Flower Prices - Everyday, Weddings, Events

We know how hard it is to plan when no one wants to share their prices, you've never planned a wedding before, and every little thing adds up, so here are some general guidelines. The majority of Sprout events fall within these guidelines, but not every event is typical and depending on your needs, the price of your flowers may vary.


EVERYDAY FLOWERS
· Wrapped bouquets—$10 and up
· Arranged flowers—$35 and up
· Funeral flowers—$75 and up

WEDDING PARTY
· Bride's bouquet—$125—300
· Maids' bouquets—$65—150
· Flower girls—$25—60
· Boutonnieres—$10—20
· Corsages—$15—50

WEDDING CEREMONY
· Large altar flowers—$100 and up
· Floral arbor—$250 and up
· Pew bows—$10 and up

RECEPTION, DINNER, OR PARTY
· Centerpieces—$35 and up
· Pedestal centerpieces—$100 & up
· Cake flowers—$50 and up
· Buffet or food stations—$75 & up
· Cocktail tables—$10 and up
· Votive candles (10 hour burn time) - $2.00

Delivery additional.

New Feature - Ask Sprout!

Introducing a new feature here - Ask Sprout!

Does anyone remember the Shell Answer Man from the 70's? (I know, I'm old...!) Some days I feel like the flower girl version of the Shell Answer Man. I thought it might be helpful for folks to have an "official" place to go with their flower questions, so here it is.

Ask me your flower questions via asksprout@gmail.com and I'll answer the most interesting ones in the blog the first week of every month. Ask me lots of questions and I'll answer them more often!

What's the right way to cut flowers, what's in season in September, do waterlilies come in blue, what flowers go with your green and coral color scheme? I'll do my best to give you the answers!

Send your flower questions to: asksprout@gmail.com

Floral Design 101: Tools

The first installment in a series of posts on floral design.

First up - TOOLS. From left to right in the photo are a serrated knife, anvil pruners, and Japanese style scissors. These are my personal top tools of choice. The ones that work for you may be different, but a basic tool set would have a knife, pruner, and scissors. The most critical qualities? Your tools should be sharp and fit your hand. Dull tools make for poor cuts and a smaller hand needs smaller tools.

Knife - My preference is for this serrated knife. I'm a lefty and I've tried using those florist's pocket knives, but they just don't cut for me. I always felt like I was using something dull until I discovered these. It's a serrated paring knife by Victorinox, the Swiss army knife makers. LOVE this knife! It's the perfect tool for cutting those mushy stems like callas, or chunky stems like gladiolas, or for putting a taper on a wide stems like a sunflower.

Pruners - I use a half inch anvil pruner. Reasonably priced ones can be hard to find, so I tend to scoop up as many as I can when I do find them. You need pruners for tough, woody stems like foliage branches, or shrubby stuff like lilacs.

Most folks are perfectly happy with by-pass pruners (which are more widely available). Again, as a lefty, I just can't get a by-pass pruner to cut for me - the stems tend to twist and get smashed. A lot of experts will tell you not to use an anvil pruner as it makes a crushing cut, which injures the vascular tissue of your flower stems, and I'd buy that if my arrangements didn't last just as long as those made with by-pass pruners. Use what works for you. Keep them sharp.

Scissors - I'm very partial to these Japanese style scissors with the wide handles and short blades. These are by Joyce Chen and are marketed as cooking scissors. I've tried using the more classic iron Japanese gardening scissors, and while they might suit my aesthetics for a pretty tool, I find them heavy and uncomfortable. The Joyce Chens have a soft plastic handle and are much lighter weight which feels better in my hand. The short blades are just right for cutting most flower stems.

I'm sure you want to know if I use lefty scissors! Nope - my mom made me learn to use righty scissors when I first picked up a pair. She figured they wouldn't have lefty ones in school, so I needed to learn to use what was available. Mom turned out to be wrong on that front, but thanks to her I can design with two hands - left hand armed with pruners while the right one holds scissors!

Repeat the tool mantra - My tools are sharp and fit my hand.

Sprout Takes a Holiday!

Sprout is on vacation until January 6, 2009. Hope to get some much needed paperwork done (I always say that, but it always needs doing!) and some cleaning around the shop, so you might see me poking around in there. There are some things that just never get done when the shop is open.

