0:19

Hello everybody, welcome back to the Flower Files, our wildly native podcast.

0:25

Today we have a very special guest and we're going to talk all things about flowers in the industry and how it works.

0:33

We have beautiful Miss Colleen with us, but I'm going to have her talk about her bio and introduce herself because I'm afraid that I would miss something.

0:42

So we are all here. It is mom Amber, me, colleen, colleen.

0:47

Take it away, no question, okay, well, my bio actually is very diverse, like you said, and I ended up unintentionally in this industry.

1:00

So and I found that quite a few of my colleagues and people that I've known, like you know, designers that have been doing this have their own companies for many years in the event industry kind of stumbled upon this as like almost their calling per say.

1:19

So it's kind of like the story with 27 dresses except mine was 13 weddings, 13 weddings in two and a half years, and I was a bridesmaid in 12 of 13 weddings and I was like a reader slash attendant in another one.

1:41

And just before this whole wedding season kind of started for me in my mid 20s, I did a baby shower for my cousin who happened to have a wholesale account that was near my home, and I helped do the shower, flowers and then each wedding it seemed I was doing more and more until one of these times and I was working a full time job.

2:13

This was in the mid 90s, so I was working a full time job.

2:17

I was an HR at a big bank, which is very common in Delaware.

2:21

So yeah, I was, I was doing the banking thing, working in HR, and I was in these weddings and Martha Stewart was all the rage and there weren't like all these kits, like there are now like the DIY invitations and the DIY everything, and there really was almost no internet.

2:40

There wasn't like if there was a website, it was because you were like on the knot and it was a page.

2:46

It wasn't like only really big companies had websites.

2:50

So there wasn't any groups or tortor tutorials or anything like there is now, and so if you kind of had a knowledge of this stuff or you were just good at figuring it out, you became like the person to have in somebody's wedding.

3:06

So it was like oh, Coleen could do that.

3:12

You've done this. How many times before you can do it again?

3:14

Exactly Like, yeah, I mean, you know you get this kind of paper and that kind of paper and you punch holes in the tie ribbon and now we have a beautiful invitation, whereas now you can just purchase it, like that.

3:24

It was kind of the same thing with flowers.

3:26

I kind of stumbled into it.

3:28

So, after those couple years and doing showers and parties and things like that, one of my sister's best friends actually said you do beautiful flowers, I want you to do my wedding.

3:41

And I was like are you feeling okay?

3:46

Did you start recently? Something like what is going on here, like why are you asking me to do your wedding?

3:53

You know she's having this beautiful big wedding.

3:56

Her parents are corporate lawyers. They could afford to hire anyone and they want me to do their flowers, like what.

4:01

So she's like I believe in you and this is what I really want for my wedding.

4:09

And I was like okay, so I did it and I didn't have any any like cooler or storage space.

4:20

I actually turned my sunroom into a cooler and like, did all these crazy things.

4:25

And it turned out beautifully. From that wedding because we worked at a bank of the median age was, you know, 25 to 28 year olds.

4:36

All of a sudden pictures got out and things and there was no Facebook yet, but people just knew each other.

4:44

And so at that point I started getting phone calls of will you do my wedding?

4:50

Will you do my wedding, will you do my wedding? And Valentine's Day 1996, specifically on Valentine's Day, I had five people call me in my office at the bank saying, hey, will you do my wedding flowers?

5:05

Oh, wow, and I was like, okay, I think this might be a sign that maybe I should start doing this.

5:11

Yeah, because each one of them had like a $5,000 budget and I was like making like $30,000 a year at the time and I'm like, okay, I know, the $5000 isn't just to pay me, it's for the flowers and everything.

5:26

But if this is just in one day from doing one wedding, maybe I should kind of think about this and look into it.

5:34

So shortly thereafter I came up with a company name and started doing things here and there, and then, within like a year and a half by 1997, I started my own company out of my garage.

5:48

Wow, Wow, wow, that's awesome, yeah.

5:52

So lots of lessons and bumps along the way.

5:56

It was a booming industry at the time but at that time there was everything was very kind of cut through it within the industry.

6:03

So if you didn't have a big flower shop you were considered a basement betty.

6:08

So everything was super protected and nobody shared ideas, nobody was supportive with each other.

6:15

So it was definitely a lot of lessons learned and it was a lot more difficult back then than it is now.

6:25

But I literally probably have enough books to like that are, if I stacked them up, are definitely taller than me.

6:32

All like self education with a gazillion little tabs and post-its and a thousand Martha Stewart wedding magazines because that was one of the only publications back then going to like every bookstore I could possibly find, because at the time floral design you'd find maybe one or two books and again, the internet was such a limited resource at that time I mean think about 1997.

7:01

I can ask Liza like she knows, like they had a little like hoppy dude who would like play a little game once in a while.

7:09

And yeah, and it was not, it was not even close to what it is now.

7:14

You had AOL. Everything was dial up.

7:17

You know you heard like what sounded like a fax machine, it was all that.

7:20

So there was a lot of hard knocks in that timeframe but I learned so much just from doing it and digging in that you know trial and error.

7:36

So let's see in about 2003 or four, I was doing that for a while and I had built quite a few really good relationship with some banks and some event planners and things like that.

7:52

And one of the banks which no longer exists.

7:55

It was ING direct. They were like we desperately need you to be on our staff to run our events and do our things and in order to do that, if we need to make you our in house florist and you can do your stuff and our stuff, that would be great.

8:06

So around two I was doing a lot of their events around 2005.

8:14

They finally gave me an offer. I was like, okay, this is too much money and I was kind of tired of being an island at that point in time and it was nice to have other people to work with and and feel a little bit more supported.

