Selling to Florists? Here’s What You Need to Know

Searching for an alternative revenue stream in this uncertain economy? Do you want to begin selling to florists but not sure where to start? This webinar will walk you through the essential steps for entering the florist market with confidence.

Join the renowned Ellen Frost of Local Color Flowers as she covers what florists look for in a new grower partner—quality standards, consistency, communication, and reliable availability—as well as how to present your offerings in a way that builds trust from the very first interaction. You’ll learn how to price blooms, create simple availability lists, deliver products professionally, and navigate common challenges in grower–florist relationships.

Whether you’re a new grower or expanding beyond farmers markets and CSA sales, this session offers clear, practical guidance to help you build strong, lasting partnerships with florists and grow your business sustainably. This one hour Zoom-based webinar will offer a Q and A session with Jenny, and is complimentary for ASCFG Members.

Ellen Frost founded Local Color Flowers in 2008 and has built a thriving floral community through events, education, and hands-on design experiences. She now expands that work online through FlowerMore, where flower growers become better designers, offering classes, a free weekly newsletter, and educational videos.

A longtime member of the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers, she was the first florist to receive the Allan M. Armitage Leadership Award in 2016 for her commitment to local flower sourcing. She holds an MBA and brings both business expertise and hands-on farming experience to her work, leading the conversation around flowers with passion and purpose.

Transcript

Pre-Roll

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Hi there, everybody. I hope you're doing well. If you don't know, my name is Rebecca and I'm the education director for the association. We have kind of a combined audience today. We've got our current members from the association, but we also have some non-members because this webinar is open up to the open to the public. And so I just want to take a moment to welcome everyone and to thank you for taking time to be here. We really appreciate your time and attention. I'm really excited that we have Ellen Frost here today. She is goodness, I don't even know how to where to begin. She is marvelous, she is wonderful, so kind, and that's just her on an interpersonal level. Her expertise, her knowledge is wonderful. And you're going to get a sample of that today. She's going to talk about selling to Florist. And I do want to take a minute to kind of situate this webinar in the larger context. This webinar series, Navigating Uncertain Times, was inspired by the president of the board of directors, Val Schirmer of Three Toads Farm. And her idea was, you know, this is we're living in interesting times, you know, collectively in North America and around the world. And there are, it's entirely possible that you might need to pivot or change your sales channels or just consider something for your business. And so this whole webinar series is really designed to give you a sense of you're not alone. Everyone kind of figuring out these questions and trying to find answers for themselves. And also here's some ideas and strategies to take away and incorporate into your business if it's relevant. So that's kind of the context in which we're offering this. Again, we're delighted that you're here. And the uh on that note, um, if you are not yet a member, you can scan this QR code here and join at a discounted rate. So please take advantage of that. Uh, the more the merrier. We'd love to have you be a part of this community. We have webinars, articles, um, an entire trade magazine that's uh wonderful. So, you know, happy to share more information if you're interested. Uh, you can reach out to us. I think that's everything that I'm gonna cover. Yeah. Uh Alan, are you ready to take it away?

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Yes, I'm going to do my expert technique. And share my screen. All right, can everybody see that?

