May is usually the best month for florists, Mother’s Day being a big reason. But Donald Trump’s tariff war is raining pain on their bestselling season.
Pierson’s Flower Shop and Greenhouse in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, expects customers to dial back on purchases because of higher prices forced by tariffs.
“We ship a lot from Europe, we ship a lot from down south, South America,” shop owner Al Pierson told KCRG, a local television station. “Everything’s being affected.”
It’s not like mass rose production can be brought to the U.S. Nearly 80% of cut flowers sold here must be imported. That’s because the U.S. lacks the weather patterns to support a year-round flower industry of significant size.
Colombia and Ecuador do. The high-altitude Andes Mountain range, with a year-round temperate climate, provides ideal growing conditions. The Andean Trade Preference Act of 1991 set off a South American boom in flower exports. (And wouldn’t we prefer that those farmers grow roses rather than the coca plants used to make cocaine?)
Before then, fresh roses were more of a luxury product. Consider that in 1989, a dozen long-stemmed roses in a vase were priced between $118 and $170 in today’s dollars. Last May, they averaged $90, and roses sold for a lot less at many supermarkets, though they were not long-stemmed and a vase wasn’t included.
Thanks to this trade, ordinary Americans have also enjoyed tropical houseplants. Hawaii is the only state sitting squarely within the tropics.
At his recent gathering in Omaha, investment wizard Warren Buffett opined against the trade war for weakening the economy and, not unrelated, creating a world that likes us less.
“We should be looking to trade with the rest of the world,” Buffett told the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, “and we should do what we do best, and they should do what they do best.”
The Scottish economist Adam Smith voiced that idea almost 250 years ago. Father of classical free-market theory, Smith wrote: “By means of glasses, hotbeds, and hot walls, very good grapes can be raised in Scotland. Would it be a reasonable law to prohibit the importation of all foreign wines, merely to encourage the making of claret and burgundy in Scotland?”
Trump’s broad and brainless tariffs — made more toxic by his and J.D. Vance’s vulgar insults against other countries — have turned our trading partners against the products that we do best. Canada and other countries, for example, are boycotting the wines that California, Oregon and Washington are especially suited to making.
The U.S. heartland has long been a powerhouse in growing and exporting soybeans, corn, wheat, pork and dairy products. And most of those exports have gone to Mexico, Canada, China and other Asian countries. But Trump’s tariff crusade is ruining those relationships, sending U.S. farmers into crisis mode.
His 145% tariff on Chinese goods prompted China to retaliate with a 125% levy on American products. Thus, in one week last month, China cut its soybean orders by more than 97%. China has just done its biggest cancellation of pork products since the COVID-19 pandemic.
And for all the beefing over imports from Mexico, it’s important to note that Mexico last year displaced China as the biggest foreign market for American farm exports.
Tariffs have caused bridal boutiques to raise gown prices by up to 30%, according to industry experts. Tariff-caused inflation now has brides downgrading from roses to cheaper carnations.
As for Mother’s Day roses, many more mothers will this year be doing without.
“I’m planning on a recession, so I’ve cut my ordering, I’m cutting everything,” florist Pierson said.
So are a lot of businesses across the U.S. And for no good reason.