Bend flower shop copes with Mother’s Day challenges amid nationwide flower shortage

Holiday again makes for busy times, with added issues -- and higher prices

BEND, Ore, (KTVZ) -- Bend flower shops are busy, of course, as Mother's Day is right around the corner. But the businesses also are struggling, as the nation faces a flower shortage after the pandemic put some growers out of business, and others can't find enough workers.

Cascade Garden Florist in Bend said Thursday hey have over 100 orders for Mother's Day. They get their flowers from a warehouse in Portland that fortunately is keeping up with demands. S the shop says they're making do with what they have.

However, a floral designer says the price of flowers has gone up due to the shortage. The warehouses that local shops buy their supply from are charging more.

Cascade Garden Florist says the increase can be $1 per flower which in turn raises the price of flowers for regular consumers.

Lindsay Leyva, a floral designer, says the reasons for the shortage and higher prices stem from a lack of workers and the pandemic in general.

"We definitely see the price of flowers increasing, and that's kind of what's going on," she said. "Everything is just kind of going up, and getting people to be employed -- and everything going up and everything going on in the world."

Cascade Garden Florist has been locally owned for 30 years. They say they're grateful to still be up and running during this time.

"It means a lot and, we're super grateful to still be able to work with our great warehouses and suppliers and to just kind of keep the business rolling. It's super important to us," Leyva told NewsChannel 21.

Other Bend flower shops were too busy with Mother's Day demands to comment. They say that they, too, are managing during the shortage, but that prices are increasing.