Valentine's Day and Wholesale Rose Prices

I've had some comments on my blog and email asking questions about this and this is a good thing to discuss right now. See my earlier post as well on Valentine's Day.
I had mentioned that if you are a regular predictable customer of a wholesale florist you can usually get your prices locked in for Valentine's Day so you keep the prices you've had all year.
That does go for my wholesale florist business as well. Most wholesale florists require a set in stone standing order to keep the prices down all year. I personally just need it fairly predictable because I have to keep a standing order with the importer to get one for you.
Usually standing orders with the wholesaler are done by December to lock in those prices.
As of right now I can still sell long stem red roses, which is the most expensive thing you can get from a wholesaler, now through Valentine's Day at my regular prices which are on my website.
A new rose seller mentioned paying $1.40 per stem for long stem red roses. This is quite high but you can expect to pay that and more this time of year.
My long stem red, which is Night Fever, read the post on these, is $1.13 per stem for 75 and $1.06 for a box of 150 which includes a Free Shipping special, so that's the price delivered right to the door.
I also have a newbie special running, where you can just buy 25 roses, they will be already stripped, come with all the tubes, sleeves and baby's breath you need with that, plus an instruction book on rose selling and preparation, a sample prepared rose, with free shipping for
$34.99 and the same package with 50 roses for $59.99. The cost of the roses themselves(which are the long stem red roses) is less than .75 per rose if you subtract the cost of all that comes with it. So my roses are on sale with a special on free shipping at a time of year roses are sky high.
Roses do go into very high demand from florists and the public very soon, if you are experienced you know this is true. So regarding the question on my prices, they stand for right now. As of this week you can lock in prices and be sure to keep it for Valentine's Day but it really is on a first come first serve basis as I have only a certain size order I'm allowed to get from the importer at my normal price than my costs will go up quite high if I want more. If you let me know now than you've got it.

Later,
Claire