8:27

So from 2005 to 2008,.

8:29

Although I had full book of two years worth of weddings, I went and did that as well.

8:36

So I did all the events for ING direct coast to coast, managed like five properties, all their ballrooms, all their stuff, all their events, plus did my weddings.

8:49

I have no idea in hindsight like how I did it.

8:53

I don't think I slept for like two years, you know, because I mean they were full weddings and events, as well as huge events.

9:04

So I learned a ton doing that as well.

9:08

So saying you're an expert is almost an insult, because you're beyond an expert.

9:13

Well, I've been like every side of the industry.

9:16

So in 2008, the industry crashed the banking industry and so they no longer had money and things for for events and stuff like that.

9:28

So I just went back to simply doing my business.

9:32

I rebranded at that point in time and really started to work and other things.

9:41

But I'd made so many contacts. The director of Longwood Gardens reached out to me and was like we want you to be our first ever operations manager in charge of all of guest services and events.

9:53

And I was like, okay, wow.

10:01

So even though I had my business kind of in the background and I still had bookings, I wasn't booking as heavily, so I was a lot lighter when I did that and I was really kind of entrenched in the whole events and along with gardens and orchestrating all of their events, organizing their guest services, I managed every person in the gardens that had a green jacket, so I was their manager.

10:25

Plus, I ran the events, oversaw the catering and all that stuff.

10:29

I was third in charge in the garden, so I was manager on duty all the time, in charge of ice skating.

10:35

Weather calls blah, blah, blah, blah.

10:37

So that was a huge job that actually, after three years landed me in the hospital.

10:43

Wow, oh my gosh. So I pushed myself to every possible limit with physically and my body was just like nope, no, no, you're done.

10:57

You need to pray?

10:57

No, because I don't, so I ended up in the hospital for a week.

11:00

I hurt my back lifting things and doing things during Christmas season.

11:06

So from there I had to take three months off because I had to go through a lot of rehab and things like that.

11:15

Once I did that, my business was still kind of.

11:20

I was still doing arrangements for banks, I was doing lobby pieces, executive floors, those kind of things and only like small weddings at that point because it was like what I could squeeze in.

11:31

So once I kind of did all that, I was like, okay, let's refocus on doing events, weddings, doing my own thing, and really pushed kind of the rebranding that I had already started.

11:45

And that's when I launched and really was doing all weddings, events, corporate, you name it.

11:54

At that point I had so much experience because I was the florist, I was the venue, I had been the bride and the bridesmaid I mean bride once but a bride's maid during that timeframe.

12:10

So there really wasn't any part. I was the vendor.

12:13

I was also the caterer. I was this.

12:16

I mean, I wasn't the caterer but I worked so closely behind the scenes that I just knew every part of the industry and was responsible for making sure that the big umbrella of everything and that the logistics and everything ran smoothly.

12:31

So it was more like kind of baptism by fire and it built over the years.

12:37

So going back into just flowers was like almost like a vacation.

12:43

So at that point I just really emerged myself into just loving and enjoying and re-educating like all the new scientific stuff of biology and things, that kind of relearning some of the old ways, like oh, put your flowers in warm water and this and that, and learning that that was just all incorrect and really kind of studying my craft and perfecting my craft, understanding the biology of the flowers, understanding what made them happy, what made them not, how they progress over a period of time, how to get flowers to that exact perfect bloom and how to maintain it in that so that it looks like that for the wedding day.

13:34

If you rush it too fast, then it's blown open and too far, if you don't do it fast enough.

13:40

It's not the right look for the design.

13:42

So, just, I really emerged myself in truly like the botany of flowers and just experimenting and doing like a lot of that in addition to floral design and events.

13:57

In 2015, I was still very busy.

14:03

Everything was going great, but one of my biggest accounts just closed, like, and I was doing all of their events.

14:10

I was their in-house florist and my one son was off at college.

14:15

My other one was about to start ninth grade and I was just like you know it, just it gave me pause and I was like okay, am I going to really market myself and push this, or is this a time where I need to kind of pause and go?

14:32

Okay, is this a next phase?

14:35

Mm-hmm.

14:36

So you were working the road.

14:37

you had a moment, Exactly.

14:39

And I was like, okay, do I really invest into this or do I look at you know where we are in the future?

14:45

So I decided to start examining.

14:50

Okay, let me freelance a little bit.

14:52

Barely knew what that was. It was barely a thing at that point in 2015, but was starting to become a thing.

15:01

There still weren't like any Facebook groups or anything like that, but Facebook did exist at that point for a couple of years.

15:10

So there was a little bit of interaction, not a ton.

15:13

Things were like you kind of learned and met people through your wholesaler, like going to pick things up and talking to other people, you know, learning about different things by literally going to the farms like you guys and picking up the flowers, and then meeting other you know people doing the same job as you while you're, you know, both picking up your flowers or looking at things or figuring things out.

15:38

So that was pretty much my education and interaction with other florist and event designers, you know, until that point.

15:48

So I started, you know, offering part-time help at two different wholesalers.

15:54

One of them I started helping out with, just to kind of see like, is this the direction I want to go in?

16:01

You know, physically, you can only physically do a job.

16:07

That's this taxing for so long before you start to phase in and phase other people in.

16:12

And I just wasn't that good at releasing control of the design piece and you know it's hard.

16:21

It's really hard.

16:22

You spend so much time creating a brand and image of look and creating the relationships, and if other people don't understand it or if they're not speaking the same language, how do you turn that over?

