Do-it-Yourself

Have you ever dreamed of a wedding surrounded with thousands of flowers? Well, it has never been easier; all you need is a little imagination and our astonishing farm direct flowers… I am talking about do-it-yourself arrangements.

The first step is to choose the wedding colors this will help you find the flowers that will coordinate and complement your wedding attire.

Useful Hint: Always choose flowers in various sizes and shapes. You want shapes that are different yet still complement each other.
This same principle applies to color. A simple round bouquet can be used for a bridal bouquet or a bridesmaid bouquet.

Choose larger flowers for your bouquet like roses, lilies and carnations. Make sure you order plenty; you can always use the extra flowers for corsages, the toss away bouquet, boutonnieres, etc. Make sure to include greenery and fillers not only are they part of your bouquet’s background but also they come handy to fill in the gaps and your bouquet will appear full.

Always have plenty of ribbon, lace or beads as well as a hot glue gun and/or glue sticks to attach the ribbons and floral wire. You will need a bouquet holder for each bouquet you will make, as well as a stand to place your bouquet while you are arranging the flowers.

First place your bouquet holder in the stand. Place the flowers against the holder and visualize how you want to put the flowers. Place the flowers next to each other and see how they look together. Start cutting your flower stems off the bushes. Start at six inches. It is better to cut them too long than too short.

Now proceed to place four of the main flowers you have chosen for your bouquet, place them along the outer edges of the holder, also place the greenery behind each of these flowers (like a cross shape), take one large flower and place it in the middle of the holder, right in the center.

Now you can decide which flowers to use next. Keep using your main flowers and arrange them around the center into a square, they should form an angle toward the four cross flowers and a bit below the center flower. It should look like a three- layered bouquet. Keep filling around the layers by placing them on top of the first four flowers of the cross. Cut them a little shorter and make sure they are not covering the first layer. You can also add ribbon or beads around the holder.

These simple steps on how to make your own bouquets and floral arrangements will save you money on your wedding. It just take the right flowers and your imagination…

Farm Direct: Too many advertise it…. Few are able to prove it

In the flowers business as well as in other type of business, there are thousands of producers, marketers and specialized stores offering to deliver the best product to their customers.

There are several marketing strategies used to reach the final consumer, some of the following are among the most used ones:

• The freshest product in the market
• The most inexpensive one
• The best quality
• The most beautiful flowers
• The largest variety
• Next day – delivery
• We satisfy every one of your needs
• Free-shipping
• No additional charges

Videos and instructions for flower care and handling. There are many arguments used to increase the sales and benefit our companies, but few of us are really concerned about the quality of the product we are promoting and selling.

Unfortunately, due to the size of the market the general criteria among companies is that it is not important to loose a customer even if the product did not satisfy the customer’s requirements affecting the confidence and credibility of the general and final consumer who wants to purchase flowers but feels disappointed since he/she is not getting what was promised through the advertisement, it gets worse when it comes to buying on-line.

We at RoseSource -as well as many other professional companies- use some of the same marketing strategies to reach our customers, but what differentiates us from the others is our daily goal THE CUSTOMER’S SATISFACTION THROUGH OUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES. This statement barely mentioned in the marketing strategies reflects our staff’s commitment with the customers allowing us to steadily grow and consolidate within the flower market.

It is not our intention to be identified as a big company - what eventually would mean important commercial recognition - but as a company that is not looking to grow at our customer’s expense. We are capable to demonstrate that we are a Farm-Direct company.

We have realized that thanks to our positioning in the United States and Ecuador one of our strongholds is the ability to work every order from the FINAL customer directly with each of our associated farms. What does this mean? Let’s explain in more detail:

The above chart clearly explains that the time the flower travels is much less, this implies great advantages for the product and our customers, such as:

• No hydration issues whatsoever since the traveling time of the flower decreases substantially.
• We greatly diminish changes in the flower’s temperature preventing the flower to be impacted by the current weather at the different stops.
• We avoid the unnecessary handling of the flower and the subsequent damages resulting from the excessive stops and moving of the boxes by the carrier.
• We certify that the flowers are transported from our farms to straight to our customer's hands. The labels in our boxes are the warranty of the true and real origin of our flowers. Along with FedEx we are the pioneers in developing and implementing this program from Ecuador.

