Tip for Ordering Flowers on Valentine’s Day

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, here are a few tips for getting the freshest and most beautiful flowers from your local florist.

1. TRUST..the floral designer to do what they are trained to do.  Let your designer be inspired to bring out the natural beauty in each flower. Encourage them to be creative and design a unique bouquet for you.  Some of the worst bouquets come from trying to make flowers that look like a photo.  Photo’s should be used as a general guide for style, but NOT used to make an exact duplicate of an arrangement.   Flowers are art..so let your designer be an artist.  It’s what they love doing!  Floral designers love giving flowers a voice!
2. Give your floral designer your general guidelines, the color palette, your style preferences, and any favorite flowers of the recipient, and your budget.  Remember that delivery and tax are always added on after the flower price, so make sure you clarify the bottom line.
3.  Always ask what is FRESH and IN SEASON this week.  Flowers are grown by farmers and farming is seasonal.  Farming is dependent on weather, supply & demand, transportation issues. Flowers are grown all around the world, and there is nothing that adds stress for a florist more than having their roses stuck in the airport on Valentines week, due to a winter storm somewhere in the country.  Be flexible, have patience, and plan on ordering extra early to make sure you have choices and options. Remember it’s winter, and many types of flowers are not available in the winter, unless you are willing to pay for the OUT OF SEASON price.  Most florists are happy to order out of season flowers in for you, but you need to plan ahead in order to have it available when you want it.  Allow at least 10 days for your florist to bring in your “out of season flowers” for you.

 

Bob & His Bee’s

Love this video of Bob Rivers attending to his Bee’s   Bee’s are so important to the flower industry, and I can’t believe how much this impresses me! I wish I could be this fearless, but alas, it’s not going to happen.

Thanks Bob, we need more of you!

 

Flower Growers & Respect

Such a touching video  that shares the history of flower growing.  It touches my soul and make me realize just how important the growing aspect is to our industry!  Thank goodness for farming, I think this is a standard that our industry needs to strive towards & try to maintain!

Thank goodness for flower farmers who grow and have an incredible respect for what we do!

http://www.skylineflowers.com/about_us.html

This is what makes our industry truly thrive!  I was truly impressed recently when I had a conversation with this grower who made it very clear  how he wanted his flowers treated with respect!

As a designer, I am alway considerate of how I treat flowers, my goal is to make them look beautiful for my client.  The grower is the first step to helping me accomplish my goal!  I feel so happy to have found some one who cares as much as I do!

 

Organic vs sustainability

What is sustainable agriculture? People ask me this all the time.. A simplified answer is…

Sustainable agriculture is a way of growing food that is healthy and does not harm the environment, respects workers, is humane to animals, and provides a fair wage to the farmer, and supports farming communities.  Characteristics of this type of agriculture usually involve conservation & preservation.   People often wonder what the difference between sustainable and organic agriculture is, and when is organic not sustainable?

Organic & sustainable agriculture both strive to preserve the land for generations to come and have many similarities. The main difference between the two methods is that organic food production has to be certified yearly by an independent third party certifier who is approved by the US Department of Agriculture.  Sustainable food  has no independent certification process and it is more a philosophy & a way of life that must rely on the word of the farmer and his practices

The issue can be confusing, for example, even though organic is certified, some of the practices are not considered sustainable.  I think it is more important to know where our food comes from, and that we learn to celebrate our meals rather than just eat!

I am feeling so nostalgic about the end of the gardening season. I am going to miss the sun warmed tomatoes, the fresh herbs, squah & lettuce that have provided me with nourishment over the past year.  Some of it has been preserved, I was packaging my rosemary, oregano and spearmint yesterday to get me through the long winter season.

Organic is good, and sustainability is good. Which is better? I guess it really boils down to what we are able to do, and how much passion we can muster! In my opinion, being passionate  about something is better than taking no action at all!