The Floral Hustle

Hello, Flower friends, this is Jen and you are listening to the Floral Hustle Podcast. On this week's episode, I wanna talk about smart sourcing, and what I mean by that is playing to the strengths of the supplier while getting the best price. Currently in town here I order from. Three different wholesalers and I order direct from a rose farm in Ecuador.

The reason why I do that is because one is really great pricing on hydrant. They also have 200 gram Italian Ruscus, which is really long pieces. And the other ones, their ruscus is like the short little 150 gram kind of puny. So I order from that one wholesaler for good deals and consistent quality on South American hydrangeas on their Italian ruscus.

And then they have an online buying program called Kennecott Direct. It is Kennecott twin cities that I'm talking about right now. And on that, I will go and look and see if any of the roses that I cannot get at my rose farm, either a specialty color or you know, something that just isn't as common. Or maybe that Rosa Prima, which is another Rose Farm, um, has cuz they sell direct through Kennecott, um, direct program.

So I look at that and then I order my product accordingly from that wholesaler. Then there's another Flo wholesaler that is a smaller wholesaler, but is pretty good at sourcing harder or not your everyday flower items. So if I want Matilda Roses in July, Which is not a common color. It's a terracotta color.

I'm going to probably order it from there, or if it is something that I am really worried about getting, I will source it from two spots. Let's say that is a toffee rose. It is, um, the Rosanna Brown, Lizzie Anthes that is really popular right now. It is symbol rose, which is kind of a golden, uh, color rose.

Uh, just something that is harder to get and I'm really worried about getting it. I will just order it from two places to make sure that I am getting it. Even if it's half, I'm ordering half from one supplier and half from another supplier. I'm helping ensure I'm getting hard to find items. So I potentially would order some from the smaller cools sailor that I feel that does a good job when they have sourced something actually getting it.

Or I will also order half of it from the largest wholesaler in the tri-state area. Which they're, you know, not great at. I order it and I for sure feel a hundred percent that I'm going to get it, and I'm not going to find out that I didn't get it when I'm at the wholesaler. So with that, I am playing the strength of my wholesaler, but I had to do testing, I mean, years of testing to figure this out, which, As a buyer, a consumer from a place I have expectations of service, and you should too.

I, I do see so many florists unhappy with where they're buying from. Um, they feel like they're hostage to buying from there, and they feel really disempowered, which is so sad because in this modern day, we have options. We are a customer. They need to provide a service to us. If you are using a new wholesaler, I think one thing is we're just kind of thrown into the mix of figuring out how to shop there, figuring out how to do everything there.

And honestly, they should tell us how to do business with us. Uh, I don't know what your strengths are. Please share with me. What do you feel you do a good job at? I had somebody contact me today, um, for a cultural wedding, and, uh, they were like, I, I'm sure you've worked with this decorator before, so you must be familiar.

I go, I am an expert at cultural weddings. I do 25 to 30, if not more a year. I am an expert and configure whatever you want out as a wholesaler. They should be able to say a similar statement. I am really great at, like maybe they have a great rose farm that another supplier doesn't have access to. Maybe they are really great, um, from sourcing from Holland.

Maybe that buyer that they have, they usually have a buyer assigned to a region. So at my, the largest wholesaler here, they have a South American buyer. They have a Dutch buyer, like, so they have like specialties cuz they're dealing with a lot of different areas and a lot of different farms, a lot of different, um, wholesale supply, um, chain issues so that they're an expert at that.

And I would straight up ask. I would love to do more business with you. Like what are you, what are, what do I feel really confident or can I feel really confident in ordering from you, what do you do better than the o other wholesalers in town? What do you think that you could really add value to my floral business?

How? How can you add value? Like what can you do for me? How can I do more business with you and you make that easy for me? Then I also, in the summer here, we have a very thriving local flower farmer community that I purchased direct from a couple flower farmers, and we actually are very lucky to have the Twin City Flower Exchange, which is an amazing local growers co-op, and they bring in from over, I think, 25 or so farms.

In the area, their product for us to purchase directly through them so we're not running to 10 different farms. If one farm has this variety and only has 10 bunches and you need 20, they potentially might have other bunches. So we're really lucky to have that resource, and I do access that resource whenever I can because I think it is so much fun.

