Beginning in early June, Ryan Ravenscroft spends a lot of time in his fields and greenhouse at Mare Brook Farm in Brunswick, cutting flower stems. He snips snapdragons, stocks, and delphiniums, placing them in 5 gallon buckets.
The blooming varieties change weekly in the growing season.
"It rained all week, and I spent all week out here in the mud picking tulips," Ravenscourt said. "Like thousands and thousands of tulips."
Ravenscroft wife and co-owner, Courtney Mongell, says tulips account for a quarter of their farm’s business.
"Tulips are our first opportunity to introduce a lot of folks to our family farm," Mongell said. "So if we have less less quantity, or we have less variety, or the the shipment comes later, that pushes our season."
Tulips are an early Spring crop, and planning for the harvest happens a year in advance. Ravenscroft already ordered 40,000 tulip bulbs from the Netherlands to plant in the fall for next year's harvest. But, he said, the final price isn’t set until just before they receive the order in late September. And President Trump’s tariffs on global imports will likely affect the price, which Mare Brook Farm either has to absorb, or pass on to customers.
"At the end of the day, you know, for 8 to 10 tulip stems," Mongell said. "They're not going to want to pay more than, you know, $20 to $25."
"There's going to be a max price," Ravenscroft said.
Tariffs have put the flower industry in an economic bind. Spring and summer are usually a busy time of year for Maine florists who typically rely on imported cut flowers to make arrangements for weddings, funerals and other special occasions. But President Trump’s ever-changing tariffs may start to disrupt that. 80% of cut flowers in the United States are imported from countries such as Ecuador, Colombia, and the Netherlands. And even for farmers who grow and sell local flowers, many bulbs, seeds, and other essentials, like glass vases are also imported.
Another challenge for Maine farmers: a short growing season. So florists like Eliza Gray, owner of Celadon Floral in Brunswick, rely on imported flowers from October through May.
"During the winter months, I source a lot of my flowers from the Dutch flower market," Gray said. "So there are flowers from all over the world. I could get flowers from Kenya, I could get flowers from Egypt, I could get flowers from Israel, and they are all coming to my wholesaler. So if every country has a different tariff, that's impacted."
Gray recently received an email from her wholesale flower supplier, notifying customers of 5% universal price hikes due to tariffs.
"I'm kind of just bracing myself for those prices to escalate," Gray said.
Amid the uncertainty, more florists might have to pivot to homegrown alternatives, like the Maine Flower Collective, a local cooperative of 45 growers and wholesale buyers in Maine.
Local florists place orders through the collective, or shop at a weekly summer markets.
Florist Kat Klein, owner of Flowers + Herb Florals, is shopping at the market ahead of her first wedding of the season. She said she tries to shop locally as much as possible, but wedding clients often want specific flowers, like roses, which are mostly imported from Colombia and Ecuador.
"I'm trying to not let [tariffs] change my pricing. But if things are way more expensive, I'll probably just have to make things smaller than normal," Klein said.
Others, like Gray, are trying to offset future price increases by notifying clients early.
"I updated my wedding contract a couple months ago to include a tariff clause," Gray said. "It's still not very specific, so I kind of cross that bridge when it comes, when I come to it, but at least that's a conversation that I am prepared to have."
"There's a high demand for local flowers, which is a great thing," said Sofia Oliver, the operations manager for the Maine Flower Collective. "And I think that you know, the tariffs causing pricing increases of imported product is going to put a bit more pressure on us to supply more product, but it's a good problem to have."
But in an already unpredictable industry that has to plan a season ahead, Oliver said that demand could be hard to meet.
"You're spending a whole lot of money up front when you're going into the off season, and then you don't know what the political, financial environment for folks is going to be like come springtime," Oliver said.
Many people consider flowers to be a luxury item, Oliver said. So when cutting costs, they might be the first to go.
