Information:

Cultivate’20 will be held July 111-14, 2020 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.

For more information about this event, please visit OAF’s Website.

As florists, a little competition can be a good thing—but what about televised competition?

With the converging popularity of reality TV, competition shows, and streaming services, should the art of floral design join the trend? Well in 2020, there will be two flower competition shows hitting streaming platforms HBO Max and Netflix.

As a florist, would you compete in one of these shows?

Full Bloom

Full Bloom is an eight-episode floral competition show that will be streamed on HBO Max starting in 2020. This hour-long floral competition show will feature 10 of America’s top florists vying to be crowned America’s best in floral design.

During the floral competition, it will allow audiences to escape into the floral world as candidates design and execute some of the most wondrous floral creations ever seen.

Each episode features a themed challenge focused on a unique area of the floristry world including fashion, art, events, and weddings. Contestants’ designs and creations will be mentored and judged by legendary floral artists Maurice Harris and Elizabeth Cronin with celebrity florist Simon Lycett serving as host. At the end of each episode, the arrangements made will be given away to remind us to stop and enjoy the beauty of flowers.

No announcement has been made yet in regards to signing up to compete in the second season.

The Big Flower Fight

Meanwhile, Netflix has ordered a series of their own titled The Big Flower Fight based out of the UK, like the popular Great British Bake Off series.

This eight-part series will be a little different—this series will see ten duos made up of florists, sculptors and garden designers put to the test as they compete in a series of themed challenges to create very large-scale flower installations. Each episode will test a different set of creative and practical skills, from floristry to woodworking and landscaping.

The materials each team can use to create their installation will vary week-by-week, and participants will be encouraged to think about plants that give back to the environment. Each week one team will be eliminated, leaving just three teams to battle in the finale for the champion’s crown.

Floristry in the Limelight

Floral design has a history as a secretive trade: in the 1700s flowers became a common way to send coded messages. But in recent years, floristry has received a great deal of attention thanks to royal weddings and major films. Will this new mainstream showcase of floristry and floral designs on streaming services boost the demand for flowers? We sure hope so!

 

Florists, what are your thoughts on these floral competition shows? Would you compete in a floral design show like this? Please share your comments below!

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Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here.

 

 

 

Create Beautiful and Profesional Proposals with BloomsBy Wedding Floral Management Software

 

BloomsBy supports floral designers every step of their floral event planning. You can create professional wedding/event proposals, increase profits, create floral contracts, stem counts, and collect payments all with BloomsBy’s floral wedding management software available on PC/Mac and iPad app. 

Try BloomsBy Today!

 

Features of BloomsBy Wedding Floral Management Software

 

Make Your Job Easier

With BloomsBy Proposals, floral designers can create beautiful and professional proposals in a matter of seconds. No more lost and cluttered information, keep track of your clients requests in one location.

Easy to Use

With the new BloomsBy Proposal user interface, BloomsBy proposals are easy to create, organize and manage. Floral designers are able to build a floral arrangement from the bottom up with flowers and supplies.

Customize Each Proposal Email

Add your business’ personal touch by adding a personalized message to each proposal with a customizable email template. Each client is different and adding that personal touch matters.

Inspiration Page 

Add your customer’s inspirational photos to the proposal as a guide for creating the flowers for their special event. 

 

 

Take Payments

Track, schedule, and take customer credit cards for deposits and payments.

Increase Your Profits

Add markup, labor and then easily check to make sure you are pricing your flowers correctly. Making sure your weddings and events are fairly priced yet profitable.

Flower Catalog

With the BloomsBy Proposals flower catalog, it gives you the opportunity to record your pricing for your flowers and use these to help build your beautiful and professional proposals.

 

Building Components

Build components like bridal bouquets, boutonnieres and more by adding the specified number of flowers for every arrangement.

Shopping Lists

Flowers and supplies composed to build your proposals can help generate a shopping list to order flowers and supplies.

Cloud-Based Software

Use BloomsBy proposals on your own computers, choose the best platform for you. Available on PC/MAC and iPad App.

 

Why try BloomsBy Wedding Floral Management Software?

BloomsBy understands that florist wedding and events are a core part of a floral business and creating beautiful proposals can be challenging.

We’ve all been there before: notes, images, spreadsheets, word documents and countless emails sent back and forth between your clients can be a nightmare. So why not use one program to make professional proposals and keep everything organized?

Get rid of the multiple programs and keep everything organized with BlooomsBy Wedding Floral Management Software. 

Start giving your wedding and event proposals more impact with BlooomsBy Wedding Floral Management Software today and focus on what’s really important, your floral business!

 

Try BloomsBy Today!

 

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Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here.

Information:

2019 CONVENTION

July 26 – 28, 2019 
Holiday Inn Louisville East Hurstbourne
More details TBA

For more information, please visit the Kentucky Florist Association website.

Information:

The Texas Floral Expo will offer two courses of study rather than an exclusive focus on design.

The Design Course of Study and the Business Course of Study relate to the needs of the individual offering the best possible education whether your passion is design or whether you feel the need to expand your business skills.

If design is your focus then you will be able to register for presentations that cover a multitude of design topics presented by the best in the industry.

If you are all about business there will be two and half days of specific programming covering a range of topics! Additional information can be found at the Texas State Floral Association website.

Information:

OAF Cultivate’19 will be held July 13-16, 2019 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.

For more information about this year’s event, please visit OFA Website.

Information:

2019 – AIFD Conference – Awaken – Las Vegas

More information TBA

For more information on this event, please visit the AFID website. 

