The Price Was Steep, but They Rose to the Occasion

Guilt-ridden last-minute Valentine’s Day flower buyers lined up to pay $6.95 for a single long-stemmed red rose in downtown Los Angeles and up to $85 for a dozen roses in Beverly Hills.

Although there was a bit of grousing, most customers seemed happy to pay the price of romance, and by late afternoon the only roses left around town were beat up and tired rejects.

“We sold out this morning,” said Julie Ogata at California Floral Co. in Los Angeles. “We had 300 orders and had to reject 150 of them.”

Her customers paid $75, plus tax and delivery charges, for the traditional 12-stem bouquet. A month ago, the same bunch sold for $50, Ogata said.

Why the 50% increase?

“The growers charge us more, and we have to charge the customer more,” Ogata said.

But one of California’s major rose growers said retail florists are using California’s drought and Christmas freeze as excuses to boost flower prices for Valentine’s Day.

“There’s been just a slight increase in price, and our top-end roses are the same price as they were last year,” said Paul Nielsen, manager of greenhouse operations for Groen Rose Co. in Santa Barbara. “Seven-dollar roses do a disservice to the industry.” Groen said retail florists paid California rose growers about $20 a dozen for the premium Cara Mia or Royalty roses. And although the freeze reduced supplies of field flowers such as baby’s breath, roses are grown in greenhouses.

Nielsen said some rose growers experienced minor delays in planting their Valentine crops around Christmastime because their greenhouse heating systems were not designed to handle temperatures in the teens.

Field flower growers were hurt the hardest, according to the California Farm Bureau Federation.