Florists face flower shortages ahead of Mother’s Day

If you are buying flowers this Mother’s Day you might notice that some blooms are not available this year or could be more expensive.

WDBJ7’s Kate Capodanno spoke with a local florist about the inventory challenges and why they’re happening.

It’s a busy week – snipping and styling these blooms ahead of Mother’s Day.

“I loved when we were unloading the truck the other day and I saw this greenhouse fill up with all these beautiful blooms and I thought hey it’s another mother’s day another holiday down for George’s Flowers. We made it through another one.”

For the last 40 years, George’s Flowers has been putting together arrangements for the holiday – this year’s no different, but there are more challenges.

“Due to COVID, we are experiencing shortages in virtually every aspect of our industry”

That means there are fewer flowers, fewer vases, and even fewer ways to get supplies shipped to the store.

“So we have been scrambling. And this isn’t something that just popped up. We were warned two months ago that shortages were going to be occurring for multi, multi reasons”

On top of the pandemic, there are fewer plants coming in from South American because of bad weather slowing down the blossoms.

“In South America, they’ve had cool cloudy, and rainy weather in February and March and there are just no blooms without rig bright sun”

NAT “If you want to do something even smaller, it’s not actually on our mother’s day menu but we can do our simply succulents”

Despite the challenges – George’s is still able to fill orders. However, the prices and types of arrangements might be a little different than in years past.

“We tried to modify to stay within our price points. There are some things that are slightly higher. However, this arrangement here is the same price as it has been in the past”

So if you plan to get a loved one a bouquet or a blossom, George’s encourages folks to keep an open mind.

“You should be flexible in your shopping because all flowers are pretty, all flowers”