A week-long flower shortage on the Island has left many businesses in Bermuda bloomin' mad.

The thorn in the side of Bermuda florists was having shipment after shipment taken off airplanes at the last minute to make way for extra luggage on regular flights.

"These are very difficult times,'' said Ian Page, manager of the Flower Shop Ltd in Reid Street, Hamilton. "It appears that more people returning to Bermuda brought more things so the flowers were left behind.'' Florists use passenger planes to bring in fresh flowers for the local market.

But they are considered low priority in the pecking order of baggage and are one of the first things to be removed.

The florists on the Island have to manage their business not knowing if their shipments will arrive, and during the winter the problem becomes more acute as the size of planes is reduced.

Last week one florist had four separate shipments -- an entire week's worth of delivery -- cancelled and others found that their deliveries simply did not arrive off the planes.

And the problem could continue through the next few weeks as airlines begin to reduce the size of aeroplanes during the winter season.

Florists rely on suppliers that generally ship through the east coast of the United States. Boxes of flowers are loaded onto passenger planes, but can get bumped if there is not enough room for other cargo including passenger baggage.

Florists ask: Where have all the flowers gone? The family-owned Flower Shop Ltd on Reid Street was particularly hard hit with all their shipments from Baltimore cancelled.

Mr. Page, manager of the shop, said: " We were bumped every day of last week.

They yanked them off the plane because there was no room.'' Mr. Page said he had to call his customers and explain what had happened to the flowers and keep them apprised. In fact he has in the past resorted to sending staff to the US to bring back flowers as baggage, and last year had to get a shipment sent from the US to London, and on to Bermuda on the regular British Airways flight.

He said the order of priority on passenger plane cargo starts with passenger baggage, followed by periodicals and magazines, live food and frozen food, and then flowers. He said: "We are way down there.'' The florist received a shipment of flowers yesterday as scheduled, the first in over a week.

And he said that the lack of flowers caused problems for customers using world-wide services such as Inter Flora, with customers not understanding the difficulties faced by Islands such as Bermuda.

Designer Flowers at Herron Bay Market Place was spared from the shortage. The two shipments a week it gets via Delta Airlines from Boston were kept on the plane.

But Tim Meakin, who used to manage the shop, and is there to help the smooth transition to a new manager, said that all florists were aware of the problem.

"In retrospect I did not realise just how short the Island was. It was only when other florists started phoning to see if I had stock that I realised the extent of the shortage.

"We were lucky, but what we do is split our shipments. It is easier to get a 700 pound shipment than a 1200 pound of cargo on board a plane. But we regularly have the same problem.'' He added: "There is very little you can do about the problem except cross your fingers.'' Florists on the Island tend to stick together and help each other out when stocks are suddenly short for weddings and big orders. But at a pinch local flowers can be used creatively to make up the designs.

Lena Araujo, owner of Demco Floral Services, was not caught too short last week.

She said: "Last week the flowers did get bumped. Over the holiday this happened because people bring back more luggage and they get first preference.

I've actually been on the plane when they have taken off the flowers. We sat on this plane for an hour, and then the pilot decided there was too much weight and they took the boxes of flowers off. I did not know whose flowers they were.'' She added: "Over the years we have had some terrible experiences.'' According to florists they have no control over whether their flowers will arrive, and despite pleas to airlines, the fresh blooms are still regularly removed.

Even chartering cargo planes and ships over the years has not worked, and the florists feel they can do little to ameliorate the situation.

"We plan ahead,'' said Mrs. Araujo. "But that is not to say that it does not happen. For us it has been pretty good recently. But the pilot has the last word. He is the one who decides whether or not the flowers stay or go.'' Artwork by David Skinner Out of flowers: Last week many of the Island's florists faced a shortage of flowers on the Island after shipment after shipment was cancelled from the United States. Regular shipments are once again touching down, but many florists fear that the problem will continue through the winter as plane sizes reduce.