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January 26, 2009 |
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GROWING YOUR BUSINESS TOGETHER |
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contents
Get the Buzz on Valentine's Cuts, Colors, Creations
Fresh and creative ideas for this year's Valentine's Day couples
Florists Go Hi-Def
And create their own nationwide contest
Flowers by Sea
An idea to float
School of Floral Design
2009 Course Offering
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get the buzz on valentine's cuts, colors, creations
Cost-conscious couples might opt for a romantic stay at home instead of a weekend getaway to celebrate Feb. 14 this year. And PFCI trend trackers are making sure flowers get invited to the stay-cation. They suggest creating arrangements that will help customers relive fond, romantic memories, such as a Caribbean honeymoon, European vacation or a luxurious spa weekend. This trends page lists popular flower options, color combinations and design styles.
TRENDS: Creating a destination with the help of flowers
For those who, given the economy, may not be able to go away for the night or weekend, florists can play an important role in helping romantics be creative. If you can’t actually go to a desired destination, why not create it at home? Flowers can take you places and help you relive fond, romantic memories … whether it be reminiscing about a Caribbean honeymoon, creating a relaxing spa retreat feel, or reliving a wine country getaway – flowers can set the stage for a romantic evening in.
Caribbean honeymoon
- Tropical flowers, such as Birds of Paradise, anthurium, ginger, or orchids) with an accent of fresh fruit and foliages
- A simple collection of orchids in a vase
- Bells of Ireland and delphinium. The cool greens and blues will conjure up the memories of the beautiful Caribbean.
- Ask your florist to add colored sand and seashells in bouquets or vases to really create the mood!
European vacation
- Richly colored flowers in purples, reds and blues
- Hand-tied bouquet of all accent flowers and a couple of roses
- Textural hand-tied bouquets embellished with decorative beads and wires with colorful wraps
- A loose arrangement of garden-style flowers such as tulips, hydrangeas, ranaunculus and roses in a clear glass vase or decorative container.
- An arrangement that resembles the French countryside: Fresh herbs and wild flowers like heather, daisies, delphinium and miniature roses would be pretty and romantic.
- A French Garden of bright-hued blooming plants arranged in a classic wicker basket
- European dish garden – mixture of flowering or green plants and fresh flowers.
Spa Weekend
- Aromatic flowers like freesia, stock and sweet peas to sooth the senses.
- An arrangement of relaxing blues, lavenders and greens with fresh eucalyptus and soft foliage and some select bath products.
- Several small blue and green arrangements to place in the bathroom or bedroom.
- All white arrangement with sea glass vases or frosted aquamarine accents
- A fragrant selection of purple freesia in a clear cylinder with pale pink petals floating in the vase. The soft scent of freesia combined with the soothing color palette will embrace your sweetheart with a sense of calm.
- Monobotanic bouquet of blue iris in a clear glass vase with sea glass or shells clustered together in the bottom of the vase
- A simple glass vase filled with callas or white Casablanca lilies and cool blue glass gems inside the vase.
Wine Country Getaway
- A few beautiful roses or lilies arranged in an empty wine bottle shared on a past date. She’ll love the sentimentality.
- Deep reds (roses, carnations and soft greens). Add accents of vines, mosses and a bottle of wine.
- Grapevine or wreath around the design on the base or in and around, some fruit and a bottle of wine or a gift certificate to a wine shop.
- Grapes, sunflowers, grasses-outdoorsy and lots of yellow/peach/olive greens
- Burgundy flowers with fresh grapes and Brie cheese in a large basket
- Include a bottle of wine or fresh fruit and grapes with deep wine colored roses
- Bold collection of vibrant purple anemones or alstroemeria, green hydrangea, hypericum and red roses. This strong combination of color and texture will evoke the feeling of a stroll in the vineyards.
- Sunflowers and grapes.
- Rich royal-colored floral bouquet consisting of a mixture of textural materials such as purple tulips, magenta stock, green hydrangea and lavender roses tied with natural raffia. The design may include clusters of grapes.