SPEAKER_01 2:45

Perfect.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

It looks like all right. Hi everyone. I'm so excited you're all here. Um, this is one of my favorite topics to talk about, and some of you have probably heard me talk about this topic before. Uh, so let's get started. There's so much to talk about. Think of this as a crash course in getting ready to sell to florists. And as Rebecca said, I'm Ellen. I'm the owner of Local Color Flowers. We are a floral design studio located in Baltimore, Maryland. We are in our 18th year in business, and we source all of our flowers locally. Everything comes from farms within 100 miles of Baltimore, and we work with 40 or so growers each year sourcing flowers locally. Uh, I also host uh an online community called Flower More, which is an online community for flower farmers who are looking to learn design, add design to their services, sell to florists, um, increase their business. Uh, if you're listening today, um, we'll share a link for you to join at a discount if you're interested. I've been an ASCFG member, I think, since 2010. It's been um, I think 15 or 16 years. Um, Rebecca said we ASCFG has a quarterly uh magazine that I write for, and I also teach with Lisa Mason Ziggler at the Gardener's Workshop. So I do a million things, but talking about selling to florists is one of my favorite. So just so you are like, why is she telling us all this? How does she know anything? Um, I have been sourcing locally for over 20 years. Uh, everything we have sourced for our entire career as florists has been sourced locally. Um we have also, um, besides sourcing locally, we have also helped to mentor new farmers who are getting into selling to florists. So we have lots of experience working hand in hand with uh local farmers. And as I always say at the beginning of most presentations that I'm talking about farmers and florist relationships, um, I would be nothing, my business would be nothing without flower farmers. Um, I have learned just about everything I know about flowers from flower farmers. Um, and you all are really the key to my success and can be really the key to a lot of florist success if these relationships are done correctly. So, all right, so let's jump in. And Rebecca is gonna manage questions, so um, there'll be time for questions too. All right, so things we're gonna talk about today. We're gonna talk about how to get started with selling to florists. First, growing high-quality flowers, finding florists that are the right fit for you, figuring out your availability list, and then pitching to a florist. Um, and like I said, this is gonna be a high-level overview. Um, in Flowermore in my online community, we do a coaching, we have a coaching uh program for people that are selling to florists. So if you want to get more deep into this, you can join us there. Okay, so first off, think about growing flowers. That's your job. You're the farmer, you're growing flowers. And florists really demand very high quality flowers. So um they are probably the most demanding customer you'll have. Um they are much more demanding than say um uh farmers market customers or your CSA customers. Uh florists are really looking for the highest quality stems. And so the first thing you have to think about when you're thinking about should I sell to florists, can I sell to florists, is figuring out if you can grow really high quality stems. And so, what does high quality mean? Of course, it can mean lots of things to different people, but this is just a short list of some of the things. It means blemish-free. And I know that might go without saying, but a lot of times uh folks will say, well, oh, you know, this lily has a little crack in the petal or a little bruise. Um, it's not a big deal. For florists, it's a huge deal. They really want blemish-free, free of bug bites, free of bugs. Um, free of bugs. I mean, that seems obviously obvious, but again, really particular. Um, florists freak out when they see bugs, even though it might mean that you're growing organically and that that's awesome for your farm and for the customer, they really don't like bugs. Um flowers that are harvested at the proper stage, flowers that are have this proper stem length for sales to florists, um, uniformity of stems, and I say to a point because I'm not talking about everything has to be, you know, straight and exactly the same stem length and exactly the same clone of each other. That's more like at a wholesaler. Uh, there is some leeway in having curvy stems or stems in bud or stems in seed pod. Um, but for the most part, uniformity of stems is still important to florists. Flowers that are hydrated correctly and flowers that are packaged properly. So that means you know they come in the right amount of water, that the water's clean, that the buckets are clean, that the bucket is the right size to match the flowers. Um and if you're thinking, well, I don't know how to learn about these quality standards. Um, I always recommend these two resources. Um, if you don't have these two books, I highly recommend you like ordering them today. Uh, the post-harvest book from the ASCFG and the floral standards book from the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market. These two books are your um guide posts. Um, they are I I use them uh literally every day. If you I'm I don't know if you can see me, but I have my floral standards book right here. Um, I I look at it all the time. Um, this is going to tell you basically what florists expect when you bring them flowers. So highly recommend both of these um resources to help you figure out um are you able or sort of are you meeting the standard of what a florist expects from flowers? So um don't freak out if you're like, oh my God, I don't know what that means. That seems too hard. Um one thing I would say is don't reach out to a florist your first year growing. Um you really I think will benefit from becoming a really great grower, even if that takes a couple of seasons, and then reaching out to a florist, because oftentimes you only get one shot making a first impression with a florist. And you really want to make sure that you are ready and prepared to sell to them. So once you've got your quality down, then you have to find the florist that's the right fit for you. This is sort of the matchmaking piece, and um not all florists are alike. And I like to start with this concept because if you haven't worked with florists before, um sometimes people are like, oh, I want to sell to florists. Well, florists come in all different shapes and sizes, just like flower farmers. We have varied business models, we have a huge, wide range of customers, um, we have different pricing strategies, different aesthetics, we have different schedules and different needs. And part of your job as a farmer is to sort of understand this about florists and then figure out from doing some research, learn as much as you can about the florists that you are interested in selling to. One, because the more you understand them, the better you're able to serve them. And the more you understand them, the better able you'll be able to offer them a product that they want and need. Um, one of the things that I see a lot of times with farmers that are beginning to sell to florists is that there's this mismatch or this disconnect. Um, farmers will say, I have the most beautiful sunflowers. And that may absolutely be true. Um, I believe you. Um and you know, they will then bring those to a florist and try to sell them to a florist, and the florist will say, like, either I don't need them or I don't want them. Um, and it's not because they're not the best sunflowers ever. They might be. Um, but they may just not be a good match for that florist. Maybe that florist doesn't use sunflowers, maybe they're a wedding florist and their aesthetic is really all like um blushes, whites, pinks, and so they're never gonna use sunflowers, even if they're the best sunflowers around. So you are trying to match your skills and um products with the florists' needs and aesthetics. And so, how do you research florists? You're like, okay, if I'm thinking I want to sell to florists, so I'm gonna look for florists in my region, in my area. Um, first, where are you gonna look? Like, look at their website, read through everything on their website, learn as much from that website as you can. Some florist websites stink and they don't have a lot on there. Some have a ton of information on there. Maybe they have an about page, they have um examples of their work, they have um how to order, what you can order. Uh so look at their website, definitely start following them on social media and look through what they're posting about, what kind of work they're doing, what they're showing. Um, if you're close by, walk into their shop. If they have a shop, um, see what they're selling, see what their vibe is. Um, you can talk to them. Um, I would just say don't walk in and expect them to just like meet with you on the spot. Just walk in as a customer, buy