Find Your Local Florist:Everything you want to know about flowers!
Suzanne Bradish ordered a bunch of spring flowers from Sainsbury’s to brighten up her home, and was sent 100g of spring onions instead, according to a delivery note she tweeted Monday.
Sadly, Bradish’s boyfriend wasn’t aware she’d ordered flowers so he happily took the delivery without returning the onions.
Suzanne shared her misfortune on Twitter and others were quick to sympathize with her, adding their own tales of disappointment.
Log Cabin Florist in Bakersfield CA knows exactly how to get their community excited about flowers!
Every month, they begin a new “Spot the Van” contest. When someone spots their fabulously floral van and snaps a photo, they can enter it into a contest to win a free arrangement from Log Cabin Florist to be delivered locally to themselves or a friend. How cool is that?
The contest runs during the summer months of June, July and August. To spread the word about Spot The Van, the flower shop sends out emails, announces it on their Facebook page and at the workshops they host. This contest is a terrific way to get the community of Bakersfield excited about flowers and florists. Way to go guys!
Is your local florist hosting any summer contests or workshops? Are you a florists doing something like this? Share your experiences, thoughts or ideas in the comments below!
Wooo! It’s a scorcher out there, and it’s only going to get worse! I don’t know about you, but I can barely keep my lawn alive during this heat, and flowers — forget about it! So how is it florists keep such beautiful flowers all year long, even 
on deliveries?! Here are some tips our florists shared with us yesterday.
Flowers and plants need to be kept at a certain temperature in order to breath and intake food properly. Keeping flowers at a consistent temperature is vital for reaching a it’s full vase-life potential. Low temperatures also slow down the growth of bacteria and other micro-organisms, which will extend the vase life for customers.
Before a flower arrives at your local flower shop, it has made a long journey. Starting with the growers, they are shipped in refrigerated planes or trucks to the wholesale level. Wholesalers keep these flowers in coolers until they are shipped to the florist, who also stores them inside a cooler. After all this refrigeration, you can see why flowers would get finicky once they are out of the cool. Florists do their best to maintain the right temperatures for their flowers.
A new baby and the celebration of birth is always a delightful occasion. Friends and family come from all over just to pinch those new little cheeks. If you’re going to meet and greet a new little life, don’t show up empty handed — bring flowers! Flowers have been used in celebrations for centuries and are a great representation of growing life. They are also an especially great gift when you are too far to welcome new baby in person, you can trust a local florist to deliver them right to the new mom and dad.
Traditionally, flower colors for baby girls are pastel pinks and for little boys, baby blue. Although these colors are still loved and accepted, these days you can choose almost any color for new baby. Many new parents are choosing 
out-of-the-box colors for baby showers and nurseries. If you know what color the nursery is, or just want to send something different, don’t hesitate!
Trendy Baby Colors Include:
Traditionally, new baby flowers are mostly roses, daisies and carnations. Again, now you can pretty much choose any type of flower. It may be a good idea to choose flowers that don’t cause allergic reactions and don’t have a strong smell. Choose flowers with heavy, large pollens, since it’s unlikely that such big, heavy pollens will find their way into anyone’s eyes, mouth or nose, such as: hydrangeas, roses, daisies, snapdragons, sunflowers, and daffodils. Talk to your florist about any concerns you may have.
Did you forget an anniversary? Skip shopping for football? Talk bad about her *delicious* cooking? Well, shame on you… but there is hope…
The best way to make your wife or girlfriend happy again, is by surprising her with something special — send flowers. Not just ANY flowers will do, send her a bouquet of her FAVORITES. If you don’t know her favorite flowers, send her favor color. If you don’t know you’re wife’s favorite color, you’re going to be sending a lot more flowers in your future.
Talk to your florist about your wife, tell her what styles she’s into: vintage, contemporary, glitzy, traditional, minimalistic, etc. Your florist will be able to create something wonderful based on just a few details you can tell her about your wife. Florist LOVE creating custom flower arrangements. In fact, if you are the type of guy to only shops online, most florists will have a Designer’s Choice option on their websites. Choose this option when sending flowers online. You will be able type in a comment, and tell the florist all about your girlfriend or wife.
Keeping Your Wife HappyKeep the fire alive with spontaneity! Send her flowers just because throughout the year. Here’s a little, not-so-secret secret: women love attention. Receiving flowers at work for no reason will have your wife smiling from ear to ear, and boasting about her fabulous hubby. Every day she walks into her office and sees her desk full of meaningful blooms, she will be in an instant good mood.
Stop by your local florist after work occasionally and pick up a hand-tied bouquet of flowers to bring home to her. Hand delivered is the best flower delivery. This is a great habit to make — keep your wife happy and make her feel special, that is your job after all.