I also hope to make some additional blog posts and do some planning for the new year. We have Flora in Winter coming up in 6 weeks and we need to come up with something really clever for this year's bathroom displays. I also need to work on my plan for my Flora demonstration. My subject is "Turning Over a New Leaf - thoughts on green floral design". I hope people are signing up for this over at the Worcester Art Museum. My sensitive artist's ego would like a sell out crowd! The museum is even giving you a boxed lunch with the demo people - such a deal!

That's all my ramblings for now...

Happy holidays to all and see you in 2009!

Fresh From the Flower Market

Spicy red ginger with 'Jester' leucodendron...

...couldn't pass up this uber gaudy sparkle painted ruscus!

Very fragrant 'Caroline Tensen' white lilies...

...and gerbera in cranberry and magenta.

In addition, we also have this week:

double lisianthus - purple
bells of Ireland
roses - red and white
French tulips - red
red mokara orchids
dendrobium orchids - white, green, and 2 shades of purple
amaryllis - red and white with cranberry edge
red hypericum berries
red tulips
curly pine - Australia
stock - California, white and magenta
kale - purple, Holland
godetia - white and magenta
phlox - white, Israel
hybrid delphinium - 2 shades of blue
alstroemeria - cranberry and eggplant
aster novi belgii
campanula - lilac
hypericum - burgundy
liatris
hybrid pink oriental lily
large mums - white
'Athos' poms - lime green
pom - 2 tone white with green anemone style
light green spiders
carolina sapphire juniper

Flowers at Home - Candy Cane Carnations!

I need an old fashioned Christmas - candy canes, peppermint puffs, and carnations! I wanted something sweet and simple for my dining room table this year so I filled apothecary jars with peppermint sweets and made a complimentary bonbon of carnations.

I know carnations are supposed to be the verboten, unloved flower. My customers won't buy them, they give us special instructions to not use them, so we don't even carry them. But how can anyone not love them when they're used en masse like this? This novelty variety has a great spicy fragrance and will last about 2 weeks.

They make me pretty happy!

Flowers at Home - Oh Christmas Tree!

Francoise said I should blog about my Christmas tree, since what I did this year to set it up is a little different.

I've had this vision for a couple Christmases that I would like to do the tree in a tall pot, instead of the usual tree stand. This year, we had a pot in the shop that seemed like it would work, so I gave it a go.

The kid at the tree farm was more than agreeable when I told him I wanted about 3 feet of naked trunk at the bottom, didn't even question me, unlike Husband who was rolling his eyes a lot at the whole concept, but knows to indulge me when I get something in my head!

Husband was also less than thrilled with lugging 100 lbs. of rocks from the garden center up to our third floor apartment. Can't say I blame him, but how else was I going to anchor the tree in the pot? I thought about using soil or sand, but rocks seemed heavier and less shifting.

I'll tell you, the idea of scooping rocks into the pot around the trunk and later out of the pot when the holidays are over was less than thrilling as well. So we brainstormed that we needed some kind of water permeable bag or sack to put them in. Something cheap. That we could toss out after. Thought of tube socks so we hightailed it to the dollar store to look for cheap socks. We found a better solution there - nylon mesh tote bags in the laundry section of the store.

So we transferred the rocks to 8 nylon mesh bags and dropped those in around the tree trunk. Seems pretty stable. BUT, after having a tree crash on me last year, I still anchored the tree with wire to a cup hook in a stud. I am NOT chancing that again!

I should mention that fewer branches below leaves more room for gifts, plus no more crawling on my belly to water the thing!

Now, how do we remove the tree without getting rocks and water all over since it nearly hits the ceiling?!

More to follow, after the holidays...!

Fresh From the Flower Market

We still have some gorgeous amaryllis plants left. Most all are showing color to enjoy for Christmas with at least one other bloom spike yet to flower, to enjoy after Christmas.

A selection of flowers in jewel tones - ginger, hydrangea, amaranthus, delphinium.

As always, we have an abundance of interesting greens - fresh stems of magnolia and bunches of pseudotsuga from Holland.

