California Gal getting married in Maine - Sticker Shock

Rhonda

Rhonda

Well-Known Member
Nov 1, 2002
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Millinocket
www.millinocketflorist.com
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Maine
Had a call from a sister of a destination bride last week who wanted to price out flowers by stem and 6 full "large arrangements" for sister's wedding June 18th. The girl stated she had relationships with wholesalers and was pricing to do the flowers herself but have me do the large arrangements.
Gave her the stemmed prices today and she's "in shock"
Antique pink/green hydrangea $15.00 stem
White and yellow garden roses $7.50 stem
Pale Pink Peonies $7.50 stem
Lamb's ear $2.50 stem
Queen Anne's Lace $6.50 stem

After a bit of a delay she states "I'm in shock! Peonies here are everywhere, queen anne's lace is on the side of the road, I can pick lamb's ear in my back yard, and I know our hydrangea is well below $2.00 stem here".
I explained that my wholesalers must freight flowers in at expensive cost, that the peonies will have to come from Holland and that garden roses are not grown as extensively as "standard roses".
So she wants to know what we have for flowers on a regular basis. And I know we don't have the quanitity of availability that they would have in CA (yes we are in the woods, that's why your sister is getting married here? The "pristine wilderness experience"??
What would be your prices on some of these items??
 
Rhonda said:
Had a call from a sister of a destination bride last week who wanted to price out flowers by stem and 6 full "large arrangements" for sister's wedding June 18th. The girl stated she had relationships with wholesalers and was pricing to do the flowers herself but have me do the large arrangements.
Gave her the stemmed prices today and she's "in shock"
Antique pink/green hydrangea $15.00 stem
White and yellow garden roses $7.50 stem
Pale Pink Peonies $7.50 stem
Lamb's ear $2.50 stem
Queen Anne's Lace $6.50 stem

After a bit of a delay she states "I'm in shock! Peonies here are everywhere, queen anne's lace is on the side of the road, I can pick lamb's ear in my back yard, and I know our hydrangea is well below $2.00 stem here".
I explained that my wholesalers must freight flowers in at expensive cost, that the peonies will have to come from Holland and that garden roses are not grown as extensively as "standard roses".
So she wants to know what we have for flowers on a regular basis. And I know we don't have the quanitity of availability that they would have in CA (yes we are in the woods, that's why your sister is getting married here? The "pristine wilderness experience"??
What would be your prices on some of these items??
Click to expand...


Here the prices would be about the same but I can't get the queen annes lace or lambs ear i don't think .
 
The only thing lower would be the queen annes lace, I charge $2 per stem. The peonies would be at least $10 each. I've never had a garden rose, do you mean the David Austin ones? I've heard the quality is a crap shoot and you need to buy double what you need. I wouldn't even know the price.

I know what she's talking about though, we drove through Wisconsin one June or July, and the ditches were just crammed with queen annes lace. I SO wanted to stop and pick it.
 
Antique pink/green hydrangea $7.99
Garden roses....not sure haven't priced those lately but I know they are not inexpensive. Maybe you could use standard roses and have them fully open?
Pale pink peony $5.99 Although I just got a quote for $1.00 each on 5 stem bunches in a case of 200. $1.25 for white and $1.75 for coral charm-not including shipping. (but I would be a bit worried about peony that late in June)
Lamb's Ear $2.99
Queen Anne's Lace $2.49
I know we don't take the same mark-up as a lot of you.

It can be difficult to explain how a flower growing in EVERYONE'S garden can be so expensive! But by June 13th all those peonies will be long gone and we need to buy from our reliable sources.

If anyone is interested, here is a link to Star Valley Flowers located in Soldier's Grove, WI. They have a lot of field grown flowers and some of you may be able to get "springy" stuff later into the season than usual since they're grown in WI.
www.starvalleyflowers.com
 
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anytimeflowers said:
The only thing lower would be the queen annes lace, I charge $2 per stem. The peonies would be at least $10 each. I've never had a garden rose, do you mean the David Austin ones? I've heard the quality is a crap shoot and you need to buy double what you need. I wouldn't even know the price.

I know what she's talking about though, we drove through Wisconsin one June or July, and the ditches were just crammed with queen annes lace. I SO wanted to stop and pick it.
Click to expand...

Linda,
There's also another "ditch plant" that looks a lot like QA lace.....I think it' some sort of wild parsnip. It can be really toxic and worse than poison ivy. That keeps me away from the local QA lace!
 
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The hydrangea, lambs ear are about right. I've got white garden roses and pink peony both coming in Monday for a weekend wedding, 9.50 each. Queen Anne 3.
 
Prices here about the same except for QAL - that would be more like $3. Did you ask where your customer normally buys her flowers? Just wondering if she does Whole Foods or farmers' markets. She mentioned a relationship with wholesalers - well so do you. She understands retail doesn't she? And if she's from the Bay area, anyone can shop at the San Francisco flower market. They get wholesale prices but have to pay sales tax.
 
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I am really not sure what kind of relationships she has with wholesalers..I do know that when Eric and Adam had a video competition, there was a complete difference in the 50.00 arrangements that were provided, Erics were way fuller than Adams and my guess is that in the state where everything grows and doesn't have to tarvel too far it might be a wee bit cheaper....and still when I buy a hot water heater from a plumber I fully expect that he will get it and mark it up and then charge me for labor, If I buy one myself at home depot, first off not every plumber will put it in for you and you may have to deal with some random plumber dude that does plumbing for a living, but doesn't quite have a truck and might have a few tools and such, but you will still have to pay labor...I just don't get where these people don't understand that products are marked up for retail sales, do they think that Target pays the same amount for the products they sell, why do they think we all should...I just don't understand it at all...
 
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