Flowers insolita Blog

I found this touching video on youtube.  It’s a commercial for an insurance company in Thailand.  Gosh, it’s so well-made that almost succeeded to make me cry.

There is a scene (at 2:01) where the man was giving flowers to the girl.  Nothing gorgeous, just a tiny little flower he probably had just picked somewhere.  She kept it even after it had wilted away…

Flowers can send a message that you deeply care about the person you are sending flowers to.  A flower bouquet is a very emotional gift.  I just hope that people still remember that.

(Authentic) Rainbow roses from Netherlands

“Rainbow roses”, also known as “Happy Roses” by the original developer, are actually dyed white roses.  Using a patented method, they are dyed in such a way that each petal acquires different coloration, resulting in brillaint “rainbow” colors.

Flowers insolita can obtain these unique roses from Holland for you.  If you are interested, please take a look at our “Rainbow Roses | Happy Roses” page.

For more info, visit:

www.happy-roses.com

This video is from Reuter news.

http://www.reuters.com/news/video/videoStory?videoId=8040

Other videos are here:

http://www.happy-roses.com/videogallery/

Cheap knockoff from South America

Recently, we became aware that knockoffs of rainbow roses from South America started circulating in the market.  They are significantly cheaper than authentic Rainbow roses from Holland.

We have tested this knockoff and found that their quality does not meet our standard.

Their colors are dull (compare the two pictures).  Also, many buds fail to open.

Flowers insolita believes that consumers should stay away from these knockoff.

Decades ago, if you needed flowers, you went to a local florist.  You had to, because there were no other place to buy flowers.

Not now.  We have so many competitors selling flowers.  As the result, traditional florists have been steadily losing the market share, especially to supermarkets and online retailers.

We would like to be more competitive.  We would like to know why consumers are not buying more flowers from local florists.  Is it because of the price, convenience, products, value, service, all of the above and more?

Please take our survey and let us know what we should be doing to become more competitive.  Thank you!

Survey: Why are you not buying more flowers from local florists?

We are pleased to announce that Lori (our lead designer) won a design competition recently organized by “Flower Chat”, an online community of floral professionals.

In this competion, participants were asked to present a creative way of arranging one dozen roses.  Based on the community votes, twelve winners were chosen, and Lori’s design was one of the winners (they didn’t rank the 12 winners).

The idea of this competition is to showcase we professional florists’ ability to design a one-dozen rose arrangement that differs from the traditional design (the one in a Spring vase with Baby’s Breath).

Lori’s piece, shown below, cosists of one dozen roses and bamboo poles as main components.  It received high marks from many distinguished designers in Flower Chat.

You can read their comments by visiting the actual gallery (simply click on the picture below).  Our alias in Flower Chat community is “goldfish.”

We also encourage you to take a look at the other 11 winners’ masterpieces!  Some of them are very creative or even a little bit weird… :)

P.S. The competition got very intense.  In fact an accusation was made about a conspiracy and unethical solicition of votes.  A florist accused of being a cheater vigorously defended his action.

Read their fascinating exchanges here (1, 2, 3, 4).  LOL

Whew!  We are just glad that the dispute didn’t go as far as endless re-counting and lawsuits!  :)

There are three kinds of lilies available as cut flowers. They are (1) Asiatic lilies, (2) LA-Hybrid lilies, and (3) Oriental lilies. All of them are hybrids of many different species.

(1) Asiatic lilies are colorful, but the smallest (therefore least expensive) among the three. The bloom size rarely exceeds 4″ and the flowers are non-fragrant. Most cut lilies sold by mass-marketers are Asiatic lilies. Expect the vase life of 5-7 days. We don’t carry Asiatic lilies; we use LA-Hybrids instead (see below).

(2) LA-hybrid lilies are the hybrids of Longiflorum (trumpet) and Asiatic lilies. They are as colorful as Asiatic, but significantly bigger and stronger than Asiatic lilies. The bloom size is 4-6″; the flowers are typically non-fragrant. Expect the vase life of 7-10 days. In our opinion, for colored lilies, LA-hybrids are much better values than Asiatic lilies.

(3) Oriental lilies are the biggest of the three and typically most expensive. They are available in a few colors: white, pink, and pale yellow, and, occasionally, dark purple (called “Sumatra“). The bloom is as big as 6-8″; the flowers can be intensely fragrant. Unfortunately, some people are allergic to the smell. Expect the vase life of 10-14 days.

Buying tips

1) Don’t count the number of stems; count the number of buds. Don’t be fooled by cheap stem-price. Cheap lilies probably carries only 2-3 buds per stem, whereas reasonably priced lilies should carry at least 3-4 buds per stem (4-6 buds are better). Some of the premium-grade Oriental lilies carry as many as 6-8 buds per stem.

2) Look for a thick, sturdy stem. Lilies are top-heavy. Unless the stem is strong, when you arrange them in a vase, they might droop. Also, weak, soft stems often indicate a prolonged storage and/or temperature fluctuation during transport.

