It would seem that the bloom is off the rose – so to
speak – for florists where poinsettias are concerned. In the words of
florist Neville MacKay (My Mother’s Bloomers in Halifax), poinsettias
have become a market commodity.
“When it’s gotten to the point where a product is insulted by being shoved onto grocery store shelves or sold out of gas stations, the shine wears off,” MacKay says.
 With poinsettias available almost everywhere for the Christmas season, My Mother’s Bloomers doesn’t bother to stock many any more. “If a client wants poinsettias from us, we can go and buy them for him at the grocery store and still sell them for a slight profit.”
For one client, MacKay did order three cases of poinsettias from a chain store. Each case contained six 7" plants, he says. Four of them were dead within three or four days. The poor quality of the product in recent years is another reason My Mother’s Bloomers is staying away from poinsettias, MacKay notes.
“We had other plants that sold better for Christmas,” MacKay says. On the other side of the country in Victoria, Ballantyne’s Florist’s Joyce Fairbairn also noted the difficulty of competing with chain stores in selling poinsettias. “Our sales of poinsettias were down 15 per cent this season over the year before,” she says. “Because they are everywhere, they aren’t so special anymore. And a lot of other places sell them for less than we can afford to sell them for.”
She says that Ballantyne’s Florist focused more on selling orchids and spring bulbs during the Christmas season. “Orchids last longer than poinsettias,” she adds. Lucille Thrones, the owner of A&H Flowers and Crafts in Edmonton, complained about the quality of her poinsettias. “Our second order was fine, but our first batch were mildewed,” she reported. “We received a lot of complaints. We are still dealing with a complaint from a customer who bought poinsettias from us in early December.”
A&H Flowers’ poinsettia sales were down from the year before, Thrones reports. “We didn’t order as many this past season. We can’t compete in price points with the grocery chains and big box stores.”
The issue of quality can work in a florist’s favour though. In Saskatoon, for example, Jana Ellis reports that poinsettia sales in her Bill’s House of Flowers were up about 20 per cent this year. She speculates that perhaps shoppers weren’t happy with the quality of the product the grocery stores were offering.
And in Winnipeg, Irene Sieman of the Academy Florist chain reports that poinsettia sales were better this past season than the year before.
“But sales will never be back the way they were before the chain stores got involved,” she says.
Ken Bolt reports Brant Florist’s poinsettia sales in Burlington, Ontario, and neighbouring communities were up a little and Peter Pinkerton, president of Pinkerton Flowers Ltd. (with shops in Montreal and Ottawa), notes that his flower shops’ poinsettia sales were
similar to the results from previous years.
Back in the Maritimes, Brad DeWare (MacArthur’s Flower Shop in Moncton) reports that his poinsettia sales were down about 10 per cent due to a combination of poor quality and stiff competition from mass merchandisers.
Robert Howse says that he only brought in 300 plants for his Howse of Flowers in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and he had 30 left at the end of the season. “We cut back some,” he says. “We found that hospitals and nursing homes weren’t ordering as many because of concerns about allergies.”
While red continues to be the most popular colour, several of the florists surveyed cite the Plum Pudding variety as one that piqued the public’s interest.
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