Close up Shop or Not?
An Emotional Week for One FC Member
 Empathy. Solidarity. Support. Those qualities came out in full force this week as the florists on FlowerChat joined a conversation supporting a fellow member who was facing a life-changing decision: Whether to close up her retail shop and open a studio or continue trying to work in her brick-and-mortar location.
Florists flooded the member with advice, suggestions and a shoulder on which to unburden her worries and questions.
As one FlowerChatter stated, “It's so nice to have this type of conversation on [FlowerChat]. You just don't get this kind of caring and in-depth feedback on [Facebook]. You often get a lot of faceless criticism from people who don't know much about you and make a lot of assumptions. So thanks, Ryan, for offering this forum.”
(If you didn’t already need a reason to join FlowerChat yourself, just add this one to the growing list!)
Give Your Cooler Some TLC
With Mother’s Day out of the way, now is the perfect time to look around your shop and see what aspects may have gotten a bit neglected during the recent hectic holiday periods. Your cooler, in particular, could likely use a little TLC. After all, your cooler is a sophisticated piece of refrigerated equipment on which you rely to maintain the longevity of your stems. The unit needs regular maintenance to ensure it runs optimally.
To help in that end, follow these tips on an annual basis. (Of course, unless you are a professional tech in your spare time, you probably should call an expert for these procedures.)
- Clean condensing-fan blades.
- Check for proper pressures. Adjust as needed.
- Clean evaporator intake.
- Clean evaporator-fan blades and guard.
- Adjust door tension for appropriate seal and closure.
- Clean debris from door gaskets.
- Replace lamps.
- Replace lamp shield if yellowed or discolored.
- Clean evaporator housings.
- Flush evaporator drain pain and drain line.
One additional note, just as a reminder, test your cooler’s thermometer to ensure you are maintaining the proper temperature. Flower coolers need to maintain a temperature of 34ºF-38ºF. Tropical flowers, like anthurium and most orchids, should be stored at 55ºF-60ºF for best results.
Similarly, verify the relative humidity (RH) in your cooler. An RH of 80%-90% is the ideal range for a flower cooler. The correct temperature combined with a high RH slows the metabolic process and transpiration of your stems to ultimately increase their quality and vase life.
FlowerChat Tip of the Week:
How to Understand the 'Green Dots'/Rate Another Member
Ever wondered about the green dots you see under a member’s name when they comment on a discussion in one of the FlowerChat forums? Whether just one or two or a long line of dots, they represent each time another member clicked on the star icon above replies that member posted.
If you want to give someone a thumbs-up for posting a comment that was helpful, take the time to click on the star and rate his/her reply. Then, keep an eye on the green dots you begin to achieve from other members. But remember: Just because you don’t have a lot of green dots doesn’t mean you aren’t a valued member of the community! You may simply be flying under the radar a bit more than other  members and, thus, don’t get noticed as easily or as often.
Popular Discussions
Check out the trending discussions available to ALL FlowerChatters--no matter what your membership level:
- Call from TF
We dropped all ASB ads, no codified product, cancelled calendars ,cancelling our TF website and refused all headquarters and OG orders, then we get a call from TF Friday wanting to analyze our business, they are worried about us because our incoming orders for MD were down over 80% year over year. LOL don't need to analyze me, start with your own business practices, she actually gave me that "we NEED their orders to get our product into new homes" speech, They are down because I choose them to ...
- Rumor in VT
There is a rumor floating around in VT that FTD owns Just Flowers? Is there any truth to that?
- You have got to be kidding me....
Our local FH which is owned by Stewart Enterprises, Inc. has sent us this letter asking us to sign up with this OG for all our local sympathy work. I am sorry we do not feel adding another company between the cosumer and florist. This is just the reason we formed FFC to help shops say no to these scams. Just Say No.
Popular Pro Discussions
Pro-level members get into the nitty gritty of florist life. Below are some of their trending conversations. (Want to participate in these in-depth topics? Sign up for a Pro account. Try it FREE for a month! Look for the red tab that says "Go Pro - FREE!" See what you've been missing!)
- Prom corsages (we hate them!) and prom mothers
I'm so glad that we are in the city, and not in the suburbs! We get only a few orders for prom corsages. Is there a better way to sell them? Maybe we should make up samples in silk? A "prom mother" picked up a wrist corsage last week. Our new, young designer had made the corsage, and it was very nice, and trendy, on a rhinestone bracelet. It was finally "the look" I was hoping to achieve, having some "old timer" designers (my age!) in the store ...
- Adding a hammer and tape measure to a casket spray?
How would you do it? I wired the hammer in 2 places tightly and then glued the wire into a bamboo pole and put that in the casket spray.. the tape sim idea... but it was a PITA to get it to sit the way i wanted so it would show nicely. Any suggestions for next time i'm asked to use a hammer??
- Plant sale.
Just thought I would post a few pics of our annual bedding plant sale. We don't put up hoop houses or anything, we just have a one day blow out! Well, there are usually a few left after the first day, but the majority of product is gone in about 6 hours. I ordered 2795 hanging baskets and we were down to about 200 when I left the store at 1:30. Our sale started at 6:30 am and we had 162 customers lined up! We do more in the is one day than all of Mother's Day week or all of Valentine's ....
Thanks for reading!
Until next time, keep your business blooming!
Gina Kellogg
FlowerChat Community Manager
gina@flowerchat.com
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