In addition, we also have this week:

variegated boxwood
carolina sapphire juniper
aster novi belgii
campanula - white and lavender
dendrobium orchids - white and purple
psiticorum
hypericum - red and green
burgundy mokara orchids
burgundy peonies
poms - white and green
roses - "Flash Baccara"
green spider mums
'Jade' trachellium
aralia
bells of Ireland
lime dracena
ginger - pink and red
curly pine - Australia
'Ivanhoe' grevillea - California
roses - yellow
freesia - white and red - red smells amazing!
hyacinth - pink
hydrangea - variegated purple and pink, New Zealand
lysimachia
'Bluebell' eryngium - thistle
hybrid dephinium - California
yellow kangaroo paw
matsumoto aster - white
godetia - white, California
Australian pine
leucodendron - novelty green, California
dark green spiders
aranthera red orchids
hanging amaranthus - burgundy, California
leucodendron - red
double lisianthus - purple white two tone
anemone
tuberose

Cookies!

Mmmmm!!!

Managed to get some holiday baking done since without power it was too cold and dark to work. :-)

Power is back on at the shop, so we should be all set for a busy day tomorrow.

No Power = No Flowers

Blogging from home as an ice storm has left the shop without power. It must have gone out a while ago, since it was 54 degrees F when I got in.

We tried to call all of our customers who had orders in for today to let them know about our situation. We can't see, and even if we could, we can't feel our fingers to design! One woman cried - a tree had fallen on her house. Two others couldn't be reached as their phones were taken out by the storm.

Most of our flowers should be OK as long as the temperature doesn't get below 35 degrees. The poinsettias, on the other hand, will not be too happy if it goes below 50. As a transplant from Mexico, ice storm is not in their vocabulary.

Guess I'll be home baking cookies today!

Wedding Consultations

Sprout is currently booking appointments for wedding consultations in the months of January and February. We find ourselves too busy from Thanksgiving to New Years to be able to accommodate consultations.

If you are worried about "losing your date", we will, of course, accept a deposit to hold your wedding date for you.

A couple thoughts on wedding consultations...

There are two critical pieces of information your florist needs to in order to have a productive wedding consultation.

Color Scheme:
It seems obvious, but it's nearly impossible to talk about any specifics regarding flowers without a color scheme. This usually means the bridesmaids dresses need to have been purchased since that is where the color theme starts most of the time.

Any conversations about flowers that are had without a color scheme chosen, usually turn out to be rather vague and not very helpful to the bride or the florist.

A suggestion - get those maids dresses and then pick up some paint chips at the hardware store and play around with them against your fabric swatch. A simple way to see what your color options are! I can find numerous color combinations in flowers for every dress, so this helps to narrow it down before your meeting.

Budget:
I can't stress enough how important it is to have some idea of your flower budget before you meet with your florist. It wastes your time and the florist's if you come in without a budget. Why spend time talking about your fantasy of a room full of tall centerpieces if your budget can't accommodate that?

I know you're saying right now, you've never planned a wedding before, how are you supposed to know what it costs? There are plenty of places to look on line for average wedding costs, although average varies regionally with the Northeast being more expensive than other parts of the country.

Any florist you're interested in should be willing to share, even if only verbally over the phone, what some of their average prices are for a wedding. Even price ranges for certain items can be helpful for your planning. (Look for a future post on Sprout's wedding prices! But we can mail you something right now with our prices if you call.)

Try this to figure out what your flower budget is: Take a random dollar figure for your centerpieces, say the amount of money you would spend on flowers to really impress someone who did you a huge favor. $50? $100? $200? Multiply it by the number of centerpieces. Now double that amount to allow for bouquets, boutonnieres, corsages, and church flowers. Does that total freak you out?! No, then you have your budget, yes, then you need to rework the numbers till you don't freak out!

Hope this helps those who are in the planning stages!

Fresh From the Market

Went heavy on the holiday red and white this week...look at those monster red heliconia! You could hurt someone with one of those. ;-)

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas...

...and a red one too!

