The holiday is here with only a week to go, which will feel like two. Stay positive and be prepared! Good Luck to all!
Roses
Before we give our perception of where the market is now, we do need to mention that we are at the very beginning stages of the holiday therefore the market is not very well defined. The market today could be (and probably will be) totally different from what we’ll see next week. It is just the nature of this holiday. What is explained below is typical for this point in the holiday. Anything different would be out of the ordinary.
- Miami and red roses importers are working on filling their prebooks so once prebooks are filled they are releasing dribs and drabs for open market. At this point it is very common not to hear of any major volumes (freedom/charlotte) in the market. “IF” (Big If) that were to happen, it will happen until the end of the holiday after all prebooks are filled and shipped.
- Farms are also still filling prebooks. Some are on time in filling their prebooks but there are definitely a few that are a little behind. That being said, we have heard of next to no Freedom or Charlottes being offered at farm level. The farms have already experienced their peak in production (a couple of days ago) so production has started to drop off drastically. We don’t expect there to be too much available at farm level for the remainder of the holiday (both Ecuador and Colombia).
Botanicals & Tropical
- Well the reports are now coming in from Florida foliage growers and it’s not great. It has taken a few weeks to analyze the overall impact the very cold weather had on foliage growers. Without going into the long list, keep in mind there will be shortages of many items and grading (size) will be impacted on many varieties.
- We will have a very nice selection of blooming plants this week. The list includes, Azalea, Kalanchoe, Cyclamen, Begonia, and Hydrangea to name a few.
- Costa Rican Anthurium is limited due to the recent cold and rain. We have secured some more Red and Pink Medium from Hawaii and a few other vendors, but they have become limited.
- Costa Rican Calla Lily has also suffered from the weather. We are getting everything we can from Magic. The good thing is our production of beautiful open cut Local Calla Lily has started.
Novelty
- You may recall us mentioning that Esmeralda had decided to eradicate their Phlox crops. We will begin to see the effects of this starting the week of 2/8/10. We will have no Pink, and the Purple, White, and Lavender will begin trickling off starting with next week’s shipments. We have an Israeli supplier that will become our primary source as Esmeralda fades away.
- Field Daffodils are off to a slow start. We have Irish grown Field Daffodils available and a small amount of English Field Daffodils. There is a huge shortage compared to demand because it has been too cold. We do have some larger Carlton and a few Ice Follies too.
- With Valentine’s Day shipping upon us the supply of Stock has tightened up considerably, which is reflected in the price. The crop in the Desert has stalled due to the cold and the rain, so almost all of the stock for this holiday is coming from growers in the Baja. Many of the Growers in the Baja experienced more damage to their crops from the Rain and the Wind then originally thought. This has put further strain on the supply. Expect to see shortages in pinks and lavenders as these were featured in some of the wire services.
- Larkspur was still a challenge with very little white and light pink available. Prices still remain high. Thursday both growers cut our prebook orders almost in half!! Again the growers are seeing damage to the larkspur much deeper than anticipated. Hopefully we will see increases in availability in the next few weeks.
- There was a minimal amount of Bella Donna Light and Dark Delphinium in California due to the rain. Shortages in Delphinium will be compounded by the fact that Valle Flor was off crop and struggled to fill our standing order of Sea Waltz and Sky Waltz. We have increased our order of Volkenfrieden to help with the shortages.
- Tulip season is in full swing and we have plenty of colors, assorted boxes and French varieties to choose from. Growing regions include, from the USA, New Jersey, Virginia and California, plus Holland and Mexico to name a few.
- Buplerum has all but disappeared from the market. We are having difficulty at this time find more. This was another item featured by the Wire Services, which made it a high demand item.
- California Gerbera Daisy production is sold out from most growers. What we have loaded in the system will be what we have for the holiday from California. Canada has limited availability beyond what was pre-booked. This is one of the reasons pre-booking is so beneficial.
- The California crop of Laceflower is coming back slowly, with still somewhat limited quantities.
Basics & Greens
- We will be short on Emerald going into this weekend and for next week, again. The issues that plagued us last week snuck into this week. There is a shortage in the market and our orders aren’t being filled in their entirety. The good news is that we have a large shipment en route from Mexico that should arrive here on Saturday, to help with the shortage.
- It is not a concern with now, but damage from the freezes that occurred in Bogotá in early January are just now starting to be seen on some production of Carnations, Fillers and Mini Carnations. It has not impacted product quality for Vday, but will begin to show in the market AFTER the Holiday, as very limited production. Most growers will not even make this product available to the market place.
Fillers & Branches
- After last week’s concerns about availability of pink and hybrid pink wax, we were able to come up with some good quantities. White Waxflower and Hybrid White Waxflower seemed to be plentiful but the demand for white is not as high as the demand for Pink and Purple.
- There is still a good supply of Heather from California.
- The flowering branch season has started. Most items are still very tight and in bud stage. We currently have Quince White, Red and Pink, Cherry Pink and Forsythia available. Please allow extra time for the branches to open for your customer as the product is in a tight bud stage.
- La Plazoleta farms continue to have some production problems, primarily with Purple Aster. We are currently at Holiday pricing, with somewhat limited supply of additional production available.
- Most Limonium is very difficult to find and very limited. Purple Statice has also tightened a good deal.
