Some vendors are charging $20 or more per bouquet.
STOCKTON, Calif. — The price of a Mother’s Day bouquet may feel steeper this year, and flower vendors say there’s a reason for that.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports that more than $250 million worth of cut flowers are brought into the U.S. for Mother’s Day. However, due to new tariffs implemented by the Trump administration, a $25 million tax will now be applied to these imports, putting strain on local flower sellers.
Jocelyn Arana from Paty’s Flowers, a flower shop in Stockton, expressed, “This is the time when we make most of our profit. There are days in the year when business is slow, but holidays like these attract more customers to us.”
Paty’s Flowers has four booths set up across San Joaquin County for Mother’s Day weekend. At each one, customers are noticing the difference.
Customer Tirrell Butler noted, “It appears that prices have increased significantly. The cost of flowers is around $40 even for a small arrangement, so it seems like everything has gotten more expensive.”
Butler brought his children to buy a gift for their mom. They ended up walking out with a stuffed animal as an alternative.
Andrea Nederostek, another customer, agreed.
“I’ve noticed an increase for sure,” Nederostek said. “Today, I got these for a pretty good price, though.”
Vendors say the higher costs stem from their suppliers. Many of the flowers come from South America and the Trump-era 10% baseline tariff on foreign imports continues to affect pricing.
“The Ecuadorian flowers are the best pick… because they last very long, they’re very beautiful, they smell amazing and they’re just fresh,” Arana said. “They’ve risen about $20 per bouquet.”
In Lodi, a vendor of three years, Maria Lara said she’s seen prices spike even more.
“Now they’re way too high,” Lara said in Spanish. “The bouquets we sold for $100 (last year), now we sell for $150. It’s very high, very.”
It’s not just the flowers. Materials like ribbon, tissue paper and card holders have also gone up.
“(Tissue paper has) gone up a couple of cents — not by a lot, but a couple of cents,” Arana said. “We like to put a lot of it so (bouquets) could look cute and put together.”
Lara, who sells the flowers in front of her ice cream shop “Neveria y Antojitos Lara,” said the price hike is enough to drive away some would-be customers. The price increase also made her second-guess whether she should invest in the flowers this year.
“They leave with nothing and say, ‘it’s a lot, it’s too much money and we don’t have enough to spend,” said Lara. “This price change was huge.”
Despite the pressure, vendors like Arana are urging customers to support small businesses through the holiday.
“I suggest come out and support businesses because a lot of businesses do struggle, especially small businesses, with the prices going up,” Arana said. “I hope that prices do end up going down so we can build up more customers and they can come and shop.”
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