A combination of bad weather and bad timing along with the annual high demand for flowers during graduation season has left florists and lei-makers in a lurch and hunting for blooms.
"There is a shortage of the flowers that we normally would have a lot of. A part of it is because of the weather," said Wayne Tokumoto, one of the owners of Kahului Florist.
The scarcity of flowers such as the popular carnations and orchids forced the shop to stop taking graduation lei orders a few weeks after the beginning of April, Tokumoto said. The result has been that lei orders are down "quite a bit," and he estimated lei sales would be down about 60 percent.
At Aloha Lei & Flower Designs on Alamaha Street in Kahului, co-owner Terry Collins said she is also in a bind. She cannot get carnations, and the tuberose she usually uses is "sleeping" and not in bloom, her grower told her.
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