Day. Growers have a set number of plants in the ground year-round
but because of the demand at Valentines they remove potential blooms in
December to make the plant produce more blooms for Valentines. The cut back
reduces sales in December to increase them in February. Growers also know that
they can raise their prices, but competition limits them. The total stems of
roses increase about 10 times over normal week volume.
Air freight planes: When the volume increases 10-fold
for only one week it is not feasible to increase the number of planes but even
flying more round trips is expensive because they are only full one way and fly
back to Ecuador empty!
Inspections and Customs: The federal government requires all
cargo to be inspected as it enters the country, especially for countries with know
drug production. As with any government agency, they operate on their schedule
and delays and rejections happen. Delays equal increased costs.
Floral Wholesalers: This is their big holiday, so they
do everything in their power to maximize sales and margins. Competition is the
only real control. Flowers are very temperature sensitive so maintaining the
cold chain at a constant 34 degrees is critical at every step of the journey.
Most pre-book sales took place in early January and all orders must be
carefully checked and sent to the correct trucking company to insure delivery
to the florist customer.
Long Haul Refrigerated Trucks: Because of demand the refrigerated
haulers must plan extra drivers and plan for potential bad weather across the
country as they travel from Miami to Portland OR and all points that celebrate
Valentine’s Day! The often arrive in the middle of the night and by
prearrangement leave the boxes of flowers in a cold storage facility until the
florist can complete the last mile of shipping.
Local Florist: Now that we have the boxes of roses
that were shipped from Ecuador via air and land cold chain, we must also plan
for the 10 times increase in volume and clean the lower leaves from the stems,
remove the thorns, cut the stem and place in cold storage to maximize the life
of the flower. Extra staff helps in cleaning the flowers and preparing for the
designer to work their magic and create the “Perfect Dozen” roses for your
love.
This year
Beaverton Florists is using extra Long 70cm red roses in a beautiful recycled
glass keepsake vase. Be sure to send the Perfect Dozen” to your sweetheart from
Beaverton Florists!
Time flies! It feels like Christmas just ended, but Valentine's Day is already upon us!
We are BUSY bees- taking orders, cleaning roses, and designing some gorgeous floral arrangements.
This year, we've come up with some brand new styles- Puppy Love, which incorporates a cute puppy plush; Kissing Bandit, with a tiny masked bear, Everlasting Love; beautiful white lilies & hydrangea with red roses. We have the Big Basket of Love, which incorporates a mix of pink, red and white flowers in a festive red basket. And, of course, the star of the show- lots and lots of dozen long stem red roses!
We wanted to be sure to offer lots of choices, to fit every preference. Our coolers are starting to fill up- where to put everything?
Luckily, we have lots of orders to fill, and these are going out the door in no time.
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