Everyone has a secret tip or technique that works in their flower shop to make them more effective. Here are ten secret tips that you can start using today! Have some of your own? Share yours in the comments section.
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10 Florist Design Secrets
1. Keeping hydrangeas hydrated while in floral foam. The key to hydrangea freshness is to dip the stem in Alum powder (available in the spice section at the grocery store). Dip right after cutting the stem and before inserting it into the fully saturated floral foam. This also works well on keeping gerbera stems lasting longer in floral foam.
2. Don’t use the usual suspects all the time. When it comes to greenery for your designs, try something besides the usual. And try to manipulate this unusual greenery, such as, folding aspidistra leaves and/or using steel grass to create heart shapes to change-up the design and give them a distinct look. This also goes for using unique blooms as well. They might be more costly but they sure pack a punch when marketing your shop!
3. Prep Early. With the holidays fast approaching, prepping your containers earlier can be a big time saver. For Thanksgiving, “green” with fall leaves as much as 2 weeks in advance since leaves are already dried. For Christmas, start greening with long lasting pine etc. before Thanksgiving. Another time saver for the busy holiday crunch is to design with a recipe, make only 3 or 4, your choice, designs that can be done in a production mode. Saves you time and money!
4. Use Stock Plants Leaves in Designs. Judiciously prune leaves from your decorative plants like ivy, fern, aspidestra, palm, monstera and snake grass to use as decorative leaves in your design work. Use the plants then to decorate the showroom or even use them for sale.
5. Innovative glassware. Get vase sleeves like the ones at www.floristmercantilecompany.com and turn a standard cylinder vase into a custom vase with hundreds of styles to choose from.
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6. Add-On to Funeral Sales. By using a 4″ pot liner with foam secured at the base of a potted plant, a cluster of fresh flowers can be added to a funeral plant order to make it unique and colorful.
7. Easy Bouquet Design Stand. To create a stable bouquet stand for when you are designing cascading bouquets done in a cascading bouquet holder, use a wire lamp shade frame to keep it upright and steady while you work.
8. Easy Way to Customize. Wanting to make elastic wristlets and headbands look more your own? Use ribbon in place or in addition to elastic wristlets. Upgrades the look and feel!
9. Reviving wilted cut hydrangeas. If your hydrangeas arrive or become wilted in the store, totally submerge the wilted stems in a sink of very warm water, making sure the freshly cut stems stay under the water. After about ½ hour, the hydrangeas will look as good as new.
10. Always Have Your Glue Pan Ready. Every florist should be using a hot glue pan to speed up design work. It’s fast, economical and efficient.
Here is the start with ten Florist Secret Tips, which ones are you going to implement in your shop? Any Secret Design Tips you can share? Add them to the comments below.
A special Thank You to Rhonda Wood, Bloomfield Floral, Denton, TX; Noah Barnett, Stems Upstate Floral Co. LLC, Spartanburg, SC; Jessica Chaffins, Event Florist, San Diego, CA; and O’Shea Flowers, for sharing their Secret Design Tips with us.
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Love the ideas. One I learned in one shop I worked was for funeral arrangements. When stem breaks are too short (like daisies for instance), they would get a stem cut from another flower like a Gerbera or another daisy stem and stick the short stem into it to create a longer stem. Saves on flower waste and only done on funeral arrangements. At first, I was not excited about the idea, but it does help and the flowers still last well through the funeral.
I really love this ideas too! Thank you for sharing this with us! I will use some of them in my work tommorow.
Love this idea: make only 3 or 4, your choice, designs that can be done in a production mode.
Never thought about it as a production mode when the holidays hit. Guess it is a good idea to have a couple of set designs to mass produce. Thank you.