Fairview Florist Blog

You Probably Never Thought Of This!

On February 7th, 2008 I experienced the 2nd biggest snow storm in my lifetime.  When was the biggest?  In 1935 when we had 19 inches compared to 16 inches in 2008.  My lifetime?  75 years.

If that storm came one week later, on February 14th, Valentine's Day, it would have cost my flower business about $15,000 in lost sales.  Orders that could not be delivered on the 14th probably would end up being canceled.  The flowers would be a total loss.  And I'll bet you never thought of that.

So what is the moral of the story?  Consider this occasion as Valentine's Week with delivery as early as the 12th.  Then I suggest the card message that says something like this: "I could not wait another day to tell you . . ..".

Think about it this way.  It is physically impossible for all flower deliveries to be on one day.  Valentine's Day probably generates a volume of 25 to 30 times more business than a normal day, and that's with a significant increase in volume 2 and 3 days before.

We have two delivery vans, our personal SUV, a rental van, probably family member van and will rely on employees using their vehicle for emergency trips.  Each vehicle has a driver and runner.  Our delivery area is divided into 10 delivery  zones and my job is to expedite the orders.  We try to get deliveries out to commercial areas in the AM.  Time specific deliveries are almost impossible to accommodate.

Now that you know this, I'll bet you can see the merits in ordering Valentine Flowers early and consider delivery a day or two in advance, just because "I couldn't wait another day to tell you how much I love you."

Happy Valentine's Day, Tom Carlson

News Story About Ordering Valentine's Flowers

Real Florists and Flower Consumers are under seige from middlemen who lurk on the Internet and in the yellow pages.  These phantom florists mislead consumers into thinking they are local florists, when in fact they are merely a bank of telephone/computer operators hundreds to thousands of miles away.

This news story in the Janesville Gazette offers a great service to Consumers and Real Florists. http://gazettextra.com/news/2008/feb/08/flower-power-heres-how-make-valentines-day-blossom/

Here is how this deception transpired.  Ninety eight years ago, in 1910, the concept of florists exchanging flower orders evolved into a well known organization called Florist Telegraph Delivery.  Notice "Telegraph" in FTD soon became "Telephone" and now is known as Florist Transworld Delivery. 

Ninety years later the telegraph is gone and the telephone has morphed into "toll free calling" and "Internet" transmissions.

FTD which was florist member owned and operated as a non-profit organization started to meet competition from private corporations.  Most florists belonged to several wire services which in turn caused fierce competition between the wire services and this resulted in incentives [rebates] to use one wire serivce over another.

The rebates brought in the phantom florists who were allowed to be "sending only" shops who collect handsome S & H fees from the consumer, rebates from the wire service plus commissions from the florist who fills the order.  The result today is that the florist filling the orders that come through the middlemen is probably losing money on every order filled.

To compete with the phantom florists from whom they receive membership dues, now the wire services have become phantom florists themselves, identified as FTD.com, 800Florist.com and Teleflora.com.

The only solution to this dilema is for the consumer to seek out and deal directly with Real Florists.  A simple way to weed out the phantom florists is to ask them if you can pick up your order.  That's not possible because they don't have a store, flowers, designers or delivery vans.

A Story That Must Be Told

When a consumer runs a risk, should they be forewarned? 

I sincerely believe that if I know about hazards facing a consumer who considers ordering flowers on line that I should tell them about the risks and how to avoid them and still order on-line.

KNOW YOUR OPTIONS.  Consumers have 4 options:

1. Order through your Local Florist.  Visit your local florist who can handle the placement of your flower order with a real florist in the city of delivery.

2. Order On-line directly with a Real Florist.  For instance, Fairview is a real “brick & mortar” florist with a website set up for consumers all over the world to use in ordering flowers 24/7.  This bypasses a middleman, and works just like using a phone.

