If you are thinking about buying your better half some red roses for Valentines Day today, prepare to pay a premium.
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Imports of roses have been affected by shipping delays and hot weather has stunted the growth of New Zealand grown roses.
Blooming Hill in Pukekohe is the country's largest rose grower.
Managing director Frans van Dorsser said it had been a difficult year for growing roses.
"The weather has caused a few issues with growth, the heat has put extra stress on the plants so they haven't grown as long as they would have traditionally done but in general, our local rose production is up on previous years, which is great news," van Dorsser said.
"The reason why there is that stress in the industry at the moment especially when it comes to buyers is because there were some imported lines cancelled. So there were buyers who had purchased or ordered important product all of a sudden had to source local products which caused extra demand and caused some of the prices to surge."
Red roses had almost doubled in price compared to last year - but other colour roses have dropped by between 10 and 15 percent, van Dorsser said.
"I feel for the florists because prices are higher than normal and they've had a really difficult time over the last two years with the lockdowns so they need the foot traffic.
"Flowers are for show and some people like to show their love by getting flowers delivered to their partner's workplace, but with a lot of people working from home that might not happen this year, so orders could be affected in that respect."
Fresh Direct Flowers general manager Steve Foster said with imports affected the shortage meant florists would sell out of red roses early in the day.
"We'd certainly encourage people to go out and look at other flowers, sunflowers hydrangeas there's a whole bunch of beautiful flowers out there that are fresh and that are in season and available so if the red roses unavailable there's certainly coloured roses and all those other types of flowers that are just as beautiful."
Christchurch florist Danielle Eeles, who ran Bourbon Rose Florist, said she had to reduce her profit margin by 30 percent in order to sell flowers today.
A dozen roses from her store, delivered, will cost about $190.
"The prices we pay for the flowers are astronomical. So we've had to reduce our profit margin to be able to produce a nice bouquet for the customer.
"We've actually been busier than we thought we would be, last minute orders have actually been quite good, but we'll still be down on last year due to being in the red Covid setting, there's just not many people working in the city so we're not getting the foot traffic.
"Looking at last year's orders we are down by about 40 percent, normally on Valentine's Day we would make good margins that would carry the business through the winter but not this year."