TRENDS: Design Styles, Color, Rose Alternatives
Suggestions from top designers nationwide:
Red roses symbolize passionate love and are the top gift for Valentine’s Day. OTHER POPULAR VALENTINE’S DAY FLOWERS this year will be:
- Tulips are elegant
- Gerbera daisies are fun and festive
- Marguerite daisies are youthful
- Lilies are classic
- Mokara orchids are trendy
- Callas
- Iris
- Ranunculus
- Hydrangea
- Bells of Ireland
- Orchids (cymbidium, dendrobium, phalaenopsis, mokara)
- Miniature and standard carnations
Want to do something different?
- Sprinkle rose petals in a candlelit bath—or— create a pathway of roses to someplace special, as the front door to the dining room table where the gift of flowers are.
On a TIGHT BUDGET? There are lots of wonderful flower options for consumers on a budget:
- Shorter-stem roses
- Six or seven roses in a smaller vase or container
- A single rose is just as romantic when included with a touching message.
- Mixed bouquet of spring flowers
- Hand-tied bouquet with mixed flowers and colors
- A petite bud vase with a few blooms or single bloom
- Simple bouquet of one type of flower such as tulips, Gerbera daisies, lilies, carnations or mini carnations
- A single gorgeous orchid blooms floating in clear glass.
- A few stems of beautiful orchids
- Potted flowering plants are a great choice. Primrose and African Violets are two popular choices.
For your sweetheart who loves NEW TRENDS and POPULAR DESIGN STYLES, ask your florist to create a bouquet/arrangement of:
- Mokara orchids. They are long lasting, exotic and trendy with the 30-something generation.
- Colored roses other than red are growing in popularity, such as pink, peach, yellow, orange and hot pink.
- Try mixing hot pink and orange for a fresh Valentine look.
- Red, orange and hot pink roses or other blossoms. This combination is sensual and dynamite.
- Monobotanical design (one type of flower)
- Monochromatic design (flowers all in the same color family)
- Orchids are exotic and luxurious. Very elegant and stylish. Cymbidium, dendrobium, oncidium, mokara and phalaenopsis are available as cut flowers and plants.
- Hydrangea and gerberas featuring a contemporary twist of sisal and/or beaded wire. This trendy combination creates a contemporary feel with a vintage touch.
- A low bowl arrangement of hot pink and lime green flowers.
- Mokara orchids. They are long lasting, exotic and trendy with the 30-something generation.
Flowers come in so many beautiful colors. Some POPULAR COLOR TRENDS AND COLOR COMBINATIONS this year include:
- Red combined with orange
- Shades of pink and violet
- Raspberry pinks with oranges and deep purples; accent with lime green
- Shades of plum, pinks and magentas
- Soft shades of pink and lavender accented with the brighter greens
- Light to dark pink shades accented with the brighter greens
- Red and hot pink
- All green
- White
- Purples and reds
- Mango
MEN LOVE FLOWERS and plants! For the man in your life, consider sending:
- One stem of orange orchids inside a cylinder vase. It does not take up much space, but has quite a “wow” factor.
Bright orange or red flowers with lime green accents
- Vase of red, yellow, orange or bi-colored roses
- Tropical flowers such as anthuriums, proteas and birds of paradise are great choices for men. Combine with dramatic foliages, and you've got a winner.
- Bromeliads
- Bonsai
- Tulip plants
- Jonquil plants
- Orchid plants
Source: Professional Floral Communicators International (PFCI)
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florists go hi-def in nationwide co-op promo
It's shiny like a diamond, vibrant and colorful like a bouquet of flowers and can whisper sweet nothings or boom with the sound of the loudest love song. Sound like a florist's biggest competition this Valentine's Day? Not to 82 or so florists who are giving away a 42-inch, high-definition TV to those who buy their sweetheart flowers and enter "The Blooms in Hi-Def" sweepstakes.