flowers, um, and then Google them. I know that seems like really like duh, no kidding, but Googling them is going to help you figure out like, do they have any articles written about them? Have they won any awards? Um, anything besides what they are showing you, but what other people are saying about them? And then when you're doing your research, you're looking for what kind of services do they offer? Are they retail? Do they only do events? Um, do they do funerals? Do they do subscriptions? Getting a sense of what types of services they offer is going to help you understand what kind of flowers they need. Um, do they have retail shop hours? And this is an important thing because it may indicate, along with the services, it may indicate when they need deliveries. So I just give this example, you know, if a shop is a retail shop and they're open Monday to Friday, then they're probably going to want a flower delivery on a Monday, which means that you would need to be harvesting maybe Saturday and Sunday for a Monday delivery. And so if you are a person who's like, I don't want to harvest on the weekends, I want to harvest during the week and have my weekends free with my family, or I do markets on the weekends, or I do something else on the weekend, um, maybe a retail shop is not the best fit for you. Maybe an event florist who needs a delivery later in the week is a better fit. So be looking for that on their website. And then in everything, looking at what flowers do they use? Do they use flowers that you're growing? Um, are there things that you, I mean, this is really like investigative research. Um, are there things that you're like, oh, I see their aesthetic, but they're never using X? Like they're um, they have a beautiful aesthetic, they seem to do a lot of weddings, they do weddings in the summer, but I don't see them using Lyceanthus. Maybe Lyceanthus is an option for them because I grow Lyceanthus. Um and then C, can you tell if they're currently buying locally? Maybe they've tagged a flower farmer on social media, or maybe they have mentioned that on their website. So you can try to tell if they have any experience buying locally at this point. Um, so these are just some florist business models. Sometimes florists have just sort of thrown everything in the bucket and they do it all. Um we have gone through that phase of doing everything. Uh, retail, weddings and events, funerals, corporate subscriptions, online shipping. Um, all of these models are gonna require, you know, very they have very specific needs. And this isn't all of them, but I'm just gonna give you this as an example. So we talked a little bit about retail. What are retail florists looking for? They're looking for flowers that have long base life. So if you have something that is gorgeous but lasts one day, they a retail florist is probably not gonna need that. Um, they're looking for things with high perceived value. Um, a lot of retail florists are not necessarily gonna be looking for things like scabiosa or bachelor's buttons, like small things that um maybe don't have a big bang for your buck. Um, not everybody, but generally speaking. Um, again, they may want delivery earlier in the week. They are possibly going to be looking for exact flowers for recipes, and this is a very specific thing. Many florists who are retail florists work with um order companies or um places like 1-800 flowers, um places like this where the company, say like 1-800 flowers or Books or any of these sort of online places, will give the retail florist a recipe. You have to make the recipe that they give you. And if you, as the farmer, are offering a flower that is not part of the recipe, then a retail florist may not have as much flexibility to buy those flowers. So that's something to keep in mind. Uh also, retail florists are often, similarly, I think, to market customers, looking for brighter colors, more impact. Um, now on the flip side, you know, we have wedding and event florists. They're going to be looking for specific colors one week and just other specific colors another week. So their needs vary a lot. Um, and they often need muted colors, not solely, but oftentimes lots of whites, pinks, peaches, corals, things like that. Um, they want the flowers to look peak on event day. And this goes back to harvest time. You may be delivering flowers to a retail florist a little more closed, a little tighter in bud, so that they continue to open in the vase. Where a wedding florist, they want those flowers to be open and looking spectacular on the wedding day. Um, and again, wedding florists might want delivery later in the week. So, again, is this a good fit for you? If you have a day job, you may not be able to harvest during the week and then deliver at the end of the week. So maybe that's not the best fit for you. And then people who do funerals, that's another whole industry. Funeral florists are often looking for large blooms, more traditional varieties like lilies and snapdragons and leatris. Um, funeral florists also don't have a lot of opportunity to give you a long lead time for these orders. Oftentimes, funeral orders come in quickly and they need to be turned around quickly, so you may not have a lot of notice. Um, and they also often are looking for specific colors, whether that's their aesthetic or the family's aesthetic, they may be looking for specific colors. So these are all things to just keep in mind as you're doing your research on what makes a florist a good fit for me. Um and you, I think, as the farmer, can be thinking about your own priorities. Like when can I deliver an offer or when can I deliver or offer pickup? Um, what do I grow? What am I sort of willing to grow for a florist? Um, do I want to change? You know, if I've been, I have a lot of farmers who have been market farmers and then they want to switch to selling to florists, and a lot of those florists are event florists, and the mix of flowers that event florists, wedding florists need is pretty different than a market customer. So are you willing to change what you're growing based on what the florist needs? And sort of how much administration administrative stuff can you handle? Um, working with florists is high administrative, high communication. Um, it is very different than working, you know, doing your market, harvesting yourself, packing up, bringing stuff to a market. Um, there is a lot of communication that goes on with selling the florists. So, like, how much can you do? Um, and then where do florist sales fit in your mix? Are you gonna only do florist sales? Are you gonna try to have that be secondary to markets or something else? Um, all of this is gonna help you figure out how to find a florist that's right for you. And florist priorities, I know we talked earlier about quality. That's one priority that florists have when they're buying. Here's some others. Um, they really prioritize ease of ordering. Uh, they may prioritize the quantity that you have. I'm not saying this is in all cases, but some bigger florists. Florists are going to want to buy from farmers who have more quantity. We talked about quality. Florists, you know, may need specific varieties, so they may prioritize that. Some prioritize relationships over other things. Customer service, I think, is one of the ways that local flower farmers can really like set yourselves apart because I don't think that the wholesale market is always the best at customer service. That's not how they set themselves apart. And so you may be able to find a way to provide great customer service better than the wholesaler, and find a way in with your florists, then. And all florists prioritize price, some more than others, but price is always going to be an issue. So just to recap how florists buy, most florists buy from wholesalers. So a wholesaler is either a local or online sort of hub for flowers from generally all over the world. There's ease of ordering. So you can order online, you can do it in the middle of the night when your kids are asleep. You can do it early in the morning when you wake up, you pay online, you see exactly what you're getting. Generally, the prices are reasonable, generally the product is reliable, and many of the varieties are available year-round because wholesalers are sourcing from around the world. So again, don't freak out. You probably can't compete with the wholesaler just off the bat. You probably can't beat them on price because we are not sort of racing to the bottom on prices for local flowers. You might not be able to beat them on ease of ordering, although there are more and more platforms available these days to make ordering easy. They're not cheap. You probably don't have flowers year-round. And if you do, you don't have as many varieties as the wholesaler does. So people that are growing winter tulips, amazing. That is an amazing option. But it is not in competition with the hundreds of varieties of flowers that the wholesaler has. So where can you fit them? Where, how can you get a foothold in with a florist? In the beginning, and