Creating Impulse Sales with Spring Blooms

What happens when the first bright blooms of spring illuminate the landscape? Potential customers want to bring this joyful and natural beauty indoors. And you can help them do that. How? Display vibrant spring flowers and plant displays in your store, shop cooler, website and on social media to encourage impulse buys early in the season.

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These harbingers of spring can easily be incorporated into your spring holiday collections of mono-varietals (one variety of flower), mixed bouquets or vase arrangements and plant sales for Valentine’s Day, Easter and Mother’s Day. Which flowers are popular and how can you arrange and care for these often more delicate and short-lived flowers? Answers below.

Why are the first bulb blooms of spring so popular?

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Sustainability continues to grow as a floral trend and demand for locally grown flowers increases. Many florist-to-farmer shops are incorporating flowers they have grown onsite into their designs. Other floral shops seek suppliers that offer regionally grown blooms to resell. This can be a bonus for those spring bulb flowers which experience shorter life span once cut than some longer-lasting varieties of flowers. Flowers bring the joyful promise of spring. A snowy landscape can feel cold and barren. As spring emerges, warmer weather encourages pristine snow-white blooms and brightly colored flowers to pop up in a welcomed sign of seasonal change.

To see the floral recipe for an arrangement, click on the image

Daffodils are often the first bright yellow, organic smiles of spring to emerge. Sometimes, even before the last snowfall of the season. [rev_slider alias="spring-blooms-2"]

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Tulips, a springtime favorite

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Tulips are often one of the most requested spring flowers in both cut flower and potted plant forms. Tulips are phototropic—growing toward the light—and geotropic—responding to gravity—and have the ability to grow ½ to 1½ inches overnight. Remember to consider these movements in the scope of your designs. Customers often show a preference for closed tulip blooms over open ones. Adding ice cubes to a vase of water can help to hold tulips blooms in a tighter bud. Still, it’s important to discuss with customers that tulips will certainly open and grow. If a customer is not open to this evolution of beauty, you can suggest or choose another flower.

Spring bulb plants

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Spring bulb plants are popular choices for the season. These blooming plants are often combined with green plants to add color, texture or fragrance to mixed plant baskets for sympathy work. Some spring blooming plants such as hyacinths can be very fragrant and oftentimes uncomfortable for recipients with allergies. It’s a good idea to ask about potential allergies when selling fragrant flowers for delivery. Accessorizing the plants with modern containers and on-trend natural materials is a good way to upsell the look.

Proper flower care

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Proper care and handling of bulb blooms can increase flower life. Bulb food solution helps to reestablish the nutrient balance once a flower is harvested. A packet of consumer bulb food attached to outgoing orders will remind your clients to feed these early spring favorites with flower foods so the blooms can perform their best. Using an anti-transpirant on finished arrangements helps nourish and hydrate blooms for increased longevity.

Arranging soft stems

A good sharp angled cut is important for inserting soft-stemmed spring bulb flowers in floral foam. Toothpicks can also be inserted into the flower stem on one end and the foam on the other. The toothpick can swell in the wet foam, helping hold the flower in place and perhaps wick up water for the flower. Still, it is best to be sure the stem of the flower, not just the toothpick, is placed securely in the foam to access the water source.

How temperature changes affect spring flowers

Interesting facts: Tulips, daffodils and hyacinths may seem delicate but are actually hardy enough to survive sudden cold weather. Amazingly, temperatures just below 32 degrees may freeze the water in bulb flowers but won’t damage plant cells. Stored starches (sugars) lower cellular temps in the bulbs and keeps moisture from freezing within the stems in the same way anti-freeze protects the radiator of a car. A blanket of snow acts as a layer of insulation for the blooms. Other less cold-hardy varieties of seasonal bulb flowers will develop their blooms as the weather grows warmer during spring and summer. Blooming seasons vary along with temperatures across the country resulting in floral design styles that often change along regional lines. A long blooming season means a longer time and wider variety you can offer customers, perhaps earning ongoing business from flower lovers. This season, take the opportunity to incorporate a greater variety of both bulb blooms and bulb plants into your spring collection. How can you use a growing interest in spring bulb blooms to inspire new sales for your floral business?