COVID-19 & Flowers

Running a small business this year is hard.  Running a small business that relies on imported fresh product is even harder.  90% of the fresh flowers we sell are imported from other countries, mostly in South America.

In countries that export, a sharp sudden decline in demand for flowers meant millions of stems of flowers being thrown away. Why ? Because the flower industry is a global economy and is balanced by a constant flow of demand and supply. 

For example:

Imagine throwing a weekly dinner party for say, 100 people.  You're supplying all of the food and beverages.   One week everyone cancels.  You already have the food. The next week they cancel again.....now you have two weeks worth of food that you are throwing away because you cannot possibly consume the quantity of food you now have on hand.  Plus it's perishable and maybe the bananas look okay but that salmon was toast after 3 days. Flowers are the same situation.

We do have some local resources for flowers but when the first restrictions were put in place in March, that meant many of the US farms had to shut down- for good.  Fresh flowers need to be harvested off the plants to promote new growth.  If no one is there to harvest, package and ship, eventually the business has to plow under the plants and call it a loss. 

Now that we've been open for a little over a month I can tell you things are never going to be the same for our industry.

Flights with cargo containing flowers may get bumped or canceled.  Airports might become completely shutdown due to sudden spike in Covid19 cases.   Yes the US is starting to reopen, but South America is just now riding the Covid19 wave.   This could mean serious implications on what flowers are available in the coming months.    Ecuador is one of the largest producers of roses worldwide.  Imagine ordering roses and not being able to get them until a week later instead of the next day.  That is a very real possibility. 

I have already struggled to get product in on a regular basis.  It's frustrating and there is really nothing I can do about it.  There is nothing my suppliers can do either.   Many of the sales and delivery personnel for the wholesale sector were laid off in March and were not called back by May.   Everyone in small business is trying to cut costs any way they can.  Labor is one of the biggest overhead cost in a small business like flower shops.  It is also the hardest one to scale back because we NEED people to run a business. 

Every week that I am open, I am grateful.   This is definitely a daily struggle to cover costs and make any sort of a profit.  There is a large misconception that small business owners are paying themselves really well and are taking all the profits for their own pockets.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Many small business owners draw a salary that is less per hour than minimum wage pays in some states.  Some even take less of a salary than what they will pay their most valuable employees.   Why?  Because we want our business to be successful, to have that pride in what you have accomplished and built.  If we wanted to be rich we would go work for a big corporation that can offer sick pay, health insurance and 401k benefits.

Message Inspiration: Love and Romance

For Romance, new or established:

Thinking of you

I can't get you off my mind

I can't wait to see you

Hoping this brightens your day

Hoping this brightens your day as much as you brighten mine

You mean the world to me

You are so important to me

I love you so much

You have filled me with happiness

I am so blessed to have you in my life

I look forward to all of the years ahead of us


          Quotes from literature/poets/authors:

"Life is the flower for which love is the honey" Victor Hugo

"To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides" David Viscott

"Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love"  Mother Theresa

"If I know what love is, it is because of you" Hermann Hesse

"A woman knows the face of the man she loves as a sailor knows the open sea" Honore de Balzac

"Love is friendship that has caught fire" Ann Landers

Need more inspiration?  Check out planet of success or brainy quote

AIFD Red Gala Day 2 Evening

What is a international floral convention without a ball? 

The theme was Red and the decor was GORGEOUS!    

We work hard at convention, there is so much manual labor that goes into this event and all the other shows that week.  

Black Tie events require a quick change from workroom clothes to ballgown worthy dresses...in this case less than an hour! 

I picked up this gorgeous dress at She Said Yes Consignment in Winchester.   

Me and my lovely Co-Chair Sheryl Timmermann AIFD: 

the food, because designers love an artistic plate of dessert! 

More Pictures of the decor and flowers courtesy of the AIFD Facebook page: 

AIFD Convention Day 2/ Blooms Over DC

Blooms Over Program takes all the leftover flowers from the runway shows, etc  and recycles them into arrangements / bouquets to be distributed to the general public at places like hospitals, hospice, retirement centers and the like.
      This program began in 1993 by Kurt Pamper AIFD at the San Francisco Symposium, and has been a part of symposium every year since.

This was the first year I have chaired a program, and the first year AIFD has partnered with another company to expand the Blooms Over program to reach its maximum potential.    We (AIFD) contacted  Petal Share, a non-profit organization that has been recycling flowers from weddings and special events in the DC area for several years now. 

