Growers, importers, wholesalers and supermarket floral centers are reporting strong sales for the April and May holidays.

Nick Fronduto, chief operating officer for Jacobson Floral Supply in Boston, summed it up when he told The Produce News, “The lingering winter in the Northeast, combined with a later Easter, resulted in softer sales in March leading into the Passover-Easter timeframe. However, sales were very robust for Mother’s Day and exceeded expectations, leading to a healthy net positive overall.”

On the supermarket floral side, Bradley Gaines, director of floral for United Supermarkets/Market Street in Lubbock, TX, told The Produce News that it had a fairly successful holiday.

“We were up 12.7 percent overall, with same-store sales up 9.25 percent,” said Gaines. He also said that the product received was beautiful and everything worked out in United’s favor this year.

Flower importers and shippers in Miami also noted strong sales and a good market.

A Hy-Vee floral center ready for Mother’s Day customers.“We’ve had one of best holidays in years” said Mark Dubner, director of sales for Connectaflor in Miami. “With Easter being so late, the market never had a chance to breathe, so product was very tight and pricing was, and continues to be, strong. In fact, the Monday after Mother’s Day was our largest dollar open market sales day of 2014. That tells me that our customers also sold out and were looking to reload,” Dubner said.

Another Miami importer, Eric Fernandez, director of mass markets and business development for Continental Flowers, told The Produce News, “We were up eight percent over the same period in 2013. There was a shortage of products, especially carnations, alstroemerias and some colored roses, so prices were higher than expected.”

However, Continental was still able to fill all of its pre-booked orders.

West Coast California growers also reported favorable sales. Robert Echter, president of Dramm & Echter in Encinitas, CA, told The Produce News that business for the spring holidays was very strong.

“We were fortunate, timing was good on our lily crop, which is a big item for us, and almost to the day we hit the crop on time. And the gerberas were pretty much their normal, which is good, because we sell a lot of them. We were pleased with the crops,” said Echter.

Robert Kitayama, chief executive office and president of Kityama Bros. in Watsonville, CA, told The Produce News that April was great this year since it combined Easter and Administrative Professionals Day through the beginning of the Mother’s Day period.

“Mother’s Day 2014 was one of the most challenging Mother’s Days we have experienced,” said Kityama. “Our usual problem is demand, this year the issue was supply — not the supply of flowers, but the supply of labor to handle the flowers. Mother’s Day came at the same period when strawberries, and several other crops, were starting to harvest and every grower was scrambling for pickers. Immigration laws and fewer available workers created a bidding war for the scarce applicants. The labor shortage, coupled with three days of 90-degree heat, had our crews working much longer than usual to keep up with the huge demand this holiday,” Kitayama said.

“We had some record days of sales, but we might have had even bigger days if we could have cut everything. It was a good Mother’s Day and we were approximately six percent above last year,” said Kitayama.

He added that, just like water, labor will continue to be an issue in California and it will require creative solutions for a successful future.