The Flower Industrial Complex behind Valentine's Day Flowers and why they have to Cost This Much

One wonders how the flower growers do it; just in time for Valentine's Day each year, florists around the country have to be ready with about 200 million roses - bloomed just in time to be fresh for the special day. This minor miracle though, happens in a way that's completely invisible to the general romantic public - who have no idea usually, what goes into growing, harvesting, preserving, shipping and selling everything. If there's one thing your average flutter-hearted boy or girl is aware of, it's that somehow, Valentine Day flowers are unreasonably expensive these days. When you pay $5 for a single flower, you come away with the feeling that someone somewhere  is getting really rich, and really suckering you for it.

The problem with Valentine Day flowers is that those flowers have to be delivered to the store exactly on the day. It won't do to deliver them one day early or one day late. The sheer scale of the Valentines day flower business, rather than helping reduce prices, increases, them. Flowers are something that have to grow naturally. They can't be stamped out in a factory assembly line. Worse still, they happen to be extremely perishable. To get this many perishable goods ready at the exact right time can be quite a challenge. It ends up costing money. Even so, most of the profit on each flower sold on Valentine's Day goes to the florist and not the farmer. Each stem that sells for $5 on Valentine's Day, costs the florist two dollars to buy from the wholesaler. That's a clear $3-profit for someone who just hands you the flower. Let's look at everything that goes on before with that flower arrives at your sweetie’s doorstep.

American Valentine's Day flowers come from the Central American countries of Ecuador and Colombia. Growing beautiful roses can be quite difficult for flower farmers. To begin with, rose bushes that are intended for Valentine’s Day production have to have their stems cut back. That makes them really slow their flower blooming process down. When the flowers do arrive, harvesting them can be such a delicate process, that it has to be done by hand. There's no huge rose harvesting machine. There are just people with little clippers walking about. Anything that's this labor-intensive, costs a lot of money.

Any time there is a festival of some kind and goods that need to be delivered forward, the cargo companies naturally increase their cargo rates - they know that there is unavoidable demand at hand. Bringing 200 million roses into America with secure packing requires thousands of cargo airplanes. That costs money too. The companies doing the importing need to pay for quick customs processing so that the flowers don't wilt waiting in the cargo clearance bay at some airport. And then, American truckers have to haul all those flowers all over the country. They charge more on Valentine's Day, because they know they can get away with it. The distributor who does all this work usually charges the florists 10 times his usual price around Valentine's Day. The florists themselves charge the customer twice what they usually do. Everyone makes money hand over fist, and it's the poor romantic simpleton buying a dozen pink roses for his girl who usually ends up paying for all of this greed.

Usually, when you go to a wholesale warehouse store like Costco, you can cut out a couple of middlemen and get a far more decent price. Some florists try to recommend other flowers to help people save some. A less expensive bouquet made of daffodils or tulips or daisies can often work great. And these flowers can be matched to the personality of recipient as well.

How do you get Valentines Day Flowers for Less?

Let's assume that this is your first trip to the flower shop in the week leading up to February 14th. You don't have that much of a budget to turn over to the florist, but you really are ambitious and romantic. How you make the most of what money you have for the best results with Valentine's Day flowers?

About the first reaction you’ll have visiting a flower shop for the first time will usually be shock. Most people don't really expect flowers to cost as much as they do. If you can only spend five dollars, a single rose can make a great and beautiful statement. If you have $15 or so to spend, you can get a small bouquet of tulips or mixed flowers. For an arrangement of sought-after flowers, you'll probably need $25 or so. But you can't really expect just any florists you walk up to, to be able to cater to your needs. Some of them only cater to customers who have more than $100 to spend. To avoid embarrassment, you'll probably need to call ahead to ask about the prices that the shop deals in.

Not every shop delivers every kind of purchase. When you call ahead, you'll probably want to ask what their minimum purchase requirements are for same day delivery you also want to know how much they charge for delivery. You want to know if they sell to small modest customers such as yourself and you want to know what their specials are (those could really save you money).

You keep reading about these online flower delivery services, don’t you? That would sound like a really convenient deal. The thing is, the big online delivery companies like FTD, don't really have any flowers of their own. They don't, the moment you place an order, put a bunch of flowers on a plane to send to your sweetie. They just have deals worked out with every local florist in your area. It's the local florist who delivers. Going online for Valentine's Day flowers, you’re just working in extra middleman into the deal at extra cost. Go directly to the source, to the florist. That's how you get the most for your money.

Often, going to your local supermarket or grocery store is likely to land you such a great deal. Trader Joe's for instance, has a great flower department. At the very least, any supermarket is going to have a bunch of flowers next to the checkout. And these are going to be way more affordable. Roses are usually the most expensive Valentine's Day flowers. You probably don't want to go with them when they are $5 a stem on the special day. Go with anemones or other flowers that happen the in season. And remember to deliver them yourself. Not only will this save you money, it will make a great statement.