Most of my designs are created with multiple varieties of flowers, and the blooms come from multiple sources. I am a true flower addict, I need and expect to have perfect blooms when I begin to create my designs. Obtaining my favorites has become increasingly more difficult and it nearly makes me insane. Thankfully I am relentless and I am willing to work with up to 5 wholesalers a week to get my babies, but I often feel like a beggar.

Due to the many tragic things that have been happening in our country and abroad there is a serious reduction in product.  The economy, floods, volcanoes, coups, it all has a huge impact. To my knowledge I have never let a bride down, but the begging for goods is getting very intense. Each week when the flowers arrive there are disappointments, errors, or missing blooms. It’s just part of the business but rather than make do with the blooms I am given, I always go back into pursuit of exactly what I was looking for. This makes Wednesdays the flower arrival day, my beg, borrow, and steel day.

I am blessed with wholesalers who try their absolute hardest to get me my flowers and quite honestly due to the size of my shop I normally get what I want. In other words I am a force no one wants to reckon with, if I was a smaller shop or designer who only did one little wedding a weekend I may not be able to get the flowers I had requested. Brides and clients everywhere need to understand that their is definitely a flower shortage.

Last night as I watched my husband put new plants into the ground, I seriously wondered if there would be a time where there would be no flowers. For the first time in 24 years my little property produced no lilac, and the peonies are looking less than bountiful as well.

Image 1- Kate Headley, 2- The Observatory, 3-Kristen Gardener, 4- Justine Ungaro, 5- Ron jones.