3) Look for healthy leaves. If the leaves look yellowish, they probably sustained ethylene damage. Do not buy them.

This is our Premium-grade Rose offering this year. Click on the picture to enlarge.

Price: $89.99 + $7.50 delivery = $97.49 (+tax)

It comes with a red Victorian vase, high-end greens, and high-end fillers. The roses are expertly arranged, 7-day freshness guaranteed.

This is ProFlower’s Premium-grade Rose offering this year (50 cm roses, 4″ shorter than ours).

Price: $69.98 + $1.93 Fuel Surcharge + $12.99 Delivery = $84.90

Note that all the ProFlower products are unarranged and shipped by Fedex or UPS.

This is 1-800-flowers’ Premium-grade Rose offering this year (60 cm roses, same as ours).

Price: $84.99 + $12.99 S&H = $97.98

This product will be pre-arranged by a florist affiliated with 1-800-flowers and hand-delivered to your home.

So actually, you are not going to save a lot by choosing Proflowers or 1-800-flowers instead of us. The major saving would be on sales tax.

We are convinced that the extra money you pay for our products, relative to ProFlowers or 1-800-flowers, are worth it. Of course, ultimately, you be the judge.

Also, please note that we do offer one-dozen, less expensive roses arranged in a clear cylinder vase for $64.99.

This video has absolutely nothing to do with flowers. But it’s so funny. Apparently, this is a Japanese comedy show. The rule is that you can’t laugh, or you would be whipped!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md8qQa_cCOM[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iAmNwGQudA[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4o0NaXLULg[/youtube]

Yesterday (Apr 25th), ABC’s ’20/20′ aired a story about a “boy” born with female brain. That is, this “boy” is a biological male, but “he” feels “he” is a girl, a condition known as “Gender-identity Disorder” or “Gender Dysphoria.”
Read ABC’s “Born with the wrong body”

For most people like me, it is very difficult to imagine the struggle these children must be going through. They have to confront not only with their own identiy crisis, but also with their peers and the societies that are not at all kind to them. ABC’s report says that many of these children end up self-mutilating themselves.

Coincidentally, one of the most popular young musicians in Japan is a person with Gender Dysphoria. The musician, Ataru Nakamura, 21-yr old, is a singer song writer, who has a beautiful female voice, but is biologically a male.

One of her hit songs, “Friend Song”, is said to be an enormous hit in that country. It’s a sad broken heart love song that she wrote when she was just a 15-yr old “girl.” She fell in love with a band member, a boy, even though she knew this was a totally hopeless love.
The lyrics goes like this (unofficial direct translation):

“I saw the future of my love even before touching you / but kept that meaningless love for a long, long time.”
“I did’t mend my broken heart, but tried to hide it under other pains in my heart / but it easily became so obvious, it leaked out from somewhere.”
“It would have been enough for me to just hold your hands / just walk together with you.”
“But even that may be difficult / so it is enough for me to be just a friend with someone important.”
“Could I have still been with you, if I hadn’t leaned on you?”
“If I hadn’t cared, I could have just left / but I knew it was impossible at that time.”
“You laughed at me, made fun of me / but I still couldn’t hate you, kept blaming myself, so pitiful, forever.”
“It would have been enough for me to just hold you hands / just walk together with you.”
“But even that may be difficult / so it is more than enough for me to be able to just look at someone important.”
“When you forget about me, if you ever see me again / please be friendly to me.”

Here’s the music video of Ataru Nakamura from Youtube:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY83IdPJZNw[/youtube]

or

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHAw5S0kKQg[/youtube]

In this series of articles, we would like to present a few tips on ordering a flower arrangment.

First and foremost… If you would like to send a unique, tasteful flower arrangement that can “WOW” the recipient, you should forget about “same-day” delivery. Don’t wait until 1 pm of your wife’s birthday to order her birthday flowers.

It’s not that we can’t do the same-day delivery. We can. Florists have inventories of “staple” flowers all the time, such as roses, lilies, baby’s breath, mums, carnations, etc. (we don’t use mums and carns, but most other florists do).

The problem of same-day delivery is that your arrangement would have to be made using those common staple flowers. As the result, your arrangement would look more or less the same as any other arrangement your florist does everyday, because the component flowers are the same. However pretty the arrangement might be, it would look ordinary, lacking the “WOW” factor.

If you know a special occassion is coming (Birthday, Mother’s Day, etc), plan ahead of the time. Call your florist one week before, and tell them that a very important occassion is coming to you and you want something very, very special. If you have a specific idea of what you want (e.g., special flowers), just tell them.

You might wonder… “But I have only xyz-dollars at my disposal, and no florist will take a special request for such a small amount of money.” If that’s really case, I think you shouldn’t be using that florist. You should be dealing with a florist who goes “extra” mile to accomodate your wish.

All you need to do is to give us enough time to prepare. One week should be sufficient. We do need one week to order special flowers (in our case, from a Dutch auction), have the flowers delivered to our store, and condition them.