this may change as your relationship with a florist changes, but in the beginning, I would say you're looking to supplement what the florist gets from the wholesaler. So you're not trying to say replace your wholesale flowers with my flowers. Although, like I said, down the road, maybe you are. This is more a supplemental strategy. And to supplement, these are the things that you as a farmer can emphasize. Your vase life. So freshness and vase life is one of the key components to what make local flowers amazing, right? They last so long. And they're um from the point of harvest to the point they get to the florist and then eventually to the customer is much smaller, both time-wise and mileage-wise. So for a wholesaler, flowers could have been shipped, you know, a week ago or more. Um they could have traveled thousands of miles with all kinds of extenuating circumstances that might decrease their vase life. So vase life is something that local growers, I think, can just really take advantage of. Again, varieties that don't ship well. Florists may, when you're doing your research, you may not see um zinnias, you know, I don't know, not just Binari giant zinnias, but you know, you yourself might be growing fancy zinnias, whether it's Johnny's new zinnias or florette zinnias or any of these new specialty kinds. Um, you can offer something that doesn't ship well that can fit the needs of the of the florist. Um, varieties with fragrance, most shipped-in flowers are not fragrant. Um, again, going back to customer service, really focus on customer service as a way to separate yourselves in this sea of competitors. Um, emphasize your unique story. Each farmer has a unique story, the story of your farm, of your family, of the history of your space, of why you started growing flowers, of why you chose the varieties that you've chosen. Um, this story can set you apart from the wholesaler. Um and then these two kind of go together, you know, your ability to meet your customers' unique needs and last-minute needs. And I'm not advocating like jumping through hoops for every florist demand that's out there. But I am saying that wholesaler is not agile enough to always meet a last-minute request from a florist. So if you have a relationship with a florist and they say, Oh my gosh, I ran out of tulips and I thought I I would thought I needed less, but I need more, and they're for this wedding, and it's Friday morning. Is there any way you have any more? Um, filling that need is really a way to endear yourself to a florist. And, you know, like I said, I wouldn't do this every week. I wouldn't make this um the norm, but being able to be agile and quickly respond to florists, I think is a way that you can set yourselves apart. Okay, so you're growing great flowers, you've found your florist, and now you have to tell them what's available. Um, we're going to talk about the pitch in a minute, but really first you have to figure out your availability list. So, what's an availability list? It's just a way, a professional way, to communicate to a potential florist customer what's available. And it has all of the information that a florist needs to make a decision about purchasing. And it's sent consistently, preferably on the same day and the same time each week. Um I call them availability lists, that's what we call them here. You might see them called fresh lists or cut lists. There's lots of different names for them, but either way, they are the way that you communicate to a florist what's available. So here are some of the things that I think need to be in an availability list. Um, and each of these things are pieces of the puzzle for a florist when they're deciding should I order? So the flower name, the variety name, and the common name is important because people call things different things. Um, the number of bunches that you have available, and I say this because a florist may be thinking in their head, oh, I need 50 bunches of tulips, and you have five bunches of tulips, and that's fine. That might be a little bit of a mismatch in terms of your capacity and the florist need, but it's fine if you're selling five bunches. It's just that if the florist doesn't know how many bunches you have available, and then they place an order for 50, and then it takes you a day to get back to them, and you're like, oh, I only have five, that could be time lost for the florist to order from somewhere else. So stems per bunch, and this is where your floral standards book really comes into play because you want to make sure that you are offering flowers in standard bunch sizes. It's okay if you're selling by the stem. If you're just starting out and you don't have enough to sell by the bunch, that's fine. But if you are selling by the bunch, have a note about how many stems per bunch. And then the price per bunch or by stem, but make that clear. Um, the color of the flowers, the stem length, any notes. And I would say this is another place where you can really separate yourself because this is not at all something a wholesaler is going to do. This is sort of an education piece. So if you have a note, say that says um for some foliage, uh, this foliage works great out of water, great for installations. Okay, so that helps me. I don't have to buy a bunch, test it. Um, I trust you as my supplier. I am gonna use that note. So that's a value add to me. Or a note that says, um, doesn't like to go in the cooler. That would be another one. So again, this is a value to me because if I bought a bucket of basil from you and I put it in the cooler, and the next day I come in and it's black and wilted, um, I'm gonna be mad. And I'm also gonna think, like, did you do something wrong? Did I do something wrong? What happened with this basil? But if you just tell me in the notes, doesn't like to go in the cooler, store outside of the cooler, okay, I've got the information I need. And these are the kind of things, this is how I learned about flowers, honestly, from farmers' notes and from farmers' availability lists. And when you can educate a florist about these things, um you are really going to be in good with them. Um, so the other thing, the last thing is high-quality photos. And I cannot uh emphasize enough how important photos are because florists, we are visual people. We are selling a vision. And in order for me to adequately determine if I want to buy something, I need to see a picture of it. And so, how do you get pictures? Maybe you don't have pictures of everything. I would say if you're thinking about selling to florists, start today taking pictures of the flowers that you are growing so that you can eventually have a library of all of these flowers. Uh you can use stock photos, but I would say move towards um really using your own photos for a couple reasons. One, um, we have a grower who often uses the florette um photos for her availability. So she's growing a florette Snapdragon, she uses the florette picture. And honestly, I don't even know if that's like if you're supposed to do that legally, but that's the case. So I have a sense of like what that flower is, but oftentimes the way that those flowers look when they're grown locally look different, whether that's a little bit of a change in color, a little bit of change in height, um, there can be differences. So it's really, I think, better if you're using your own photos. And then the other thing I'd say about stock photos is uh you really don't want to use a stock photo that is in any way different than the thing that you are actually growing. And I say this, I mean, most of these things come from um experience. Um, we had a grower a couple of years ago who sent an availability list and they had eucalyptus listed, and the photo was of seeded eucalyptus. So seeded eucalyptus is popular and available on the West Coast. It is not available in Maryland. We don't have seeded eucalyptus, it's not, it can't be grown here. So when I saw it, I was like, oh my God, somebody figured out how to grow seeded eucalyptus. I was so excited. And before I even made the order, I sent a note just saying, like, wow, this is so great, seeded eucalyptus. This is a game changer, works great out of water. How did you do it? And they said, oh no, no, we're we're um growing silver dollar, but we just used the picture as a stock picture. So um that that is not the way to do it. Make sure you do not use any stock picture that is not the exact thing that you're growing. And then um sort of communicating your availability list. There are lots of platforms available now to use to communicate to your to your florist. Um, there are platforms that are like automatic shopping carts, rooted is one, Shopify. There are platforms that are dynamic lists, but not lists where you can actually, a florist can actually pay. Um, that would be like Google Sheets or Airtable. And then there's just static lists that might be, I don't know, like a MailChimp email that has pictures and listings right in the body of the email. Could also just be an email with like a list. Um there are lots