LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — The cost of keeping that flame burning this Valentine's Day will be a little higher than in previous years.
"It's about $20 more per dozen," said Ruth Babcock, who runs Carol Lynn Originals in Lexington.
Carol and Lynn were Ruth's parents, and in all the years of doing this work, Ruth said she's never seen a supply and pricing issue like we're having now. She said it's attributed to the peak COVID-19 months.
"It all started in 2020. Because people couldn't work, or they couldn't find people to work, things didn't get planted as much as they needed to be, and they didn't have people to cut the flowers or process all the crops," she said.
Now we're seeing those problems from two years ago manifest in higher prices. And it's not just flowers.
"It's everything. We're having a hard time finding baskets, vases, everything," Amber Stone said. Amber helps at Oram's Flowers, a long-standing family business.
"Some of it is supply chain, some of it is, you can't get it here on the trucks or planes. And it all trickles down from COVID," Stone added.
Ruth and Amber said they've had to take a little bit of a loss to the bottom line because they can only go so high when pricing a dozen roses before pricing too many people out. So while a greater than $20 increase could've been justified, they tried to keep it to around a $10/dozen spike.
"The good news is the quality is still good, so we're hoping everyone who receives flowers (from us) really loves them," Babcock said.