This post is brought to you by local Miami florists.
Not in Miami FL? No worries, use Flower Shop Network’s handy directory of real local florists to find a florist near you!
Ah, flower deliveries. The sun shining on your face, the wind rushing through your hair, fresh air filling your lungs… no, really! Since we’ve introduced our bicycle delivery trailer, deliveries to normally stressful or difficult locations have become, well, a breeze.
Boulder Blooms' Flower Delivery Bicycle
Our customers are becoming more and more conscious of the environmental impacts of their purchases. This is especially true of the demographic we call “Generation Y”. At our shop, we are lucky enough to be located right across the street from a college campus filled to the brim with Generation Y-ers. Our latest delivery system has been an attempt to catch the attention of these consumers and to be a little more considerate of our environment at the same time.
Delivering flowers on a bicycle not only reduces the carbon output created by driving a delivery vehicle around, but also becomes a powerful marketing tool in the right area. In our case, the frustration of finding a parking spot (scarce), paying parking fees (expensive), and still having to walk long distances to deliver flowers has been alleviated by using a bicycle rather than a car.
When we decided to purchase a delivery trailer, we assumed we’d be able to purchase something pre-fabricated to suit our needs. Unfortunately, we were not able to find exactly what we needed (what do you mean you don’t sell flower-delivery-bicycle trailers?), so we decided to make one ourselves. The closest we were able to find we purchased from www.wicycle.com; a landscape trailer with no cover to shelter arrangements. We are lucky enough to have a friend who was able to fabricate a customized, hinged cover for the trailer (I saw the inside of this guy’s toolbox once- he travels with his own fire extinguisher. This is a good friend to have.) and we finished the cover with brightly colored decals of our logo, phone number, and website. The inside of the trailer will be lined with a customized foam delivery system to help with stability, although the design of the trailer is deceptively stable as-is.
Our bicycle will be used primarily to deliver campus deliveries, arrangements to the mainly pedestrian downtown area, and to other areas with high levels of foot-traffic. In such a bicycle-friendly city, the marketing possibilities are endless- we can hand out free stems with our contact info before holidays and we are looking into a mobile vendor license so we can tote wrapped dozen-rose bouquets to sell on campus. The visibility and marketing impact we get from the trailer was well worth the small expense- two fringe benefits from what began as an environmentally conscious idea.
Flower Shop Network: This article was written by Jerrica Park, co-owner of Boulder Blooms, an incredible flower shop in Boulder Colorado with a 100% eco-friendly attitude. Thanks for your contribution, Jerrica! View a video of the new delivery bike in action at YouTube.com.
My sister-in-law is having a baby boy this month. Another friend of mine is expecting a daughter around the same time. Not wanting to show partiality, I’ve decided to feature two flower arrangements this month.
Spring seems like baby season to me. The birth of new flowers coincides with the birth of precious little arrivals. I love children so these new baby flower arrangements stood out to me when I first came across them. After a second and third glimpse, I could no longer pass up sharing them with you.
Ok, I’ll stop stalling.
"Congratulations Daughter" New Baby Flowers
"Congratulations Son" New Baby Flowers
Baby Caleb is going to make me Aunt Brynn for the first time. I can hardly wait! Because I’m partial to little boys anyway, his gift has to be extra special. What I love about the “Congratulations Son” arrangement is that it’s a cool gift for both Caleb and his parents. There’s flowers for mom and a toy for baby! Plus the toy becomes a really sweet keepsake that he can keep for years. I can just hear him now. “This was the toy that I came home with from the hospital on the day I was born.” Ah, to know that I sent that gift warms my heart.
While I will not be “Aunt Brynn” to my friend’s little girl, I’ll definitely be a big part of her life. Her mother and I have been friends for years and will stay that way until we die. I can’t just let her go through child birth without a gift! I love the “Congratulations Son” arrangement so much that I was super excited to see the “Congratulations Daughter” flowers. What a treat for me because I know that both baby and momma will smile when the gift is delivered.
Ahhhh. Welcome, Spring.
Ok, small or hybrid vehicles.
Thankfully, some very efficient florists have found a clever way to save money and go green at the same time. Many florists are turning lemons into lemonade by switching to smaller or hybrid delivery vehicles. These smaller vehicles save on fuel costs for day-to-day deliveries. This also makes it very cost effective to simply rent a large van for major events.
The ability to save money by lowering fuel costs is a huge advantage for any florist. Consider the amount of fuel used to power a large van during the course of a year. Even a five or ten mile-per-hour (mph) difference can add up to hundreds of dollars during the year! That’s reason enough to switch to more fuel-efficient delivery vehicles.