3. Order On-line through a Middleman who gathers orders and relays them through a wire service.  800Flowers.com, FTD.com and Teleflora.com are middleman order brokers, along with hundreds of other sending only florists who cannot fill and deliver orders because they are not Real Florists with inventory, design and delivery staff.

4. Order through a Direct Shipper.  ProFlowers portends to harvest your flower order from the flower fields and ship them direct to the recipient via FedEx, UPS and DHL.  Martha Stewart makes the same claim, declaring that their flowers are therefore fresher and less costly than going to your local florist.

Option 4 is simply not true.  They imply that the flowers are harvested after your order is placed and shipped the same day.  Actually those flowers are harvested before anyone orders, shipped into a port like Miami, redistributed to warehouses in hub cities where they are held until ordered and then shipped by the likes of FedEx for delivery the next day.  Plus extra fees are required for Saturday or Rush Delivery.

Another deception is showing the flowers arranged but actually shipped unarranged in a box, not in water.

   

Another risk is that if no one is home to accept a FedEx delivery, the flowers are left at the door, whether it is far below freezing up north or in sweltering temperatures down south.

You have to see this video.  http://www.fairviewflorist.com/campaign-for-real-florists.htm

Growing Poinsettias, Then & Now

            Remember the high snow banks, how they were so much higher when we were kids?  I guess that’s because our perspective was from a much lower line of vision.  I also remember filling the coal stoker hoppers in my youth and they looked so big.  It took a lot of coal to keep our one acre of greenhouses warm.

            This winter of 2007 has lots of snow, takes lots of fuel and the poinsettias want to be kept warm, and being a tropical plant, the coldest we’d like them to be at night is 55 to 60 degrees.  Now stop and think about living in a house with walls made of plastic and trying to keep the night temperature at a comfortable 65-68 degrees.  Partial view of our greenhouse.

            Well that is just what it takes to keep the poinsettia growing (comfortably).  And while we’re on the environment subject, poinsettias like bright light in the daytime, no draft, soil that fluctuates between not being too dry before watering and not wet all the time.  Watering any plant is easier if we think about how much dryness a plant needs, not how much water.  When water goes into the soil, air comes out.  As the plant takes up water, air goes back into the soil.  Poinsettias should never be kept constantly moist.

            I was in a big box store recently and they were well stocked with poinsettias [I don’t see why a lumber yard has to sell plants.]  Anyway, they were still in the plastic wrap that the grower shipped them in.  That is not a good practice because any plant gives off ethylene and concentrated, high levels of ethylene within the protective wrap has very negative effects.  Then I was shocked to see someone carrying a poinsettia out with no protection in freezing temperature.  That plant will be dead in one day.  My dad used to say, “Son, it took me 6 months to raise that poinsettia, now don’t you harm it in 6 minutes (actually in 6 seconds one can damage a plant with careless handling).

            And the prettiest sight to me during the poinsettia growing period is when the greenhouse is empty and lots of homes and offices are beautified with our poinsettias.  Our flower shop expects to sell several hundred poinsettias in 7 sizes and up to 10 colors.

Spring Is Here

Being born and raised in a greenhouse environment, spring meant work.  The spring crop of garden plants was a "make or break" crop.  A good spring business pushed our numbers into the black whereas just a so - so spring got the bills paid but dad could not go out on a spending spree.  A spending spree was buying mom her first clothes washer.  I think it was a Bendix Washing Machine.  One year he bought my sister a Marimba and he would sit back and enjoy her practicing.  In 1948 it was a Hammond Eclectic Organ, big enough for most churches.  But all that was predicated on a successful spring garden plant season.  And that fact is just as important today as it was back in the 1930s.  All 5 of us kids worked in the greenhouse.

Dad always open the greenhouse to the public the day after Mother's Day.  Generally that was about the 10th of May and our average last frost date was about the 15th.  By noon, Decoration Day [now it's called Memorial Day] the crop was pretty much sold out.  The week before Mother's Day was devoted to getting all the wholesale pot plant orders out to the flower shops in a 40 mile radius.  When that was done, the retail greenhouse was opened.

