No matter which day of the week the holiday falls on, or the weather outside, or the political party in office, Valentine’s Day remains a very busy and challenging holiday for the floral industry and 2015 was no different. It’s still too early to have the final results from all the various sectors, but a non-scientific survey of industry members gives some indication that holiday sales seemed relatively flat compared to 2014.

According to the Society of American Florists’ report on its “gut check” survey of member retail florists, 44 percent of the respondents reported a drop in sales for Valentine’s Day 2015 compared to last year and 17 percent said sales were flat. Many respondents blamed the weekend holiday — a historic challenge for the industry when floral gifts go head-to-head with weekend getaways and florists lose the advantage of workplace deliveries. But those numbers still indicate that 33 percent of respondents either saw improved sales or at least didn’t lose any ground.

On the mass-market side, it seemed the holiday was also not real strong in sales compared to 2014. Rita Peters, assistant vice president of floral at Hy-Vee in West Des Moines, IA, told The Produce News, “We thought we would be even with last year, but ended up down just slightly.” Cindy Overland, floral manager at Hy-Vee in Albert Lea, MN, gave the same type of report. “Going into the weekend we were going strong, but when Saturday hit, about 1 p.m. in the afternoon, it was like they took a switch and just went ‘click’ and it was all over,” said Overland. “It was the cold weather; I don’t think it was the Saturday holiday.”

Susan DeMuth, manager of floral merchandising at SpartanNash in Edina, MN, agreed. “We were looking for a slight increase over last year, but we ended up flat compared to last year. The cold weather on Saturday seemed to keep people away,” DeMuth said. Minnesota experienced a brutally cold Valentine’s Day this year, the coldest since 1943.

But it wasn’t all bad news for the retail sector. Don Swenson, vice president of operations at Bachman’s Inc. in Minneapolis, MN, shared in a phone interview, “The business with a weekend fall is never going to be as strong as we would like it to be. Our grocery store partners [Lund’s and Byerly’s] actually did pretty well. Bottom line — we are happy, we cleaned up really nicely and we ran a very efficient holiday.”

Weekend Valentine’s Days also present challenges for the supply side of the industry, but it seems that 2015 had some bright experiences. Koehler & Dramm Wholesale Florist in Minneapolis, MN, expected they would be down up to 10 percent from 2014 and did its planning accordingly. But as the holiday developed, company president Lee Spence said that sales exceeded its projections. “Our rose sales were strong and we had to FedEx in extra roses on Thursday just to fill our orders,” Spence said. “We ended up within half a percent of our last year’s sales, and we cleaned down nicely. In addition, product quality was very good this year and we have had far fewer credits than we expected.”

Ken Wilkins, vice president of business development at Delaware Valley Floral Group in Sewell, NJ, echoed Spence’s comments when he told The Produce News, “The quality was above average for a holiday — it was a demand-driven rose market and the quality was outstanding.” Wilkins continued, “Yes we were delighted with the way the holiday turned out on all fronts. Our company has been growing, but we were only projecting a five and a half percent sales increase due to the Saturday holiday. We finished well above that, logistics ran smoothly, we had few credits, and the quality was terrific.” Wilkins did acknowledge that its stores in New England impacted sales slightly negatively due to the historic winter storms.

Farms and importers seemed to do well this Valentine’s holiday also. Connectaflor in Miami, FL, has only been operating under its new name for one year, but Mark Dubner, the company’s sales manager, told The Produce News, “Valentine’s Day this year was bigger than all the years under the Esmeralda brand. Production, product quality and logistics were great, credits are way down — it was a great holiday.”

Mike Hudson, sales representative at Mid-American Orchids in Granville, IL, shared that it also experienced improved sales this year. “Valentine’s Day went really well for us,” said Hudson. “In fact, we completely sold out of plants and had to pick up some more from our sister company.”

Although this is a limited review, it does reflect the reality that Valentine’s Day is still a very powerful floral holiday when consumers purchase millions of flowers. Considering all the forces trying to capture Valentine’s Day buying dollars, the crazy cold weather, and the fact that the holiday fell on a Saturday and everyone expected sales to be down, it appears that Valentine’s Day 2015 could be considered an overall success for the floral industry.