HONOLULU (KHON2) — Flower shops on Oahu are bracing for another wave of demand with May Day, Mother’s Day, prom and graduation season all around the corner.
Prices are starting to reflect the pressure with rising demand and tariff concerns growing.
It is peak season at Beretania Florist. April was already busy for flower shops with Easter and the Merrie Monarch Festival. Reece Farinas said they are now pivoting to May Day, Mother’s Day and a flood of orders for graduations.
“The parents that we’re talking to, the parents, grandparents, they’re really going out, all out to give their kids that experience that they missed four years ago,” said Farinas, Beretania Florist sales & marketing director.
COVID canceled proms and graduations for many families back in 2020, now those same students are college seniors and while families are not holding back, moms come first and there is still time for custom orders.
“If you know the specific flower to be used, or some requested color or something, it’s one week advance but yeah, we have plenty of fresh flowers coming through the next week,” said Hanapua Flowers owner Yuki Akana.
Akana said she has seen tariffs add as much as 8% to some of her orders with most of our flower supply coming from South America.
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“Ecuador and Colombia, they grow really, really nice flowers. And we, we lean into that a lot because they have beautiful things,” Farinas said. “There’s just the implication of tariffs, of course. It’s just something that’s unavoidable.”