Those who are involved in the flower business know that the first two statements above warranty the quality and base life of the flower.

RoseSource.com recognizes the efforts made by other companies to provide good quality products. Our intention with this Editorial is to reassure our customers that our daily goal is to fully satisfy their floral needs, and that our business principle is no different from what we advertise: we are a 100% Farm Direct Company.

This differentiates us from a large amount of companies that present themselves as Farm Direct but in reality are parts of a commercialization chain.

We will continue illustrating our consumers in several flower related topics that we hope would be of great interest.

Rafael Pacheco

General Manager – South America

rafael@rosesource.com

Getting Married? Choose the Right Flowers

The most astonishing and gorgeous flowers can create a stunning ambiance at your wedding ceremony. When it comes to choosing the right flowers for your bouquet you have to consider what type of wedding will fit accordingly to your style… are you a glamorous bride, bohemian bride or a classic bride.

Provide our flower experts with information about the bridal party attire to match the colors, as well as the color of the gowns to be worn by the mothers of both the bride and the groom, these helpful hints will allow us to captivate the attention of your guests with unique and innovative designs.

Always remember, don’t choose flowers that could overwhelm your figure. Petite women should select smaller bouquets whereas taller women can select bigger and more robust bouquets

It is very important to figure out a color theme for your wedding, but be very careful to choose from those colors that will complement but not contrast with the color of the bridesmaid dresses. Rich ambers, oranges and reds complement fall weddings, while silver, gold and cranberry suit winter affairs perfectly. Pale pink, blue and green work well for spring weddings, and rich beach colors or citrus shades work well for summer soirees.

If you're celebrating your wedding in a small space, select flowers with less fragrance such as orchids, dahlias, stay away from gardenias or freesias.

Depending on the colors you chose, many of the floral arrangements used at the ceremony (Altar flowers) can be reused for your reception décor.

How to: Make your arrangement last longer.

The questions people ask the most when purchasing flowers are "How do I take care of them?" and "How long will they last?" A little extra care can mean a big difference. The base life of most floral arrangements is from 4 to 7 days depending on the types of flowers and the care they've received.

What to do?

1. Always make sure you are buying your flowers from a reputable source.

2. Make sure that flowers are well wrapped for protection. If for some reason you cannot put the flowers in water immediately, keep them in a cool place and away from direct sunlight.

3. Cut the stems at an angle, remove the excessive foliage and avoid the leaves to fall into the water to prevent bacteria formation. This provides a bigger area for the stems to take up more water.

4. Use lukewarm water. Flowers open up better since lukewarm water contains less oxygen avoiding the formation of bubbles in the stem that may block water intake. Tulips and other spring bulbs can be placed in cold water. Make sure you are using clean vases, remember that bacteria kills the flowers.

5. Ask about flower food. If not available use a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of sugar and a teaspoon of white vinegar. This will help the flowers to feed properly and the buds to open. Flower food also keeps bacteria at bay and lengthens the life of flowers (bacteria blocks the stem and prevents the water uptake).

What not to do?

1. Do not put flowers near ripening fruit since the ethylene gas released ages the flowers prematurely. Dying flowers also release tiny amounts of ethylene gas, remove them from the vase.

2. Do not pierce the stems or use blunt scissors as this will inhibit the water intake by destroying the flower's water vessels causing bacteria and stressing the flower.

3. Do not add aspirin, bleach or copper coins into the water, they don't work and they do more harm than good to the flower.

4. Do not place flowers on bright sunlight as this will allow bacteria to grow. Keep them away from central heating.