Villa Park's The Flowery - Original LA Flower Market

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Bright Ideas What better way to start off the New Year than to strategize some Bright Ideas and Money-making Moves? Consider these for starters: • Create specials and events that attract women and their friends. A woman alone may stay in the shop for five minutes; a woman with a female companion stays nearly nine minutes! • Lower your pricing and reduce the cost of the arrangements, to more appropriately fit your clientele, most of whom do not expect custom, individually created arrangements. • When you create a funeral piece, include two cards. The funeral home can give one to the family and leave one on the arrangement. • To generate in-store traffic, install a California Lottery machine in your store. • To generate in-store traffic, open a high-traffic shop of a different kind, such as an ice cream store, inside or connected to your floral shop. • Partner with other businesses by offering discount coupons. Salons, spas, hotels and restaurants are a good place to start. • Start a Send-a-Friend program. For repeat customers who purchase a set number of arrangements or reach a set dollar amount in orders, offer the ability to send a free arrangement to a friend. • Display your design portfolio with a sleek, professional looking, published book. Such services are easily attained at online photo sites such as mypublisher, Shutterfly, KodakGallery. • Create more traffic to your website by holding an online contest. Give a prize for the best special occasion photo. Ideas: A prom photo showing your corsage, the best wedding photo showing your bouquet. • Give coupons for discounts. Coupons are “in” and consumers, especially Gen Xers, love them. Make them available at your store and your website. • Regenerate old business. Every week, personally visit and deliver small arrangements to customers you haven’t heard from in a while. • Save some money. Stop running those ads that don’t deliver. 12 Great Ways to Increase Profits Our thanks to FloristsReview, Super Floral Retailing, Floral Management, Green Profit and the SAF weekly e-Brief.
Flower Arranging for National Television – in Another State By Casey Coleman Schwartz Editor’s note: Last year, Torrance-based Flower Duet was contacted by Sheryl onstrating on the show the next day, as well as prep as much of the materials as possible ahead of time. I practiced my teaching of each technique to the empty room or to my Dad if he happened to pop in and check on me. I was happy with the techniques Kit and I had decided upon and felt ready for the following morning on set. At the Studio. We visited that afternoon with the host Sheryl Borden about taping five segments for her national (PBS) “Creative Living” Borden and toured the set and found where we would be setting up. show. Both studio and show are based in Portales, eastern New Mexico, so Sheryl could not have been nicer or more welcoming to us, which Flower Duet owners Casey Coleman Schwartz and Kit Wertz had a lot of plan- made our trip that much more fun. We took the rest of the day to ning and preparation on their hands. Here’s their story. literally pop over to Texas and tour the surrounding area. We arrived on set on the day of filming to find we were the second Planning. First of all, my sister and partner, Kit, would not be guests. I was given specific directions: Don’t look at the monitor or at able to accompany me as she was about to have twins! So, I recruited the camera or out at my Dad! It was to be as if I were giving Sheryl a our Dad, who is always up for a road trip private lesson. That was easy, as I have been from Virginia, to meet me in Albuquerque; giving a lot of those lately. and then we would drive around New Mex- We blasted through the segments with ico for a flower arranging adventure. After- only one take on each segment, which was a wards, we’d visit relatives in other parts of relief since I had expected to hear “CUT! Do the state! it again, please!” We got through each design Flower Duet has all its favorite suppliers very quickly. This really was fun, as we moved and vendors in Los Angeles, but this was into a nice rhythm and now I know I can make new territory, so I had a bit of research to a nice arrangement in about 9 minutes! do. I knew I could pack some things, but I Casey, left, with show host Sheryl Borden We filmed the selected segments on Sep- would need to find fresh flowers, and suptember 30 and they will be played throughout plies as well as a nursery that sold succulents, as we were going to the 2010/2011 PBS season. Our requirements were to create five 5 to incorporate those into an arrangement. 9-minute segments for the viewer to be able to comprehend and recre- To my delight, I found a wonderful wholesaler in Albuquerque ate. We chose flowers that were available year ‘round, and techniques who was able to fill my order perfectly and in water-filled buckets I that did not need a lot of supplies. The techniques I taught included: could borrow. This was essential as we were going to be driving four Dozen Roses in a Vase, Gather, Drop and Fill, Bundle and Place, a Pavé hours across the state in 90-degree heat. and How to Combine Succulents and Fresh Flowers. Prepping. After meeting Dad in Albuquerque airport, we were We have been invited back for next season, and I am glad to know off to DWF Wholesale Mart. The flower quality was top notch, the or- I have a great set of suppliers and a nice place to stay. I was happy to der was complete and the staff so helpful. I was also able to supple- give the Holiday Inn two of the arrangements to thank them for acment my order for that last minute buy … just in case! commodating us so nicely. Then we were off to Rehm’s Nursery & Garden Center, who had as- Visiting Family. In addition to this wonderful experience, the sured me they would get a shipment of succulents in the previous week- rest of my trip with my Dad included visits with family in Las Cruces end. It was Tuesday, and the selection was vast and just what I needed. and Santa Fe and witnessing the mass ascension of more than 500 We had a car full of flowers and plants and I felt very happy with our hot air balloons at Albuquerque’s Balloon Fiesta the morning of our purchases. We were finished with Albuquerque and on to Portales. We stayed at the Holiday Inn in Portales and the staff was kind departure! It was great timing and fun. enough to let us use the conference room for all my prepping. I need- In the Los Angeles area, you’ll find “Creative Living” with Sheryl Borden on ed to create one of each of the five arrangements I would be dem- KVCR (PBS) at 11:30 Saturday mornings. BOOKS F O R Y O U Cut Flowers of the World: A Complete Reference for Growers and Florists This compact guide by Johannes Maree and Ben- Erik Van Wyk is a pleasure to use as a reference. The visual layout, with all photos displayed across the tops of the pages, makes it super easy to locate any flower by visual identification. Flowers are arranged alphabetically by scientific name and photos show different varieties. Maree and Van Wyk went to great lengths to include discussions (all in the front of the book) about the modern cut flower industry, history of flowers, cultivars and breeding, marketing and more. For growers and florists, the text includes topics such as vase life, post-harvest handling and flower characteristics. A great read and a helpful, readerfriendly reference. Available for $39.95 from Timber Press, 133 SW Second Ave., #450, Portland, OR 97204- 3527 or www.Timberpress.com. THE BLOOMIN’ NEWS 15 JAN – FEB 2011
Page 1 and 2: A Bi-Monthly Publication of The Los
Page 3 and 4: This newsmagazine is published bi-m
Page 5 and 6: A great deal of thought went into T
Page 7 and 8: Robert Kitayama (Kitayama Bros.); D
Page 9 and 10: What flower will be the most in dem
Page 11 and 12: eceive a co-branded floral website,
Page 13: Romance Your Bottom Line This Valen
Page 17 and 18: L.A. Flower District Association /B
Page 19 and 20: They steal your customers. They pil

Villa Park's The Flowery - Original LA Flower Market

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