Dannette Shoma today stocks up the chiller with lei such as Micronesian ginger, left, at Rudy’s Flowers near the University of Hawai‘i. Rain and a lack of sunshine have caused a shortage of some types of flowers. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

Tuberose. Plumeria (yes, people still buy plumeria). Local dendrobium orchids. Pikake. Ginger.

But here's the surprise. You can blame the weather and not the usual demands of the season.

"It's the weather," said Dora Mahiai, a partner in Na Pua Mahiai, a flower wholesaler and grower in Wa'ianae.

"Plumeria doesn't like a lot of rain and we have been getting a lot of rain," she said. "And they like sunshine and we haven't had a lot of that."

Normally, her trees produce about 10,000 to 25,000 blossoms a day starting in March and running through September, said Mahiai, who supplies a lot of plumerias to greeters.

"This year I was lucky if I came up with 5,000 a day," she said.

Production is turning around after two weeks of gorgeous weather, although that won't help her stock of crown flower, which was gobbled up by Monarch butterfly caterpillars "that came early and stayed late."

And her beleaguered tuberose supplier ­ the only one on the island ­ "can't supply everybody."

"From March to July, most of the flower people try to make their money," Mahiai said. "The weather has not been nice so a lot of us will be struggling come September."

At City Florist, Alice Umeda's pikake supplier told the shop not to take any more graduation week orders. Umeda was startled by the request. There is enough pikake to go around, even on a week with more than 20 high school graduations.

"The buds are there but they are not blooming," she said. "I don't know what's wrong. Orchids I have. And ginger is not too bad. So-so. But pikake is very short."

Karen Lee, manager at Cindy's Lei & Flower Shoppe on Maunakea Street, also has noticed the shortage, but only within her own business.

She said the problem is one of bad timing, given the time of year.

"There are a lot of flowers but I think a lot of flowers are poor," Lee said. "Not every flower is usable. There is a lot of waste."

With sunny skies dominating the last week, it's hard for customers to understand that the weather has caused problems, said Terry Oshiro, manager of Rudy's Flowers.

"They think: Bad weather? What?" she said.

With a lack of tuberose ­ and its strong, distinctive fragrance ­ graduations may smell, well, different.

The thought of it gave Oshiro a fit of laughter.

"Maybe we will spray them," she said. "We have to find something else but it is hard to beat those ones, the smelly ones."