Why and When we Recommend Other Favorite Florists

Be Like Kris Kringle

It might seem crazy for a florist to rec­om­mend anoth­er florist. But we do it all the time. For exam­ple, we have nev­er real­ly con­cen­trat­ed on the Spring For­mal or Prom busi­ness so when we receive those inquiries, we have two or three florists we trust in our area that we know do love that busi­ness. If we are out of town for a wed­ding date, we’ll rec­om­mend two florists we love that we think will fit our same busi­ness type and flo­ral aes­thet­ics. When we need to order flow­ers for our own friends and fam­i­ly that live out­side the Los Ange­les area, we’ll first try to find a flo­ral design­er on the web­site direc­to­ry Slow Flow­ers. This col­lec­tion of busi­ness­es and flo­ral design­ers belong to a group that pledges to using Amer­i­can-grown flow­ers (and Cana­da, too!). The def­i­n­i­tion of Slow Flow­ers are flow­ers that are shipped in from over­seas. They are grown with­in a cou­ple hun­dred mile radius of where they are being sent.

Befriend Your Fellow Florists

One of my friends actu­al­ly became my friend because she is a florist. Every­day when my twins where babies, I would walk with them in their dou­ble stroller by her shop. We would chat and share flower sto­ries. I was tak­ing a break being real­ly active in the busi­ness but it was great to swap ideas and go shop­ping at our local whole­sale sup­pli­er togeth­er. When she need­ed to order white Chrysan­the­mums, she asked us to help her find them! When we need­ed Vendela ros­es in a pinch she was will­ing to share. When­ev­er Casey makes a rec­om­men­da­tion of anoth­er florist for a client, she says it makes her feel good.

“I feel like Kris Kringle in Mir­a­cle on  34th Street.” — Casey Schwartz on rec­om­mend­ing oth­er florists.

Volunteer with Other Florists for Fundraisers

Since we are not a shop, we have nev­er pur­sued the prom flower busi­ness, so when that sea­son rolls around, we have 3–4 florists we rec­om­mend and trust to refer to local high school students.

It’s impor­tant to team up with oth­er florists in your area. When my kids were old­er and entered Kinder­garten, the PTA was look­ing to make cor­sages and bou­ton­nières for their 1980s-themed par­ty as a fundrais­er. One of the mom’s par­ents owned a local florist shop that I actu­al­ly had used for cor­sages and bou­ton­nières for my own wed­ding in 1997! The mom knew I taught flower design so we teamed up and I taught 20 PTA moms to make the cor­sages and bou­ton­nières and her par­ents sup­plied the pre-made bows and flow­ers. I host­ed the group in our stu­dio and we helped raise mon­ey for the school. I still rec­om­mend their shop for prom cor­sages today!

Recommending Former Students & Designers

Flower Duet’s for­mer free­lance design­er, Adri­enne moved to NYC with her hus­band, but now she grows flow­ers and designs with lots of excit­ing com­pa­nies in the Big Apple! — Pho­to by Adri­enne Sorg

As a flo­ral design com­pa­ny that has taught hun­dreds and hun­dreds of stu­dents the art of flo­ral design, we are also proud to rec­om­mend for­mer stu­dents, too! Some­times, I inter­view for­mer stu­dents who are tak­ing off in their own suc­cess­ful busi­ness ven­tures (read about Drew Rios in Bloom­in’s News August 2020 - a for­mer Flower Duet stu­dent).  We are also sad to say good­bye to stu­dents who move away to places like New York City and Utah.…but, then, we get to make rec­om­men­da­tions for their next flower gig like Casey just did for Adri­enne Sorg, own­er of For­tis­si­mo Flo­rals.

We Use Farmgirl Flowers for Shipping Nationwide

Far­m­girl Flow­ers Insta­gram Account Post from June 2021

Final­ly, if we can­not find a Slow Florist in the area where we want to send flow­ers, we use Far­m­girl Flow­ers. We have watched this busi­ness grow like crazy over the past three years and are for­tu­nate to know the founder and own­er. We can­not rec­om­mend high­ly enough this flo­ral deliv­ery ser­vice. We sent our mom flow­ers for her birth­day in 2021 and it just so hap­pens to be four days before Valen­tine’s Day. Because Far­m­girl Flow­ers guar­an­teed deliv­ery by a date (that was only missed by a day due to the crazy air car­go short­age dur­ing Covid-19), they sent an addi­tion­al bou­quet! My mom was amazed that the beau­ty, vari­ety and longevi­ty of the flow­ers. It was so inspir­ing to receive them in the mid­dle of her Vir­ginia win­ter, that she con­tin­ues to pick up local­ly-grown flow­ers at her Trad­er Joe’s week­ly. Did you know the coun­try’s largest tulip farm is in Vir­ginia? We are excit­ed to see Christi­na Stem­bel again this month at the 2021 Slow Flow­ers Sum­mit  in North­ern Cal­i­for­nia. We’ll being tour­ing the Far­m­girl Flow­ers head­quar­ters as part of the Sum­mit activ­i­ties. Look for more on that in next mon­th’s newsletter.

So, as a flo­ral design­er, reach out to your peers. Jump on Insta­gram and cheer them on. Get to know your local com­pe­ti­tion in a friend­ly way so we you need to pass on some work, you know you can send the client to some­one you trust. The more we help each oth­er, the stronger our indus­try will be.