of ways. And you might be thinking, like, well, how do I figure out what platform to use? And partly it's gonna depend on your needs and partly on the florist needs. Um I'll go through these quickly. So a static list, like I said, is just an email of some sort, either just in your regular Google email or in something like MailChimp, where it has all of the information that's needed for the florist, but it's just in the body of the email. And the pros of this are obvious. It's quick, it's easy, and it generally free. So, like somebody like MailChimp, you can have, I don't know, 2,000 free emails. So you're not going to be emailing to 2,000 florists. Um, so you can do that pretty cheaply. Um, the con, of course, is for the florists, it's harder for the florist. Um, those lists often get outdated quickly. So if you send it out to five people and people then order by emailing you. Um, if I don't order for a couple of hours, that list may be out of date pretty quickly. And you may need to be updating that a lot. But this is a good option for small growers who are just getting started. If you're selling just to one florist or you know, a very limited number of florists, or if you just like don't have a lot of technology skills, or you don't really want to put a lot of time into it right now because maybe you're trying it, trying this out. Um, so this would be a good situation for you. Um, MailChimp is good. You could text, you could direct message. Those are ways that I have heard people send availability lists. Those are text and DMs are not generally the way that I prefer to get an availability list, but I it could work. And then a dynamic list is a static list, but it updates. So this would be um the pros of this are that it's fast and generally it can be free or very inexpensive, um, and it can be customizable. The cons again are it's harder for the florist because I'm gonna have to email you, you're gonna have to email me back to say the order is complete, you're gonna have to send me an invoice, I'm gonna have to pay the invoice, um, and again, manual updates and additional communication. But I think that this is a good option for growers who want to present a professional availability list, they have time to make updates, and they're prioritizing florist customers. So, this is when you're really getting into florist customers, they are going to be like a big chunk of what I do, maybe everything I do. And this would be like Airtable or Google Sheets. There's probably others, but those are two that we see a lot. Um, and then there's automatic shopping carts. This is probably the thing that is most closely related to how florists are ordering from a wholesaler. So, in that way, that's good because it gives them the most flexibility, but it is gonna be the most expensive for you. And it probably is going to require a higher investment of time, some technology knowledge to get that going. Um, but I think if you are gonna make florists your main sales outlet, this is something you should look at. And we talked about just Shopify and rooted. There are lots of others, and there are platforms being created as we speak that are trying to um, you know, better meet the needs of farmers and florists. So, you know, there will be more out there. Okay, so you've got an availability list and you're almost ready to reach out to the florist. Um, but you have a little bit more homework to do. First, you have to figure out your policies. So you are in charge of these things. You decide how do you want people to order? And when you go to meet a florist, they're gonna say, How do I order? And you have to be ready with an answer. Um, do they order by email? Do they order on this platform? Do they text you? Do they send you a DM? Like, how do you want them to order? Um, again, how and when will you deliver? How much does it cost to deliver? So that's a big question that a florist is going to have when you meet with them. How much is delivery? What day do you deliver? Um, or do you offer pickup? Um, how do people pay? Can I pay with a credit card? Can I pay in a month? Do I have to pay when you arrive? How do I pay? Um, how do I handle buckets? I know buckets are going to be like a touchy subject for everybody, always is. Um, but figure out how you want to handle buckets. And if I had my say in that, I would say bring flowers in buckets and let your florist trade buckets back to you. That's the easiest, most um most efficient, least friction. Uh, I know that farmers don't like that because they often love their buckets and their buckets are special and they care about their buckets, but um, it really can add more time and more effort and more annoyance to the florist if there's like you have to switch flowers out of buckets, or you're like, I really need this specific bucket back. Florists are busy, and I'm not discounting that you, you know, paid for your buckets or that you have your logo on your buckets or whatever, but because we're trying to figure out how best to serve the customer, um, the easiest way to do that is to just switch buckets out. And then how do you want people to communicate with you? Are you going to email them? Are you gonna text them? Do you want them to text you? So, all of these things are things that you want to figure out before you go into a florist because once you get there, they're gonna have these questions. Um, okay, so then it's time to reach out. Reach out by sending a personalized email. And I say personalized because now you have done a ton of research about these florists. You know so much about them that you can send a really personalized email to them, personalized telling them about you, but also personalized in how you think you can help them. Um, ask for a meeting, um, offer to bring samples, uh, reach out when florists aren't too busy. And I say that generally, but for each of you, your florists are going to be busy in different times. So for us, like summer is really dead. It's so slow. Happy to talk to people in the summer because we have tons of time. But you're if you're in like a resort town where summer is like super busy and there's destination weddings and everything is about the summer, then maybe don't reach out to a florist then. Um once you, if you don't hear back from them, follow up once. Um if they don't answer, then you know, this is sort of a more advanced discussion about how else to reach out to them. Um, but this is sort of a sort of a layout of how to first reach out. And I do want to just mention samples because samples are a great way to um show off what you're growing. And so one thing I'd say is like think about when you can bring ample samples. Ample samples. Um, when you can bring a great sample to a florist. So you don't want to go, you know, at the beginning of March when you have like a handful of daffodils and some, you know, four-inch grape hyacinth. That's that doesn't show off what you can offer them. So go when you know you have a good sample set. Um, encourage the florist to use the sample themselves. Um, this is something that Dave Dowling taught me years and years ago because and I I buy into it because people will bring us samples, and unless I am thoughtful about using them, I may just have that bucket on our work table, say to a designer, you know, add these into our work today. They go out the door, and I don't actually see like how they perform. Don't really like look at them. So ask the florist to use the flowers themselves. Welcome feedback. So this can be hard because you know sometimes we don't want feedback, but you know, welcome feedback because the more you learn, um, you know, like if you bring a sample and the feedback is, oh, I loved these um ranunculus, I loved these um tulips, but I would never have any need or use for leucogium or those short grape hyacinths. Um, so you're learning, you're taking all of this information in. Um, bring professional-looking stems. I have had um folks that have brought samples in all different harvest stages, all different lengths, all different um, you know, one of each thing. Present as if you are going to be selling to this florist. So you don't have to bring a 10-stem bunch, but you know, you want to bring maybe three to five of each thing so that they can really get a sense of what you are offering. And then just really promote the value that you bring with those samples. Okay, so it's a lot, I know, and it's really a huge like just overview, but now it's time to really start thinking about is selling to florists a good fit for you? So I'll open it up to questions. I'll um just a note that if you want to find me, I write a weekly newsletter called Flower Nerd. You can just Google Flower Nerd. My online community is Flowermore. Uh, there is, like I said, a discount for that. So you can reach out to me, or maybe Rebecca can send a link so that you have that. You can find me on Instagram. You can always email me if you have questions after this and we don't get to them, just email me or send me a message on Instagram. I'm um happy to chat. Okay, that's me.