Heather at Petal Share was instrumental in working with me to reach so many people this year in the DC area.  Her knowledge of  the facilities and people that would benefit the most from our program was a tremendous help.

Recycling flowers doesn't sound very difficult but it does require planning and organization.   We designed and delivered 960 bouquets....that is a lot of hard work to make and deliver...over a 48 hour period. 

So from the beginning, this is what my work area looked like:

Flowers needed to be organized by type, prototypes made, and volunteers assembled to make all those bouquets! 

The Blooms program had so many talented designers drop in and make beautiful bouquets all day long and into the next day.  Student designers from Ohio State University, College of Nevada, Idaho, and Golden West College.  

The logistics of packing up and delivering these bouquets, keeping count, and schlepping buckets of water all over the hotel kept us busy.  

  Sending Heather pics of the buckets so she could gauge how many buckets would fit in her truck and the vehicles of the Petal Share volunteers the next day.  I couldn't find a tape measure so, yes, I used my foot! 

AIFD Convention July 2018- Day 1

Hundreds of Floral Designers descended on Washington DC this summer to collaborate, design and dazzle at this year's AIFD convention.  

This structure was over 8' long and all hand designed and made by some very talented floral designers. 

When we hold our annual convention, in a different city every year, we tend to take over the entire hotel/convention center.  Flowers are EVERYWHERE!  Lobby, Registration desks, Concierge, Escalators even!

I served as Committee Chair for the Blooms Over project, but that comes later.  Since I had time, I helped out a few colleagues in the work room prepare for their presentations.  This was so much fun because A. It wasn't my show so no pressure  B. I got to play with lots of fun new products.  I still worked late, like 9 or 10pm that night but time flies when you're having fun!  

 Stacey Carlton AIFD lending a hand (literally ) to some work room designers

Fun hot pink roses, thistles and anthurium

 another handtied bouquet for the "It's a Wrap"

program by Stacey Carlton AIFD

Fun fact: that tackle box (above left )is from 1997 circa my College days at OSU/ATI

Day one also involved lots of caffeine and laughter.   More about the rest of the week in the next blog post! 

  

Catching up on January-June 2018

It has been a long time since my last blog post.  2018 has been a crazy year and staying on top of social media posting has been a the bottom of the priority list.  So today is about catching up. 

January was filled with Valentine's day prep, worries about snow storms during said Valentine's week, ordering in chocolates, balloons, bears and flowers.

Jan:

Then came February.  The hours were longer and much more anxiety ridden with prepping for the big V-Day.  

also the various strains of the Flu were going around like the plague in the 14th century.  You could really not be overly cautious when making deliveries, especially to the hospital. 

 We had some ice and snow also.  

Then my world stopped for a week.  For the entire week of Valentines day I was not in the shop.  A first in my 20 years in the business.  I was at the hospital ICU all week.  My husband of 6 years passed from complications from bacterial meningitis.   

I cannot begin to adequately thank those people who stepped in to help out at the flower shop that week, helped me with my kids, and just plain stepped up to be there for me and our families.  

It is a very surreal situation.  One situation I would never want anyone else to have to experience.  

The remainder of February I was in the shop and simultaneously dealing with my personal life.  

March brought...Snow?!! 

and the annual flower show at one of the largest DC distributors/wholesalers, Potomac Floral Wholesale.  Jamie and I went and Ooo'd and ahhh'd over all the gorgeous flower varieties from around the world: 

Pineapple protea

 a banana variety

anemones

 Jamie and I at the show

 a protea variety

 Sweet Peas!! 

 Inside the flower cooler 

April was Prom and Administrative Assistant's Day, Easter and just about every holiday you can cram into one month. 

Prom Corsage of white roses, pink wax flower and ribbon to coordinate with the dress. 

one of the many beautiful orchid varieties from our local orchid grower, Orchids For Everyone. 

May brought rain, rain and more rain.  Mother's Day and Apple Blossom festival.  And Rain.  Did I mention how much it stinkin' rained?!!  

an entire box of mixed tulips 

Mother's Day Flower delivery:

June has been much quieter with kids out of school, family vacations etc.  Our busiest times actually fall within the Aug- May range.   June and July are usually the time to go through paperwork, plan for the upcoming holidays and of course, catch up on social media postings.  

There are exciting things coming up the first week of July that I can't wait to share- mainly the AIFD symposium which is happening here, in DC.  Follow me on Facebook and Instagram so you don't miss out on all the gorgeous flowers and fabulous designs from around the world!