16:33

How do you say and that's why we, as the team that we have, we're so blessed because we all speak the same language and if we're cranky with each other, it's okay Because we can be like listen, I'm really frustrated about X, Y and Z and everybody's like, okay, well, how do we help each other with it?

16:52

You know, Right and I find that I mean, once I started freelancing in like 2017, and then I started working with other people, I realized there was so many things like so many lessons in what people do and what people don't do, just from being in different environments that I learned so so much Some best practices from doing the opposite of what, some of the things that I saw.

17:24

You know different things that you're like whoa, but nonetheless there was more of a community than there ever was, and I always said that if that community that I became a part of had emerged probably five years prior, I might, I probably still be in that part of the industry.

17:45

I still, because you weren't such an island anymore.

17:49

Yes.

17:50

Figuring it all out on your own and just kind of being you know the resource for everything.

17:59

So the long and short of that story is you know, there's, you know, there's every possible way that you can be involved in the event industry, in the wedding industry, in the floral industry, and there's so many different avenues to get into it.

18:19

And so I mean, as far as somebody like wanting to get into the floral industry, I would say the smartest way to go about it is educate yourself or take, I would say, certain classes.

18:37

I don't think that all classes that are out there are really the most beneficial.

18:44

Yeah, that's a nice way of saying it, Like there are a lot of people out there saying that they can teach things and they're really truly not the experts.

18:51

They truly, you know, they just are good at making things look pretty.

18:58

But what are the mechanics behind it and how does it work?

19:01

And that's one of the things I definitely wanted to ask you today was you know if you saw somebody who was getting into the industry?

19:10

What is the biggest piece of advice that you would give them?

19:15

Freelance, work at different places, when you're starting out, when you have the opportunity, work at a flower shop, work with different designers, offer to work as cheap as possible, when you're brand new and you don't have the experience, because it truly is free education.

19:33

So at that point, consider that you're not paying a tuition somewhere, but you are.

19:39

You know what I mean by taking less or pay Well, and that's saying don't get paid at all.

19:44

Some people will offer free labor.

19:46

I highly suggest you know as little as you can afford to accept only because I feel like, even if you're just hands and feet and lifting things and moving things around, there is value in what you're bringing to the table, so you should get paid for something right.

20:05

Absolutely. But when things are not so crazy, those people will allow you to come in and you can just pick things up, pick up different notes of things, watch the way different things do that ask a question why?

20:19

Of course not, unlike in the middle of an install, unless they have the time, but you know when things get hectic.

20:26

But definitely work in all the different environments.

20:31

But if you go with them and you're driving back after the install and you're in the vehicle with them, that's a great time to be able to pick up.

20:39

That's a perfect time Also too, like if you work for someone and you're doing an event with them, ideally there'll be an operations kind of meeting prior to.

20:52

You're gonna go with there, you're gonna go here, we're gonna do this, we're gonna do that.

20:56

These are the pieces that go here, these are the pieces that go there.

21:00

You know, you can ask a couple of questions then, just so that you're mentally prepared for what direction you're going.

21:06

I think that's really important.

21:10

Okay, as you get more experienced, you know you're the lead or you're the this or what is your.

21:15

Because I mean, I have to ask those questions, even if I'm going, because nine times out of 10, if I'm freelancing now, I'm either running an event or they need me to do some large installs that they know that they can send me on my own and they'll just turn around and it's ta-da, it's done, mm-hmm, you know.

21:32

And I always have to ask the question okay, what is pre-done, what isn't pre-done, like for mentally for me to understand, like, what I'm going into?

21:42

Will I have an assistant? Will I not Right?

21:45

And that way too, you know.

21:48

You know I always bring quite a few tools with me, but you bring a little bit extra.

21:54

What's your favorite?

21:56

tool. My knife Cool. Are you a clipper?

22:00

person, or are you a?

22:00

knife.

22:01

I was trained out of the clipper. One of my good flower friends challenged me.

22:08

She was like to be a really good florist.

22:13

She was like you should not use cutters.

22:16

She was like a true professional only uses a knife, and the reason why is there's speed, there's consistency, there's a lot of things and every time you put down those clippers.

22:30

So there's certain florists in the industry that are like well-known that if they hear a pair of cutters get put down on the table, they're like who was that?

22:41

Oh, wow.

22:43

Wearing design time, not prep time, like if you're hacking, like a bunch of something.

22:47

Yeah, yeah, wearing design time Because it's inefficient.

22:53

Not only is it inefficient but it also there's bacteria and things that build up on those things that don't on your knife.

23:00

There's just so much more control and the practice that you get when you're doing the knife really allows you to be so much more precise than when you work with cutters.

23:16

So absolutely I can do everything with a knife.

23:21

There's nothing I can't do with a knife. Sometimes when things are bigger, like big honking stems, but if you have a sharp knife, it doesn't matter.

23:31

You can go right through it and you can hack through it and you're good to go.

23:34

But yeah, so by far my favorite tool is my knife.

23:39

I could do an entire event with just a knife and some wire.

23:42

Actually, one of the people that I bind wire, one of the people that I freelance for they used to call me this might not resonate with the younger girls, but they call me MacGyver Because they're like they're like you're telling a pocket knife.

24:01

I'm buying wire like a clip and like some glue and she'll make you an arbor, you know, and it's like I've been sent to events where I've had like one bunch of greens and had to green full, like you know, banisters and full things, and I'm like, okay, where are the nearest woods?

24:25

Because I went in there and like hacked down like a forest and brought it with me and made it happen.

24:32

So, you just learn.

24:36

There's a few of the things that people don't realize is how flexible you have to be.

24:40

Yeah, yes, in terms to events, I feel like there's two distinct worlds of florals.

