Smithers-Oasis North America Design Director Sharon McGukin, AIFD, AAF, PFCI
enjoys sharing floral tips and techniques for celebrating life with flowers.
Why sustainability?
When it comes to Valentine’s Day sustainability, we all have favorite products that we like to use.
Why is sustainability a popular buzz word for today’s trend-savvy florists? Meeting present needs without compromising future needs is important to our eco-conscious consumers.
How can you offer sustainable products for your clients this Valentine’s Day? These are my Top 10 Tips
OASIS® 18" Midnight Mache Open and Solid Heart
When it comes to Valentine’s Day, I love a heart filled with flowers!
Hearts are a traditional favorite. Color is the most eye-catching element. Combine these two popular elements - recognizable form and outstanding color to win hearts this holiday season.
Use the new Midnight Mache Hearts (open or solid) to make designing flower hearts easier than ever. The foam turns rich black in color when wet to create the perfect canvas for your artistic designs.
OASIS® Bouquet Vase
From start to finish, glass is a sustainable resource. Glass is made of raw materials such as sand. Glass vases are reusable.
The narrow mouth for stem support and expanded mid-section for water storage, make this vase a design-easy favorite.
Glass vases work well for a ‘good, better, best’ approach to holiday designs.
Vary price points of the same basic arrangement to accommodate a mix of Valentine budgets. Offer customers ‘budget, popular, and boutique’ design options in each theme to fit every wallet.
Midnight Floral Foam
Valentine hearts will be aflutter when customers see your designs created in the classy new Midnight Floral Foam and Shapes.
Midnight is the ‘little black dress’ of floral foams. Wet the dark gray foam and it turns jet black. When the black foam shows, it becomes a design element of style.
These updated arrangements can be made ahead of time. The flowers are arranged securely in a water source with flower food added. Created with enhanced biodegradability, Maxlife floral foams are 100% biodegradable in 567 days.
ECOssentials Designer Dish
This low and lovely container makes a great base for flower arrangements, dish gardens or as a plant saucer.
With a nod to sustainability, these rigid, durable flat bowl-shaped vases are made from agricultural harvest byproducts including straw, bamboo skin, corn and coffee husks.
Available in natural and slate colors these designer trays make a great backdrop for natural material designs.
ECOssentials Containers
This Valentine’s Day, in addition to red … think green! Offer an assortment of green plants.
Not only are plants sustainable, they’re a lasting way to express ‘love grows’ for your clientele. As a bonus, interior plants are a healthy addition to any décor. Our foliage friends help to improve air quality, reduce stress levels, and boost your mood.
For an updated look, place plants into an impressive ECOssentials container. Planter. Ellipse. Designer planter. Pot. Tapered cylinder. Prism bowl. These on-trend shapes are made of natural materials. Choose your favorite style to design with.
OASIS® Midollino Sticks
Add visual value to an arrangement by expanding the design space with colorful Midollino sticks.
Available in eight fun colors, you have many Valentine hues to choose from such as red, pink, strong pink, or purple.
Using Midollino to create a static (strong, straight) line to extend the range of ‘salable’ space in a design without skipping a beat. Or, you can bend the pliable wood product material to create dynamic (energetic, dramatic) lines to add visual interest to your design.
Want to get really creative? You can pre-soak the Midollino in water and bend the softened material into shapes. It’s a fun product to experiment with.
OASIS® Decorative Bind Wire
These 69-foot rolls of colorfast paper-coated 23-gauge wire can be used in exposed mechanics techniques.
Floral mechanics provide support to the flowers in a design. Using an exposed mechanics technique, the mechanic can also be used as ornamentation. In this example, the decorative bind wire is both the armature – flower stem holding mechanic in the vase and the decorative element accessorizing the design on top.
Like traditional bind wire, it’s strong enough to wrap tightly without breaking. The colorful wire can also be used for securing flowers to structures, tie Valentine ‘grab and go’ bags, attach cards or accessories to designs. The eleven bright colors make it fun to work with.
OASIS® Tin Pots
When it comes to creating a nostalgic look, tin is in.
Mineral finishes and galvanized good looks make these guys a memorable gift. Drop a plant in a tin pot and it sings “Home for the Holidays”.
These durable, lightweight containers are the workhorses of Valentine’s Day designs. Each style is sized to easily fit blocks of floral foam and features a waterproof liner. An oval tin filled with fresh flowers is a winner for sweethearts who love garden designs.
OASIS® Brick Tray
Why are brick trays the perfect floral mechanic for holiday designs?
These low trays are perfectly sized to hold single, double, or triple floral foam bricks, depending on the size you need. Allowing you to design large scale designs such as tablescapes in sections that are easily transportable. It’s a great way to deliver large horizontal designs securely that can be used to place floral décor on window sills, wall ledges, or atop columns.
Use Midnight foam to coordinate with the black tray and your mechanics visually recede beneath your flowers. This affordable option also offers the benefit of being disposable. Your shop doesn’t have the expense of a return trip to retrieve used event containers.
Flower Care Products
Consumer’s number one objection to buying fresh flowers is longevity. Increase the life of your flowers to increase the number of return customers throughout the year.
Invest in the freshness of your flowers daily by using Floralife flower care products for optimum vase life and brilliant color. Follow the 5 Steps to Fresh provide your customers more value from longer-lasting blooms.
Use Floralife Crystal Clear® Flower Food, Quick Dip, Finishing Touch Spray, and Floral Cleaner and other flower care products to refresh, hydrate, and protect your flowers. Maximize the natural freshness of fresh cut flower bouquets, floral designs, and evergreens to help grow your business.
Why focus on sustainability this Valentine’s Day?
It’s a great way to show love for the planet, your customers, and grow your flower business!
We know the hectic pace of excellent Valentine’s Day sales and service to your clients. To meet that pace, plan with products that are easy to work with, help accomplish tasks faster, increase the longevity of your flowers, and deliver the styles that bring smiles to your flower recipients.
It’s the best way to keep your clientele “in love with flowers!”