As flowers fill the Posie Peddler ahead of Mothers’ Day, colors are exploding inside the Saratoga shop this spring.

“I love the peonies this season,” owner Tim Healy said.

What You Need To Know

  • There is a global shortage of fresh flowers, especially the kinds grown for events like weddings

  • Nearly a quarter of a million floral industry jobs were lost in 2020, according to the National Association of Wholesale Distributors

  • Flower farms destroyed tons of flowers due to the pandemic, since many of them shut down for quarantine.

”This one’s only available a month out of the year,” floral designer Tina Dalaba said. “When Boronia is available, you know it’s spring!"

It’s been a busy year, and the owner says it never really slowed down in business even during the pandemic.

“A lot of society put their lives into perspective after the pandemic,” Healy said.

“A lot of people couldn’t see people, so they started sending them flowers of course,” Dalaba said. “A lot of people sent flowers to places like hospitals, and even wanted to spruce up their Zoom backgrounds!”

The Saratoga business has been around for more than a century. It has been family owned since 1910, and Healy just purchased the shop from the family last year during an unprecedented time. He says he hopes to keep the long-standing traditions of the shop alive.

“I think quality and price are paramount above anything else because it’s not something that’s going to last forever,” Healy said. “So when it is living, you want to look as nice as possible.”

But maintaining quality and price can be difficult as the cost of flowers surge, and a worldwide shortage looms. There is a global shortage of fresh flowers, especially the kinds grown for events like weddings. Healy says it was a direct impact from the pandemic. Flower farms destroyed tons of flowers due to the pandemic, since many of them shut down for quarantine.

“They were cutting them all and throwing them out, because they couldn’t do anything with them and then later on, they didn’t have the workforce to plant the next crop,” he said.

Nearly a quarter of a million floral industry jobs were lost in 2020, according to the National Association of Wholesale Distributors. Unfortunately, the pandemic wiped out entire flower farms all across the globe, as the demand rises with the wedding boom. And the hits just keep coming with supply chain issues and gas prices.

“Not only gas for our delivery drivers, but as well of a charge that the wholesalers have to put on top of their regular delivery charge to deliver the flowers,” he said.

Luckily, with a cooler full of flowers blooming, Healy says he hasn’t felt much the much of the shortage because he works with local wholesalers in the Capital Region.

“Not only are you going to get what you want, but you’re also supporting local families and local businesses,” he said.

This season, he’s making sure he’s stocked up and ready to be pushing petals out the door, just in time for a record-breaking year.

“One thing I’ve never had to worry about is not being busy enough,” Healey said. “We can accommodate the high end and we can accommodate the low end. We feel like everyone should be privy to flowers if they want them.”