24:47

There's the little flower shop where you walk in and has the tinkly little bell and the cooler and the flowers and they're all tight and they're all in your cute little buckets and, oh, you need an arrangement, great, we'll put it together.

24:56

And then there's the actual floral install world, where I don't want it tight, I want it ready to go at a certain point and we want it big and full and fun and wild yeah.

25:10

And that truly is the difference between a retail florist and an event florist.

25:15

Yeah.

25:16

Which is why, like so, I work in wholesale.

25:18

That's the one thing I didn't get to in my bio thing, so I went into wholesale.

25:26

I was working part-time at one place.

25:28

They shut down and I'm somebody that I worked with went to DV Flora and they were like you need to come work here, they need you.

25:39

And they were like they don't need you yet, but I'm gonna tell them how much they need you.

25:45

And then the event manager called me and was like I heard that I needed to meet you.

25:50

And I was like, oh, okay, hello.

25:53

And we talked for about an hour and she was like, oh, I need to hire you.

25:59

And I was like, okay, she's like, but we don't have a position right now, but I'm gonna make one.

26:05

She was like hold tight. Like within three days I got a call back saying, hey, I need you to come to DV to meet with a bunch of different people, because I created a position and we're gonna have an event team.

26:17

We're really focusing on events and I really want you to be part of this team.

26:21

And so I've been with DV since 2018 as one of five event specialists.

26:31

There's only four of us now, but there used to be five.

26:34

Well, it's interesting when we walked through with you.

26:37

We got to walk through the office. You are regarded different.

26:43

When you walk past, People watch you.

26:45

It's interesting, Really Very, very interesting.

26:49

I didn't notice.

26:53

Well. So I'm kind of always getting into things that other people don't get into.

26:58

So I'm curious by nature and I just like to see how things work.

27:04

And I also work for a company that has been structured a very specific way for a very long period of time and it's a very big ship and it turns very, very slowly.

27:16

So, that being said, I've had to create quite a few workarounds, which are now standard operating procedures, but was me working around the system that I needed to work in, so creating a lot of opportunities for myself?

27:37

Because I didn't want to tell the people who were my customers and the people that I may be even freelancing for next weekend, like I wanna play with those flowers.

27:46

I want to do that. How can we get that in here?

27:49

How can we make that work? So I was working with I figured out kind of the avenues of who's ear to whisper in to get it to go in the right direction.

27:59

A lot of kind of making things happen and then going ta-da, and if they hated it it was like, oh, sorry, I won't do that again.

28:14

But if they loved it, like, oh, how can we make this a process?

28:17

So just being kind of a serial entrepreneur, the type of person who really has been super flexible in every career, has always had to shoot from the hip, has always had to kind of make things work.

28:34

Going into an environment that's very structured like that, you kind of shake things up.

28:41

So that's why people are always like okay, what is she doing now?

28:45

You know and what she thinks about what we get to do.

28:51

Yeah, and so you know I think, that in wholesale.

28:57

What a lot of event people don't realize is that, like you said, there's two types of florists and most most not Mayesh, but most other wholesalers that are large are catering to that either big box store like a Costco, or a grocery store or to a retail florist where they need those flowers to last 10 to 14 days in their cooler or they're losing their shirts Now interesting that you say big box, because I feel like over the past 10 years even you know, if you go to the Philadelphia Flower Show and you walk around and everything's beautiful and then you start to walk through the shop area, the ACME display is huge, yeah, so I feel like there's been a huge shift in the floral industry as to what's expected.

29:52

It's not this like forgotten little. Hey, here's three tubs we're going to throw a couple of things in and two of them are half dead.

29:58

But you know people buy it anyway. To now it's.

30:01

It is a floral shop embedded in many of the grocery stores.

30:06

Well, the evolution of the flower shop.

30:09

So, as things you know evolved, I said before you know, if you didn't have a flower shop, you're a basement betty.

30:16

I never, ever wanted a flower shop.

30:18

I only wanted to do events.

30:20

I never wanted to buy flowers every week just to throw some away or do whatever.

30:24

I wanted to truly curate the spoke, beautiful things for people, for homes, for venues, for weddings, for events or even just for every day.

30:35

But nonetheless I was never kind of that sort of 1-800-FTD kind of florist.

30:41

Those phone calls make me crazy.

30:45

Yeah, and there's nothing wrong with that, and I've come to love every type of flower and every style for its place.

30:51

So you know, everything does have its place and I feel that, like there was a period of time I am a flower snob.

31:01

I will openly admit that. I think we are, are we?

31:06

But in a different way now, because there was a time where certain flowers I was like oh, those are yucky funeral flowers, or those are this or those are that.

31:15

Now I've come to such a deep understanding of all the different flowers and how to truly create something different with them.

31:29

You know what I mean.

31:31

Like you can use a funny face mug of like here's your carnations and baby's breath, but different ways to still use those florals.

31:38

I mean, I think certain flowers are used very commonly because they hold up.

31:46

You've got a carnation, you've got a rose, you've got baby's breath.

31:49

You know they're standard because they hold up, because they can go through the different channels that it takes to get them from their starting point all the way to the end.

32:02

So I feel like when people understand the difference, that's where you can change some of the use.

32:10

The good news, though, is that when you truly understand and learn kind of the botany side and the horticulture side of florals, any flower can last Very few.

32:25

I mean, I've worked with Plumeria that I've had sent from Maui, that's my favorite so I used to have.

32:33

There was a Plumeria farm that I worked directly with and they would ship them in.

32:38

I was like the only person on the East Coast that worked with them.

