The 2022 Floriculture Crops Survey found that 2022 floriculture sales were up over 2021, but cut flower sales and the number of growers declined.

The U.S. floriculture industry saw a 4.2 percent increase in sales last year over 2021, while cut flower sales fell, as did the number of floriculture producers and acreage in production, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).

The 2022 Floriculture Crops Survey, released May 25, reported almost $6.7 billion in sales, up from a record breaking $6.4 billion in 2021.

Cut flower sales, reported by growers making $100,000 or more, were down 6.7 percent, from $357 million in 2021 to $333 million in 2022.

The data also shows a 6 percent decrease in the number of floriculture operators with sales of $10,000 or more: from 9,545 in 2021 to 8,951 in 2022. Growers who reported between $10,000 and $49,999 in sales saw the greatest decrease: 10.7 percent from 3,903 to 3,487.

Cut Flower Sales Decrease

California growers with sales of $100,000 or more reported $204 million in cut flower sales — the highest sales total of all states. Those sales fell $16 million short of the previous year and account for two-thirds of the decrease in cut flower sales nationally, according to the data.

Steve Dionne, AAF, executive director of CalFlowers (the California Association of Flower Growers and Shippers), says the drop in sales is reflective of “a natural lessening of pent-up demand” for flower related events.

“As demand began to trend downwards, many growers in California predicted the reduction and reduced plantings accordingly,” Dionne says. “This is in response to a dramatic increase in production input values (labor, energy, fertilizer, transportation, etc) which increased the risk of over-producing. And perhaps most significantly, inflation across all segments of the economy has pinched consumers’ budgets.”

Grower Footprint Decreases

Not only did the number of producers with sales of $100,000 or more decrease, but so did the amount of land used for production. Crops grown under cover (greenhouse, shade or temporary cover) accounted for 832 million square feet in 2022, down nearly 6 percent from 883 million square feet in 2021, according to the survey. Comparisons for open ground acreage isn’t available.

The survey also found a 6 percent decrease in the number of floriculture operators with sales of $10,000 or more, which doesn’t account for smaller operations. Marvin Miller, Ph.D., AAF, of Ball Horticulture Company, who analyzes the data annually, says that threshold might make it difficult to state whether there are fewer growers overall.

“I see an awful lot of activity of smaller farms that are growing for the local market,” he says, adding that some cut flower growers are seasonal or only grow a small crop of flowers to utilize unused space alongside a larger primary crop. “My sense, based on our activity here at Ball, is that there are an awful lot of smaller cut flower growers.”

The findings are also at odds with the growth CalFlowers has experienced in recent years.

“A significant factor in CalFlowers’ membership growth over the past few years has been new, mostly small, farms popping up all over the country,” he says. “This is a burgeoning new industry segment which should increase grower count without necessarily impacting industry revenues at a high level.”

While Miller says the data is incredibly useful, he cautions against getting caught up in the hard numbers. The USDA performs the annual survey by sending questionnaires to every operator it knows. If the USDA doesn’t know about a small daffodil grower who supplies to a local farmer’s market, for example, that grower won’t receive a questionnaire. In addition, those who receive a survey don’t always complete it.

“The response rate over the country is 56 percent and they adjust for nonrespondents,” says Miller.

He encourages growers to respond to the USDA’s questionnaires, noting that companies like Ball use the data to determine where to allocate staff to serve local growers. He says colleges and universities also look to the survey to determine whether to expand, reduce, or even eliminate horticulture programs.

“In our industry, where we are very anxious about finding employees and having enough horticulturally-trained people … we really want to keep the horticulture programs alive,” says Miller. “We really need people to respond and prove that it’s important in this state, and that state, and every state.”

Other takeaways from the survey:

• 2022 survey sales, by category (data only represents operators with sales of $100,000 or more):
  • Annual bedding/garden plants: $2.467 billion, up 4.1 percent from 2021
  • Potted flowering plants: $1.113 billion, up 8.9 percent
  • Herbaceous perennial plants: $1.092 billion, up 5.8 percent
  • Foliage plants: $826 million, up 8.9 percent
  • Propagative floriculture materials: $514 million, up 1.1 percent
  • Cut flowers: $333 million, down 6.7 percent
  • Cut cultivated greens: $101 million, down 3.8 percent
• Florida, California, and Michigan accounted for 43 percent of total floriculture sales. The top 10 states were:

1. Florida, $1.17 billion, up 6.1 percent
2. California, $958 million, down 0.4 percent
3. Michigan, $711 million, up 11.9 percent
4. New Jersey, $342 million, down 3.9 percent
5. Texas, $279 million, up 10.2 percent
6. New York, $244 million, up 34.8 percent
7. Ohio, $243 million, down 9.6 percent
8. Pennsylvania, $209 million, up 11.1 percent
9. North Carolina, $191 million, down 4 percent
10. Connecticut, $167 million, up 1.8 percent

• Of the 17 flowers categorized in the survey, waxflowers and pompon chrysanthemums saw the greatest increases in producers with $100,000 or more in sales (approximately a 22 percent increase for each).
• Roses saw the greatest decline in producers (17 percent), followed by gladioli (13 percent), irises (8 percent), and orchids (3 percent).
• All other flowers reported increases in producers except protea, which reported 16 producers in both 2022 and 2021.
• Sunflowers reported the highest number of producers (179).

Read highlights of the USDA survey here. To access the full database, click here. (To search the database, select “survey” from the program category, “crops” from the sector category, “horticulture” from the groups category, and a specific type of crop from the commodity category. Data can be further refined based on location and date. Note that data before 2021 does not represent all 50 states.)

Laurie Herrera is a contributing writer for the Society of American Florists.