Florists are struggling to get flowers this year as the pandemic jeopardizes supply, which means getting a bouquet for your bae might be harder than normal come Valentine's Day.
"It's hard to get anything," Shannon Whelan, owner of Euclid Farms, told blogTO. "I'm so used to being able to guarantee things but now I'm up at night worried what I can do. I'm terrified of disappointing a customer." Her comment comes after the owner of flower shop Sweetpea's refused to participate in Valentine's Day this year, calling it "physically, mentally and emotionally draining."
As Whelan and Rose Emporium owner Isa Montagnese explained to blogTO, their usual import sources for fresh flowers from South America and the U.S. have been disrupted because of the pandemic.
"At the very beginning of the pandemic - all of April – I had no roses. I had none. It was totally surreal. For the first time ever this store was everything but roses," said Montagnese.
And while things have gotten better since the borders reopened there are still a lot of supply issues because farms and greenhouses are operating at half capacity to avoid COVID outbreaks. The result is a lot of inconsistency with products.