Attention the Soon-to-be-Married

South Jersey Florist now advertises on theKnot.com, the internet’s most-trafficked one-stop wedding planning solution. But, you can always call (            609-404-1110      ) to make an appointment with our wedding coordinator for that personal touch! 

Spring Time Ideas

Spring Floral Decorating Ideas

• Decorate your brunch table with votive candles interspersed among several vases of spring blooms. Guests can each take home a small vase as a party favor.

• Line your entryway with beautiful blooming spring plants. A wreath of spring flowers on your front door is a fabulous finishing touch.

• Decorate each place setting at your table with a different flower variety. Include each variety in a vase for your table centerpiece.

• Garnish hors d'oeuvre trays with spring flowers.

• Ask your florist to make a design in a teapot or a cluster of teacups. Or place a small bloom on each saucer when serving tea.

• Fill a traditional wicker basket with mixed spring flowers to use as a centerpiece. For a charming effect place smaller baskets and candles next to the flowers. This can also be done with clay pots.

Flower Suggestions

Spring flowers include: tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, iris, daisies, lily of the valley, violets, pansies, lilies, mini carnations, gerbera daisies, pussywillow, and flowering branches such as forsythia and cherry blossoms.

Starts at $49.99

Stir up St. Patrick's Day smiles with our lucky floral libation. Inspired by the popular Irish cocktail, our florists hand-arrange the freshest green carnations and poms with alstroemeria and fresh greenery, inside a keepsake acrylic martini glass. To complete the recipe, it's accented with green apple picks they'll think came straight from the city of Dublin. Sláinte. 

Lucky

$49.99

Make them feel like a lucky dog -- surprise your favorite lad or lass with our playful puppy-shaped St. Patrick’s Day arrangement. Crafted from fresh lime green carnations and cheerful poms, he's accented with a jaunty top hat and green ribbon, ready to make Irish eyes of all ages smile

Valentine’s Day Aftermath: Don’t Give Up After a Bad Bouquet

This Article was written By Gina B. Kellogg and found in the Florist Chronicles Blog.

Chances are, if you received a gift for Valentine’s Day, you received flowers. After all, statistics for 2011 showed that 40 percent of all purchases were for fresh flowers. And chances are, the blossoms you received brought a smile to your face for many days after their arrival. But for a few recipients, the only emotion they received from their gift was disappointment — from the moment their blossoms arrived.

Traditional Red Rose Valentine's Bouquet

Unfortunately, many givers this past Valentine’s Day (as in holidays past) didn’t understand the importance of buying flowers from a local florist. Instead, they saw and heard ads on TV and the radio. They noticed banner advertisements alongside their Facebook profiles. And they called or clicked and ordered.

Flowers for Sale From Faraway

Most of the ads in the national media were for companies known in the florist industry as “order-gatherers” or “wire services”. In other words, they are not florists. They are simply companies that take orders. These companies hire thousands of individuals sitting in cubicles all over the globe to accept and handle these orders.

Once they process your credit-card number, these companies begin contacting florists near the recipient’s home to try and fulfill the order. In handling the transaction, these businesses either add a fee to the cost of the original bouquet, increasing the price substantially over what a local florist probably would have charged for the same arrangement. Or the company offers to pay the florist a low-ball fee to create and deliver the bouquet — often at such a reduced rate that the florist makes little to no profit if he or she accepts the order. As a result, many reputable florists simply say no to such requests. However, some florists do accept these orders, and because those florists receive such a decreased reimbursement for the bouquet, they may include fewer and less expensive flowers than the giver originally ordered.

The resulting floral arrangement often looks nothing like the original design ordered.

Flower Blossoms in a Box

Then there are the companies who advertise prolifically with images of gorgeous, bountiful bouquets in stylish vases overflowing with massive blooms. It’s only in the fine print that the purchaser may discover that these bouquets are sent in a box, without a vase, without water, without cold packs and without any of the other tools that a reputable firm uses to prolong the life of fresh-cut flowers. Recipients simply receive a box of flowers — often drooping, wilted, broken and faded.

Pink Rose

Flowers, Failure and Facebook

This Valentine’s Day was no different. Well, actually, it was different in that it was worse. It turns out that at least one of the major order-gathering firms, ProFlowers, was accused of allegedly sabotaging small local floral shops by placing ads on Google that proclaimed the retailers were “sold out for Valentine’s Day” when online shoppers went searching for local florists. Thus, consumers who might have used local brick-and-mortar stores ended up turning to the online order gatherers because they believed they had no other option for their last-minute orders.

Rose and Ribbon Heart

On Valentine’s Day and the days after, the Facebook pages of some of the biggest floral advertisers in the world blew up with messages of disgust, regret and disappointment. Many of the people posting comments vowed they would never buy from those companies ever, ever again.

Unfortunately, many of them may also decide never to buy flowers ever again — from that company or any other. And that’s a crying shame. Because respectable, trustworthy, honest and talented florists all over the world will never be able to prove to those people that sending flowers doesn’t have to end with a recipient embarrassed to show off the otherwise thoughtful gift their loved ones went to the time and expense to send them. And those people will never experience the long-lasting value of buying quality flowers from a florist who doesn’t lower his or her standards to deliver a subpar product.

The Ease of Becoming a Floral Connoisseur

It’s a lesson you don’t have to learn if you buy your flowers from a florist with whom you’ve developed a trusting relationship. Even if you want to send flowers to some other city, you can find reliable, responsible florists you can call to create your bouquet. One of the easiest ways is viawww.Yelp.com or a similar site that offers consumer reviews. Simply search for a florist in the city in which you want flowers delivered. Another option, especially if you need to send sympathy flowers, is to find the name of a nearby funeral company and ask its director what florist he or she can recommend.

Stacked Red Roses

Reputable florists are in abundance, but most are independent businesses without the high-dollar marketing budgets to advertise on TV, radio or the web. So, the next time you see those expensive, ubiquitous ads, see them as a reminder that flowers are a lovely, thoughtful and appreciated gift. Then call or visit a local florist to discuss a custom-prepared bouquet that will perfectly fit your budget and reflect the recipient’s personality.

Whether it’s Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, an anniversary, birthday or “just because,” the result will be a loved one with a smile of absolute adoration and pure, unadulterated delight.

How about you? Have you had a good or bad experience with a wire service or local florist? Tell us all about it or share your own view point on the florist industry in the comments below…

Written by

Gina Kellogg