Mother's Day Flower Orders Skyrocket As Industry Urges Home-Grown Support

Florists have urged people to support Australian-made growers for Mother's Day, buying locally-grown flowers in a bid to support the industry.

It's one of their busiest days of the years, and with orders up around 200% - florists say their is a key logistics issue.

Michael Van Der Zwet runs a flower farm in Victoria, explaining how production costs have skyrocketed since the pandemic - highlighting the importance of buying home-grown bouquets.

"Some of the production costs like natural gas .. a big production cost that has been on the increase has been basic fertiliser," he said.

"Most of the fertiliser is manufactured and produced overseas at additional freight costs. And there's been a shortage, because Ukraine produces a lot of fertiliser."

The industry is undoubtedly bouncing back since the pandemic, yet it faces new obstacles amid rising costs and import. 

Sally Byrne from Bendigo's Mitchell Street Florist said approaching Mother's Day, online orders were p 30%.

"We're working seven days a week anyway, so we're quite a busy florist here. But we need our Valentine's Day and we need our Mother's Day," she told the ABC.

"We pre-order four to six weeks in advance. You put on a good half a dozen extra staff. It's quite busy, so everything could be three, four times busier than the normal."

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