32:41

They taught me exactly how to work with them, what to do with them and how to make them.

32:46

You know, because they have a shelf life of 48 hours.

32:50

It takes 48 hours for them to get to you from Hawaii, essentially.

32:54

So you buy double and you get to use about half and it gets sent to you in this big, huge, like Styrofoam container and there's dry ice and there's but not on it Dry ice.

33:10

It's a whole process because I can't get too cold, but they can't be too warm, but they can't be this and that.

33:16

So, yeah, there's a whole process behind it and they're amazing and they're wonderful, and you know the more.

33:23

For me it was like if somebody said, well, I was told that I can't have these, immediately I was like I must have those, like you know, it was like, okay, somebody says you can't have it, that means, okay, it's going to be difficult, but why?

33:41

Yeah, I'm like the eternal three or four year old where I'm like but why?

33:45

But how come? But why? So you know so I want to know how to make it work and even if it's only for the brides bouquet or a couple of special things, I want to make that happen for them, because flowers really are like a language and not an expression of somebody's thoughts, feelings.

34:05

You know emotions, those kind of things, and so you know if somebody's favorite flowers Plumeria, they should have that on their wedding day.

34:14

You know they should have, it is possible and actually there are now farms in Florida where you can get it, so it's not that difficult.

34:29

I would cry.

34:30

Oh my God, like wholesalers, do not sell them because you really there's a high risk, right.

34:38

But I can tell you, and like for my customers, that I have.

34:42

You know, I consider myself a resource, not just like I don't just take orders and go, okay, I can give you this, this is what we have.

34:51

Like DV has such a huge reach, I go okay, let me call out to the buyers, let me see what farms are selling this.

35:00

If you see something that you like, I'm like okay, who, where did you see that?

35:04

Where are you getting it? So I can kind of dig deeper and go okay, we should be able to get this and figure out a way to do it.

35:11

And I'd say, nine times out of 10, I'm pretty successful.

35:15

But it's because I'm pretty tenacious and I just don't stop.

35:19

You don't give up. No, I don't.

35:23

You have so many connections that you've built over time.

35:27

Yeah, I mean, I've been doing this since 1997.

35:30

So my pockets of resources are pretty deep.

35:35

They go pretty far back and I'm always, every day, still learning something new and different.

35:42

And if it's something that's like old, that's coming back, that like I've seen it but I'm not quite sure, like how to do something, I have friends and you know it doesn't matter how many times you've done different things, it's, you know, being open to thinking of it differently.

36:00

If I hear one more time about, well, I've been putting them in warm water for 30 years and it's always been fine.

36:09

Well, can you for five minutes, like kind of open your mind for just a minute and test both?

36:17

See, because that's what I did, like when I worked at a previous wholesaler like I heard you should smash the stems of stock because that will help them stay hydrated.

36:28

I heard from somewhere else, like, horticultureally, all you do when you smash them is it's just like a vein, you just smash the vascular system and it doesn't help anything, if anything that the plant is trying to heal.

36:46

Now that was the old saying with branches to you, smash the ends.

36:51

Now I will say, and I don't know why and I don't know the scientific reason, but I've tested it multiple times and if you smash the bottoms of stock it does uptake water better and the bottom florets that have a tendency on the darker ones, the lighter ones, to go fast, stay hydrated longer.

37:10

Okay, so you know we're going to be taking stock, smashing it Exactly.

37:15

I want you to.

37:16

I do, I want you to, because I mean, these are the kind of things that I did, like what works, what doesn't work, right, and you can have a couple of this and a couple of that and just buy an extra bunch just to see what it does.

37:30

That's like the peach specifically.

37:33

Like you know how the peach ones, the bottom ones, always kind of churn up really fast.

37:37

I don't know why, but it works.

37:42

We're going to start smashing some stock, yeah.

37:46

I'm not saying smash them to bits, I'm just saying the very bottom side of a you know hammer or something, and it works wonders.

37:54

So healthy debates and these kind of things, like within your studio, like creating your own kind of lab, is super important to keep things fresh, to keep things new, like to keep you learning, because you learn different things all the time.

38:10

And I will say too, flowers have changed so much in the last six years in how they get to us, how they're stored, what's happening with them.

38:23

So, processing them and having beautiful flowers at the end of the week or for the event or whatever the case may be, it's a totally different process.

38:36

Now you used to be able to.

38:38

They would get cut at the farm in Ecuador.

38:41

They would get right on a plane. They would fly to Miami.

38:44

They'd come straight up to us. We would have the staff and the wherewithal to put them in water and have them, you know, hydrated or partially hydrated.

38:55

Quite a bit of the product Now it's they get cut at the farm.

39:01

They may or may not have the staffing to get them to the hub, to the airport.

39:06

They may or may not stay in a cooler at the airport for an additional 24 to 48 hours.

39:11

Then they go onto a plane, then they go into the cooler again and then they may leave right away.

39:18

But they may not. So you're adding, even just in that initial process, 48 hours, that's two days of airlocked product.

39:28

Yes, it's in 34 degree coolers, yes, it's still being maintained as well as possible, but it's going to take them.

39:34

They're going to go to sleep. The respiration is going to decrease.

39:39

It's kind of like them being in a little bit of a coma and you've got to kind of breathe life back into them.

39:44

So people that have been doing flowers forever, that now it's like I can't just cut them, hydrate them for an hour and then design with them an hour later, are really frustrated because they're like these flowers are just dead.

39:59

They're not Give them a minute. Give them a minute to hydrate, you know, and revive.

40:05

So, like, as the industry changes, as the logistics change, as the world changes, we really need to constantly educate ourselves into what is the right processes or the best processes for how you know we can get them to that most big, beautiful, fluffy stage.

