How flower shops prepare for the Valentine’s Day rush
DENVER — Valentine’s Day falls on a Saturday this year. That's bad news for florists, who say customers buy fewer roses on the weekend.
During the week, "everyone's working and they can't spend time with their significant other, so they have flowers delivered," said Cory Jones, a wholesale buyer at M&M Cut Flora, located in north Denver.
The shop, which sells flowers to florists around the state, plans to sell about 35,000 colored roses this Valentine’s Day. During a non-holiday week, the shop usually sells a few thousand.
Rose prices spike by more than 50% during the holiday, said owner Marianne Gutstein, but this year, she also had to contend with rapidly changing tariff rates on imported flowers.
Nearly 80% of cut flowers are imported to the U.S. Those tariffs are eating into margins across the flower industry, according to a report this week from Reuters.
Flowers arrive by truck to the warehouse where workers cut, sort and water them. M&M Cut Flora stores most varieties at 36 degrees. Roses can last several weeks under refrigeration if properly hydrated. In the leadup to Valentine’s Day, many of the shop’s employees work 12 to 16 hour days.
Although the wholesale shop also imports flowers from Colombia, the Netherlands and Japan, most of its roses come from Ecuador. Since the 1980s, the South American country has dominated the rose market thanks to its temperate climate, altitude and pool of cheap agricultural labor.
Rapid price changes are standard for the industry. A bad storm, for example, can wipe out an entire crop of roses.
“With tariffs it’s been kind of touch and go,” said Jones. Some suppliers in South America have chosen to eat the cost, he said.
In April, President Trump enacted a universal 10% tariff on all goods imported into the U.S. The White House increased the tax to 15% on goods from Ecuador at the end of July. Ecuador and the U.S. remain in ongoing trade negotiations.
Research from the New York Federal Reserve shows that 90% of the economic burden of tariffs has fallen on U.S. companies and consumers.
“It’s a difficult, dying business,” said third-generation florist, Fred Kops, who was buying flowers at M&M Cut Flora on Wednesday to fulfill Valentine’s Day orders for his business, 5280 Flowers.
The biggest challenge is trying to compete with supermarkets that can afford to sell flowers for less than independent florists, said Kops.
“If you want something cheap, you’re asking me not to make any money. That’s what you’re asking,” said Kops.
Americans are still spending money on flowers, but the number of retail flower shops in the U.S. has dropped from 27,000 in 1992 to fewer than 12,000 in 2024.
Kops’ kids don’t plan on joining the family business.
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