On my 7th birthday, Dad gave me a coin purse with $3 change in it and I was put in charge of the John Baer Tomato sales.

In the mid-fifties, I arranged to sponsor the noon weather news from the State Station, WHA.  I added the soil temperature to the forecast and the soil temperature was always too cold for setting plants into the cold ground.  On the week after Mother's Day, the soil temperature would be up to 51 or 52 degrees and we told everyone that now they could plant flowers and vegetables but keep a watchful eye for a late frost.

Easter Sunday for a Florist

A good Easter is one where all the lilies were sold and the cut flower inventory is only sufficient to handle the next couple days of orders.  My guess is that the flower consumer gives little thought to what happens if a grower's lily crop blooms either too soon or late for Easter which falls on a different day every year.  There is not much demand for a lily plant after the holiday passes.  Record keeping is critical to making good decisions for both the grower and retailer.

A not-so-good Easter could be one where a winter storm keeps the consumers from shopping and likewise, the florist from delivering.  Dealing in perishable products that have no demand after the holiday is enough to bring on a few grey hairs.

Easter business is much different for florists today.  Ten to fifteen years ago, we sold over 200 cymbidium orchid corsages for Easter.  In 2007, we did not stock even one orchid unless it was special ordered ahead of time.  One just does not see Easter hats or corsages any more.  We used to sell over 1,000 lilies and in 2007 we lucked out, we sold all 100 of the lilies I ordered.

Part of that is because Lilies are not as popular any more.  I have an opinion as to why.  A lily is a perishable product and because of its spike demand, the big box stores, discounters and supermarkets use them as a loss leader   They start out with a smaller lily and then do not take care of it so the quality is very low.  People who buy them do not have a good experience so they might decide that lilies are not a good deal.

Deliveries are another issue.  Many people travel on Easter week as it coincides with spring break.  So there are probably more recipients not home than on any other holiday event.  Most florists now call ahead to verify that some one will be home.  When contact cannot be made, we go to the door and if no one answers the door, we use our cell phone from outside the house to leave a message.  In 2007, we had only 4 orders not deliverable so I left the store phone on call transfer, brought the orders home and when I got a reply, I took the order to their door.  On Sunday evening, there was just one order not delivered yet.  That should get done the next day.

Yellow Page Deception

Before toll free numbers and the Internet, you could count on the yellow pages to direct you to merchants and services when you were not aware of a known source.  Not always so any more.

Now the yellow pages are full of deception.  Here is an analysis from just my phone books for Janesville, WI.  SBC and Yellow Book (YB) directories under the category of FLORISTS:

Number of listings: SBC 19,      YB 43
Non Local:             SBC   3,     YB 17
Large ad, not local  SBC   2,      YB  4

A Non-local (phantom) florist charges an exorbitant handling/delivery fee that he keeps, meaning he does not give it to the florist who handles and delivers the order.  This can raise the end cost of the average flower order by 25%.

Plus he collects a commission of 20% from the wire service.

Plus the phantom florist gets a rebate (kick back) of $4 to $6 and sometimes more from the wire service.

Then the wire service relays the order and takes 27% to 29% from the florist who, by contract, has to fill the order to the full value you placed.

The non-local, phantom florist does not fill and deliver flower orders.  He does not have a flower shop.

Example: Evansville Floral is a real florist in Evansville, WI.

Evansville Florist (not Floral) is a phantom florist who has an Evansville phone number with Call Transfer to a town in New Jersey.  At that location, there are only telephone and computer operators, no flowers, no cooler, no designers, no delivery van, just functions as a call center.  They send the order back through the wire service who has given them a "sending only" membership.

The above is happening all over North America.  My fear is when a consumer is unknowingly duped by a non-local, phantom florist, will he ever send flowers again?  Make sure you are always dealing with a Real (brick & mortar) florist.

Paste this address in your address bar and see what others are reporting. http://www.floristdetective.com/wst_page11.aspx 

You don't bring me flowers anymore.