The idea grew out of a FlowerChat.com conversation Sherry Tannozzini of Flowers from the Rainflorist in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., started in mid-January. After some rapid-fire brainstorming over e-mail and the phone, Tannozzini, Cheryl Bakin of Parkway Florist in Pittsburgh and Erlene LeBorgne, of Rosemont Floral in Portland, Maine, hashed out a joint promotion for the TV giveaway. They agreed that each participant "would chip in a set dollar amount to purchase the prize and cover any other expenses," LeBorgne says.
To get more florists involved and streamline promotions, they recruited Media 99, a Web site hosting company specific to florists. A week later, they had a printer on board to create supporting promotional material, a tagline (A Winning Valentine's Day Combination) and graphics that would go on each participating florist's site and Media 99 was ready to send out a recruiting e-mail blast to all its florist customers.
Dozens of florists from Maine to Hawaii responded, agreeing to pay the $50 entry fee and began supplementing the effort with local marketing. In Chicago, Amy Wiest of Wildflowers Chicago is running a TV ad. At Rosemont Floral, LeBorgne updated her LinkedIn profile with the Hi-Def contest information. That update was noticed by her contact at AAA Northern New England, who added the promotion to Rosemont Floral's listing on the tourism site.
LeBorgne doesn't know how many entries have been received, but one thing is for certain: She has 81 other florists lined up, connected and ready to recruit for the next nationwide co-op marketing campaign.
Consider this:
- Partner, partner. Partner with restaurants, hotels, spas and the like, but who says you can't buddy up with other florists across the country?
- Bowl over the boys. Flip on TV in the next two weeks and expect to see ads playing on Super Bowl mania. Before Feb. 1, advertisers will insist you need just the right TV, beer, pizza, sports bar and carpet cleaning to truly enjoy the game. These companies, already in a spending mode, make for great partners to offer something to all those husbands, boyfriends and football fans who also need to show their sweeties how head over heels they are.
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sea shipments: an idea worth floating?
As fuel prices have fallen, interest in importing fresh product via boat has some suppliers reconsidering whether it's a worthwhile option for flower shipments.
For wholesaler Tom Logue, vice president of Pennock Company, the answer is yes. Products shipped in containers by sea are kept at uniform, cool temperatures, and that's a real benefit to wholesalers, retailers and consumers, Logue says. "The real message is that it's a better product," he says. "It's not just a financial decision. From a cost standpoint, sometimes it'll work and sometimes it won't. But the bottom line is that the product is still better."
George Staby, Ph.D., president of the Perishables Research Organization, has spent more than 20 years researching sea transport and is convinced it is in the industry's best interest in the U.S. and abroad — despite concerns that flowers take longer to arrive.
A flower shipment today gets "harvested, held for a day, gets to Miami and is inventoried there and then transported by truck or air, he says. "By the time a retailer gets (the shipment), the flower often has seven to nine days on it. And that's OK if the flower is handled correctly," Staby says. "With sea — even with the longest-case scenario — we're talking two to five days' difference, and the flowers were held at a consistent temperature all the way through."
Supporters and critics agree that not all varieties are suited for sea-container transport. Another concern is that suppliers have to order earlier for sea-container shipment, anywhere from 10 to 21 days in advance, which makes filling less consistent or last-minute orders tough (if not impossible).
"In a good market, (the extra time) is not a problem," says Logue, stressing that Pennock, where 10 percent of flowers come by boat, is still in an experimental phase. "In a market like today, when you're by the seat of your pants, it's more of a challenge."
The biggest obstacle, Staby says, is clearing flowers efficiently at the ports, given inspectors' unfamiliarity with the product and the complex paperwork required."You have very dedicated federal workers at these ports of entry, and now all of a sudden we're throwing flowers at them," he says.
That challenge won't be solved overnight, but a growing number in the industry are at least ready to try out the new transport option.
Kennicott Brothers of Chicago started "seriously looking" at container shipments when oil was more than $140 a barrel and air-freight rates were extremely high, says Red Kennicott, AAF. "We have tried experiments, and the flowers actually arrived fresher — even though they take much longer," he says. "It is just a matter of time until we will be driven to using containers."
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Our goal is helping you reach yours.
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