(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-05-12 06:41

LOS ANGELES - Love for Mom is a given, but buying flowers on her big day may not be.

A slump in flower sales since late last year was likely to continue through Mother's Day, another example of Americans cutting back on spending due to recession fears and escalating food and gasoline prices.

Lupita Gonzalez (R) arranges bouquets of Mother's Day flowers as Rose Castilllo (L) waits for customers under an umbrella in Laredo, Texas May 10, 2008. [Agencies]

"If you look at what's happened on Valentine's Day and Christmas, the market for flowers has cooled," said Eric Beder, an analyst at Brean Murray. "Growth has slowed in the past two quarters. Mother's Day will probably be a slow quarter, too."

US floral sales for Mother's Day, celebrated on Sunday, will fall 13 percent this year to $2 billion, with consumers spending an average of $17.65, according to the National Retail Federation estimates.

Mother's Day, which accounts for a whopping one-quarter of annual holiday purchases, according to the Society of American Florists, is traditionally the day when floral bouquets are delivered to the doorsteps of many mothers.

But this year, retailers are concerned.

Gabriel Soto, who owns a flower shop beneath an office high-rise in the Los Angeles financial district, is expecting lower sales - and has ordered 30 percent fewer flowers than normal this Mother's Day.

Last month, Soto, who also operates website downtown-flowers.net, closed another store in a nearby building that was headquarters to a mortgage company. After workers lost their jobs due to the housing crisis, orders dwindled.

Some management companies have cut back on flower orders for office lobbies, he said, and high gasoline prices means smaller orders below $50 aren't profitable.

"The gasoline is expensive," said Soto. "It's affecting us because we've had to raise prices on deliveries."

Things aren't much rosier for the bigger outfits. Revenues at the two largest public floral companies - 1-800-Flowers.com Inc and FTD Group Inc - have been tepid.

The industry is expecting growth of 1 percent to 3 percent this year compared with high-single-digit growth seen at FTD and 1-800-Flowers in recent years, analyst Beder said.