A brief insight to our Valentine experience 2014 by Franca Logan of Florienne 60A Hurstmere Road Takapuna Auckland
On Valentine’s Day 2014 love was in the air, it blew in like a tornado, a whirlwind, it came and went so fast this year and 40 hours later as we swept the last cut stems off the floor over a glass of wine it all seemed a blur.
The preparation started months before, booking extra staff, pre-cutting paper and ribbons, filling the water tubes, and of course how many roses to pre-order, which always seems a gamble.
Every time Valentine’s Day is near the end of the week and especially on a friday we know from experience that it will be a crazy one, but all the preparation still wasn't enough this year and neither were the extra pairs of hands brought in for the occasion. In over 20 years of Valentines, this year was by far the craziest and busiest I have experienced.
This year we all worked through the night again to get the job done. We had no choice, as the telephone stopped ringing when the shop shut, the orders kept coming in steadily through the night via our 24 hour website. By 7 AM the first couriers arrived, at 9 AM we were at capacity for deliveries, just about sold out of red roses and we still had the day to come. Each Valentine’s everyone expects their flowers delivered first thing, no surprise the courier companies were swamped by 10 AM. By now we were up for nearly 30 hours and counting...more caffeine!
Also at 7 the first collections started. Single Red Roses, dozens of Red Roses. All these men up early collecting flowers and take away coffees from the cafe 2 doors up to take home, very romantic.
Red roses are still the number one traditional Valentine gift. Each Valentine’s Day they are more expensive for us to buy, and in turn more expensive for the consumer. The hot summer weather at this time of year is not favourable for their longevity so we prefer to buy our roses from local growers such as Van Lier, Van Berlo and Shipherds and other quality local growers and at auction. We prefer to sell locally grown Roses over the imports, we support local and not just at Valentine’s Day, year round, 90% of our Valentine rose were ordered from Van Lier. At peak times we don’t like leaving the roses to chance. We know where our roses come from, we know when they are picked, what they will be sprayed with, and how our favourite varieties will perform for our clients, and unlike the imports no fumigation is required which is a process that drastically reduces vase life. I for one rather pay a bit more for a quality local product over cheaper imports. It appears the general consumer also knows. A surprising number of men asked us where our flowers came from and if they were New Zealand grown, and particularly if our Red Roses were New Zealand grown. “Of course they are” being our proud answer. Red roses are still the number one seller. Our Valentine day went on, next came the big one to make, 99 red roses for a special Valentine marriage proposal. This bouquet took nearly an hour to create, the wrapping alone needed a few pairs of hands, wow, definitely the biggest bouquet I have made and thankfully she said YES! We have since created the wedding flowers as well, more red roses and pink ones this time too. I have however over the last few years noticed a definite change in the air of love surrounding Valentine’s Day, and it was more obvious this year than ever before. Consumer trends are shifting, at least they are in my shop. We sold far more of the requests for ‘something else besides red roses' than ever before, Valentine’s Day is becoming less about the Red Rose, less traditional, less cliche. The recession will be partly responsible for this, consumers expect a lot for their dollar these days. They want flowers that last longer than ever before, they want value for their hard earned dollar, and unfortunately roses do not last in the eye of the consumer and lots of consumers do not want to pay the high dollars for something that may not last. This is something we try to change by selling varieties we know last over others and by educating consumers on how to care for their flowers such as using the flower food we provide with all our bouquets. Perhaps it is also because we like to offer and suggest ‘something else’, something else romantic other than red roses. Perhaps it has finally sunk in that flowers in general are a sure way to someone’s heart, it doesn’t have to be red roses. A surprising number of guys knew their loved ones favourite flowers (wow, they are paying attention!) We sold lots of Phalaenopsis Plants and bouquets of one variety of Orchids, Lilies, Lisianthus, Tulips, Dahlias and Sunflowers galore, definitely flowers from the heart as tulips really don’t like the hot weather and there were quite a number of women sending flowers other than red roses to their loved ones, masculine ones like Anthuriums. Roses of other colours were also very popular this year, more so than I have ever experienced before, perhaps because they were not as expensive as the reds, but most of these men knew red was not the favourite colour of their loved one. The David Austins were extremely popular and white Roses were by far the next most popular colour choice. Mixed bouquets were also walking out in droves, we could not keep up with the pre made bouquets. We did suggest lots of Lisianthus to be included in bouquets as it is a romantic looking flower that lasts very well in the summer heat. More customised bouquets did mean more labour and time required to make these specific bouquets, it takes a lot less time to create the same 12 red rose bouquet over and over again, but we ourselves felt more emotion attached to these bouquets. We enjoyed creating these much more as designers, even without a good nights sleep. And the day was still not done, 36 hours and counting, start tomorrows wedding, thankfully Hydrangeas and not a red rose in sight. On to serve the next customer, the sly remark about how us florists were creaming it and raking it in..really? all the extra labour costs and flower prices and our overheads (perhaps I should have shows this man my auction bill!) As the day progressed the shop was nearly empty, just enough left to get us through a very busy saturday the 15th that followed and all went home completely exhausted. After Valentine’s Day is over we await any feedback, we had a few courier mishaps, a few late deliveries and doorstops at a wrong house, seems we live in such an instant society that many expect to push the buy button online and magically flowers appear on doorsteps 2 seconds later, but for the sheer amount of volume the feedback was positive, comments that the roses were lasting surprisingly well in the hot weather, and everyone loved all the Lisianthus we used this year as it went on for 2 weeks from what we were told. In the end romance is appears to be very much alive at Valentine’s Day, thankfully in more ways than dozens of red roses, I came home to a box of chocolates and a card. I felt proud of what my team accomplished but ever so glad the madness was over for another year.
florienne
60 A Hurstmere Road
Takapuna, North Shore
Auckland
(+64) (09) 486 6438
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