We’re going to celebrate summer!
When you think of summer, you think of freedom. Of long lazy days when there’s nothing you have to do and anything is possible. Although that freedom is subject to quite a few restrictions this year, there is still plenty to celebrate. Summer offers florists plenty of sales opportunities. Exploit them all!
In this magazine you can read more about the flowers that you want to be working with right now, and we offer tips to get the most out of the summer. Place seasonal flowers on the garden table for a staycation, create lavish reward bouquets for sporting achievements, and let your imagination run wild with midsummer crowns for a proper festival atmosphere. In that way you and your customers can turn every summer day into a celebration!
We hope you enjoy reading the magazine!
The 365 days of flowers editorial team
Unleash your creativity and amaze yourself…
What are you sharing? .
Jerrycan bouquet or midsummer crown: how are you showing off your craft?
In this magazine .
Looking forward to summer!
Flower of the season .
Hang out the flags -it’s peony time!
The peony season has arrived with a bang! That’s worth celebrating! We can turn it into a great flower festival together. Are you going to join us?
Glory days
The peony (Paeonia) is widely available from the end of May to mid-July. That is when Dutch growers harvest truckfuls of peonies from the fields. The season is brought forward a little with (tunnel) greenhouses, but once the growers can harvest their peonies outdoors, the glory days really begin.
Old & new
Everyone knows the classic Paeonia ‘Sarah Bernhardt’, which is still the most widely grown variety. Sarah Bernhardt was introduced as far back as 1906.
There are peonies that date even further back, like ‘Duchesse de Nemours’ from 1856. This white, beautifully scented peony is still very popular today. Breeders are constantly adding new cultivars to the varied range, so that there is ever more choice.
Plenty of variety
Paeonia’s colour palette features lots of variety: from sparkling white to mysterious dark red. The colour-changing varieties (the ‘gobstopper effect’) deserve special attention. A lot of people don’t know that peonies also offer many different flower shapes: from single-flowered to double-flowered globes. And the scented peonies all have a slightly different fragrance. Share these riches with your customers!
Mix & enrich
Peonies already look stunning in a mono bouquet. As a florist you can then give it your own twist, which will only increase its value. For example, mix peonies in various shades or flower shapes. You can further enrich such a bouquet with flowers such as Astilbe and Bouvardia.
Parade of vases
A matching vase truly turns a bouquet with peonies into a gift. Stage a parade of vases featuring small and large vases with bouquets in various price categories. Also fun: one beautiful bouquet with peonies for yourself, and one to give away. Sharing is caring!
5 Tips for lavishly celebrating the peony season!
1
Organise a peony week to officially launch the season.
2
Use your social media. For instance, use Reels on Instagram to make a funny video.
3
Create your own signature bouquet with peonies (the perfect way to differentiate yourself from the supermarkets, which only offer standard bunches).
4
Organise a short online masterclass in which you talk about peonies, their care and DIY tips.
5
Start making plans already to highlight the next seasonal flower.
#365daysofflowers
Download the season .
Share the summer feeling
365 days of flowers is keen to help you with your social media. You can use our images and our storytelling about seasonal flowers. It’s easy to download everything about the season.
Grower’s tip .
“Eryngium pandanifolium ‘Physic purple’ is a new variety that really stands out, but there are so many more Eryngiums. Try looking beyond the varieties that you already know.”
Adrie Klaasse Bos – grower of summer flowers
From spiky to spherical,from silvery green to indigo: which Eryngium do you find the most beautiful?
Seasonal inspiration .
3x deliveredwith love
Delivering flowers is more important than ever.
Think out-of-the-box: recycle your boxes and turn them into a celebration!
How it works .
Fresh and fruity: brambles
We are spending more time walking outdoors than ever. That’s not just healthy, but also a great way to experience the seasons. The best thing about summer? Bramble bushes filled with blackberries alongside the path!
