Flower purchasing spans recurring subscriptions, holiday gifts, bouquets, arrangements, and plants. The available evidence shows a small but identifiable subscription audience, strong seasonal demand, and a market shaped by price, convenience, and personal relationships.
Contents
- Flower and treat subscription adoption
- Holiday flower purchase incidence
- Where customers place orders
- Purchase frequency, budgets, and price pressure
- Bouquets, arrangements, and flower types
- Who buys flowers and who receives them
- U.S. floriculture supply and sales
Flower and treat subscription adoption
The clearest subscription figures come from a UK survey of 2,000 adults conducted in November 2021. The UK government’s Usage of subscription services: key findings of survey, based on Opinium research, found that 29% paid regularly for some product-delivery subscription. A further 27% paid regularly for no subscription service.
Flowers appeared within a combined category rather than as a standalone flower-only measure. Three percent of surveyed UK adults held a subscription for flowers, craft, chocolates, or other treats. That figure describes the combined category and should not be read as the share subscribing specifically to flowers.
Value perceptions were mixed among holders of that combined flowers, craft, chocolates, and treats category. Half, or 50%, rated their subscription good value for money, while 22% rated it poor value. Price sensitivity was prominent: 66% said a slight price increase would make them more likely to cancel. By comparison, 23% said a slight price increase would not make them more likely to cancel.
Contract structure was nearly evenly divided. Forty-nine percent were on fixed-term contracts and 48% were on rolling contracts. The source classified 97% as having a reported contract type that was either fixed-term or rolling. These results are from November 2021 and cover a broader category than flower subscriptions alone, so they are useful context for recurring floral purchases rather than a current estimate of flower-subscription penetration.
Holiday flower purchase incidence
Mother’s Day provides a recent view of U.S. flower and plant purchasing. In an Ipsos survey for the Society of American Florists, 38% of Americans bought flowers or plants for Mother’s Day in 2025. The comparable share was 36% in 2024 and 34% in 2023. The three-year sequence indicates increasing purchase incidence in this survey, from 34% to 38%.
The same source reported a rising average purchase value. The average Mother’s Day flower or plant purchase reached $71 in 2025, compared with $60 in 2024. Among surveyed florists, the most common average order-value range in 2025 was $71–$100, reported by 45% of florists.
Mother’s Day purchasing was concentrated in several product forms, and respondents could purchase more than one type. Fresh bouquets were purchased by 72% of Mother’s Day flower or plant buyers in 2025, up from 65% in 2024. Fresh floral arrangements were purchased by 63% in 2025, up from 58% in 2024. Outdoor or bedding plants were purchased by 35% in 2025, compared with 40% in 2024, while flowering houseplants were purchased by 29% in 2025 versus 32% in 2024.
Where customers place orders
For Mother’s Day 2025, surveyed florists reported a mixed ordering pattern. Phone orders represented 39% of orders, websites represented 37%, and walk-ins represented 23%. Phone ordering therefore remained the largest of the three reported channels, but website ordering was close behind.
Local florists also captured a larger share of buyers than in the comparable earlier figures supplied by the Society of American Florists. Among 2025 Mother’s Day flower or plant buyers, 23% used a local florist. The share was 19% in 2024 and 15% in 2022. These are buyer shares, while the phone, website, and walk-in figures are shares of surveyed florists’ reported orders; the measures should not be treated as interchangeable.
The channel figures matter for floral design businesses because they describe different customer decisions. A phone order can support a guided, occasion-specific purchase; a website order can support comparison and convenience; and a walk-in can support immediate selection. The reported data quantifies the channel mix but does not measure why individual customers chose each route.
Purchase frequency, budgets, and price pressure
The 2025 SAF consumer survey suggests that many purchasers expected to maintain their buying pace. Fifty-five percent said they would buy flowers or plants for others at the same rate, while 27% planned to buy them more often. The source does not provide a single overall share for buying less often in the supplied figures.
Finances and convenience were the leading reported influences on future purchases. Finances shaped purchases for 46% of respondents, while convenience shaped them for 38%. Together, the figures point to two practical pressures for recurring or occasion-based floral buying: the total cost customers can absorb and the effort required to complete an order.
Florist performance data adds a second view of price pressure. Nearly 49% of surveyed florists reported higher Mother’s Day sales in 2025 than in the prior year, and a further 31% reported flat sales. At the same time, 63% said rising costs and tariffs increased average order values. Units sold were down for 34% of surveyed florists and flat for 27%.
These measures can coexist: average orders may rise while units decline. The supplied figures report both outcomes but do not establish a cause beyond the florists’ stated association between rising costs and tariffs and higher average order values. They also do not provide a comparable unit change for every florist, so no broader sales calculation is warranted.
Bouquets, arrangements, and flower types
The Mother’s Day results show that bouquets and arrangements were the leading reported product choices in 2025. The shares below are among flower or plant buyers, and categories can overlap.
| Product type | 2024 buyers | 2025 buyers |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh bouquets | 65% | 72% |
| Fresh floral arrangements | 58% | 63% |
| Outdoor or bedding plants | 40% | 35% |
| Flowering houseplants | 32% | 29% |
Fresh bouquets had the highest reported incidence in both years, rising seven percentage points from 2024 to 2025. Fresh arrangements rose five points. Outdoor or bedding plants fell five points, and flowering houseplants fell three points. These are percentage-point changes between the reported survey results, not estimates of market growth or decline.
Valentine’s Day data shows a different kind of product concentration. The Society of American Florists’ Valentine’s Day Floral Statistics reported that, in its 2022 consumer data, 83% of flower or plant purchasers bought roses. Thirty-five percent bought a non-rose flower type. Because these categories may overlap, the figures should not be added to create a single product total.
For floral design readers, the contrast is useful: Mother’s Day purchasing data emphasizes formats such as bouquets, arrangements, and plants, while the 2022 Valentine’s Day data shows especially strong rose incidence. The periods and occasions differ, so the results should be compared as occasion-specific patterns rather than as a universal ranking of flower types.
Who buys flowers and who receives them
Mother’s Day buyers most often purchased for their own mothers in the 2025 SAF results. Sixty-two percent bought for their own mothers, 26% bought for a wife or spouse, and 21% bought for a mother-in-law. These recipient categories can overlap when a purchaser bought for more than one person.
The Valentine’s Day 2022 figures describe purchaser groups among U.S. adults. Twenty-two percent of U.S. adults bought fresh flowers or plants as gifts. The share was 26% among married adults, 38% among adults with children in the household, 28% among male adults, and 33% among adults ages 18–34.
The group figures are not a single demographic total. They describe separate audience cuts from the Valentine’s Day survey, and the groups overlap. For example, an adult ages 18–34 may also be married or have children in the household. The supplied results therefore support audience comparisons, not an additive estimate of all purchasers.
U.S. floriculture supply and sales
USDA’s 2024 Floriculture Crops report provides production context for U.S. flower and plant purchasing. In 2024, USDA counted 11,262 U.S. floriculture producers. Its 28 individually published states accounted for 9,456 producers, while covered floriculture production area reached 969 million square feet.
Across all covered crops, U.S. floriculture sales totaled $6.71 billion in 2024. The 28 individually published states accounted for $6.32 billion. Florida and California together represented 32% of U.S. floriculture sales.
Among operations with at least $100,000 in 2024 sales, annual bedding and garden plants generated $2,550.1 million. Potted flowering plants generated $1,254.8 million, foliage plants for indoor or patio use generated $928.4 million, and cut flowers generated $414.0 million.
| Covered product group | 2024 sales |
|---|---|
| Annual bedding and garden plants | $2,550.1 million |
| Potted flowering plants | $1,254.8 million |
| Foliage plants for indoor or patio use | $928.4 million |
| Cut flowers | $414.0 million |
The USDA product figures are sales among operations meeting the report’s $100,000 threshold, while the $6.71 billion total covers all covered crops in the report. They should not be combined as though they described identical universes. Taken together, the figures place consumer flower purchasing within a broad U.S. floriculture system: recurring subscriptions form a small measured category in the older UK survey, while U.S. holiday purchases, plants, arrangements, bouquets, and cut flowers contribute to a much larger production and sales landscape.