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If you live in or have recently visited Hudson, Ohio, you may have noticed Gregg Lauck of Greenhouse Flowers out clipping fall flowers from friends’ backyards or local flower farms. Four or five times a year, Gregg shares seasonal floral tips on Fox 8 Cleveland’s shows. His latest assignment was to show host Stefani Schaefer how easy it is for anyone to re-create his designs with flowers from their own backyards.
Fresh flowers make people happy
Research has shown that having fresh flowers and plants in the home adds to our quality of life and makes us feel happier. Via the video, Gregg encourages people to develop the healthy habit of enjoying flowers daily in the home by cutting and arranging fall flowers they can freely collect from their backyards.
While it may seem counter-intuitive to give away tips on how to use free flowers, savvy florists like Gregg know that “showing people what they can do on their own” is a good way to grow business.
“It’s amazing how people will come back to us and call us for their funeral and wedding work because we stay top of mind,” says Gregg, whose shop was one of six official florists for the 2016 Republican National Convention. Encouraging bringing garden flowers indoors and sharing how-to tips “works us back into people’s lives.”
Make it work for your business
Now is a great time to grow a new segment of DIY business in your shop. Volunteer to do seasonal segments for your local station. Offer hands-on classes in your store that teach simple garden designs. Charge a fee for the classes, then give a discount on all flowers and supplies purchased at the end of each class.
Set up a DIY section in your store to become the ‘go to’ resource for extra loose stems of flowers and hard-goods. Offer inexpensive ‘grab and go’ design bunches once yard flowers are out of season.
Build a display that sells supplies like
OASIS® Floral Foam Bricks, vases,
OASIS® Waterproof Tape, plastic liners, a
Floral Care Kit of flower foods and
OASIS™ Cutting Tools,
Decorative Wire and
Naturals, etc. Include seasonal items like pumpkins or gourds for fall or pomegranates or ornaments for Christmas along with tips for incorporating those items in arrangements.
Create a handout of basic tips for your DIY clientele.
Make it easy
People are more likely to design with flowers at home if it’s easy to do. Recommend they create a workspace with close access to water. Suggest that they organize a floral toolbox and gather a collection of wires, wood picks and accessories to keep in the design area.
Guide customers in selecting a series of vases easy to design in for home use. Suggest they keep
OASIS® Floral Foam Bricks on hand for spur of the moment designs.
Keep it simple
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The best part for consumers is that they can design for pleasure. Advise them to collect magazine or Web photos of designs that inspire them or simply replicate the lines and growth patterns of nature they see in the garden. Post simple DIY designs on your social media sites monthly that can be easily replicated from seasonal items found outdoors along with a list of supplies available at your store.
Use what’s seasonally available
Suggest a natural mix of flowers, fall foliage, grasses, twigs and so on. Recommend that yard flowers always be cut early in the morning or in the evening—not in heat of the day. Mention that using a sharp
OASIS™Knife to cut each flower stem on a slant will open up the waterways and the stems should be placed into water immediately. Advise them to add flower food to increase the life of the flowers and further preserve the flowers with an anti-transpirant like
Floralife® Finishing Touch.
Showcase odds and ends
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As the seasons change, there may be only a random mix of a few choice blooms. Gregg explains in the video how to use empty wine bottles to create a budvase effect for this ‘garden collection’
of odds and ends.
Apply
UGLU™ Adhesive Strips to the sides of the wine bottles to help hold them together. Place some strips on the outside of the bottle collection to hold ribbon and wire, such as
OASIS™ Bind Wire and
2" OASIS™ Raw Jute, in place as a decorative binding.
Enjoy flowers daily
Help your clientele learn to enjoy flowers in their home daily. When customers understand the value of flowers as a part of a healthy lifestyle, they are more likely to purchase loose stems and supplies, send flowers as gifts and invest in flowers for life celebrations. This helps to build in-store traffic for your floral business.
How can you help to promote the daily use of flowers in the home?