SPEAKER_01 46:05

Thank you so much. That was wonderful. So much wonderful. It's just great information. Um, so folks, now we have time for a QA. Um, and I do see that we have one question a while back, so I can share that with you, Ellen. Um, so Debbie says, I'm a backyard flower farmer. I wonder if selling to a florist is even feasible for someone like me. How can we know what kind of volume to prepare for?

SPEAKER_00 46:32

Sorry, Rebecca, would you would you say the question one more time?

SPEAKER_01 46:36

Yeah, absolutely. She's a um the individual is a backyard flower farmer, and she wants to know if it's feasible for her to even sell to a florist um because she wants to know a little bit more about like the volume, the kind of volume she needs as approaching the florist.

SPEAKER_00 46:53

Yeah. So one thing my friend Maya Cossack of Hill and Homestead always always focuses on when we're talking about this topic is um sort of finding the right fit for you in terms of a florist at the same size and scale that you might be at. And so if you are a great backyard grower, you might not be marketing yourself to the highest end um wedding florist in your city, but you may be a great fit for a home designer who does a few deliveries a week or does one or two weddings a month and doesn't have the same volume need that a big retail or event florist would have. So this goes back to like finding the good match and seeking out folks that when you're like, oh, I have three bunches of tulips, they're like, fantastic. I have three orders this week, and three bunches of tulips is perfect. So I don't think don't be discouraged if you're small or you're getting started. Um you absolutely can sell to a florist. I would, I would be more concerned about the quality than the volume. Um, if you have high quality flowers but in just small quantities, you're you're okay.

SPEAKER_01 48:15

Thank you for that. Um the next question is from Kelsey. If you want to know how useful a square site or something similar can be for selling the florist uh with you know a dynamic, has a shopping cart, but it's unique to your farm. So how useful would that be?

SPEAKER_00 48:35

I think that making it easy for the florist to order is huge. For somebody who I buy from probably a dozen or more farmers every week, and every single farmer has a different way to do ordering. And so the easiest way for me to order is when I can just order from a form, pay for my order, get my receipt, see what I've ordered. Um, that's the easiest because then I sort of know, okay, that's that's my guaranteed, my guaranteed, you know, of course, something could happen, but that's my order. Whereas if you're doing something on like Google Sheets or Airtable or even in an email, so I get the availability list and maybe I don't see it for a couple hours in my email. Then I email back my order. Then it takes the farmer a day to get back to me. And then they're like, okay, I think this is what we'll have. And I'm like, okay, I'll take it. Then, you know, a couple days more for the invoice, then I see my totals. It's there's a lot to it. So the easier you can make it with like a Shopify or rooted or some sort of um squarespace um thing, I think the easier um it is for the floorist, the better.

SPEAKER_01 49:52

Perfect. The next question is related. Um, and it's uh do you have, did you mention the uh favorite platform you've used to order from a farmer?

