Mother’s Day is just two days away, but if you are trying to purchase flowers last minute, you might be out of luck.
If you call several area florists, their answering machines will tell you they’re no longer receiving orders at this time. Shops have run out, or are running out, of supplies.
Albert’s Florist and Wilder Floral Co., both in San Luis Obispo, are doing contactless deliveries for Mother’s Day. For Asha Renew, owner of Wilder Floral Co., she uses local farms for her resources and says several of them have shortages, and that’s led to a downturn in the amount of arrangements she can create.
“Our sales are down 76% this year,” said Renew. “Usually, we sell out a day before Mother’s Day. This year, we sold out seven days before Mother’s Day because the amount we can take on is so different. For Mother’s Day each year, we provide flowers to 250-350 families. This year, the max that we could take on was 18-20 deliveries.”
Albert’s Florist, in their 40th year of business, stopped taking orders on Thursday for Mother’s Day, but the staff is doing their best to stay on top of the flood of requests already in-house.
“We are doing our best to deliver as many as we could. Some of them, we had to say no because we cannot handle it anymore. But we are trying to do the best that we can for our mothers,” said Barkev Abadjian, owner of Albert’s Florist.
Renew is the only one working at Wilder Floral Co. right now due to COVID-19 concerns, but she’s sticking to keeping her products in the style her customers expect.
“I feel really bad that we’re going to be disappointing so many of our amazing customers,” Renew said. “I’m doing my best to get my message out that we’re doing as much as we can, but it’s very different this year. We want to be able to deliver that wilder, lush style. We didn’t want to have to change that.”
“We’ve been trying to support Asha, having known her throughout this. Flowers bring joy, not just on Mother’s Day; it’s nice to have them other times,” said Alyssa LaBrado, a San Luis Obispo resident. “That’s something that we all could use more of right now. That brightness in your house, and that brightness of knowing that someone thought about you and sent you flowers.”
Albert’s Florist says they will be taking orders for delivery on Monday once they’re caught up on Mother’s Day deliveries.
Adelaide Floral in Templeton is taking new orders on flowers, candles, and gifts, while providing safe deliveries.