Florists prep orders for unusual Mother’s Day
On the day that Patti Fowler found out Gov. Tom Wolf’s nonessential business shutdown included florists, she took a trip to the flower wholesaler in the Strip District. “I bought as many flowers as I could,” she said. “I’m already in the casino — I’m going to keep gambling.”
Ms. Fowler, owner of Flowerama in Ross, stayed open at first under a provision allowing some online orders and then for curbside and expanded delivery orders after she received a waiver in early April from the governor’s office.
For her, the bet paid off. She did 300 deliveries on Easter, more than she’s ever done, and is on track for more than double that on Mother’s Day weekend.
But as area florists approach Mother’s Day — their second-busiest time of the year after Valentine’s Day — others haven’t fared nearly as well. Mr. Wolf’s order caused mass confusion as to whether they could stay open at all, and at first many couldn’t get any supply to fill orders even if they thought they were allowed. In that time, major selling events such as proms, weddings and graduation ceremonies were canceled, and Easter festivities dramatically scaled back.
With clarification from the state,
many flower shops reopened in April or May for curbside and delivery orders.
At Oliver Flowers, Downtown, owner Rick Conley estimates his Mother’s Day business will be about 45% of usual, due to reduced supply, high unemployment and no Downtown walk-in traffic.
Mr. Conley’s family first opened a flower shop in Pittsburgh in 1928, a year before the Great Depression. His uncle used to tell him stories of how they had to deliver flowers on streetcars during World War II, when gas was rationed. But as for the past six weeks, “this compares to nothing I’ve ever seen,” he said. “I’ve been through 9/11 and the Vietnam era and the 2008 depression, and nothing compares.”
Oliver Flowers had its best February in history, said Mr. Conley, with strong Valentine’s Day sales he attributes to a bustling economy and lack of competition Downtown. That was quickly followed by its worst March ever.
“There’s still a lot of confusion in the industry,” he said. “They can’t get flowers, they can’t get product, how do you know what to buy? You can’t buy the same amount you bought last year, and these are perishable.”
And for the Mother’s Day orders he is doing, the sentiment is different.
“We have a lot of messages on cards saying ‘Sorry we can’t be with you this week’ or ‘We’ll miss you this weekend.’”
At Gidas Flowers in Oakland, owner Jason Gidas also closed for weeks after the nonessential business closure, unable to get product. He’s opened up since and been able to hire back some of his workers, but with social distancing requirements, he doesn’t have the physical space to hire them all back and keep them 6 feet apart.
“Normally for Mother’s Day week we’d have 12 to 15 staff members,” he said. “We have five or six following the spacing guidelines.”
With flower markets worldwide disrupted, it has been tough to fill orders for anything too tropical, Mr. Gidas said, like orchids or protea or birds of paradise. And customers have to be flexible these days on colors as well.
Earlier this week, Ms. Fowler at Flowerama was eagerly tracking a Delta flight that had landed in Miami with a shipment of 48 boxes of flowers from South America.
She will use those in Mother’s Day bouquets this weekend, in vases wiped down with Clorox bleach.
“When you are not in contact with people and have to keep a safe distance, you can still spread the love,” she said. “Flowers make us happy.”