But I also, from a smart sourcing perspective and from a fulfillment as a florist perspective, I leave 20% of my budget for. Flower fun or unicorn flowers or just flower fines in the cooler. Because I think that if you have things that are inspiring, your work is going to be more inspiring If you find something that is absolutely stunning, but it's like this unicorn of a flower that really like was just the fertilizer on steroids or something happened that it is just amazing.

Then you have that budget, that room without overspending and overt stuffing your order to do that. So I leave 20% of my budget to flower fines in the cooler flower fines with local flower farmers. I sometimes will go to, um, one of the smaller flower farmers, has like a little, um, she runs it out of her garage.

She's got, uh, urban. Flower farm and then has some land, um, outside of the twin Cities. And she's really, really grown. And I have found some of the, like just most amazing greenery. I never knew of a greenery called Nia. And it's, it's like my, my favorite. It is so beautiful. It is so stunning. She has had dahlias that I'm just like, whoa.

That is amazing. She had a wild daisy last year that I added to a wedding that was just, it made the whole wedding. Those things can push your designs over the top, and so I wanna make sure that I am leaving room and budget to do so and. That I am buying from places that are, that potential unicorn flower could be found.

I don't physically go to the smaller wholesalers or the one I'm buying hydrangeas from. I will have those orders delivered, and then I will go to the largest wholesaler and the local flower farmers because then I have that opportunity to see those specialty flowers that could really add. Some, some serious design.

Wow. Uh, to my designs. I thought, I know last week, lilacs are in season here right now, so I picked up some lilacs from my local flower farmer and I felt like they just pushed my design, you know, to, oh, this is pretty, to wow. Like they just, and plus it smelled the, the room just smelled amazing, the everything just.

Felt so complete with those. And the last thing, and I actually just got them today, which is, um, I'm staring at them. I have to change the bucket water, so, I order my roses direct from Ecuador whenever possible. I have a farm, I've mentioned it in my Instagram, I've mentioned it on the podcast before. It is called Bellevue, B e l L e v u e, and they carry the most amazing pab Blanca's, the most amazing quick sand roses.

I, I have some, um, hearts roses this week. I have some, um, pink expression roses. I mean, everything is beautiful. I, their pink mondale's are the most consistent color. They're quick stands, are the most consistent color that I've seen from any rose farm, and I've been doing this a long time. I have 600 roses from them that just this week, if you want to order on your first order, use my code Hustle 15.

So hustle one, five and you will get 15% off your first order. I feel so much value in ordering from them that I want you guys to be able to take advantage of that as well, that I talked to them about, um, working on a discount code for you guys to try it cuz I just, I won't go back. And I have tried, I think they're my sixth rose farm that I've ordered direct from.

And I always have good luck with inventory. I always have pretty, I would say 95% like of good luck with product quality and. The only reason why sometimes something, just like any rows when it's being transported, sometimes something can get lightly smushed by a box. I see it more happening at the wholesaler because the box is open and then checked again, and then open and then packed again.

So I see less damage in that respect than I do when ordering from the wholesale. But the biggest difference, not only are there roses, like the the color consistency, and I feel like I. The overall quality, the rose isn't beat up. The age of the rose is drastically reduced. And I've explained this in videos before, but I wanna reiterate it because I think it's such a big deal.

Uh, is your shaving off anywhere from four to six days of time? And let me explain like how that works. Uh, I order and I want to get my roses. On, let's say I wanna get my roses from the wholesaler on Tuesday, and I wanna get my roses from Bellevue on Tuesday. If I want my roses on Tuesday from Bellevue, four days before that, they are picked and shipped.

So within them leaving Bellevue in Quinto, Ecuador, I get them within four days. Let me work backwards from when that wholesaler is probably getting them or getting them from the farm. They're leaving. The farm that rose from the farm is likely packaged. On a Tuesday or maybe Monday, so Monday or Tuesday, that is packaged, then it goes to get, you know, sent obviously to the, um, uh, the distributor or whatever, uh, an order to come over to the United States.

It then comes into Miami. And if you are listening from another country, I'm so sorry, they only ship to the United States, uh, right now, but they are talking or in discussions of shipping to Europe. But this is just speaking to ordering Rose's direct period. If you have Rose Farms available, I definitely would try to capitalize on using them.

Uh, the, the four to five days you're shaving off. Makes such a difference in the quality of your roses, the, the mold molding of your pedals, the opening, how well it opens because it just doesn't have that age. So then that Rose Bunch, or Rose Box goes to Miami. It then for us is put on a truck and that truck takes three to four days to get the to the Twin Cities.

