PIERSON, Fla. – Mother’s Day is just around the corner, and in Pierson — known as the fern capital of the world — farm workers are racing to harvest the greens that will fill bouquets across the country. About 80% of the greenery found in floral bouquets sold in the U.S. and Canada comes from Volusia County.
But for the farmers growing it, this year’s holiday rush comes with an unusually heavy burden.
A January freeze left farms with significant crop losses, and the cost of doing business — fuel, fertilizer, labor and even shipping boxes — has climbed sharply.
[WATCH: Freezing weather threatens Pierson fern farms]
David Register, with Fern Trust Inc., says the farm is a family business he is fighting to keep alive. He says the holiday revenue is critical — and the margin for error is razor-thin.
“Right now, we’re in a bit of a crunch window because stuff is getting ready for Mother’s Day, but because labor is in short supply, we’re having a hard time getting everything harvested,” Register said.
The January cold snap didn’t just damage plants — it cost the farm sales during two key holidays.
“We lost some Easter Day sales and in that time between Easter and Mother’s Day because stuff wasn’t getting ready quite soon enough to do that,” he said.
Now, with Mother’s Day approaching, Register says farms are doing their best to make up for lost time and lost product — but the financial hit is already done.
One of the more frustrating realities of the fern farming business, Register explains, is how pricing works.
Farms lock in contract prices with wholesalers across the U.S. and Canada well in advance. When the cost of doing business spikes, farmers can’t pass that increase along.
“We’re basically having to eat a lot of those because the pricing for the holiday is already set and our customers have sent their prices out to their customers,” Register said.
That means even as consumers pay more for bouquets at stores and flower shops this Mother’s Day, the farms themselves won’t see that extra money. Register says price increases at the retail level are driven by the middleman — not by any additional earnings for the growers.
With many farms not expecting a financial surplus from this year’s holiday sales, Register warns the situation could push some operations over the edge.
“It pushes farms to being right on the brink, to where if anything else goes wrong, they won’t be here. So, now what’re we coming up into? Hurricane season,” Register said.