The floral industry is a complex business. The complexity begins with the fact that growing flowers is a type of farming and flowers are difficult to grow, handle and ship.

Also, flowers are very perishable. The timing of arrival from the grower to florists or consumers is critical.

The floral industry is highly competitive and becoming more so as a result of the Internet and other communication and shipping technologies. The trend is that larger florists and growers have an advantage over smaller ones.

The number of local florists is decreasing while the sales of flowers is increasing. This is due in part to the relatively recent ability of flower growers to sell directly to consumers. This ability has been created mostly by the Internet because Fed Ex, UPS and DHL are highly efficient and reliable.

In general this is very good for consumers. Here are some benefits to consumers from the heavy competition to sell flowers:

Prices for flowers tend to stay lower when there is a lot of competition

Levels of service from florists and growers of flowers tends to stay high with more competition

Florists and other growers of fresh flowers work hard to give you more choices types of flowers and arrangements to stand out from the crowd

Flower growers work very hard to produce the best possible flowers and exotic varieties of flowers to stand out

Buying flowers is generally much more convenient today than it was ten years ago

ﾠ