SPEAKER_00 50:04

Um I don't have an I don't have a favorite. Um I don't have a favorite. Uh we there's so many that um we use, and it part of it is how the farmer manages it. Like we have a grower like Maya. Um she's she's we buy from her every week, multiple times a week. Um, she uses Airtable. Airtable's great, it's um free, um, but it needs to be updated. Like it needs to be so, but Maya's on it. Her job is only to sell to florists, she is constantly managing that list. So that's great for me because I know I can trust that that list is updated. Um if somebody's using, you know, just an email, but they get back to me within like one second, then great, that's easy. That's that's easy for me. The issue is just like how long until I feel like I know that my order is confirmed. Um and so the quicker turnaround, the better. So I don't have a favorite. Um, I think it's more just like the customer service piece of managing the platform.

SPEAKER_01 51:16

No, that's really helpful. I think cool agnostic customer service practices makes a lot of sense. Yeah. Um, another question should bunches be banded in a certain way or rat?

SPEAKER_00 51:29

Yes. Yes. I could talk all day about how I like to have things bunched. Um okay, so things should be rubber banded. Um in generally in 10-stem bunches, your floral standards book will give you more insight on, you know, woodies that are maybe five stems or uh big dahlias that are five stems or something that's three stems, but generally 10-stem bunches that are rubber banded. And um, this is a weird thing, but if you rubber band, like I don't know, we call it like a farmer's rubber band technique, you know, where you, I wish I had something to show you, but you know, you put a rubber band around one stem, then you wrap it around, and then you put it on a stem. That makes it so easy for me to take the rubber band off and reuse it instead of needing to cut the rubber band, which is a waist, and then throw that rubber band out. So if you, you know, are twisting and turning and the rubber band is really tight and hard to get off. Um, I usually have to cut it and throw it out, and then I feel bad. Honestly, I do. I feel bad every time I have to cut a rubber band. So make that easy. Um, don't use plastic sleeves. Nobody needs plastic sleeves. Um, even if you have a um, you know, if you go to a wholesaler, everything is in a plastic sleeve. This is one of the benefits that you as flower farmers have. You can offer a more sustainable option. You do not need plastic sleeves, even when you have flowers that are very delicate or I don't know, need to be contained somehow, um, just used craft paper or a paper wrap. Um, but for the most part, 95% of our flowers come rubber banded without any sort of sleeve. And that also means there's less trash for me. I don't have to figure out where to put all that plastic. Um we are not, we are trying to be a sustainable business. We are not trying to have mountains of plastic trash to get rid of.

SPEAKER_01 53:34

Wonderful. Thank you. Um, the perennial question uh for all cut flower farmers are can you share any pricing resources that you'd recommend?

SPEAKER_00 53:44

Sure. Um, pricing is like a huge thing, obviously. Um I think if you go back, and Rebecca, you could tell me if I'm wrong. We did a pricing um ask the expert some years ago, two years ago or a year ago.

SPEAKER_01 54:01

Um February 2024, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:04

That really dug into pricing. Um, because pricing is complicated. So like I would say go try to go back and look at that. Um also I would say like inside our Flower More community, I said we have like a coaching program. So we dig really deep into how to price. Um, but it's not, you know, it's not something I can unfortunately like tell you anything good in one second. Except to say, do not um, this is not a race to the bottom, as I've said. Local flowers are premium flowers. Resist, even if you are a new farmer, resist that like cheapest. I'm scared, this is my lowest price. Um, really resist that. Even if it's uncomfortable, even if you're scared, um, it does nothing for any of us to price that low.

SPEAKER_01 54:59

Thank you. Um another question we have is it okay to use stock photos for printable to let your florist preview what new varieties you will have before they are in season?

SPEAKER_00 55:10

Oh some florists, yeah. That is a great question. Um, and this sort of digs deeper into like once you maybe as you're building a relationship with a florist, but you want to do it in the winter before you have stuff, or when you have an established relationship with a florist and you have a winter meeting and you're like, oh, let me show you the new things I'm growing. Stock pictures are great. I mean, that's an amazing way to show it. Also shows that you are um innovating, that you're trying new things. And a lot of times our growers will come and say, Oh, I know that you asked for a lot of this this year and we didn't have a lot, but this year we're going to be growing more of that, or we're gonna be growing it in a different color. So, yeah, stock photos for that, terrific.

SPEAKER_01 56:00

Thank you so much. Um, and then another question is how can we encourage or help our florists to use rooted farmers to pre-order, um, especially if they don't like using tech or learning a new system.

SPEAKER_00 56:16

This is a challenge. Um so I think there's two issues. One is there are farmers who like have bucket trucks and go to florist shops, the florist doesn't pre-order and they just buy off the truck. And some farmers are fine with that and even like that. And if you like it, great. Um I I find that that is challenging because you don't know what you need, the florist doesn't know. That's what pre-orders, you know, that's what a availability list in a pre-order does. But some people like that. Um, in terms of like how do you get them to use rooted specifically, like if that's your platform, um I mean it it's like hard knocks here. Like you have to say this is the only way that you can order. And um if you had florists that ordered one way before and now you're asking them to order another way, we have a farmer that is on rooted, and so I know that this is an issue. Um, she said, okay, florists, now I'm on rooted, and I'm gonna use rooted to try to get new florists. Um, but all those florists were like, nah, this is kind of clunky. This isn't the way I like to do it. I like to just send you an email, so I'm gonna keep sending you an email. So now the farmer is like, okay, now I'm doing rooted, and I also have this random group of florists that just email me. And she has been afraid to put her foot down to say like you have to use rooted, because I think she thinks that these florists are gonna be like, well, screw it, I'm not, I don't need to order from you then. So I think that is really challenging, especially if you have florists that have been buying a different way before. Um, but I would also say if you can't get the florist to use rooted and nothing against rooted for or against, then that might just not be the right platform for you, for your florists. Because again, we're trying to find some middle ground, what's good for you, what's good for the florist. And if they're just like, I'm not using this, then it just might not be the right platform for you.

