Flower shops blooming ahead of Mother's Day

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — A local flower shop is preparing to deliver thousands of orders this weekend for Mother's Day.

Don Coleman runs Mayfield Florist and says Mother's Day and Valentine's Day are the busiest times of the year.

“It’s a big week for us, last year we did almost 3,000 deliveries this week in the Tucson area," Coleman says.

Athena Kehoe

As orders are piling up, so are some of his costs, Coleman explains. Some of the flowers they import are from Colombia, and he says tariffs are driving up some of those costs.

“We’re starting to feel it in our invoices, we haven’t raised prices yet, but at some point, something’s gonna have to go.” Coleman predicts he will have to start finding some of those flowers from other places in the country instead of importing from Colombia.

But, keeping flowers affordable, yet meaningful, is Coleman's priority.

“When you call Mayfield Florists or any other flower shops, you have an opportunity to create a relationship," he says. "We’ll make sure that your mom’s flowers are the best they can be.”

He says Mother's Day is an important holiday because it brings you back to your childhood.

"Since you were really young, you went and picked something out of the garden for your mom and gave it to her," Coleman says. "I think there's just a really tight connection between us and our parents when flowers are involved.”

He says their flower shop will be open all weekend, but to order as soon as possible.

“If my customer wanted it tomorrow, they would order it tomorrow. But that puts kind of a strain on us, we’ve had to implement surge pricing when it comes to deliveries on Saturday and Sunday, where you’re gonna pay a little extra.”

He says it's more about the effort than it is about going all out. Coleman says carnations, for example, "will last a long time, there’s lots of new and interesting type of carnation varieties, palms, just a small palm, it doesn’t have to be a big arrangement, it’s the sentiment, it’s the thought that really matters.”

Flowers arereported to be the number one gift purchased for Mother's Day.

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Athena Kehoe is a reporter for KGUN 9, she joined the KGUN 9 team in July of 2024 after graduating from Arizona State University. Share your story ideas with Athena by emailing athena.kehoe@kgun9.com or by connecting on X/Twitter.