This week from the flower market we have:

red roses 'Forever young' and 'Black Magic'
red ginger
gerbera - yes, red!
'Ivanhoe' grevillea
hydrangea - white
red hypericum
green hypericum
ornithagalum chincherinchee - 'Star of Bethlehem'
waxflower
purple kale - Holland
gold sparkle leucodendron - Holland
white and purple campanula - Holland
stock - white and purple, California
light green spider mums
white veronica - Holland
white peony
delphinium - dark and light blues, California
silver tinted eucalyptus - France
hydrangea - lavender, shocking blue
psiticorum
tiger tail orchids
mokara orchids
aranthera orchids
anemone
kochia
gold painted birch - France
tulip - Xmas colors
baby green hydrangea
heather
'Athos' poms
'Vendela' rose - creamy white
dendrobium orchids - white and purple
amaryllis - red and two toned red and white
white callas
ornithagalum arabicum
'Jade' trachellium
bells of Ireland
lisianthus - pink
hybrid lily - white and pink
alstroemeria
white freesia
white delistar mums
cremons - white
Port Orford cedar
Carolina sapphire juniper
magnolia foliage
rainbow asters - cherry and purple
kangaroo paw - yellow
red mokara orchids
phlox - white
pink roses

Poinsettias

Poinsettias are native to Mexico. It was the first United States ambassador to Mexico, Joel Roberts Poinsett, who introduced the plant to the US in the 1820's, and after whom the common name was given.

The poinsettia is a euphorbia species, which have a milky sap which some people are allergic to, myself included. Can't get that stuff any where near my face or I break out in a really ugly red rash!

The red part of the plant which most of us consider to be the flower, is actually a bract which is a modified leaf. The flowers are the clusters of tiny yellow things in the center of the bracts. If you're looking for a plant that will last, chose one where the flowers don't have pollen showing.

Poinsettias have long been regarded as poisonous, but that is a myth. According to the Society of American Florists' web site, About Flowers, "research from The Ohio State University has proven the poinsettia to be non-toxic to both humans and pets. All parts of the plant were tested, including the leaves and sap." Also, "according to POISINDEX, the national information center for poison control centers, a child would have to ingest 500-600 leaves in order to exceed the experimental doses that found no toxicity."

To care for your poinsettia:
* Put it in a sunny window - do not let it touch a cold window
* Water only when dry, do not allow to wilt, do not let it sit in water
* Temperature 60-70 degrees F are best, a little cooler at night is good

Getting your poinsettia to rebloom is tricky. It is a short-day plant, which means it needs a long night in order to bloom. It needs complete darkness starting in October for 15 hours a day. This means if you keep it in a closet in the dark, but open the door for a moment, you've broken the 15 hours of darkness! Best to keep it in a lightproof bag for the 15 hours a day it needs. Once you see color showing on the leaves, you have achieved success!

If You Must Get Your Panties in a Bunch...

...then this is the way to do it! Photo by Amber-Rae Orchard.

Turtle Boy Update

Went by the statue at 5:30 this morning and the wreath is gone. Didn't even make it a week...

Fresh From the Market

We have some crazy greens this week - Christmas-y or not, depending what you put with them. Clockwise from top left is curly pine from Australia, some unusual Canadian Scotch pine, and 'Ivanhoe' grevillea from California.

Some interesting shades of red - Christmas bush, a novelty waxflower, and 'Antique Red' hydrangea from Holland.

South American purple/blue hydrangea and purple kale.

In addition, we also have:

hypericum berries -red, brown, and peach
roses - 'Black Magic' burgundy, 'Blizzard' white, and 'Feria' coral with gold flecks
kale - white, Holland
stock - pink and cream
alstroemeria - plum, hot pink and white
snowy flocked birch branches - France
flax
'Cobra' lily - Holland
dark green spiders
kangaroo paw - yellow and rust
peony - burgundy, New Zealand
fern shoots
callas - burgundy, New Zealand
ginger - pink
heliconia
psiticorum
white dendrobium - Hawaii, still no orchids from Thailand
sapphire juniper
cymbidium orchids - green, Holland
oncidium orchids - Singapore
white hydrangea
baby green hydrangea
leucodendron 'Jester'
liatris
upright pepperberry - I so prefer these over the hanging ones!
phlox - white
poms
'Jade' trachellium
bells of Ireland
magnolia foliage

Your Local Florist and the Global Economy

So word has it, that due to protesters taking over Thailand's two largest airports, there won't be any fresh orchids coming in this week, like the ones seen in the picture above.

Anyone who knows Sprout, knows we use a lot of orchids - mokara, aranda, dendrobium, oncidium, james storeii - they are staples for us the way carnations are for other flower shops.

Weather/environmental disasters, pests and disease, major state events (like Princess Di's funeral), currency devaluation, trade imbalances - all can affect the selection of flowers from your local florist. Now we can add politics to that list!