Florist News

Oy! Whats so funny about foraging?! I have a couple of friends with a shop and they close at about 2.30pm most days but they actually do quite well! It does amaze me.

Hi pottyboutflowers, fair question Like many people in this forum I put my website link in my signature. It's my job to examine the floral industry as a whole. From that point of view, I'm genuinely interested to hear what florists have to say about their industry. Call it market-research if you wish, but aren't we all on here for that same reason ?

I do come across market information and stats in my travels though, that I feel will be useful to florists on this forum. So in that respect I certainly hope that I can make a genuine contribution to the forum, and not be just a hawker. I will get around to posting this data soon enough.

<I hope that answers your question ?>

question answer ta for that my curiosity is gone


Potty xXx

most of us are on here to gossip and whinge about customers

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Sarah Creating Bespoke Wedding Flowers Cheshire

... well you don't want to get me started on that topic ...

What exactly does forraging entail btw ? Searching a florists dumpster for thrown out product maybe ? How long can you keep flowers in stock before they have to be thrown out ?

What percentage of your stock gets dumped ?

Day after making corsage recieved phone call from council aking my biz partner if she was the person taking cuttings from the garden outside the shop! (Gardens have recieved the countries 'beautiful city award). Was then asked (by the council man) to do this at night when no one can see and complain!!!
Almost wet my pants watching her face turn bright red!!!
Corsage was beautiful btw!!!

I'd love to be getting £1 for leather leaf and still be confident that people would come back. Use the same price margin for all the other stuff and be an overnight millionaire!

I sell leather at 25p and i think that's enough. It's just a leaf after all and costs peanuts. If your just selling a few bits of foliage then you're not really adding any 'value' as such so there's no justification for saying "I trained for 5 years to learn how to wrap this up!"

I can remember a window cleaner saying to me years ago " I need to put the price up as i need to earn £300 a week to pay all my bills!"

My reaction..."I don't give a monkies how much you need to earn, I care about my own financial position and my ability to feed my own children, so for that reason i'll clean my own windows or find someone who can do it for the old price"

If we are losing a lot of trade to the supermarkets it could be in part down to that sort of thing. No one likes to be ripped off just for the sake of it. If something is really worth the money, you don't mind paying for it. So charge a good price for something you have created and applied your skills to. If you try and make your fortune out of simply re-selling stuff you'll have a hard time on the high street. If you can give the impression that you're willing to give value and look after people whenever you can, you'll reap the benefits.

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Agree with what you say Fly but hard to compete with the supermarket near us 2 15inch wicker hanging baskets with petunia fushia ivy and geranium really full and colourful buy 2 for £14 just costed them up yesterday at wholesale prices it works out at £8 each including price of basket then mark up time etc so guess who won't have anymore hanging baskets for sale

yep you were def ripped off with the leather leaf...4 for a quid at my shop
and the flower arrangers, students or whoever can buy anything they want as long as they pay the full price for it!!

recently had fashion students in buying feathers and bits for making hats, its all fine by me as long as they pay for it!!

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Sarah Creating Bespoke Wedding Flowers Cheshire

I only realised I was being ripped off once I'd found the wholesaler. Great to hear there are florists who don't take advantage of students who don't know any better and are quite happy to sell foliage. Think I've just not found the right local one yet - one the other side of town was really off with me when I tried to buy foliage. I'd already started to buy some callas (v. expensive) and other stems but when she wouldn't sell me greenery I told her to forget it.

The one who is hit and miss with her opening times has been helpful in the past but she doesn't seem to carry a huge amount of stock. There's not a lot of display space outside the shop and its v. small inside too. I guess it can be a catch 22 sometimes in that you can't overstock because of wastage but if you don't have much then people are not as likely to be attracted into the shop.

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www.treesfloraldesign.co.uk