Each month, Yvonne gets together with some of her flower friends for our Mornings with Mayesh show to discuss the world of flowers. From general flower availability and flower care to marketing for your flower business and everything in between, you don’t want to miss this replay!
This month, Debbie Demarse of Eco Fresh Bouquet, joined us to share with you about her floral history, vision, the product design process, and how to become more eco-friendly.
Keep scrolling for the show notes that contains all of the questions, answers, and resources for your reference! And don't forget to mark your calendars for December 12th for our next show!
SHOW NOTES
FLOWER QUESTIONS
WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE WORLD OF FLOWERS?:
- https://www.mayesh.com/flower-411-november/
- Peonies are back everybody! We are getting my absolute favorites, the giant coral charm. Reds, white and all the shades of pink are also available to spice up your weddings and high-end designs! These peonies are being imported from both Chile and New Zealand right now. They arrive to us in a tight state so remember to get them shipped early enough to open fully, *4 or 5 days.
- Remember back in the 90’s when Martha Stuart said she was “bringing back the carnation”? Well, it took another 30 years of continued efforts but they are back in style AND in colors, we could have never dreamed about back then. You can view many of the new varieties in our online library!
- Cotton has traditionally been used to celebrate the second wedding anniversary. We have it in our inventories now and it’s become very popular for wedding work, events or just a textural pop in any arrangement. One of our local florists incorporated it into some beautiful bridal bouquets that we will show you. A big shout out to Nicole Helle from The Wildflower AZ for sharing. I think it’s amazing the way the floral industry is evolving with the use of unique textural items like this.
- Also arriving at a Mayesh near you, locally grown Kale. Kale likes the cool Pacific coast nights and warm days of fall to really proliferate! This kale is a decorative relative of cabbage family! These have also become increasingly popular in floral design due to their shape, amazing color and durability.
- I wanted to remind everyone we are taking pre-books for Christmas wreaths, garlands, greens, flowers and plants. Call your favorite Mayesh rep and let us know If you need last year’s sales reports to help you plan your 2017 holiday purchasing!
- From Michelle: How would you recommend caring for cafe au lait dahlias? I give the flowers a fresh cut and place them in a bucket of water. But I've noticed several times that the flowers on the outer edge of the water bucket wilt within an hour or two (before I even have a chance to design with them!)
- Dahlia flowers have a lot of surface area and are prone to dehydration from transpiration (which is basically the flower losing moisture through evaporation). The key is in proper cold chain management and hydration including using a floral food intended for bulb flowers. Bulb flowers receive nutrients and hormones from their tuber, bulb or corm. After being cut these hormones become depleted causing premature flower death. Chrysal makes an easy to use food called Chrysal Clear Bulbosus which not only has flower food and fungicide, but also the hormones that keep bulb flowers color from fading and petals from curling up.
- A dahlia grower gave me the tip for Cafe au Laits - hot water! Bring water to almost boiling and then let it cool off and then place stems in for a drink...this only works with dinner plate varieties.
- Here's a video with Lindsay talking a bit more about this process: https://youtu.be/Ol9qmIXvWUI
FLOWER DESIGN
- How long do you soak your oasis?
- Oasis or any fresh floral foam products only take a few minutes to soak through. The trick is to fill your basin with water first and then to gently lay bricks in until they sink.You know they are ready by the heavy weight of the brick. they should not feel light. Some brands have holes on one side to help speed up this process. Lay the side with the holes down first. Never push floral foam in to get it to soak quicker. This will cause a dry center and make it more difficult to absorb water. Also never press down or “smush” floral foam as this compresses it and also makes it difficult to insert stems. If you prep early in the day the foam will be ready for you when you start designing. Never leave floral foam in water longer than a week as bacteria can grow and cause issues for your flowers. Also clean your basin once a week with diluted bleach water to also inhibit bacteria growth if you use the same container continually.
- We received many of the same questions from this month’s design video:
- How did Christy make the large 7 foot circle? What is the bones made of?
- EMT-Electrical metallic tubing
- How did you hang the large hoop?
- Christy says: “we've used chain, rope, and even propped. Here we used aircraft cable with a Y-hook (comes in easy to find kits). It's industrial strength. This isn't a Hobby Lobby kinda thing, you know? I get ours at an Electrical supply house.”
- You can find the kits on Amazon as well.
- How did Christy make the large 7 foot circle? What is the bones made of?
- When designing items for weddings, what items do you make first and how far in advance? I typically start with my wearables & sometimes centerpieces. But I always want the best flowers for my bouquets & tend to do those last thing...I’m not always sure what the best process is.
- For me, I always start with the personals because I want to select the choices blooms for those pieces. Because these are the up close and personal pieces I want to use the creme of the crop of what I have purchased on my product. So, like you, I want the best for those.Even if I don’t make them first, I definitely set aside those items.I also usually feel I have the best energy and focus when I start with the personals. They also get me really excited about the feel of the wedding. But there is no right or wrong way to start. AIot depends on the amount of space you have to work in, cooler storage space, how much staff you have to assist you and whether you have all your product in yet.
- I have greened all my containers first and started prep work, like preparing oasis or chicken wire, any mechanics that can be done early in the week on Monday or Tuesday. All hard goods can be prepped and any rentals made ready. Most shops I have worked with from very small to large scale operations will usually start on WED for designing. There are many tools to help keep your flowers living longer (like crowning glory for example) but I think you find the system that works best for you.
FLOWER BUSINESS
- Why haven’t you opened a location in Chicago?
- I hear this questions all of the time and it always make us happy to hear that we are wanted and needed throughout the country. I don’t have an answer specific to Chicago, but I do know that we ship there!
MARKETING NEWS
- Instagram Stories has hit over 300 million users … which is about half of all ov Instagram followers!! So if you haven’t started to used vertical video and pictures within Stories, then you need to start now.
- Are you comfortable using vertical video?
- And did you know that Instagram is now showing viewers Story previews when you scroll about half-way down your feed. Instagram is really pushing Stories and will be helping to entice people to view our Stories.
- Facebook is going to shift from time spent to “time well spent”. For example, our latest design video has 70,000 views, but 3 seconds is counted as a view. So how many of those watched 85% of our video?? Marketers will need to focus on quality and engaging content, otherwise, we will probably start seeing low-quality content being pushed down and not shown.
DEBBIE DEMARSE INTERVIEW
- Can you tell me a bit about your background in the floral industry?
- http://ecofreshbouquet.com/
- How did you come to realize there was something missing in the floral industry?
- Can you describe the development process of the Sponge-Wraps and their initial intention of being solely for bouquet transport? I think your experience here could be of great interest to those who are listening who may have a product development idea.
- Do you want to talk a bit about the eco-friendly aspects of Sponge-Wraps and the rising trend within the floral industry towards more eco-friendly and sustainable floral practices (slow flowers, American Grown flowers, etc.)?
- Did you reach out to other industry pro’s for product feedback after your initial development?
- How have you seen your product being used within the industry?
- Any last closing thoughts?