To find how much was spent on fresh flowers, we just multiply 9% to the monthly budget, which is $18,000.
To multiply a percent to a number, we must first turn the percent into a decimal. Just divide the percent by 100 to get the decimal form. 9% is 0.09.
[tex]0.09 \times 18000 = 1620[/tex]
$1620 was spent on fresh flowers (that's quite a lot of money!)