40:26

Do you think the changes that you see are from?

40:30

Is it what do you think it's from?

40:34

What do you I mean?

40:36

Is it different regulations for things out of country coming in?

40:41

So labor has been a huge challenge outside of the country and inside the country.

40:46

I'm sure everybody's heard people don't want to work.

40:53

Yeah, it's really hard to find good freelancers.

40:57

It's hard to find people that want to work in a shop.

41:00

It's hard to find people to work period right, everybody wants to like make money easy and fast and this job is hard work.

41:11

It is. You're either lugging buckets, flowers, things, chopping, bending, pulling, lifting.

41:17

It's a very physical job and sometimes in very hot conditions and sometimes in very cold conditions and so that within itself since COVID has been a huge challenge.

41:31

The other challenge has been literally flights, like when everything with COVID so a lot of the flowers traveled in the bellies of passenger flights.

41:44

Well, when there were no passenger flights, there were no bellies moving of the crafts, so it was taking longer to get there.

41:53

The prices skyrocketed because you weren't splitting the prices with the airfare of the customers.

41:59

So all of these things, prices increased.

42:03

People can't buy as much. So it's a chain reaction really of the world changing and how things work and fare wages and all those kind of things.

42:14

I mean people before were working for nothing.

42:16

So I'm glad in so many ways that people are getting a living wage, or at least close to one now in these other countries that we're getting nickels a day.

42:28

So I mean, in a way, I'm glad that it happened.

42:33

Does it make it more expensive and a little bit more challenging for us?

42:35

Yes, but if it makes the world a better place, I'm OK with it.

42:40

Yeah.

42:42

Yeah, absolutely. But yeah, I mean, it's really just it's the labor force, or the lack of, and then the expense that has tripled or quadrupled in making that happen.

42:57

So, ok, so it's four times more expensive.

43:00

So maybe they can hire as many people, because they'll go out of business.

43:05

So it takes a little bit longer for these things to happen.

43:08

So there's a million reasons. You know what I mean, like why they've changed.

43:12

But at the end of the day, what you said in the very beginning is the key to being successful in this industry, and it's being flexible.

43:20

When you have events say the following flowers inspire this look.

43:31

Some of these flowers, some of this look, may include some flowers in this design, may include blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and put all their favorite things in and the inspo picked flowers.

43:43

But as long as you are selling a look, a feel, a design, versus a flower, you will put yourself in a much better position.

43:55

There are a lot of people that have I tell people out to the farm and we have them walk through, Because I feel like the other side is people don't know all of the other things that there are.

44:07

People know roses, they know baby's breath, they know sunflowers, but when you start talking about Tweedia or you start talking about, a lot of them know, da hlias.

44:17

I am happy about that, thanks instagram.

44:19

and they know Peonies.

44:21

But when you start talking, about, but people don't know what they don't know.

44:24

No, and so, ultimately, the key to being successful with events and clients, and even just in a retail shop, is really letting, being the expert and then having them trust you as the expert when you talk to them about what emotions do you want people to feel when they come to your event?

44:47

How do you want it to feel? What do you want it to look like?

44:50

What kind of environment do you want to have?

44:52

Because really, all of this comes down to an emotion.

44:56

All of this is about how they make you feel and what type of an environment that it promotes, and so, if you are able to provide that environment, it really shouldn't matter what flowers you use, as long as it has that.

45:16

Somebody wants something to be gardeny and ethereal.

45:18

Somebody wants it to be Some people like a very English garden and compact.

45:22

Some people want it more European and what's more in style right now.

45:26

And I see other styles like the compact is even coming back where it's tighter bouquets and different things- and smaller.

45:35

We have a lot of petite this upcoming season.

45:39

All the little bottles are coming back like tablescapes, different things, where it's somewhat minimalist, but it's like a million of them.

45:48

So it's really not minimalist. It's a little counterintuitive there, but you get the idea.

45:57

But I think flexibility and understanding that going into this industry, that it's fluid, everything is fluid, it's trends and you can see floral trends in so many other things, like I will know what the next.

46:14

I knew when tropicals were coming back in full.

46:17

You know why? Because I saw monstera leaves on dresses.

46:20

Yep yeah, yep.

46:21

Other industries influence ours.

46:24

So I mean, five years ago did people really know what monstera leaves were?

46:28

No, now I don't know anybody that doesn't have one in their house or doesn't know what it is.

46:34

Or they say the big leaf with the cutouts, like it's just, they know what it is, it's recognizable, but five years ago people didn't know what that was.

46:43

No, they had no clue.

46:45

So other industries definitely influence ours and so you can see the trends Like right now the 80s and 90s are big.

46:52

So guess what 80s and 90s flowers are coming back, baby.

46:56

Like it's just the way it is.

46:59

So you better learn how to do that cascade, you better learn how to wire flowers, and all old things become new.

47:07

They'll have a slightly different twist, things like that.

47:10

So it's truly just kind of opening yourself up to everything is beautiful and everything can be beautiful.

47:19

You just have to really kind of let it be what it is, in the style that they want it to go, and just kind of really listening to the client whoever that is and again going back to the emotion of it.

47:38

What are you trying to create?

47:42

What kind of mood are you trying to create?

47:45

What kind of feelings do you want to evoke?

47:47

When you give this to a person, is it you want to remind them of someone, or remind them of a time, a place, and you want to recreate that?

47:56

There's so many things, but ultimately everyone is driven by emotion and so if you strike that chord with them that they feel it, they smell it, they see it, it doesn't matter what flower you use.

