"This Easter welcome spring in all its botanical glory into your flower shop! The Easter Bunny and colored eggs are of course fun features of this special day, but it's the amazing array of fresh spring flowers you have in stock that will keep your cash registers ringing all season long!"
Delightful frills
"What better way to make your whole shop scream, 'Spring is here!' than having tons of fabulous tulips, hyacinths, freesias and daffodils everywhere! There are so many stunning varieties of tulips available in spring. One of my favorites is the orange and yellow Tulip Highway, with the delightful frills on the flower ends. Or Parrott tulips, which look lovely in hand-tied bouquets. But do your homework. Find some of the more exclusive varieties your competitors probably won't have, like Horizon, Blondine, Louvre, Atlantis, Esperanto, Carnival de Nice, Air and Madison Garden."
Bulb flowers
"Welcome in the spring by giving your shop a new look! Surprise your customers. Work botanically. Make your shop look alive with springtime. Use all kinds of flowering branches, like pussy willows, quince, cherry, dogwood. Feature Maxima Freesias, with their big charming heads, Fritlaria, a wonderful flower, hyacinths...all the bulb flowers! Muscari Hyacinths are especially powerful when they aren't mixed with other flowers. And open your shop's front door and windows. Let in the fresh air and let passersby see all the wonderful spring flowers you have inside."
Ostrich eggs
"In keeping with the all-natural spring theme, create beautiful frames, and as a fun, colorful gadget use sisal bouquet holders or make arrangements of monochromatic colors - all white or all yellow. Combine these mixed flower types but single color arrangements with wooden Easter baskets. Of course you can use painted Easter eggs in your arrangements, but for something eye-catchingly different, try using some huge, colorfully painted ostrich eggs in your designs!"
Clear glassware
"For this Easter and spring season, have at least 10 to 15 different designs on display around your shop. Think outside the bucket! Create something a little different, something you've never done before. Clear glassware is very popular now. Fold some green leaves in a vase, or put some pebbles on the bottom of a tall, two and a half foot clear vase, and then place some short-stemmed tulips or cymbidium orchids inside, so that flower tops are about seven inches below the top of the vase."
Natural bounty
"Welcoming spring is about attitude. Be loose and easygoing. Express the joyfulness and natural bounty of spring, this season of rebirth! Two or three colorful bunches of mixed tulips - what's happier looking than that? Or make some lovely tight bunches of Daffodils – the Tahiti variety offers stunning varieties. Put the long stems of these tight Daffodil bunches in clear glass vases - exquisite! Or feature Ranunculus, an absolutely fabulous flower, or use some colorful tissue paper to complement your tulip bouquets!"
Customer magnet
"Beware letting fluffy, chocolaty Easter bunnies and eggs overpower your shop! This is what the chain stores do; they stock up on tons of plastic Easter props! But you should dare to be different, fresh and free, to catch the customer's eye. Buy for instance an old bicycle and paint it fun colors - stripes or spots or whatever tickles your fancy! Park it outside your shop like a customer magnet, with a basket full of fresh, colorful spring flowers on the steering wheel for impulse buying."
Spring spirit
"Bring the garden into your business! You're not competing with department and grocery stores! Hear the call of the wild this spring. Use tall grass in your arrangements, intersperse it with flowers in your designs. Or display some branches in your shop. Be free! Your aim should be to make people say, 'Wow! Something different and exciting is going on in there!' Startle and delight your customers. Be natural, be botanical, be beautiful…that's the true spirit of spring!"
Questions or Comments
Please send your questions or comments for Els to:
info.us@flowercouncil.org
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