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This is Part Two of a four part Answer to Laid Back Bride's question.

I tackled the availability of the peony. Now let's find out about ranunculus.

 Supply and Demand

Believe it or not, some of these spring blooms are starting to become more available. Many years ago, you couldn't find a tulip in summer, fall or winter. Now, because of technology and an increase in popularity, you can find tulips almost year round and at a reasonable prices.

Another wonderful flower, the hydrangea, is also being mass produced and you can now get cream hydrangeas almost year round. It has only become more reasonable in the last two years.

When I first started in 2001, imported cream hydrangea were so pricey but as more and more farms went into development, the cream hydrangeas that I can get these days are the same cost as some locally grown hydrangeas. This is quite a change from previous years.

So, as a flower becomes more requested and generally, in demand, growers will begin looking for new methods to cultivate them. My belief is that ranunculus is the next mini calla and tulip, and you will start seeing wholesalers investing in them.

Bottom line: the more floral designers and retail florists start requesting ranunculus, the better for everyone.

Relent to Buy - are you willing to take the risk?
For the time being, until a wholesaler is willing to order imported South American ranunculus, it is up to individual floral designers and consumers to decide whether they want to bear the responsibility and the risk for ordering direct from a farm.

What is preventing wholesalers from ordering from these farms?

I cannot answer for sure, but part of it has to do with consistency and reliability. It is reasonable to say that most businesses are careful about their reputation. And if wholesalers genuinely care about their reputation, then it makes sens that they don't want to be known for being unreliable.

Let's say a whole bunch of floral designers request ranunculus during an off season month like September. If a wholesaler takes the order and then doesn't fill them, these floral designers are not going to be very unhappy and they will be less willing to continue to order flowers with this wholesaler - right? No business wants to known for inconsistency or unreliability. I strongly believe this is preventing many wholesalers from ordering imported ranunculus from South America.

The second reason why I think most wholesalers are reluctant to order these ranunculus is simply about profitability. The bottom line is this - the current cost for ranunculus is just too much.

Quoting from one online resource that offers fall ranunculus from South America, the cost per stem for roughly 100 stems is roughly $1.75 a stem. If the wholesaler has to markup the flowers, let's say they do a very low marking and make a quarter per stem. That means the per stem cost is $2.00 per stem.

If a regular bunch of ranunculus has roughly 10 stems, that bunch would wholesale for $20.00/bunch which is 3 to 5 times the normal cost during spring time shipments. How many floral designers are willing to buy a bunch at this inflated cost?

That answer is easy - not many!!! I'm sure you get my point here.

The reality is this - the current cost for these fall ranunculus are set very high. The quality is also not as good as the spring, locally grown ranunculus, as one of my wholesalers has already told me. High cost, low demand for these out of season crops, and inconsistencies have prevented ranunculus from being a year round flowers in mass. There might be a farm here and then that might produce some, but when you are trying to fulfill the needs of hundreds, thousands of potential brides, the demand outnumbers the supply currently.

If you as a floral designer want to take the chance, I think you can and should. If you as the bride want to risk it, I don't see why you couldn’t. Remember a few things:

1) Order more than you need
2) Make sure you have a backup plan
3) Accept the costs

One last thing, I put a photo of an all ranunculus bouquet that was featured in Martha Stewart. Just so you know how many stems were possibly in that all red bouquet - I would estimate 60 Red Ranunculus. And it's not that large. Look at the ti leaves in relation. If you noted what I stated above for off season Ranunculus, you will need 60 stems just to create that bridal bouquet. At $1.75 a stem at wholesale(not retail), total cost(not include the floral supplies or ti leaves) = $105.00 for one bridal bouquet at cost. Can you imagine what the retail cost would be?

If you are a floral designer, what would you charge for this off season bouquet?

Top Image courtesy of Martha Stewart
Bottom Image. Boutonniere by Nancy Liu Chin, Photo by Richard Wood