48:10

As long as they feel that same feeling, you're going to be fine.

48:14

So, basically, getting your client or your customer to trust you, that you're the expert and that you can recreate that feeling for them, is ultimately, at the end of the day, what your goal is, and a lot of people don't realize it's not so much about the flowers, the exact flower.

48:35

It's what they feel when they see it.

48:40

Yeah, it's the whole thing all together.

48:42

Yeah 100%, 100%, awesome, awesome.

48:47

I know I'm kind of rambling, so I apologize, you're not rambling at all.

48:52

No, we have learned and listened and it's just been amazing.

48:58

I love hearing you talk.

49:00

You're so sweet. You'll be back very soon.

49:04

Yeah, I mean, if you want to pick different topics, I know at DV we're going to be focusing on education a little bit more in 2024.

49:15

And I'm going to be doing some reels and some things for the Instagram feed for DV and stuff like that too.

49:21

So instructional things, mechanical things, but also just general education, oh my god.

49:28

It took me 20 minutes. Yesterday we bought vases that go on wedding tables.

49:36

They're very big glasses.

49:38

Trumpet vases.

49:40

Right, you said trumpet vases. I typed in and looked.

49:42

I included vases, tall vases, large vases.

49:45

Like I didn't put the trumpet in there, I knew all the names of the stands you should have just sent me an email.

49:52

What are these called? I would have told you this is what your salesperson is for.

49:58

Send me a picture and go. Oh my god, that is awesome.

50:02

What are you looking for?

50:04

Really Nice. I've seen you a lot of times.

50:07

You are calling and I'm like, colleen, you've got to help me figure this out.

50:09

I need to figure these things out. What do I do with this and how do I do that?

50:13

And your advice, your connection, you have been such a resource for us.

50:22

I can tell you how many times Lizzie will be like Mom, you need to figure this out.

50:26

And I'm like, ok, I'll figure it out.

50:29

And then I'm like I'm going to call you.

50:32

The thing is, I feel like another reason why I love working at Deviant and Wholesale is because, look, I learned all this stuff the really hard way and if I can impart any of that wisdom onto anybody else, I am psyched to share it, because I got all the bumps and the bruises, I got all the war scars and all that.

50:55

That's the other role. I'm like yeah.

50:59

So I want to share it so that way you don't have to deal with the hard way like, gladly, and my way may not be the way that somebody else does it, but there are so many things that simple, easy things Like I've given advice to people when I freelance or I'm talking to a customer and they're like yeah, and I've got this venue and I've got to fill up all these trumpet vases with water, and I'm like, ok, the best thing I can ever tell you to do when you have trumpet vases and you need to fill them with water, you need to get a gallon.

51:35

Two gallons of water. There's $0.63 at Walmart.

51:38

Figure out how many of those gallons go in.

51:41

And then you buy them and take them with you.

51:46

And put one at every table, because do you know how many years I spent running with pitchers from kitchen to table to kitchen to table for hours, when I could have spent $0.63 for a gallon of water and been done in 20 minutes?

52:04

Yeah, and you know it's clear, because sometimes some of that kitchen water ooh, you've got to let it run.

52:10

Oh yeah, not so much.

52:12

Let's just hope right. Yeah, a little cloudy or whatever, yeah for sure.

52:17

So, like so many things where it's just best practices or like that is genius, why did I not think of that?

52:26

You know what I mean. Like, why did I do that 300 times before I figured it out?

52:31

Yep, yeah, because the one venue that, the one time that said we don't give our people access to the kitchen.

52:37

So I went and bought the water and I'm like why have I not been doing this?

52:40

doing this.

52:43

Like I just paid somebody, literally brought somebody on site and paid them just to fill up things.

52:49

Yeah, for hours.

52:51

Yeah, not. We have been at venues filling the candle trios for the floating candles.

52:58

Where the water again we didn't have access to it, so we had to go around the back and we were filling at like a hose there.

53:05

That was probably two or three inches from the ground.

53:08

So I mean we were like and it was raining and we were drenched by the end of it.

53:13

Yeah, trust me, I've been there.

53:15

I've been there. Yeah, for sure.

53:18

So I would love to challenge you to come back with like maybe we just have a night where we talk about the craziest things that have happened, that I would love, so like, oh yeah, oh, I can, off the top of my head, I will say the one thing that's it.

53:37

Is so for a while, when you know, things were really like I was doing all kinds of really cool venues and doing like a library theme where I was like making like an open book and arrangement and things like that and stacks of books like and they would provide me with like vessels and things like that, and I was told that these mercury glass vessels were waterproof.

54:03

I made all of the arrangements in them.

54:06

They were not waterproof and the Silver lifted from the sides.

54:14

So the arrangements were all done.

54:17

Everything was in the cooler. I went to go the next morning and I was like, oh, whatever the waterline was from, the waterline down was no silver.

54:29

Oh man, it lifted off because it was like foil on the inside, because the customer purchased them at like Marshalls or something and they were intended for candles, yeah, and they had removed every sticker from everything that says do not use with water.

54:47

So look at all.

54:49

That was redesigning an entire wedding at Grace Winery, which is a beautiful venue where I was doing everything.

55:00

Everywhere. I was holding arrangements up, dumping the water out and like blow drying the insides to try to get the foil back to them.

55:11

Like I mean insanity.

55:14

Yeah.

55:15

Like at six AM the morning of a wedding, when I think I'm just like gonna check on it and then come back at like 11 to load up.

55:23

But I'm like let me just check a couple things, do a couple of things, go back, you know, woo.

55:30

Yeah, there's a million things like that, that were like oh my gosh, so yeah.

