Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Flowers That Last Longer are not from the Grocery Store

Nothing is more beautiful than walking into a grocery store or other large retailer and immediately seeing the plethora of beautiful colors of different varieties of blossoms and flowers. It is a great impulse sale, and makes all the guys look good coming home with groceries and flowers. But have you ever wonder why those flowers don't last as long as you think they should? Being placed directly at the front entrance exposes the flowers to weather conditions. It doesn't take very long for a poinsettia to wilt in severely cold weather. It doesn't take long for an Easter Lily to blow open in warm weather. Placing these plants at the front entrance increases the chance that they will be damaged by the weather. Also notice that each bunch of flowers is wrapped in cellophane. After a while the cellophane will suffocate the flowers and they will eventually grow mold. How likely is an employee (especially one who could have been working as a bagger the previous day) to recognize the signs of mold starting to form on the flowers? Check each stem in these bunches, and look to see if they still have their naturally grown foliage. It is important to remove this foliage or else the water that travels through the stem will nourish the foliage instead of the blossom, which will make it harder for the flower to bloom. Another reason these flowers don't last is because they are never refrigerated. Most grocery stores I walk into have hundreds of stems of flowers sitting out for all to see- but at the end of the day they continue to sit out, all day, through the night, through the next day and so on. If they were stored in a 40 degree environment, the wilting process would be decreased immensely. How often do you think each bucket that is used to store the flowers is cleaned. Once a month, a few times a year? Your guess is as good as mine but, once a week should be the answer. If those buckets are not properly cleaned bacteria will grow, and in turn will contaminate the flowers. At an independent floral retailer (like Kirkwood Florist) the buckets are carefully and thoroughly cleaned. Most importantly, someone hand selects each flower that is sold in the store. They see each bunch, view and hand examine each flower in person, as opposed to sitting at a desk and ordering them directly from a farm not knowing what the product looks like. The grocery store may not know what they're getting, in turn, neither will you. Come into Kirkwood Florist soon and let us take care of you.