Just as many local florists want to “green” their flower shops. The trend toward smaller delivery vehicles is one that can be adapted rather quickly and with little more hassle than any similar activity for the shop. With all that extra moolah at stake, switching to fuel-efficient delivery vehicles is well worth the consideration!
I recently spoke with David Strong of Piano’s Flowers & Gifts in Memphis, Tennessee about his recent switch to a more eco-friendly delivery vehicle. According to Mr. Strong, his customers have only rave reviews about the new van, citing things like “Leave the van. Keep the flowers.” Mr. Strong was very pleased to be getting 29 miles to the gallon for his in-town deliveries. Having spent a significant amount of time in Memphis traffic, I would be too!
What I found very interesting was that the design of Piano’s new vehicle was actually a customer’s idea. Knowing a little bit about your customers is what keeps them coming back, and apparently creating fantastic designs for each new delivery vehicle!
Have you already adopted these trends in your flower shop? Tell us some of the ways that you are reducing your fuel costs with “green” vehicles or send pictures of your hybrid delivery vehicle.
One of the joys of my job is that my faith in people and their good nature is daily validated by Flower Shop Network’s network coordinators. I recently learned of Fuqua and Sheffield Florist, a full service florist delivering flowers in Richmond, Virginia. The positive influence of these great people is so contagious that I couldn’t help but pass it along to you.
Lyle and his team light up the room even over the phone. Every employee seems delighted with life and genuinely excited about the work that is being done. Sending flowers from Fuqua and Sheffield Florist is a refreshing drift back to a time when working in a flower shop was invigorating and exciting because every new customer was a chance to let out the artistry and creativity of the designer. Each new face was a new opportunity for something bigger, better, and a brighter smile. This kind of enthusiasm is electric with the employees here and no doubt a direct reflection of the bubbly and pleasant rapport between Lyle and his customers. It is nearly impossible to keep from smiling after speaking with any of the wonderful people at Fuqua and Sheffield Florist.
There is a saying that it takes a dozen positive encounters to counteract the effects of one negative encounter. Lyle and his team are setting out to reverse that belief by delivering one intensely fun-filled experience after another. Passionate and driven, it’s instantly a treat to work with the team on creating romantic wedding flowers, beautiful birthday arrangements, sincere sympathy arrangements and any other floral dream in the imagination. How fun! After just one conversation, you know that Fuqua and Sheffield Florist will deliver the flowers that draw emotion from anyone—and be passionate about it!
There remains to be seen an occasion where Lyle and his team created an arrangement without vigor, drive, and contagious energy. Passion about flowers goes a long way, but when a whole team of people absolutely radiates happiness and enthusiasm—that’s impossible to keep to myself.
Once I was selected by the Nielsen rating group to log my TV habits. When they got my logbook I’m sure they thought – we have some weird weather fetish person here. Most of my entries included the weather channel. When you have a nursery and landscaping business, weather is your friend and enemy, knowing what the weather is doing 24hours a day is very important. We have the weather channel on all day long at the nursery; before we had cable at the nursery my father-in-law would call us every few hours with a weather update. So when I saw the report about the snow in the Northeast, I could really relate to the people in the story. One man in Smithfield, Rhode Island was concerned about his pine trees bending under the weight of the snow – we have to worry about the weight of snow on our greenhouses. Kids were having a blast sledding on the snow – the guys at the nursery love to have snowball fights. But, a gentleman in Andover, Massachusetts made the comment that hit home with me; he said, “I’m tied of the snow – enough is enough – I’m ready for summer”. Winter, despite its glistening beauty when it snows, is usually a gloomy season in which everyone longs for warm sunny days
When I start to get the winter blues, I spend the whole day in the greenhouse working with the green plants and colorful flowers that we are growing for the spring season. Instead of exhaustion at the end of the day, I am energized and excited. This feeling of euphoria gave me an idea a couple of years ago. My mother absolutely hates winter and gets the winter blues easily. So, I started sending her flowers when I noticed the winter blues creeping up on her. Since I began this experiment, I’ve noticed my mother doesn’t seem to mind winter, quite as much. I would love to take credit for curing the winter blues with flowers, but using flowers to stimulate happiness isn’t my invention. Over the decades, many studies have proven that Flowers = Happiness. You can ask any flower delivery driver – when you deliver the flowers what is the expression on the face of the recipient? – and the driver will reply, a smile.
So, what does sending a flower bouquet have to do with the weather across the nation? The weather – along with a multitude of other things – is causing a winter blues epidemic. What the nation needs right now is a positive attitude and a feeling of happiness. Maybe if everyone across the nation sends flowers to someone else this winter, we can stop the epidemic from spreading and create a feeling of euphoria. Or if you feel like the man in Andover, call your local florist and give yourself a little happiness by having flowers delivered to your home or office.
Here’s my effort to send some happiness your way 
