The average wholesale price for a bunch of UK-grown sweet peas at New Covent Garden Market in late June 2025 reached £8.50, a 22 per cent increase on the same week in 2024, while Kenyan rose imports fell 14 per cent by volume compared to the previous year.
Cool-Season Crops Struggle as Heat Records Fall
British flower farmers are facing their most difficult summer in a decade. The Met Office confirmed that June 2025 was the hottest on record for England, with average temperatures 2.7°C above the 1991-2020 baseline. This sustained heat has accelerated the flowering cycle of cool-season staples, collapsing their market windows.
Growers at Spalding-based Parker’s Flowers reported that their peony harvest finished three weeks early. The same heat that pushed peonies out of season also stunted delphiniums, larkspur and campanula. Floret Farm, a major supplier to London florists, noted that their first flush of sweet peas lasted only six days instead of the usual two to three weeks.
The result is a bifurcated market: early-season crops are scarce and expensive, while heat-tolerant flowers such as zinnias, cosmos and sunflowers are arriving in abundance but at lower prices. Bridge Farm Group, the UK’s largest glasshouse grower, reported that their sunflower yields increased 18 per cent year-on-year, dragging spot prices down to 45p per stem at wholesale, the lowest summer figure since 2021.
“We have had to substitute British sweet peas and peonies with imported Peruvian stocks and Colombian asters in our key wedding contracts,” said Emma Davies, owner of Bloomsbury & Co, a south-west London florist. “Clients understand, but they are paying 30 per cent more for a hand-tied bunch than they would have two years ago.”
The heat is not the only factor. NFU data shows that energy costs for heated glasshouses remain 40 per cent above pre-2022 levels, forcing many growers to plant fewer cool-season crops in early spring. The combination of lower planted area and accelerated harvest has created a supply gap that imported flowers are only partially filling.
Airfreight Costs Reshape the Rose Market
The global rose trade, already under pressure from inflation and shifting consumer tastes, is undergoing a structural shift this summer. Royal FloraHolland auction data for June 2025 shows that the average price for a standard Ecuadorian Freedom rose at the Dutch auction fell to €0.38, down 9 per cent year-on-year, even as volumes declined.
This counterintuitive price drop is explained by a surge in lower-grade roses. Kenya Flower Council reported that Kenya’s rose exports to Europe fell 14 per cent by volume in the second quarter of 2025, but the value of those exports dropped 22 per cent, indicating a shift toward cheaper, shorter-stemmed varieties.
The culprit is airfreight. IATA figures show that air cargo rates from Nairobi to Amsterdam rose 8 per cent in June compared to the same month in 2024, driven by higher jet fuel costs and reduced passenger bellyhold capacity. To maintain margins, Kenyan growers are cutting stems shorter and shipping lower grades, which command lower prices at auction.
British retail florists are adapting. Grace & Thorne, a Manchester-based florist with three shops, has replaced standard imported roses in their weekly subscription boxes with garden roses sourced from Norfolk’s The Real Flower Company. The substitution means they pay £1.20 per stem instead of £0.60, but they report that customer retention has improved by 12 per cent since the switch, as subscribers value the longer vase life and stronger fragrance of British garden roses.
“We no longer stock any standard long-stem rose from Kenya or Ecuador in our retail fridges,” said Tom Finch, co-owner of Wild at Heart in Bristol. “The quality to price ratio no longer works. Our customers would rather buy fewer, better flowers that last a week than a dozen imported stems that wilt in three days.”
Dutch Auctions Signal a Shift Toward Grown-Not-Flown
The summer market at Royal FloraHolland is traditionally dominated by bulk imports from Africa, South America and Israel. But the auction data for June 2025 reveals a notable shift: the volume of regionally grown European flowers traded at the auction increased 11 per cent year-on-year, while non-European imports fell 7 per cent.
This is driven by two factors. First, the carbon footprint of flown flowers has become a purchasing criterion for a growing number of European supermarkets and florists. Albert Heijn, the Dutch supermarket chain, announced in May 2025 that 40 per cent of its fresh-cut flower volume would be sourced from within 1,000 km of its distribution centres by 2027. Second, the cost advantage of imported flowers has narrowed as airfreight and cold-chain logistics have become more expensive.
The auction data also shows a price premium for European-grown spray roses and chrysanthemums. A bunch of Dutch spray roses fetched €2.10 at the auction in June, compared to €1.70 for Kenyan-grown spray roses. The difference is smaller than the 30-40 per cent premium of two years ago, but the volume traded has tilted sharply toward European supply.
