The Tasmanian commercial flower industry experienced some dire weeks following the initial COVID-19 outbreak but is now seeing a rush in sales which are predicted to rise in the lead up to Mother's Day.
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It still, however, continues to be a challenging time, with one Northern rose grower raising concerns about the rose supply on May 10.
At the start of the pandemic, growers were struck by a glut in demand as florists halved their orders or closed down, but florists and wholesalers now report a rush for online home deliveries while growers report a triple-growth in sales compared to four weeks ago.
Outside Wholesale Flowers manager Andy Heyward, of Launceston, who supplies several North West florists, said supply was back to normal this week.
"There was a stage where it was really quiet, the growers couldn't even really give away flowers for those two weeks, then all of a sudden it really, really picked up. Foot traffic sales have been replaced by home deliveries ... everyone is run off their feet."
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For rose grower Steve Klimeck this rush for fresh-cut flowers, which is a national trend, has contributed to a rose shortage.
Mr Klimeck said international fresh flower imports from Africa and South America, that account for around 90 per cent of the rose supply in Australia, ceased arriving into the country around Easter.
He said this has not only created supply issues for roses, with existing Australian rose growers unable to fill the 90 per cent supply void but also led to interesting dilemmas about the future of the import flower industry and how local growers should respond.
"We had florists reporting that they normally send out 10 to 12 deliveries with couriers and are now sending out 80 to 90 orders with couriers," he said.
"I've already sold my Mother's Day crop because it disappeared out the door in the last couple of weeks. This will create a bit of a shortage in my natural production curve ... we have had to rework [our supply] around how we get some extra product to customers for next week."
Flowerdale Flowers owner Rob Sadler said a major positive for consumers during this time is the guarantee that flowers bought now would either be Australian or Tasmanian grown. He too has experienced a rise in sales compared to a month ago.
"I am still worried about what happens after Mother's Day if demand falls away again. It will remain volatile until after this whole thing ends. True stability in the market will only return when people are socialising again."
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