Valentine's Day flowers in New Zealand

A weekend Valentine's two years running

Valentine's Day is always 14 February, but the weekday changes:

• 2026: Saturday
• 2027: Sunday
• 2028: Monday

When the day falls on a weekend, most deliveries go to homes rather than workplaces. Weekend delivery is limited in many areas, so you have two sensible options: order for the Friday so the flowers reach someone at work, or order a Saturday home delivery. In 2027 Valentine's Day is a Sunday, so a Saturday or Friday delivery is the realistic choice.

February is also crowded with other dates. In 2027 Waitangi Day and Lunar New Year share Saturday 6 February, just eight days before Valentine's Day. Our flower calendar shows the whole month.

Where February's red roses come from

The NZ Herald reported in February 2025 that February is the peak month for flower imports through Auckland Airport. In 2024, 30 tonnes of roses were imported, which works out at almost half a million flowers, mainly from Colombia and India. Roses and chrysanthemums are the most imported flowers.

Local growers find the timing hard. In a 2006 report, a rose grower in Kumeū explained that the January heat cuts the availability and stem length of New Zealand roses just before the biggest week of the year.

Commercial rose imports are allowed. The Ministry for Primary Industries' 2025 import health standard for fresh cut flowers lists 15 approved countries for roses, including Colombia, India, Ecuador and Kenya. Our guide to where New Zealand's flowers come from explains the rules and the local industry.

Why florists plan for weeks

Back in 2006, the general manager of a flower auction said Valentine's Day had overtaken Christmas and Mother's Day as the busiest flower season, and that the increase on premium roses at that time of year "could be easily 100 per cent".

In Tauranga in 2019, one florist told the Bay of Plenty Times that her team worked from 5am to midnight, brought in extra staff plus family and friends for deliveries, started planning before Christmas and ordered nearly 1,000 red roses. Another Tauranga shop described its staff as "working like machines".

What this means for you: order early, ideally several days ahead, and order early in the day if it is a same-day order. Florists can only make so many bouquets, and red roses are the first thing to run short.

Sending a Valentine from overseas

If you live abroad, you cannot post a bouquet to New Zealand. The Ministry for Primary Industries lists fresh flowers among the items you cannot bring or post into the country, and incoming mail is screened with declarations, x-rays and detector dogs. Mail that may contain risk goods is opened and may be held.

The workable route is to order from a florist in New Zealand, so the flowers are made up and delivered locally. Remember the time difference: 14 February arrives in New Zealand before it reaches Europe or the Americas, so order a day or two ahead of your own calendar.

Roses in the February heat

A bouquet delivered in mid-February has to cope with summer. Research on roses published in Acta Horticulturae found that flower respiration rises sharply with temperature: roses held dry at 15°C or 25°C did not survive eight days of storage, while roses kept at 2°C did. Higher temperatures mean faster ageing.

New Zealand summers vary a lot. NIWA describes Auckland summers as warm and humid, while in Canterbury hot nor'west foehn days often push maximum temperatures above 30°C. On days like that, flowers left on a sunny doorstep or in a hot car suffer quickly.

Simple habits help: ask for delivery to an address where someone is home, put the flowers in water straight away, and keep the vase in the coolest room, out of direct sun. Our summer flower care guide has more.

Other summer ideas and a word about cats

Red roses are the classic, but they are not the only summer flower. In February 2024 hydrangeas were New Zealand's most popular export flower, with 11 tonnes sent overseas, which gives a sense of how plentiful they are in late summer.

If the person you love has a cat, avoid lilies. SPCA New Zealand names lilies as a cause of sudden kidney failure in pets, and lists roses and sunflowers among pet-safe choices. See our pet-safe flowers guide for more.

For the card, Aroha nui (much love, with deep affection) and Ngā mihi me te aroha nui (love and best wishes) are simple te reo Māori sign-offs.