The 2019 Florist Mother’s Day Survey Results Are In!

 

A big thank you to everyone who participated in our annual Mother’s Day survey. Once again we received a strong response from our readers and members.

Results were based on the 347 retail surveyed by Floranext between May 15th through February 22nd.

Were 2019 Mother’s Day Sales Better Than Last Year?

• Lower – 18.1%
• Same – 20.5%
• Higher – 61.4%

Were Mother’s Day In-Store Retail sales greater than last year?

• Yes – 59%
• No – 41%

Aside From Red Roses, What Was Your Top-Selling Products This Mother’s Day?

• Arranged Flowers – 79.5%
• Hand-Tied Bouquets – 11.7%
• Other Roses – 7%
• Other – 1.8%

What Was The Most Popular Gift Item This Mother’s Day?

• Candy/Chocolates – 41.8%
• Stuffed Animals – 2.4%
• Balloons – 14.7%
• Other – 41.2%

What Did you Charge For  Dozen Long Stem Roses Arranged

• $75.00 (average total from participants)

How Many Extra Temporary Drivers Did You Hire This Mother’s Day?

• 0 – 18%
• 1 – 22.1%
• 2 – 20.3%
• 3 – 18.6%
• 4 or more – 20.9%

How Many Extra Temporary Shop Staff Did You Hire This Mother’s Day?

• 0 – 30.8%
• 1 – 26.7%
• 2 – 18%
• 3 – 15.7%
• 4 or more – 8.7%

Did You Use/Rent Delivery Vehicles / Trucks This Mother’s Day?

• 0 – 69.2%
• 1 – 14%
• 2 – 9.9%
• 3 – 1.1%
• 4 or more – 5.8%

When Did Your Floral Business Start Receiving Mother’s Day Orders?

• First Half Of April – 3%
• Second Half Of April – 3%
• First Week Of May – 59.3%
• Mother’s Day Week – 34.8%

What, If Anything, Would You Do Differently Next Mother’s Day?

List of a few randomly selected comments:

• “Order More Flowers.”
• “Get Flowers In Earlier.”
• “Bigger Online Presence, Online Advertising.”
• “More Prepping of Vases.”
• “Make up more flower arrangements ahead of time.”
•  “Promote earlier and use Social Media More!.”
• “Limit The Options.”
• “Order more plants as another option.”
• “Pray for nicer weather.”

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Florists, was this Mother’s Day successful and resulted in more sales? What would you consider to implement that next year? Do you have any feedback on your 2019 Mother’s Day sales season? Your fellow florists would love to hear about it—please feel free to share in the comment section below.

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Floranext makes great florist software. Florist websites, floral POS, florist wedding/event proposal software, and florist technology. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here.

 

The unique and beautiful traditions of May Day have sadly become lost and wilted over time—is it time to bring them back?

Spring is finally here! This time of year is often associated with floral holidays like Easter and Mother’s Day, but years ago, the season used to start in earnest with May Day.

When Did May Day Start?

The earliest known history of May celebrations began with the Floralia, the festival of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers. This festival was typically held on April 27th. The Floralia opened with theatrical performances, including a ritual called the Florifertum that was performed on either the 27th or May 3rd, where a bundle of wheat was carried into a shrine for the devotion of Flora.

In the 18th century many Catholics observed May Day with various devotions to the Virgin Mary. In works of art, school skits and other performances, Mary’s head would be depicted adorned with flowers.

Today, the most commonly-known May Day traditions are the maypole, crowning the Queen of May, and the giving of May baskets. dancing around a painted maypole decorated with flowers. People dance around the maypole holding long ribbons attached to the top of the pole. Crowning the Queen of May, and the tradition of anonymously leaving neighbors, family, and friends May baskets of flowers and sweets on their doorsteps.

What is a May basket?

In the 19th and 20th century, children and young adults would start the spring off by gathering flowers and arranging them in a paper cone along with candies and small trinkets. These were then hung on the door of a friend’s or neighbor’s home to welcome them into spring.

As time progressed, baskets were then used along with paper cones in the May Day tradition, and a new meaning was formed. The holiday started to become a second Valentine’s Day, it was a way of letting a romantic prospect know your feelings.

So what happened to this joyous holiday—was it a spread of “stay off my lawn” mentality? Nowadays, only certain parts of the US, Canada, and European countries still observe May Day.

Can May Day Be Brought Back?

Why not?? As florists we handle and arrange beautiful flowers each day, why not bring back the May Day series of traditions to put a smile back on someones face.

It’s all about informing the customer and piquing their interest. Write a blog or post on social media, offer discounts or specials on May Day.

As a business owner, there is a potential in obtaining a new and younger generation of customers by offering May Day baskets or cones. One way is to offer May Day baskets or cones to your customers, explain the tradition and see if they would like to purchase to distribute the basket or cone themselves or for you to deliver to a local nursing home or hospital.

Everything is potential and why not start with a holiday that was created for flowers!

 

Florists, do you try and keep the May Day tradition alive at your shop, and would you be interested in bringing it back? Please share your thoughts and comments below!

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Floranext offers great florist software, florist POS, florist websites and florist wedding proposal software. Our florist technology products are built by florists, for florists. Let us know if you want a free demo or try our software for free here.

Information:

Celebrating the Past. Fired up for the Future.

100 Years – WUMFA 2019
Wisconsin & Upper Michigan Florists Association

More information TBA – For more information, please visit the WUMFA website.