Brambles do brilliantly in a richly-filled casual bouquet to give you a real summer feeling. The bramble is a special seasonal product that you can talk about as you make a fresh and fruity bouquet. Did you know that the bramble (Rubus fructicosis) is a member of the rose family, just like the raspberry (Rubus idaeus)?
Bramble bushes flower with pale pink flowers that are pollinated by honeybees and bumblebees. Thanks to their efforts, red blackberries appear later in the summer which turn slightly darker in the vase. Brambles grow wild throughout Europe. Wild brambles have stems and leaves with vicious thorns, but luckily there are now also ‘thornless’ brambles.
Ingredients for a fruity bouquet:
- Lavandula
- Rubus Fruticosus
- Monarda
- Leontopodium
- Cynara
- Origanum
- Anethum
- Allium
- Mentha
These materials are grown for decoration. However delicious they may look, they are not edible. Only eat flowers and fruit that have been specially grown for human consumption.
FLORAL GOODIES .
7 flowers that you want to be working with right now
Florist promotion .
There is so much to celebrate…
Particularly now when so many celebrations cannot take place, it is important to create our own celebratory moments. There are lots of opportunities in the summer, so dig out the party decorations.
Celebration: seasonal hits
All the stars of the season can be celebrated. The first peonies, gladioli and sunflowers. If you sell some flowers all year round, celebrate the high season. Place a sign on the street and hang out the flags: the peony season has started! If you love dahlias, have a dahlia party when dahlias are widely available again. The more personal, the better!
Celebration: staycation
We are still unsure how we will be enjoying a holiday this summer. Whatever happens, as a florist you can always create a great holiday mood. That means that even a staycation can be a celebration. For example, create Mediterranean bouquets with sunflowers and Celosia to display on the garden table.
Celebration: festival-at-home
Create a festival-at-home atmosphere with floral crowns for your team and to sell. Make the summer atmosphere complete with a display of flowers for picking, because picking flowers gives people a sense of freedom. You can forget all the restrictions for a little while… Isn’t it great that as a florist you can make the difference?
Summer starts here
With good preparation it’s very easy to tempt your customers. That is why we have created a download with sparkling summer content for you.
- 1 summer poster (A4)
- 18 fabulous photos of bouquets and special flowers
- 4 seductive posts about topics including staycations for your social media
- Celebrate the stars of the season – the peony and the gladiolus – with promotional material for your social media
Join in and get to work with summer in your shop and webshop!
Inspiration .
3x blooming outdoors
If your customers cannot enjoy a faraway holiday this year, show that a staycation can also be great fun: with summer flowers, naturally!
Digital newsletter .
The gift of inspiration
Subscribe to the 365 days of flowers digital newsletter – like 7,000 fellow florists – and receive a healthy dose of inspiration in your inbox 6 times a year.
Gift for you .
Make it yourself: origami vase
Origami is highly addictive. If you fancy giving it a try, download the pattern free of charge here and print it on sturdy paper. Cut out the shape and then fold according to these instructions:
- fold along the centre line (with the line on the inside).
- then fold along all the diagonal lines (with the lines on the outside).
- fold the vase round, and a stick the two outermost diamonds onto one another.
Slide your paper vase over a bottle or jar, and place your most beautiful flowers in it. Great for showing your customers how astoundingly easy it is to achieve this effect!
Theme magazine .
Have you seen our theme magazine yet?
Be inspired by the top trend right now: Get Crafty. Our theme magazine tells you all about the fresh appreciation of craftsmanship, and features creative ideas for upcycling. Fun to read and get to work with straight away!
COLOFON .
365 days of flowers stimulates your senses with remarkable seasonal flowers. The promotional campaign is made possible by cut flower growers affiliated with Royal FloraHolland. They thereby help you to exploit seasonal sales opportunities.
Publication dates: February, June, August, November
Editorial: Bianca van Eijk, Siska van Kessel, Annemieke de Haan, Gerard Gardien
Art direction and concept: Concept Factory
Want to find out more?: hello@365daysofflowers.com