It's a solid question, why do flowers cost so much? Like many, the cut flower industry has seen substantial increases in pricing over the last few years. We’ve been flowering since 2015 and have seen nothing quite like it in our time. It’s been a game of pivoting and persevering for florists across the country, constantly shocked at the wholesale price of flowers compared to just a short time ago. It’s scary stuff….
How are we managing it?
We absorbed the cost for a long time, hoping it was a result of Covid and that prices would settle in time. Sadly we had the realisation that wasn’t the case and if we kept it up, we wouldn’t be around for the years to come. Instead of just increasing prices, we have decided to regularly assess and change our recipes so that they contain more Australian grown flowers and more exciting product.
What does this mean for our customers?
It means more beautiful, interesting and quality blooms in your arrangements. We’ll be aiming for the perfect middle ground between size and value. Our mission for 2024 is to educate, inform and inspire and to try and shift the focus of where we see value in blooms. Sometimes the smallest flower can cost the most, but if we can appreciate each flower for what it is, we can start to see that biggest isn’t always best. As it becomes more challenging to source quality fresh flowers, we don’t want to be restricted by what we can use because of the price. We are artists and flowers are our medium and we want to share that joy with you. Gone are the days where we can fill our trolleys with ‘cheap’ flowers that still look lovely. By focusing on value, rather than filling our bouquets with product just to make them as big as possible, we can be confident that you are sending and receiving the most beautiful flowers we are capable of producing.
People cost money
Our people are valuable. We firmly believe that our team of florists deserve to be paid a fair wage for the work that they do. They bring so much creativity and passion to work every day and they work hard, real hard. Floristry isn’t all sunshine and daisies – there’s super early mornings, lot of heavy lifting and you’re on your feet all day. By focusing on the value of your bouquet, rather than how big it is, you can also begin to appreciate the skill required to create it. We might make it look easy, but years of experience and hundreds, if not thousands of bouquets make it second nature to us.
Flowers are pretty, pretty needy
We love them, but man they need a lot of attention! Every single flower that comes into our studio each day is touched by us, literally. Each stem is stripped of its foliage, cut and stored. We’re talking about hundreds of individual flowers every day. This is all factored into the cost of the end product.
And then there's the rest...
If you have ever run a business, you won’t have any trouble understanding this part. The costs, oh the costs. It costs us over a million dollars a year just to exist. Cost of goods, wages, software, equipment, vehicles, rent, repairs and maintenance, website development and management, taxes – the list goes on. As a business owner, my days consists of lots of numbers and spreadsheets, data analysis and projections. All of this is necessary to ensure we keep enough cash flow aside to weather through any upcoming storms, much like the current one we are facing now.
We know it’s tough for many humans at the moment and we truly appreciate every single Customer and order that comes our way. We’ve recently added AfterPay and ZipPay to our retail and online stores to offer some flexibility with payment. Thank you so much for continuing to support our Small business, we wouldn’t be here without you. Keep smiling and dancing, and most importantly, make sure to stop and smell the flowers.