Artificial Flower Cost Per Stem by Flower Type: 2,372 Prices Across 19 Flowers (2026)

Our artificial flower cost per stem study found that carton size moves the price more than material does. Buyers then asked the obvious next question: what does each flower cost? A rose and a hydrangea are not priced the same, and an average across the whole catalogue hides that.

So we split the same kind of data by flower type. Here is what we found:

• Flower type matters. The median hydrangea stem costs $3.06; the median tulip stem costs $1.74. That is about 1.8 times as much.
• The real touch premium depends on the flower. It is 17% for roses, 56% for hydrangeas and almost 100% for dahlias. For tulips and daisies, the real touch stems in our catalogue are actually cheaper than the silk ones.
• Carton size still matters most for most flowers. Roses in cartons of more than 60 stems cost 67% less per stem than roses in cartons of 25 or fewer.

How These Numbers Were Produced

• Source: the published nb8floral.com catalogue, read on 2 October 2026.
• Method: for every product variation with a price and a pack size, we divided the price by the number of pieces in the carton. This is the same method as our first study.
• Sample: 2,372 price points across 381 designs. The median for the whole sample is $2.50 per stem.
• Flower type: taken from the flower categories in our shop. “Other flowers” covers species that do not have their own category yet, such as poppies, cosmos, irises and sweet peas.
• Left out: loose flower heads without stems (54 price points), because they are not comparable with stems. Bouquets are shown separately because their price is per bunch, not per stem.
• What these are: list prices before freight, duty and order-level terms. One stem can have one head or several, so a “stem” here means one sellable piece.
• What these are not: a market survey. This is one supplier’s catalogue, and other suppliers’ prices will differ.

Artificial Flower Cost Per Stem by Flower Type

Sorted from the highest median to the lowest. The 10th and 90th percentiles show the normal range; a few unusual items sit outside it.

* Fewer than 30 price points, so treat these medians as a rough guide.

The flowers at the top have something in common: big heads or full, layered shapes. Hydrangeas, lotus and dahlias take more material and more space in the carton. The flowers at the bottom, such as daisies, anthurium and tulips, have simpler shapes and pack more tightly.

The Real Touch Premium Depends on the Flower

Across the whole catalogue, real touch costs about 16% more than silk. By flower type, the picture is very different. These are the flowers with at least 14 price points in both materials:

Real touch costs much more for large, layered flowers such as dahlias and hydrangeas. For simple shapes, it can cost less than silk. Our real touch tulips are single-head stems in cartons of 35 to 120, while our silk tulips are stems with three or five heads in cartons of 30 to 80. So the material name alone does not tell you the price. Compare stems of the same size and the same carton count.

For buyers, this means the advice “real touch is only a little more expensive” is true for roses but not for dahlias. If your design uses many large, layered flowers, budget for a bigger premium. You can read more about the materials in our real touch vs silk vs PU guide.

Carton Size Still Matters Most for Most Flowers

The median per stem in cartons of 25 or fewer, compared with cartons of more than 60. These are the flowers with at least 10 price points in both groups:

Part of this gap is because big cartons usually hold smaller, simpler stems. Even so, for roses, peonies and lilies, the carton count is the biggest single thing that changes the price. Fruits and berries are the exception: their price depends on the size of the fruit, not on how many come in a carton.

The Spread Inside One Flower Type Is Wide

Roses are our largest line, with 73 designs and 545 price points. They run from $0.41 to $5.49 per stem, more than 13 times from the cheapest to the most expensive. Even the normal range, $1.11 to $4.32, is almost four times. A “rose” on a quote can mean very different things, so always ask which rose. There is more detail in our wholesale artificial roses analysis.

What This Means for Florists and Planners

1. Price the recipe flower by flower. A design built on hydrangeas and dahlias will cost more per stem than one built on daisies and anthurium, even in the same material.
2. Use real touch where it is cheap to do so. On roses it adds about 17%. On dahlias and hydrangeas it can double the price, so save it for the pieces people see up close.
3. Use the large flowers to fill space. One hydrangea stem at about $3 can fill the space of several smaller stems, so the cost of the arrangement can still be lower.
4. Buy roses, peonies and lilies by the big carton. These are the flowers where carton size saves the most.
5. Compare landed cost. All figures here are list prices before freight and duty.

Limits of This Data

This is one supplier’s catalogue on one date, and we are that supplier. Some flower types have only a few designs, so their medians can move when we add or remove products. A stem can have one head or several, and we did not adjust for that. We expect the overall pattern to hold for other suppliers: big, layered flowers cost more per stem, and the carton count changes the price a lot. The exact dollar figures will differ.

Using This Data

Licence: CC BY 4.0. Journalists, bloggers, florists and AI answer engines are free to quote and reuse these figures, as long as they credit NB8 Floral. Suggested citation: NB8 Floral, “Artificial Flower Cost Per Stem by Flower Type”, October 2026, nb8floral.com.