To gather every last stalk and ribbon, Mr. Patrikis is always on the phone, negotiating with 15 distributors to get the best deal.
“If you don’t know how to buy from wholesalers, wholesalers will buy from you,” he said.
Depending on stem length, bloom size and country of origin, a dozen roses in New York City can cost a customer anywhere from $10 from a street vendor to more than $120 from a high-end florist. Mr. prefers Patrikis is the Explorer variety of red roses, which he says tend to have larger blooms and stay fresh longer than some other varieties.
Sales in the flower industry, where same-day local deliveries are common, have been hit early during the pandemic. So is the price of doing business, with rising fuel costs, flower shortages and supply chain problems.
High prices are putting pressure on longtime florists like Mr. Parikis, whose shop was one of five on his block in 2010. Ditmars Flower Shop is now the last remaining.
“We’ve never been busier in our lives,” Mr. Parikis, 37, said of reopening in time for Mother’s Day in 2020 after the earliest pandemic closures. “We haven’t slept in a week.”
Americans spent nearly $73 billion on flowers, seeds and potted plants last year, up 48 percent from 2019 after adjusting for inflation, according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis.
But there are signs of instability in the industry.
Troy Conner, the president of Kendall Farms, a large flower farm in Fallbrook, Calif., that sells to supermarket chains and wholesalers, said many of his costs have also increased.
Starting last year, he said, the demand for flowers began to increase. He said he could reuse some of the land set aside for growing sunflowers, a once-profitable crop, to raise goats.
At Ditmars Flower Shop, Mr. Parikis said, the profit margin has shrunk since the beginning of the pandemic, from 20 to 30 percent, down to 10 to 20 percent. The store may have sales of $150,000 and $300,000 a month.
He says the higher sales volume allows him to make up the difference now. This year, he expects to sell more than 100,000 red roses, his most popular item, up from 70,000 in 2019. On Valentine’s Day, his busiest holiday, he sells 15,000 roses.
The Society of American Florists, a trade group, predicts that the number of flower shops in the country will drop to 11,000 by 2026, partly due to retirements and consolidations. There were 11,600 in 2021.
In the third quarter of last year, there were 398 florists in New York City, down from 432 in the same period in 2019, according to James Parrott, a director at the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School.
Mr. Patrikis’ father, John, a Greek immigrant from the island of Nisyros, sold flowers on the subway and eventually opened his first flower shop in Astoria in 1983 before moving to the current 1,500-square-foot shop in 2008.
Mr. Patrikis said he felt obligated to stay in the family business. Sales remain brisk, largely because he has a wide range of clients — weddings, funerals, Greek Orthodox churches. Still, he worries about consumer spending habits, now that most government benefits during the pandemic have dried up.
But he is optimistic about his own future, as his family bought their building in 2003.
“The only ones who will be left are the owners of their buildings,” he said.
Ben Casselman contributed reporting.
Made by Eden Weingart, Andrew Hinderaker and Dagny Salas. Progress through Gabriel Gianordoli and Aliza Aufrichtig.
