Tariffs could take the bloom off Mother’s Day flowers

Mother’s Day is a busy season for florists like Allison Krivachek of Hydrangea Bloom in Iowa, but this year, rising prices due to Donald Trump tariffs are forcing her to raise costs and see fewer orders.

Mother’s Day is busy season for American florists. But this year, there’s an added source of stress: President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, which are raising the prices of some flowers and causing some wary shoppers to pull back on spending. “We have to charge more, and it’s definitely affecting sales — which I totally get,” Allison Krivachek of Hydrangea Bloom in Tiffin, Iowa, told CNN. “People just don’t have the disposable income they used to.” Eighty percent of all cut flowers sold in the United States are imported from Colombia, Canada or Ecuador, according to the US Department of Agriculture. The majority of those flowers come from Colombia and Ecuador, where year-round growing climates support the floral industry. Those countries now face tariffs making it more expensive for their products to enter the United States. And Mother’s Day spending has dropped 14% among US shoppers as many are scaling back due to tariffs and economic concerns, according to a LendingTree survey. America imported approximately $2.26 billion worth of fresh-cut flowers in 2024, with Colombia accounting for 60% of the market and Ecuador following with 25%, according to US Census Bureau data. Debra Prinzing, founder of the Slow Flowers Society and a leading advocate for American-grown flowers, said the US floral industry was built to rely on imports.