Secretaries are everywhere, including at home.  Can a business be run as efficiently as a home?  Many would say NO.  A day is set aside in April when secretaries will be recognized and hopefully that might start to include homemakers.

A little history on this occasion is revealing as to the title of my blog.

1942 - National Secretaries Association (NSA) was founded.

1952 - Secretaries Day was started by 3 prominent members of the National Secretaries Association.

1982 - NSA changed its name to Professional Secretaries International (PSI)

1998 – Another name change: International Association of Administrative Professionals. (IAAP)

2000 - IAAP changes the name of the week to Administrative Professionals' Week.  This was wisely done to encompass all "secretaries" to include receptionists, office managers, executive assistants, coordinators and assistants.

Today, far fewer flowers are sent to "Secretaries" because busy executives are confused as to who really are the secretaries and many have ended up eliminating sending flowers because they weren't sure who should receive them.

Thus my title, "You Don't Send Me Flowers Anymore!" explains the demise of a once important flower holiday in the florist industry.  I am sure the secretaries are just as disappointed as we florists.

Flowers From Far-away

     Flowers harvested one day in the Netherlands will be sold at the Aalsmeer Flower Auction in the wee hours of the next morning and can be in our flower shop 2 days later.  The world’s largest flower auction takes place 5 days a week in Aalsmeer, Holland. 

    I have visited the Aalsmeer Flower Auction 2 times; it is an awesome building, larger than 9 football fields, and accommodates millions of flowers every weekday.

    Flower brokers have a seat on the auction and purchase flowers for their clients.  The “clock” starts at the highest price and drops in price until the cart of flowers is sold.  A “Dutch Auction” is the opposite of our auctions where the price is bid upward.

    U.S. florists now have an auction in North America that functions through the Internet.  We sit at our computer and watch for the flowers we want to buy.  We know which grower the flowers came from. 

    For example, we sell a 60 centimeter red rose named Charlotte  and when the price drops to a price we are willing to pay, we click on our keyboard to enter our order.  Sometimes the rose we want sells out before it gets to our price.  Buyers are located all over the world.  If there is an occasion in Scandinavia that calls for a certain flower or color, that might hold the prices higher on the auction.

    Most of the flowers at that auction are grown in North and South America plus worldwide.  Columbia and Equador are ideal growing areas because of the rich volcanic soil, high altitude where air is pure and with clearer atmosphere that allows brighter light penetration.  Wages are low although the workers in the flower fields make more money than the national average.

    Flowers from Far-away receive special conditioning once they reach our door.  More on that in another blog.

Driving Directions to Fairview Florist & Casual Furniture

From:

North, Dane County: I-90 E (south) to exit 175 [Racine St], 1 mi. west

Northeast, Milton, Jefferson Cty: Hwy 26 to I-90 E (south), to exit 175 [Racine St], 1 mi. west

East, Walworth Cty: Hwy 11 & Bus 14 across I-90 [now Racine St] 1 mi. west

South, Winnebago Cty: I-90 W (north) to exit 175 [Racine St], 1 mi. west

West, Green Cty: Hwy 11 E joins I-90 W (north) to next exit 175 [Racine St], 1 mi. west

Evansville: Hwy 14 around Janesville to Hwy 11 & Bus 14 W across I-90 [now Racine St] 1 mi. west

East Troy: Cty A to Hwy 14 E, to Hwy 11 & Bus 14 W, across I-90 [now Racine St] 1 mi. west

Alternates From:

Edgerton: Hwy 51 into Jnvl, R on Milwaukee 1 block, L on Main to 2nd light, L on Racine to 1634

Beloit: Hwy 51 to Center Av 2nd light past Rock River, R on Racine, cross river to 1634 E. Racine

Beloit: Prairie Ave to Main St, turn R at 1st light to to 1634 E. Racine

Footville: Hwy 11 to W Court, after RR tracks R. on Center to 1st light L on Racine St to 1634