SPEAKER_01 58:38

Thank you for that. Um, do you have time for a couple more questions? And okay, yeah, we're technically on the out, and I want to be respectful of your time. Yeah, but we've got two more questions, so I'll go through them. Um, so somebody asked, you know, we sell a lot of wholesale, but we really want to make more relationships or develop more relationships with florists. We are very rural and we're looking to sell regionally, but it's hard to supply samples and even get delivery to more metro areas. Do you have any suggestion to trying to sell um large orders to florists who are further away?

SPEAKER_00 59:15

Hmm, this is a great question. Um I almost kind of want to think about it because it's gonna be hard to um it's gonna be hard to start the relationship at the level you need it to be. Um because that is sort of the, you know, like how we said like supplement so that you know you sort of get your foot in the door. This would be sort of a different strategy of like finding a larger customer to provide a larger um amount of flowers for. So I don't know, I might need to think about it. Um, and whoever you are, you email me and remind me because I wanna I wanna think about it. Um yeah, I think um might be like referrals, like could you get like referrals from other florists that you're selling to? Or um yeah, I want to I wanna think a little bit about it.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:16

Okay, wonderful. Um, and then the final question. So we have a couple more questions in the chat, but I'm gonna encourage folks who have uh asked those questions to email Ellen after the event just to make sure that we're being respectful of everyone's time. Um the last question is with samples, the best blooms may only be available for a short window of time. So, how do you make a sale you know before the following year? Or is the goal of sample just to show your quality rather than variety?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:46

This is a great question. Um, for two reasons. One, because um, yes, samples are to show your quality. What can you do? It's to build trust, um, not to say, like, I have these beautiful ranunculus today, I'm gonna have them all year round. Like, obviously, you're not. You have them today, they're gonna see that you know how to deliver in a clean bucket, in a proper bucket, in a way that's bunched correctly, that the flowers last, um, that they're hydrated correctly. It's showing, it's proving that you know what you're doing, um, as opposed to like this is the thing that looks great now, and I'm not gonna have it next week. Um, one thing that Bob Wollum does, and that I always love and think is a great option, is that in the winter, having some sort of Bob's was like a um, I loved it. I wish I still had one, um, was like a laminated chart. And it was like a monthly chart. And it wasn't like, you know, everything is exactly by date, but it was like in January, evergreens, uh, in February, uh, daffodils, evergreens, flowering branches. So it started to give the florist a sense of, you know, I just wrote my quarterly article, this coming quarterly is all about how florists don't understand seasonality and for good reason. So this is a tool to help them understand seasonality. That's a way to say, hey, mock orange, only available in April, never gonna be available again. So that your sample doesn't have to tell them all of that. You can maybe use another tool like a yearly sort of what am I growing, what's available seasonally to help a florist sort of understand that.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:37

That's marvelous. Thank you so much. Um, I'm gonna share my screen real quick because I want folks to um take advantage of the discount code. Um yeah. So yeah, Ellen, thank you so much. This is great. I really I love that every one of your answers has so much nuance and um kind of a next step in terms of like action items. So I'm I'm just grateful for that. So um, so folks, you know, I did put in the chat that if your question was not addressed in the QA, please email Ellen after the event and she's happy to discuss that over email with you. Um, the slides and the recording will be available on the public website shortly. Uh, and then again, if you're not a member of the AFCFG yet, um time like the present to join. We have wonderful um presentations like this often. Uh, we've got a monthly Ask an Expert series. Uh, we just had one Monday um with uh pest management with Dr. Majorie Daltri, which was amazing. Um we have webinars, we have wonderful farm tours and in-person events. We also have the uh the Cut Flower Quarterly, which is a fantastic magazine that's been going on for a long time, decades at this point. So please uh take, you know, um we would love to have you with us. Uh, and this uh QR code, if you scan it here, will give you a discounted uh rate to join today.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:11

So I think with the recommended let me just put my pitch in. Highly recommend the ASC of G. Like I cannot tell you. Um, I know that when you're starting out, you might be thinking, I don't know, even how much it costs. $200. I have my I have my form right here that I have to renew. Um, you might be thinking it's a lot of money, and I don't know if I'm gonna get the the money, you know, it's if it's worth it. I'm telling you, your life will be changed from the ASCFG. So please join. See me at in-person events, read our articles, learn. Um, you'll just like advance your career years very quickly by joining the ASCFG.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:53

Thank you, Alan. That that's the perfect testimonial to uh end on. So yeah, um with that, I just want to say I hope everyone has a wonderful um actually I do want to say one last thing. Ellen, I don't know if you're able to see the chat, but there's a lot of thank you notes in the chat. Um, overflowing with notes. Thank you. Good to see you all. Yeah, so um just another shout out to you for being wonderful and so generous with your knowledge. And then I think that that's the end of the webinar, folks. I'm again very appreciative of folks uh joining today. Um just one last update. We've got two more webinars in this series, and they're gonna occur on Wednesday at noon for the next two Wednesdays. Next week we'll be with Erin McMullen at Raindrop Farms, and she's gonna be talking about selling to wholesalers. Um, and then the last week of the last uh webinar of this series will be with Jenny Marks of Trademarks Farm, and she's gonna talk about looking at your business through the lens of profitability and really like kind of digging deep into you know how can you um increase financial assistency in every way possible, um, which is a perennial topic of interest. Um so yeah. So I hope to see you next week. Um, and uh take care. Have a lovely week until then.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:15

So thanks everyone. Bye, everybody.