Flowers insolita Blog

The owner of this shop is a very interesting man. He takes great pride in his store and is very concerned about the ethics of our industry. I have been in the business for almost 30 years now as a designer. I can not begin to tell you how much I have learned by reading the”blog” postings that he writes. I hope you take the time to read them also, you will be amazed at what goes on!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ProFlowers claims that their flowers are “freshest” because they bypass the middlemen, such as wholesalers and florists. Their tag line in advertisement is “Fresh from the field.”

The claim implies that, when a customer places an order, a grower goes to the field, cut the flowers, and then shipped them right away. That, of course, is far from the truth. No grower has that kind of time.

What really happens is that ProFlowers purchases the flowers and keep them in warehouses waiting for orders. When an order comes, they ship it via a common carrier such as Fedex or UPS. These carriers, unlike flower wholesalers, do not use refregirated trucks. For further info about this misleading “Freshest” claim, please read our FAQ “Direct from field: are they freshest?”

A class-action lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles last October, alleging that ProFlowers’ ad is misleading, because the company does indeed use “middlemen”, distribution centers and warehouses, to store the flowers before a customer places an order.

Now, according to an article by denverpost.com, ProFlowers settles the lawsuit, agreeing to offer $10 store credit for customers who bought their “freshest” flowers between Oct 4, 2001 and Oct 26, 2006.

Aggressive Pigeon

Talking Dogs!!

I’ve been doing most of deliveries in the last couple of weeks (that’s why I can’t update our blog as often as I wish).  Anyway, it has been a lot of fun.

Today, I just delivered a wrapped bouquet to an old lady in Huntington Station.  She opened the door and said, “Are you sure it’s for me?”  “Yes, it is”, I replied.  She was so surprised, so pleased.  It gives me a lot of pleasure to see a surprised face of a recipient of flowers.  I wondered, though, when was the last time she received flowers from anyone…

I also found that many guys, especially middle-aged or older guys, are quite surprised to receive flowers.  Many of them act as if this was the first time they ever received flowers.  They are very pleased, so whoever is sending flowers to a guy, I must tell you it works!

Some of young girls, on the other hand, are “used to” receiving flowers.  They seem to have more or less expected the arrival of flowers, pleased, but not really surprised.  In this case, I would say the impact of sending flowers is not as great as above.

I also found that many, if not most, households have dogs.  They usually bark at me as if I am an intruder.  Yes, in a way, I am an intruder, friendly one that is, but I wish the owner had a little more control over the behavior of their dogs.  At one point, two little dogs got out of the door and started jumping up and down on my legs.  I really didn’t like it.

During October, our web site had 1,712 visitors (new record!!) from 95 countries!  Thank you!

1. United States (1,093 visitors)
2. India (124)
3. United Kingdom (67)
4. Canada (57)
5. Philippines (20)
6. Iran, Islamic Republic of (19)
7. Australia (17)
8. Romania (16)
9. Saudi Arabia (14)
10. France, Pakistan (13)
12. Germany, Vietnam, United Arab Emirates (11)
15. Egypt, Poland, Sri Lanka (9)
18. Portugal, Brazil (8)
20. Lithuania, Mexico, Netherlands, Hungary, Italy (7)
25. Sweden, Turkey, Spain, South Africa (6)
29. Bulgaria, Belgium, Hong Kong (5)
32. Ireland, Israel, Satellite Provider, New Zealand (4)
36. Thailand, Norway, Argentina, Kuwait, Slovakia, Greece, Denmark, Finland, Slovenia, Jamaica (3)
46. Peru, Anonymous Proxy, Colombia, Chile, Qatar, Myanmar, Maldives, Indonesia, (not set), Puerto Rico, Latvia, Ghana, Armenia, (2)
59. Moldova, Republic of, Japan, Aruba, Uganda, Malaysia, Syrian Arab Republic, Virgin Islands, U.S., Dominican Republic, Azerbaijan, Panama, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Morocco, Afghanistan, Macedonia, Jordan, Tanzania, United Republic of, Albania, Cameroon, Europe, Palestinian Territory, Bahrain, Czech Republic, Austria, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Russian Federation, Taiwan, Cyprus, Bahamas, Malawi, Bangladesh, Sudan, Singapore, Guyana, Lebanon, Malta, Kenya, French Polynesia (1)

Within US:

1. New York (511 visitors)
2. California (91)
3. (no data) (64)
4. Texas (46)
5. Florida (39)
6. New Jersey (30)
7. Illinois (29)
8. Virginia (25)
9. Pennsylvania, Massachusetts (17)
11. North Carolina (16)
12. Washington (15)
13. Georgia, Maryland (13)
15. Michigan (12)
16. Connecticut, Ohio (11)
18. Colorado (10)
19. Minnesota, South Carolina, Indiana (8)
22. Missouri, Arkansas (7)
24. Hawaii, Arizona, Tennessee, Kansas (6)
28. Oregon, Alabama, Rhode Island (5)
31. West Virginia, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Idaho, Iowa (4)
36. Utah, Delaware, Mississippi, Oklahoma, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nevada, New Mexico (2)
45. District of Columbia, Alaska, Kentucky, Nebraska (1)
Hmm… I can’t tell which states are missing. :-)

According to a New York Times article,

A Danish company, Aresa Biodetection, announced that it had produced an unusual new variant of thale-cress, a small flowering weed: a strain that turns red in the presence of land mines. Aresa scientists had genetically modified the weed so that it reacts to nitrogen dioxide, a gas commonly emitted by explosives. A result is a new way to detect mines: sprinkle the seeds over a suspect area, wait a few weeks for the thale-cress to grow and — presto — wherever they turn red, you have danger.

Well, I have a question. How can we seed this flower without… uh… potentially getting blown up?  Also, may I have money-sniffing flowers, too?  I need one.

According to a Newsday article,

“…1-800-Flowers.com increased salaries to relatives of company chairman James McCann in addition to giving his sister a $200,000 bonus…. The moves came at a time when the stock has lost about two-thirds of its value since 2002.”

Here’s what the chairman’s relatives earned in 2006:

• Julie Mulligan (sister): $335,930 (63% raise), including a $205,930 “bonus”
• Chris McCann (brother): $548,000 (20% raise)
• Erin McCann (daughter): $64,071
• Jim McCann (self): $975,000

All these happening, despite the fact that the company stock has lost two thirds of its value in the last three years.  No wonder the flowers of 1-800 are so much over-priced.

• Production of Solidago looks good at this point.  As demand increases, however, we expect the price to go up.
• Supply of Larkspur from California is very limited.  Supply of snapdragon is good.
• White Alstromeria will be more expensive than usual, because a wire service included this in their specials.  Production stays the same, but demand increases as the result.
• Mini carnations are cheap right now, because demand is low and production is high.
• Local gladiola production is now coming to end.

We had many Halloween Princesses visiting our store on Oct 31st. Here’s some of their pictures! Aren’t they cute?!