Take 10 with Harold Smith
1. Is Valentine’s Day the biggest holiday of the year for the flower shop? And what are the other popular holidays for your business?
Valentine’s Day is the biggest single day for the flower shop. The majority of deliveries are for Valentine’s Day; few are sent before the actual holiday. The biggest and the busiest holiday, however, is Mother’s Day, with deliveries around Thursday and going through Saturday – which has the most going out.
2. What’s the popular item for Valentine’s Day?
Vased red roses, which are the traditional sign of love, followed by mixed flowers that are either vased or in an arrangement.
3. What percent of your Valentine’s Day business is walk-in (people looking for a last-minute gift or who have forgotten it was Valentine’s Day)?
Walk ins are about 25 percent of the business on Valentine’s Day. Most orders are placed by phone or online.
4. How, if at all, has flower decorating for weddings/receptions changed over the years?
Floral arrangements for weddings have been changing over the last few years with the church weddings and floral arrangements for the altar and pews, to the centerpieces for the reception table at the hotels. With the more recent venues – outdoors at barns and parks – brides are going with the wild flower look and using burlap, raffia and lace.
5. What are the most popular displays for funeral services? Has the funeral business changed much since the advent of charitable donations as an option?
With the change to having only a one-day viewing, you still have fresh flower arrangements, but clients will also order plants, gardens, memorial blankets, garden stones, garden statues and wind chimes.
6. Does your store do any specialty home or business decorating? If so, what does that involve?
Yes, we do go to businesses and decorate the office with fresh wreaths, garlands and plants for the holidays. We also go to private residences and decorate homes with fresh floral or new permanent arrangements. In some instances, clients just want their own decorations put up or trees done for them.
7. What is the biggest flower order you can recall? And how were you able to fill it?
Shortly after I had bought the business, a gentleman called and requested he would like a dozen red roses, vased, for his wife to surprise her for each year they were married – which was 20 years. He wanted the roses delivered all separately to her home. After a few trips to the door she said, “Just bring them in two at a time to save your trips.”
8. Have you received any orders you’d consider strange?
We do have requests for black roses for certain occasions. We try to sell the black magic rose, which is a dark red rose, instead. Also, we get requests for dead flowers for the Day of the Dead.
9. What prompted you to get into the flower business?
I have always had an interest in the outdoors with gardening and planting flowers and green plants, which lead me to take a few evening classes to see if it would be a field I would like to embark in. The answer was yes. I attended a floral school and have been in the floral business for 35 years, with the last eight as owner of L&M Flower Shop. I have been blessed to pursue a field that I am able to put a smile on people’s faces for their anniversaries, birthdays, illnesses and weddings, and also be there for the end-of-life floral needs for the passing of loved ones.
10. Has the popularity of certain flowers changed over the years? What are the most frequently purchased flowers today?
The access to the internet and the ability to see different types of flowers and styles of arrangements have people asking for calla lilies, orchids, hydrangeas, stargazer lilies, gerbera daisies, along with the carnations and daisies that are still requested for arrangements.
BONUS QUESTION:
What is your favorite flower?
My personal favorite flowers are tropical – the protea, ginger, birds of paradise, dendrobium orchids, with aspidistra, monster leaves with curly willow, and lily grass.