Flowers insolita Blog

Do you know “Direct Shippers” of flowers?  ProFlowers.com is the best-known example (1-800-flowers and FTD do Direct Shipping, too).  They send the flowers via common courier (such as Fedex).  The flowers will come in a cardboard box, unarranged.  We also offer a similar service called “DIY” (Do-It-Yourself; see below).

Their flowers are advertised as “Direct from Field”, as if someone would rush to the flower field as soon as you placed the order.  Not so.  In fact their flowers are stored in a warehouse, waiting for your orders.  They do skip the traditional flower distribution channel, i.e., wholesalers and retailers.

Are they a good value?  Here are the prices advertised for two dozen roses: $29.99 (ProFlowers), $34.99 (1-800-flowers).  They both charge an additional markup called ”Service fee” (about $10).  So the total would be about $40-ish, give or take.  Still, sounds like a bargain, doesn’t it?

Well, we are a florist, so obviously our opinion is biased.  With that said, we think that flowers from “Direct Shippers” may be a good value, but only if you know what you are doing.  Here are the things to consider before placing the order with a Direct Shipper.

(1) The roses shipped by Direct Shippers are short-stem (40 cm, 16″) unless otherwise noted.  Typical florist-grade roses are long-stem (60 cm, 24″).  So their roses will be small…, something you may not realize just by looking at the pictures on their web sites.

(2) Make sure the recipient can arrange flowers.  Flowers in a box would be totally inappropriate to send to hospitals, funeral homes, for example.

(3) Remember that Fedex drivers are instructed to leave the flower box when no one is home.  If the outside temperature is too high or too low, your flowers will be irreversibly damaged.

Finally, there is a better alternative, if you are interested in buying unarranged flowers at discount.  We offer “DIY” (Do-It-Yourself) program by which you can purchase unarranged flowers at a significant discount.  In this program, you pre-order unarranged flowers with us and we will get them for you.  Check it out!

Due to the fire in Southern California, we are experiencing the shortage and high prices of certain California flowers and foliage.  There has been, however, no report of any flower farms destroyed.  The shortage is probably due to the mandatory evacuation of farm employees and road closures.  We will keep you updated.

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Approximately half of all the flowers consumed in the US comes from Colombia, including almost 80% of roses.

Like most of South American exporters, Colombian flower growers are paid by dollars. The US dollar, however, in the last four years has depreciated by as much as 30% against Colombian Peso. In other words, the Colombian growers are now being paid 30% less than they were just four years ago.

Their expenses, on the other hand, have to be paid in Peso and have kept rising during the same time period because of the inflation in Colombia. Labor cost, for example, has increased by 33%.

The combined effect of decreasing revenue and increasing expenses has been devastating for Colombian flower growers. Many are laying off the employees, cutting the cost to the base minimum, or simply going out of the business.

We expect that qualities of Colombian flowers (i.e., mostly roses) may decline in the future. At the same time, the prices may increase. We will keep you updated on the issue.

Tulips: The tulip season is finished.  Tulips from domestic growers (Washington, New jersey, New York) and those from Holland are done.  We still have a limited availability from Canada, which will end in June.  No French Tulips will be available until late July.

Peonies: Peony production is increasing.  We expect there will be a reduction in pricing of some variety of Peonies.  Local (New Jersey) Peonies will become available soon.

Dendrobium Orchid: All Thai growers are experiencing some quality issues, especially with white Dendrobium Orchids.

California wild-flowers: Seasonal Califiornia wild-flowers are now available in the market, including English Lavendar, Saponaria, Tritoma, Foxglove, Atriplex, Cornflower, Nigella Blue, Scabiosa, Lamb’s Ear, Euphorbia Dog’s Eyes.  We will try to get most of these flowers in stock. 

A discussion is going on in our forum about “Certified Organic” flowers.

Here’s the bottom line.

There are some Certified Organic flowers, such as tulips produced by a certain domestic grower. But Certified Organic flowers are still rare. Very rare.

The flowers sold by a certain “organic”-sounding floral company are mostly not Certified Organic. They are Veriflora-certified, a certification program I described earlier, which has nothing to do with being organic. So please do not be fooled by the naming of the company.

At Flowers insolita, we are absolutely committed to protect the environment and the safety of floriculture workers.  Working together with progressive wholesalers and traders, we preferentially purchase flowers from certified growers, whenever the choice is avaiable to us.

There are many certification programs in the global horticulture trade.  The programs ”certify” the growers who meet certain strict standards of environmental conservation and social responsibilities.

About half of our flowers come from Holland auction.  They obtain their flowers from European and African (mostly Kenyan) growers.  These growers are certified by a program called “MPS” in Holland.  Being in Europe where the modern environmentalism started, Dutch growers and traders have a very strong tradition of environmental conservation and sustainable agriculture, exceeding the US standards in many areas.

Another half come from the US and South American growers.  Most of the large US growers are certified by a relatively new certification program called ”Veriflora“.  The vast majority of our California flowers (Stock, Snapdragon, Gerbera daisies, etc) are in fact Veriflora-certified.  We specifically select these growers when placing orders.

As some of you might have read somewhere, there were serious problems in the practice of South American growers in the past.  Since then, especially Columbian growers, which supply >60% flower consumption in the US, have formed their own certification program called “Florverde“.  Some Columbian growers are certified by both Veriflora and Florverde; we have a standing order of roses with one of those farms.

Are these measures sufficient to protect the environment and safety of workers?  Probably not.  We should work harder to make things better and we will.  At the same time, we would like our customers to be aware that we are making efforts.

As you know, we have been working on developing a new product line called “Emotion Series” of bouquets, based on the meaning of each flower. In the process of investigating the meanings of flowers and their mythologies, I have encountered so far three instances of rather graphic stories, involving things like murder, jealous rage, adultery, pedophilia, etc, – all those things that we usually choose not to associate with flowers.

For example, do you know that meaning of Anemone, Anticipation or Forsaken, has something to do with the tragic death of a Greek God Adonis, one of many lovers of flirtatious Aphrodite (or Venus, see left)? Read our “Emotion Series – Anemone.”

The Persian love story about Red Tulip is also intense and bloody, involving a love triangle among a husband, his wife and her lover.  And there’s this story about Hyacinth – Do you know that the name “Hyacinth” comes from a Greek hero “Hyacinthus”, a boy lover of pedophilic Apollo who accidentally killed the boy?

I actually have thought about “sanitizing” these stories, just so that they would better conform to our commercialized ideas about flowers. But I decided not to sanitize it.  The choice was between being politically correct and being truthful, and I think the true story must not be hidden.  In fact these stories are fascinating to read, hopefully giving you a deeper understanding of a long, long history of human interaction with flowers.  Greek mythologies, after all, are more than 2,500 years old…

The largest known flower on the earth is called Rafflesia arnoldii; its blossom has a diameter of three feet (!!) and weighes up to 30 pounds (!!!). Smelling like rotting flesh, Rafflesia arnoldii has no leaves, stems or roots.  The Rafflesia bloom is rare and hard to see; the buds take many months to develop and the blossom lasts for only a few days.

Sorry, we can’t get one of those in our store. ;-)  It’s an endangered species.

The Rose market has tightened up. The availability is slim and the price has gone way up in the market. The main reason for this is the Feburary cold-snap in Bogota, Columbia, the biggest exporter of roses to the US market. Also, the rose farms are already pinching for Mother’s Day.

In the coming weeks, we expect that some varieties of roses will be hard to get. We also expect that the bud sizes will be smaller than we would like.