55:37

Awesome. Well, this has been absolutely phenomenal, yeah, phenomenal, phenomenal yeah.

55:43

I feel like I don't know if I covered what you wanted to cover.

55:46

Yeah, oh my gosh, you did Perfect. We'll have a list of questions the next time we call you.

55:51

I don't know Anytime. Like I mean, I'm happy to do it.

55:54

People get sick of hearing me, but I'm happy to do it.

55:58

I'm not gonna.

55:59

Never.

56:00

So my question for you, last one, is if you were a flower, what would you be?

56:07

So I was thinking about this cause you told me you were gonna ask me this, I know.

56:11

So I go back and forth between two Interesting.

56:15

So I love so many flowers for so many different reasons.

56:20

It's kind of like somebody's like if you got married again, what would your flowers look like?

56:25

I'm like I don't know how it would pick, cause there's so many different looks.

56:28

I'm like I would need to do a different look in every room or something Like.

56:32

I don't know, I love so many but I want to say, tried and true, there are two flowers so I love.

56:39

Fat flowers is what I call them, like anything that is like as big as your face and like just super fragrant.

56:48

I just love big, fluffy, fluffy fat flowers.

56:51

So for that reason, garden roses have always been one of my favorites and actually when David Austin started selling cut flowers, I was one of their on the East coast.

57:04

I was one of three people who were certified to sell their flowers and they only sold them from Texas to certified David Austin dealers and they didn't sell them at wholesalers yet.

57:16

So I used to order them from a salesperson at David Austin and they would come into Philly at Southwest Airlines.

57:22

I would pick them up, take them and do all this stuff.

57:25

So tried and true, garden roses every type, spray garden, all different types of garden.

57:31

I just love, love, love them. They're just so intricate, so beautiful and I think they're really truly timeless.

57:37

And Dahlia's, yeah, when I worked at Longwood I was in charge of all the flower shows and the National Dahlia show at oh wait, you know what?

57:51

I have a bag right here what year was that? The Greater Philadelphia National Dahlia Society at their flower show in Philly, one of the years that I was doing it, and the Dahlia's that I saw that were like unbelievable and they're so intricate and beautiful and the shades and the tones it's like makes you like believe in.

58:18

Like the colors are tipped in there just.

58:21

It's just magical. Is there truly magical?

58:24

And the beauty is like okay, how does this even naturally exist?

58:29

Like are you kidding me? Like there's definitely a higher power somewhere creating this stuff, because this doesn't happen by accident, right?

58:38

Yeah, I can know so you know, and but like I'll say you know, sometimes Camemiel or Daisy's my favorite flower, like, or Cosmo, because they're so simple and delicate and beautiful.

58:51

But I think truly a favorite flower is gonna be those two.

58:54

Yeah, probably a garden rose, just because it's classic, yeah, and there are some that have one or two petals, there are some that have a thousand petals, but they always smell just amazing and just it transports you.

59:10

They really do transport you to another place and they elevate your mood and they just you can't have a bad day when you can like I have two boroughs here in my office right now and all day I've been like and when I took them home from work yesterday one of the head of the buyers, he was like oh, your house is gonna stink.

59:33

And I was like stink, I love it.

59:35

I was like, are you kidding me? Like Oriental Lilies, people used to be like oh, they smell like a funeral, like I was in an office once and the CEO came in at 6 am and I had like had put these big.

59:49

They were all called like Casablanca Lilies before, but now they're hybrid and they're all different ones, but back in the like late 90s, early 2000s, it pretty much was all Casablancas.

1:00:01

They had even a stronger scent than the ones are now and it was stunning and it was beautiful.

1:00:07

And I did blue and white Delphinium and it was just really pretty and I had bent down because I guess there was some Delphinium petals that had fallen and I was picking them up off the floor and the CEO walks in.

1:00:20

He thinks he's in the office by himself and he goes holy shit, it smells like a funeral in here.

1:00:28

Oh, my God.

1:00:30

I stood up and he was like oh, and I said that's okay, everybody has their own you know feeling about the different scents.

1:00:43

I said personally, I think it smells like a spring day in here and he was like you know what he goes, you're right.

1:00:51

He was like thank you for reminding me of that.

1:00:54

And then one of my friends who actually worked for that company there was some like big, you know perception email that was sent out that day about remembering that perception is reality and that you know how you look at things can really change things.

1:01:14

So it was actually. I was kind of, so I mean it's just amazing, you know how.

1:01:20

But yeah, so I mean I have a thousand funny stories like that.

1:01:23

No, I'm like in my overalls and I stand up and I'm like hi, hi.

1:01:30

Hi Hi.

1:01:30

He's like uh, uh. He's like thank you.

1:01:34

Well, next time we're gonna ask you all about your funny stories, all the things you've run into and how you fixed them.

1:01:39

Yeah, but for right now I'm gonna close this with our normal spiel.

1:01:42

So thank you for listening again, Colleen.

1:01:45

We majorly appreciate you.

1:01:48

So we were so excited all day.

1:01:50

Yeah, you guys are so cute.

1:01:52

Yeah, oh, I love this.

1:01:55

I love talking about flowers, and I feel like way too much of this was about me, so I'm just like like that's what it was about.

1:02:01

I'm kind of like stuff. You can stream our podcast anywhere you find your podcast Spotify, apple Podcasts.

1:02:07

We can be found on Facebook and Instagram under the flower files or under Wildly Native Flower Farm, and you can find us on Patreon with some special episodes there, and you can find us on the website at wildlynativeflowerfarm.

1:02:21

com. But we will talk to you next week, guys.

1:02:23

Bye, thank you for listening.