HELENA — With Valentine’s Day on the horizon, millions of people are turning to the classics of chocolates and flowers to give their significant other. But with so many shortages in the supply chain, even industries such as flower shops are feeling the pinch.
The Floral Cottage off N Sanders St. is in full swing for the holiday rush. During this busy time of year, keeping up with orders and making every customer happy is a full-time job.
Owner Pamela Lee tells me that once the pandemic began it became increasingly harder to get flowers from local suppliers from California, Washington, Canada, and Mexico. Getting flowers from normal vendors became nearly impossible. Prices were increasing from their suppliers due to lost profits and specialty flowers were hard to find.
After searching through Facebook flower pages, Pamela was able to find a dealer from Ecuador who could supply the flowers she needed. Because of this connection, flowers became much easier to obtain. But specialty flowers such as peonies and calla lilies are still a struggle to procure, but overall she’s been able to keep many flowers in stock.
But things you wouldn’t expect such as baskets, vases, and delivery drivers are in short supply, Pamela tells me.
“Hard goods are harder. Like vases, baskets, things like that, there's a shortage in the industry for those, so we don't have as big of a selection as we used to have,” says Lee
But Pamela’s style is resourceful. She reuses the boxes that flowers come delivered in. She also has a vase recycling program where she will donate to local dog rescue groups in exchange for vases brought in by clients to be reused. While struggles still persist, Pamela has a much better idea of the challenges presented by the current state of supply shortages and how to operate a business within those parameters.
“This season, this year with Valentine's, we have three other big holidays that we've made it through, so a lot of us are more comfortable this go around. We know what to expect. We know what we can get, what we can't get,” says Lee.
As we’ve seen throughout the pandemic, ingenuity and resourcefulness have been necessary to sidestep the impacts of COVID. Lee sees the current situation as the new normal and that we won’t see a return to the way things were, at least in the flower industry.
“There's a new normal and I don't think that will change. I don't think we'll ever in our industry, I don't think we'll ever go back to what it was four years ago,” says Lee.
If you still haven’t gotten your flowers for Valentine’s Day, you may want to consider heading to your local florist today.
