I am involved in the flower industry every day and live on a flower farm, yet for the life of me I can not see more than a few flowers here and there. This seems an amazing thing that has occurred within the Australian flower industry.

 For the past few weeks  flowers have been becoming  increasingly  scarce  each week.  With the pickers  having  shot  off into the greenhouses in the morning and are back at the packing shed well before it’s time for morning tea. Other flower farms, growers and wholesalers seem to be having the same issue also.

Predominantly, we grow lilium ( asiatic and  oriental lily), zantedeschia (calla and arum lily) and alstroemeria (peruvian lily) – as well as a few other flower varieties. Other growers of  the  same flowers are also experiencing a  large    decrease   in  yield. In addition to just these flower varieties  we have reports from across the flower industry of a  huge  shortage in supply, during a period when we usually have abundant  supplies  of buds and blooms!!

Besides the flower  varieties  already mentioned there  seems  to be an acute shortage of roses, tulips, freesia, carnations and a range of other day to day basic essentials that  florists  need to just have their customers  bouquets  and relay service orders met. I know this  presents  a very big challenge for us as  suppliers  into the wholesale florist industry, direct to florists and also to the flower buying public.  Local delivery florists  must be  experiencing  a  very hard  time getting just the basic flowers they need to make their  floral designs . Even our free overnight grower direct flower delivery service is struggling to find some flowers that are usually normal stock. I can also imagine a lot of brides out there who are being disappointed with the non-availability of their  event flowers, as well as other event and special occasion flower requirements.

One of the very interesting aspects of this downturn in local flower production (we are in the Dandenong Ranges / Yarra Valley Horticultural area east of Melbourne Victoria) is that the same problem is being replicated throughout the major flower growing areas of Australia.

One of our specialised event and wedding florists in Queensland made a special trip into the wholesale flower market in Brisbane to get some extra flowers for her event this weekend after we had called to advise that we would not be able to supply the flowers she had ordered. Soon after getting home from the market she gave us a call and said she then knew what we were talking about when we said there were no flowers around, as there were nearly no flowers at the market and what was there looked a bit sad.

This report from Queensland follows from a report back from a local rose grower earlier in the week, after he ventured into the National Flower Centre at the Melbourne Markets. He had made the trip into the big smoke to see if any of the other rose growers had many flowers and to see what the quality looked like. Not amazingly after he returned from market and was having a chat with us he said he was stunned at the lack of flowers. A couple of buckets of tulips, a few second grade lilies here and there, a general lack of first grade flowers and almost all the trucks and trolleys being mostly empty. The difference from what is usual is that there is usually hundreds of buckets and boxes of flowers and thousands of bunches across the market, most of which is usually of a reasonable quality.

This is not an isolated incident. There is usually a very big supply of flowers in spring time – the Spring flush. As thesunshine levels rise, the days get longer and temperatures increase there is usually a huge oversupply, as all of the plants flower madly and the crops speed up. This didn’t happen last year. The decreasedproduction levels usually experienced in Winter, due to less light and cooler temperatures, lasted through Spring and almost intosummertime.

So where have all the flowers gone? Have the seasons changed? I am not certain of what is happening overseas, but most certainly there has been a change and it is affecting the Australian cut flower industry. Stay tuned as we follow the happenings with the Australian flower market.