The trend is visible in the UK too. Flowers from the Farm, a collective of British flower growers, reported that its membership grew 15 per cent in the first half of 2025, reaching 1,200 growers. The collective’s online marketplace recorded a 32 per cent increase in sales for the month of June compared to the previous year, with the average order value rising to £64 from £52.
Wedding and Event Sector Faces Price Shock
The wedding and event sector is where the summer supply crunch is most acutely felt. UK Wedding Florist Association data indicates that the average cost of wedding flowers in June 2025 was £2,850, up 18 per cent from £2,410 in June 2024. This is not solely a function of higher flower prices; labour costs contributed significantly, with freelance floral assistants now charging £180-£220 per day, up from £150-£160 pre-pandemic.
Supply shortages are forcing substitutions at scale. Moody Blooms, a Hampshire-based wedding florist, reported that they replaced peonies with garden roses in 60 per cent of their June 2025 weddings, and used hydrangeas instead of delphiniums in 40 per cent. The substitution rate for sweet peas was even higher: 75 per cent of the weddings that requested sweet peas received a combination of trailing jasmine and small-headed spray roses.
The impact is not uniform. Destination weddings in the Cotswolds and Lake District, which often specify locally grown flowers, have seen the steepest increases, as local growers cannot keep pace with demand. The Cotswold Flower Company reported that they turned away 30 per cent of wedding enquiries in June 2025 due to insufficient stock, compared to 10 per cent in the previous year.
Wholesale Buyers Adjust Procurement Strategies
Wholesale buyers at markets such as New Covent Garden, Birmingham Wholesale Market and Manchester Smithfield Market are changing their procurement tactics to cope with the volatility. The most notable shift is the move toward longer-term contracts with growers, replacing the spot-market model that has dominated the sector.
Manchester Wholesale Flower Market reported that the share of sales conducted via pre-season contracts increased to 34 per cent in June 2025, up from 22 per cent in the same month in 2023. Buyers are committing to volumes and prices months in advance, trading flexibility for security. The contracts often include substitution clauses that allow growers to offer alternative varieties if the original crop fails.
On the import side, buyers are diversifying sourcing. New Covent Garden wholesalers report that the share of flowers sourced from Colombia, which has a counter-seasonal growing cycle to Europe and Kenya, grew to 18 per cent of summer imports, up from 12 per cent in 2024. Colombian growers have invested heavily in cold-chain logistics to airfreight direct to London, bypassing the Dutch auction system entirely.
“We have built direct relationships with three Colombian farms this year,” said Raj Patel, a trader at Covent Garden’s Carmen Flowers. “The quality is reliable, the price is stable, and we know the flowers are harvested, packed and flown within 48 hours. That gives us a product that can compete with Dutch-grown on freshness, if not on carbon footprint.”
What Florists Should Do This Summer
For retail florists navigating the summer 2025 market, the data suggests several actionable strategies. First, hedged procurement: split your purchasing across at least three channels — direct from local growers, via Dutch auctions, and through direct import contracts. No single channel is stable enough to rely on.
Second, menu engineering: update your flower menu at least weekly to reflect what is abundant and well-priced. The gap between the most expensive and the most affordable flowers is wider than usual. A July 2025 price comparison at New Covent Garden showed that a bunch of British-grown delphiniums sold for £14.50 while a bunch of British-grown sunflowers sold for £4.00. Florists who can pivot their designs toward the lower-cost flowers will maintain margins.
Third, communicate substitution clearly with customers. Bloomsbury & Co found that when they explained that heat had shortened the season for sweet peas, 90 per cent of customers accepted a substitution to jasmine or small garden roses. The key was framing the substitution as seasonal adaptation rather than a cost-cutting measure.
Fourth, consider the vase life argument. Data from Flower Lab, the subscription service, shows that customers value vase life as much as flower type. British garden roses, which can last 7-10 days, justify a higher price point than imported standard roses, which average 4-5 days. This is a selling point that can justify retail prices of £75-£90 for a hand-tied bouquet that would have been £55-£65 two years ago.
Finally, the summer of 2025 is a test of resilience for the floristry sector. The growers who survive will be those who adapt their planting to a hotter climate — planting more heat-tolerant annuals such as zinnias, celosia and gomphrena, and reducing their acreage of peonies, delphiniums and sweet peas. The florists who thrive will be those who embrace the unpredictability and build their business models around flexibility rather than rigid flower lists.
