Price of a rose: Cost of flowers continues to bloom

Roses are red, violets are blue, the cost of living is rising, and flower prices are too.

Not only are they costly for customers, but one retailer tells RNZ First Up that Valentines Day can also be costly for florists.

"All the prices go up massively," she says.

"They growers - it's a bit controversial saying this - but they hold products. And so often the products have been sitting there for a while, so it's really old.

"So you're paying really high prices for quite unpredictable product, especially with roses and all of the more traditional flowers that you might buy. Or anything red or pink."

On 13 February, the eve of Valentine's Day, the United Flower Growers market in the Auckland suburb of Mt Wellington is humming at 5am.

About 40 buyers sit in what looks like a lecture theatre as flowers are swiftly wheeled through, announced by two auctioneers.

The auction runs on a 'Dutch clock' system - where a price comes down until a bidder is happy to pay.

"The first person to push the button wins," United Flower Growers chief executive Peter Brown said.

"And the reason you do that is because you've got to keep it fast, got to keep it fluid. If you ran a traditional auction you're going to be here all day people shouting out numbers.

"So first trigger happy person wins. And obviously on Valentine's Day they're going to pay significantly more," he said.

All sorts of blooms are for sale - roses, lilies, gerberas and sunflowers, hydrangeas, magnolias and dahlias.

"It's no different to crayfish on Chinese New Year," Brown said.

"It completely rockets up. Because people like roses on Valentine's Day, they like flowers on Valentine's Day. So you know, the wholesale price of a rose per stem would have been a couple of dollars during the year and on Valentine's Day, it's probably going to be at around $6.

"So it does surge. Supply and demand, just like any other perishable commodity.

"If you talk to a flower grower they'll say the price is too low. If you talk to a florist they'll say the price is too high. We're just the meat in the sandwich, we're just the broker in the middle," Brown said.

One florist, who wished to stay anonymous, says you just have to learn to pivot on prices.

"There's always something, but you just have to be prepared to pay the high price. Like today I was going for dahlias. They're going for a lot of money but I wanted them and you just have to pay the price."

Martina Tschirky has been a florist for 30 years. She travels down once a week from Mangawhai, where her alarm goes off at 2am.

She says she feels for the flower growers.

"It's nice to see that they're actually making some money. Because I'm a bit worried about the growers to be honest at the moment. There will be loads of them leaving if they don't get a good return."

A small time grower herself, Martina is aware of the rising costs in land, fertilizer and labour.

"I know what goes into it. It's a bit like farming and if the milk price is low, low, low for a long time farmers are leaving.

"And I've seen it before. I've been here for a long time and I've seen those waves before. It gets very expensive, lots of growers come in, and then the prices crash, and a lot of them walk."

From 19 February, the wholesale auction of flowers at United Flower Growers is moving more online. The wheeling of trolleys through the auction room will stop, and high resolution photos of the produce will be available online for people to bid on.

Peter Brown says 90 percent of buyers already tune into the auction online, and he expects these numbers to increase.

But some florists, like Kirsten McCrae from Molly Blooms in Epsom, will still be attending in person to get the tangible assessment.

"I'm a visual person so I like to be able to see my product. I like to be able to come into the auction hall and I like to look at the quality of the product, it's important for me. I don't want to sit at home on my computer."

McCrae is philosophical about the plight of flower growers, saying they have their share of highs to go with the lows.

"They've had a good time, sometimes in the last few years, these growers. Don't forget. Not every time is going to be a good time. That's the business and it's a perishable product so not every day is going to be a good day."