Then it gets to the wholesaler on Sunday if I'm wanting to pick those roses up Tuesday, so it could have been shipped out four to five days higher than my roses coming direct from Bellevue because it's getting cold trucked. It's gonna get checked in at the wholesaler, counted, inventoried, pulled for your order, and then ready for you on a card.

So by then you've likely had your roses out of water. Unless your wholesaler does you a service and gives them a fresh cut. I wouldn't trust them to actually properly hydrate your roses at any wholesaler just because of the sheer volume that they have. Then there's 10 days that have gone by and you've just got your roses.

It could be seven days, but even three days to me of vase Life is is huge, especially if you're a retail flower shop and you are delivering arrangements that are lasting longer than a wedding day. You want. Vase life on your roses and ordering direct is a great way to do that. Plus you can order 25, 1 bunch of yellow, one bunch of red, one bunch of hot pink.

You can mix and match your b, your, you know, boxes that you are ordering. They do have, I believe you have to order 100 or 200 in um, increments. They also have spray roses. I lately have been paying in our area anywhere from $19 to 2199. For one bunch of spray roses and they are about $11 a bunch when I order them from Bellevue.

So huge savings, uh, on some of their products. Some of the product pricing is pretty similar, but it is amazing. I absolutely love it. Uh, I can't speak more about it. You probably are sick of me talking about it, but I just, I'm looking at the roses right now and they are. Spectacular. So my salesperson is Catherine at Bellevue, but all of their salespeople are really great, and you can use my Code Hustle 15 to save 15% on your first order.

Then I've also talked about this in another Instagram video, but I use Holics a lot, and Holics is a Dutch auction system, but they also recently added a Miami uh, auction system that is accessing. You know, south American Farms for that type of product. Uh, and that could be hydrangeas, that could be roses, that could be mums, um, baby's breath, things like that are available and holics.

Three of our four main wholesalers here in the Twin Cities carry it. So it is a very mainstream system. Your wholesaler might have it, it's an online auction that you can access and buy fun things like painted primosa, uh, painted baby's breath and theorum. They have dutch roses on there. Uh, what else have I bought?

Like tulips? There are so many things that are available on there. It is such a great. Program to be able to go and search by colors, search by variety. There's a ton of, um, search filters that really help you narrow down based on like, even if you want, um, three different colors, you can search by three different colors.

It is something you have to have a, a wholesaler to ship it to, from my understanding, at least here you do. And so I can order it and have it through one of my main wholesalers. I always pop the box and look at it because I don't want to deal with it For some reason, I ordered a color and it's not quite the color, and my wholesaler's somewhat flexible enough to swap it with, uh, inventory that's in stock.

But you just have to discuss that with your wholesaler directly. But it is a great program. I sometimes will order two to $3,000 of flowers on Holics in one wedding week. So it is worth not only from a, I feel really good that I've been able to source some, some difficult to find product cuz there's not a ton of pro of places over here.

You can source painted OSA or um, Pistachio is one of my new favorite greeneries, and they've had a dipped red pistachio that I've used in some of my designs that has just been so fun to not only design with, but it's been really fun from a, the end product because that, that color is so bold in the design.

So you can just find really fun things and that is another part of my 20% of my budget when I'm planning flower orders, is using them. So check it out. Ask your wholesaler. They might have holics. It's H O L E X. There are other online auction systems that you can use. I just always make sure that I'm understanding the shipping, like the price is included in Holics for it be to be shipped to my wholesaler, and so there's no additional fees for that.

And so just making sure that you're checking any additional shipping costs if you are using an auction program or if you're using an online sourcing program. I know there's a lot of 'em out there. There's Hilde bore. There's. Obvi, you can order may ash for most cities and have it shipped to you, but then there's those additional costs of shipping and making sure you're hitting the minimums.

There is no minimum with Holics that I have run into with our local wholesalers, so that's also a bonus. If I want 20 barista roses, I can order, or if I want 20 cappuccino roses, I can order one small bunch and not have to source a whole box. So that is a great savings. I hope this episode was helpful and if you ever have a sourcing question, which I get often, like, where do I find this?

Uh, I might have an idea. So send me a DM on Instagram and I'd love to help you out. Thanks so much, flower friend, and have an amazing Flo Flower Filled Week.