After closing out one of the craziest years of most of our lives, I thought it fitting to share a few secrets from behind the scenes of your local flower shop in Edwardsville, IL. Most might not come as shocking little details, but some might surprise you. All are items we really, REALLY want you to know! So sit back and relax; while we welcome you into our world for a bit.
*MYTH: We play with flowers all day . . . I know, I know we all look so glamorous all the time that it's hard to believe we do any real "work". Actually, we do a lot of it! Flowers take a lot of care and handling before they are even ready to use for design work. We pick them up from our local wholesaler in heavy boxes. (Yes, that's why my muscles are so toned! :) Next we unpackage, unwrap, inventory, check for damage, strip foliage/thorns, cut, put in water and finally into the cooler they go. It's quite a process and VERY necessary to ensure the highest quality and longest life out of every bloom. Let me tell you the best roses (especially red roses) have the most thorns!
*MYTH: We only use pruning shears and dull knives . . . Learning to use a florist knife (which should be VERY sharp) is actually quite the training process. It took me a week to feel comfortable with the movement necessary to make a perfect angled cut on every stem, every time. It's a weird movement for most because you are actually cutting towards yourself and we are told our whole lives to always cut away. Leave it up to florists to develop a cutting method that is against everything you naturally know!
*MYTH: Florists have ample design training and are certified. . . Actually anyone can claim to be a floral designer. This can be very discouraging to those of us that are certified and fully trained in design and business procedures. It waters down the industry and can leave customers distrustful of our abilities. I am actually a Certified Floral Designer (CFD) and an Illinois Certified Professional Florist (ICPF). Both of these certifications included classroom and hands on design training. I have taken written exams and timed design evaluations. I have devoted hours, and hours as well as tuition to receive these designations. Now that I have them, I'm required to complete continuing education units each year as well. I LOVE education! Staying up to date on the newest design trends and flower handling information is so very important to me and what makes Goff & Dittman Florists not your average flower shop.
*MYTH: Your floral delivery is the only one that day. . . Well we treat every gift delivery like it's the only one, but it's simply not the only one. On an average day, one delivery driver will do upwards of 30 deliveries. On a holiday, we bring in multiple drivers and will do over 100+ in one day! That can be for multiple days at a time. So you can see that the logistics of scheduling, routing, taking pictures of each order, wrapping (when it's cold out), loading and physically delivering requires a separate division of our flower shop. Funeral deliveries are always timed according to service details, so many days our routes will be determined by those events. We promise that we are ALWAYS running the most efficient routes (and our POS mapping system tells us that) to ensure timely deliveries for everyone. Please understand that because of order volume there is just no way to have all the deliveries done before noon. We work very hard to get them all done during 9-5 business hours for everyone!
Well this is barely scratching the surface of everything I can share with you from behind the scenes. I may need to start a series for our readers, so look for more articles soon!
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