Hawke’s Bay Floral Collective prepares for influx of Valentine’s Day flower sales

Hawke’s Bay Floral Collective is preparing to double its sales over the next week as Valentine’s Day approaches and people head out to celebrate love.

Jenny Martin, owner of Buds to Blooms, is one of five local flower and foliage growers who sell their products together in the St Paul’s Presbyterian Church carpark on Tennyson St in Napier from 7.30am to 9.30am every Wednesday.

Businesses Pine Hill Flower Farm, Florence and Flora, Izzy Bloom, and Gardenalia each have a stall with the collective, and the group sells both to the public and florists.

(From left): Hawke's Bay Floral Collective members Nina O'Connor, Izzy Scannell and Jenny Martin sell their flowers each Wednesday on Tennyson St in Napier.

She said each grower in the collective was deep into preparations for Valentine’s Day.

“We are flat tack with Valentine’s orders and wedding orders.”

Martin said the market this Wednesday would be “huge”, and despite a popular Valentine’s Day tradition, she wouldn’t have roses for sale.

“It will be things like dahlias and zinnias that we will sell a lot of.”

Martin said the bulk of her profits were made around the day of love.

“We will certainly double our sales over this next week, and we need it because it has been so quiet.”

Typically, Martin said, “the males will go to the florists” and usually leave it to the last minute. However, she hoped their stalls would prompt some early purchases.

She said they recently shifted from their selling location in Clive to Napier and got a lot more foot traffic passing by the stalls.

Martin said they typically aimed to be open and operating from September to May and each of the growers had their own specialty, so there was usually a good variety of flowers to choose from.

She had started her flower and foliage business five years ago with her mum Bev Mintoft.

“We were trying to find something else to do, and I had a couple of empty paddocks so thought we should give it a go.”

She said she loved working in the garden and watching the happiness people got from choosing flowers she had grown.

Martin said as with many other industries that rely on the weather, they too had been impacted by dry conditions, with an increased need for watering.

“It certainly mucks up the growing of the flowers, and as for the foliage, that side of it is hard because the weather is just so strange.”

Martin said the foliage was used to complement floral arrangements and included varieties such as rosemary, hydrangeas, wattles, she-oak and mānuka.

Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities.