Apr. 20—Mike Hollenbeck explained the impact of tariffs on his florist shop while holding two roses possessing the perfect qualities for the artful arrangements that are the heart of his business along Lewiston’s Main Street.
Grown with an ideal amount of natural heat and rain in Ecuador, each of the flowers had a luscious 3-inch bloom with vibrant color. One was burgundy and the other was rust orange. Perched on 2-foot-long stems housing sturdy vascular systems, the flowers are equipped to efficiently deliver water to the blooms, Hollenbeck said.
“The stem is very, very sturdy,” said Hollenbeck, owner and creative director of Floral Artistry. “It’s straight and they’ve bred most of the thorns out.”
To continue to purchase roses like the ones in his hands, as well as flowers from a host of countries and the United States, Hollenbeck recently raised his prices between 10% and 20%, one of the largest overall price increases at Floral Artistry since it was founded 35 years ago.
He took the action reluctantly, Hollenbeck said. It was one of the few ways of preserving the sustainability of his business.
Tariffs have elevated prices for imported and domestic flowers and greenery. Demand for U.S. flowers is skyrocketing, forcing prices higher with them, he said.
Boosting prices 10% to 20% could be just the beginning, Hollenbeck said.
“We’re absorbing it right now,” Hollenbeck said. “This Mother’s Day is going to put a huge crunch on product coming from California because of supply and demand. That price is going to go up, too.”
In spite of the uncertainty of tariffs, Hollenbeck is upbeat about the future of his business as he plans for its next decades. It weathered the dot-com bubble, the Great Recession, COVID-19 and the expansion of big box stores and online retailers into the sector.
Throughout economic upheavals, flowers remain important parts of the watershed moments in people’s lives — births, graduations, weddings and the loss of loved ones, Hollenbeck said.
“The flowers are here to remind us to live in the now,” he said.
I spoke with Hollenbeck about the overseas industry of raising flowers, the emotional space real flowers occupy in our psyche, his career with its high-profile assignments and where his business is headed.
An edited version of the highlights of our conversation follows:
Elaine Williams: Why did Ecuador become a large producer of roses?
Mike Hollenbeck: We started seeing the South American product when they were taking out coca farms in the 1980s and 1990s to fight the war on drugs. They have more sunlight. They don’t have to spend money on heating and there’s a lot more water. Before then, they used to grow flowers in Spokane and Post Falls in greenhouses. Mother Earth will not produce the high quality roses Ecuador does in this longitude unless you’re paying a lot of money for greenhouses, artificial sunlight and labor.
EW: Silk flowers enjoyed popularity in the 1990s and into the early 2000s. What is your opinion about silk flowers?
MH: We have a natural response to fresh flowers. I would see it when I delivered flowers to weddings. If they were silk arrangements, the brides would say, “Oh. That’s pretty. Thanks.” When they were fresh flowers, the brides would be like, “Oh my God. This is so beautiful!” There’s just something about a fresh flower that makes people feel a certain way. When you feel that organic material, it speaks to you through texture, touch and color. The carbon-based materials in flowers are going to show up much better in pictures. The colors in silk flowers are made of the same tint and shades we use in paint, carpet and drapes, so that just disappears into the background. Fresh flowers just pop off the photos.
EW: What are other benefits of flowers?
MH: Studies have shown they increase productivity. I have one business client who purchases fresh arrangements every two weeks for his offices to get those benefits for his employees and customers.
EW: How do you decide what a family wants for an event?
MH: My job as a professional is to sit and listen to our client and then discuss options on flower choices based on color, availability, budget and taste. I want to know about the event and the people. I get this picture in my mind and develop it into flowers. If it’s a funeral, I ask the family to tell me about their loved one. I might use local evergreens to represent where someone hunted every year. I give them a vision of what they saw when they walked down the mountain into the end of the meadow where the lake was. I can create that with flowers. It’s part of the mourning process. We laugh and cry. It’s an emotionally exhausting experience because there’s so much attention to detail to capture a person’s entire life in flowers. When we do the designs, it comes from the heart.
EW: There’s a lot more you orchestrate besides creating the arrangements. What can you share about the more behind-the-scenes parts of the business?
MH: We take flowers seriously because they can make a difference in somebody’s life. It’s not brain surgery, but we can ruin somebody’s day. A nonprofessional can show up two hours late to a wedding. It’s also knowing how to process the flowers, planning the timing so that the flowers are in full bloom, not just a tight bud.
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EW: Shifting gears, how did you get into the industry?
MH: I never thought I was going to be a florist. I was going to go to college and become a teacher and a coach. I was a sergeant in the U.S. Marines. I officiated softball, basketball and football. I discovered this career when I was delivering flowers part time. Our designer left without notice to take a long trip overseas to find herself. The owner couldn’t find a designer. I thought, “I’m already doing everything else, processing the flowers, answering the phones, setting up store and window displays.” I was really enjoying that. I said, “When I punch out, could you just show me some techniques?” I worked with that. And then three or four weeks later, the owner told me to stay on the clock when I made arrangements.
EW: How did you know this was your career?
MH: One of my junior high teachers gave his class some great advice. He said, “If you find something you’re good at and enjoy doing and someone’s willing to give you money for it, you’ll never work a day in your life.” That’s what being a florist is for me. Early on, I learned from magazines, going to education programs and experimenting. Then I passed the tests to become an accredited American Institute of Floral Designers (AIFD) member. I had experienced the intrinsic value of delivering those flowers, how appreciated they are. That’s what really got me into the floral business. By making the flowers and designs, it magnified that payment so much, that personal touch, being able to help our friends and our clients.
EW: You have traveled throughout the country completing high-profile jobs. One of those at the White House. How did you land it and what do you remember about that?
MH: Most of the assignments came through networking with AIFD. I volunteered to make arrangements for a state dinner for the Chinese president during the Obama administration.
We made tall arrangements with roses and orchids in many shades of pink. We staged them on the roof of the White House because we only had about 15 minutes to install them in the main entrance. We had to use white gloves to carry the arrangements because they were in real gold vases that belonged to the White House. I have pictures of Michelle Obama admiring the flowers.
EW: You met a woman through AIFD who had an account for Bill and Melinda Gates before their divorce. She hired you to help with some of their gatherings, including ones at their mansion. What stood out about those assignments?
MH: We would have 40 or 50 centerpieces and it might take a crew of about 12 people to put everything together. We would do arrangements to match the art pieces in the rooms. Each one might have cost as much as $850. I learned very quickly that expense is subjective.
EW: This was your 13th year of working on Rose Bowl Parade floats. How did you get involved and what is that experience like?
MH: I started on the tree crew. I had to climb up scaffolding three stories high and install 100 boxes of flowers on each tree. Since I’m a Marine, I can handle heights and had the strength to carry the boxes. We travel on Christmas and start working on the floats Dec. 26. We work as many hours as it takes to get everything done before judging starts on Dec. 31. This year I was the team leader on four floats, including the ones for the two teams in the Rose Bowl, Ohio State and the University of Oregon and the U.S. Army float. They give you the flowers and a design, but you have to figure out how to artistically place everything. The Army was marking its 250 year anniversary. Each platform had a specific color and meaning to represent the time period. For example, I arranged flowers to represent the Delaware River for George Washington’s crossing.
EW: What is the reason for Floral Artistry’s longevity?
MH: Our employees. The more than 100 employees who have worked here in our 35 years have strived for excellence and to meet our high standards. One of the people who stands out is Gina Rudd, our lead floral designer. She has almost half a century of floral experience and has been with our company almost 20 years.
EW: What are your plans for the business in the future?
MH: I’m getting older. My children are pursuing other careers. I’m preparing Skylar Wyman, who is a floral artist and designer at Floral Artistry to take over the business when I retire. A certified floral designer through AIFD, she is so talented. I’m looking forward to handling fewer responsibilities in the business, traveling all over the world and sharing my knowledge of professional floral design.
EW: What will keep florists thriving in upcoming decades?
MH: What we make affects people’s lives. That’s what’s going to keep us in the industry. There will always be a demand for the symbolism that flowers allow us to create with them. Anybody can sell flowers. There’s only a few people in the world that can create art with flowers and some of them are here at Floral Artistry. The flower is put on this earth. It grew from a seed into this amazing plant. The plant flourished and bloomed. We cut the bloom off and use that to symbolize beauty in the moment. Nothing in this world lasts forever. But if you worry about that all the time, you’re going to miss the here and now.
Williams is the business editor of the Tribune and Moscow-Pullman Daily News. She may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.
Floral Artistry
Address: 1008 Main St., Lewiston
Hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday
Telephone number: (208) 743-1900
