NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A global flower shortage is impacting local florists ahead of Valentine’s Day.
At the FLWR Shop, co-owner Alex Vaughan has pivoted to make it work.
"Most of the time we’re ordering from around the world,” Vaughan said. "Right now we have stuff from Holland, Japan, South America, Central America... In February that’s pretty much where all the flowers are coming from."
She ordered flowers months in advance to make sure they got here in time. Usually, the flowers come to the United States on passenger planes. "With less people flying, they have less spaces to put flowers onto planes because there are less planes flying around the world," Vaughan said.
In addition during the COVID-19 lockdown, international farmers weren't sure how much to plant. "There’s also just less flowers growing because a bunch of farmers basically abandoned their farms during lockdown," Vaughan said. "And you can’t just get that right back up."
Due to the shortage, customers should be ready to pay more for flowers. Vaughan said arrangements might be smaller in size depending on what's available at the time.
In some cases, she said they charged double what she used to pay for flowers. "A lot of the things we would normally buy are just too expensive to buy," she said.
They even had to hire an extra employee to handle international orders and logistics.
Since Valentine's Day falls on a Monday, they expect to be slammed with office deliveries. "Just order early, don’t wait until the last minute, there truly may not be anything left," Vaughan said.
