SAN DIEGO — The local flower season is off to a great start. Florists say Valentine’s Day sales were big this year.
Local growers say the rain didn’t damper the delivery, but some florists say the quality of flowers didn’t bloom as they’d liked.
Most florists take the day after Valentine's Day off but fortunately for those in the doghouse, Little House of Flowers is doing relationship repair bouquets.
“’I’m sorry’ roses, yeah kind of like this one, it’s kind of sorry,” said Hilary Bateman, Little House of Flowers owner.
She says roses shipped from Ecuador were a little small for her liking.
“Some of the roses that we received for the holiday were not as big as we would have liked,” said Bateman.
The florist says she was also disappointed in the quality of local sunflowers that were impacted by the heavy rain across California in the last month.
“They are small, and petals are brown and shriveling up,” said Bateman.
CBS 8 contacted a dozen local flower growers, many said the biggest impact the rain had on their fields was timing.
They often pick flowers for Valentine’s Day a couple weeks prior to the holiday which was during the downpours.
“When they see this sort of weather coming, they’ll stack up their harvest in the days prior and then they wait, and they wait. And then as soon as the fields are clear, again, they’re right back out there harvesting,” said Steve Dionne, executive director, Cal Flowers, California Association of Growers and Shippers.
He is based in Bonsall and says some fields on the central coast were wiped out. But in San Diego County there were no reports of major damages.
“All the product was able to get to market, it didn’t create a significant increase in costs of doing so,” said Dionne.
He says what consumers should really look forward to is the quality and volume of flowers for the other big flower calendar, Mother’s Day in May.
“When you have conditions like this heavy rain that’s followed by nice sunny San Diego like weather, what you have is great conditions for growth."
Bateman says rain or shine, she’ll find a way to blossom.
“We complain when there is a drought and we complain when there is too much rain,” said Bateman.
Cal Flowers says for the growers, the amount of rain soaked the ground, which allowed them to turn off the water and reduce their utility bill.
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