Red roses at the New Covent Garden Flower Market.
Since the Brexit, the Pound Sterling dropped in value against the Dollar and the Euro. It increases the flower prices, but according to Evans, it did not withhold florists to buy flowers. "Despite the fact that florists are realizing how expensive the flowers are, they are still buying them. Till this morning it was very busy, probably as busy as previous years", says Evans. "So, if we did not step out of Europe, we would have had even better sales", she adds.
And this high demand for flowers might also be the result from the fact that this year's Valentine's Day falls on a Tuesday. "Weekdays are always better."
There were some products that stood out this year. According to Evans, the large stems roses were in high demand. "Over the years, increasingly more florists are asking for these large stem roses. For this Valentine's Day florists ordered red rose with a stem length of 1,5 meter. It caught the eye of many other florists, who did not order them, but were eager to buy them."
Besides that, the red anemones from Italy also attracted the attention as the supply was lower than usual. "Italians had to deal with heavy snowfall which affected their crop. Therefore, the red anemones were quite scarce, which drove up the prices."
For more information
New Convent Garden Flower Market
Helen Evans
Email: helen.evans@cgma.co.uk
www.newcoventgardenmarket.com