Breck's, an online plant and flower seller, noted that Americans most frequently searched for blooms such as lilies, peonies, and gardenias during quarantine.
The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtably shifted how everyone spends their free time. Whether you are self-isolating solo or with your immediate family, you're likely still spending more time at home than ever before. But that doesn't mean you're only sitting indoors. One activity that many people have added to their quarantine routines is gardening. As it turns out, this long-beloved pastime is gaining more popularity in light of the coronavirus outbreak. Breck's, a mail-order gardening company, analyzed Google Trends search volume data from the months when stay-at-home orders were in place to determine which flowers Americans searched for, and the most popular blooms included lilies, peonies, and gardenias.
To create their comprehensive list, Breck's looked at the most searched for flowers on Google for a 90 day period between March and May of 2020, which represents the period of time during which most states were in quarantine. The top varieties searched for during this time were calla lilies, hyacinth, cyclamen, lily, freesia, African violets, peonies, gardenia, buttercup, and gladiolus. Some of the most popular flowers from the biggest states during this period of quarantine? New York's most popular flower was the tea roses Texas' was the gardenia, and California's was the orchid.
The researchers with the company also discovered the flowers people searched for most over a one-year timeframe. Sunflowers, hyacinth, camellias, tiger lilies, and cyclamen trended most from May 2019 to May 2020.
Researchers used the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Census of Horticultural Specialties to find the best-selling flowers in the United States, as well. The results found that petunias are the top-selling annual flower in the country with its revenue coming to $262 million each year.