
A Start-Up That Aims to Bring Back the Farm-to-Vase Bouquet - e15ctr0n
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/business/a-start-up-that-aims-to-bring-back-the-farm-to-vase-bouquet.html
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smackfu
The flower business does seem ripe for disruption. Looking at a traditional
flower business website, it definitely feel like, "these designs are not to my
taste".

I'm just not sure how many people want gift flowers but have no preference
about what colors or flowers there are. (Like my wife has clear preferences
about those things and giving her flowers that ignore them would be kind of
insulting.)

Also the shipping is pretty steep if you can't use their local delivery. $25
on a $38 bouquet.

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joezydeco
_“I think that the local flower movement is where the local food movement was
about a decade ago,” Ms. Stembel said. Consumers are starting to become aware
of where their flowers come from and purchase accordingly, she said._

But the majority of flower bouquets are _given_ to people, unlike restaurant
food. Is the recipient really able to detect that these tulips were grown in
California and not Aalsmeer? Is there a visible quality or longevity
difference? Because, if there isn't, then this is just luxury posturing and
adds no value to the product.

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erroneousfunk
Perhaps people don't like me much, but I buy the majority of my flowers for
myself. This site looks terrible (I can't find the report directly, just
florists talking about it), but it's taking its data from a major study done
on the flower industry in 2005: [http://www.aboutflowers.com/about-the-flower-
industry/consum...](http://www.aboutflowers.com/about-the-flower-
industry/consumer-trends.html) Of people purchasing bouquets, a third of the
purchases were for themselves. So yes, a majority are gifts, but that's still
a big market.

As far as why anyone would want to "purchase locally" (note: I live in Boston,
think FarmGirl is overpriced, and have nothing to do with this company, but as
a frequent flower purchaser, I can see the appeal of the concept) Purchasing
flowers locally expand the type of flowers commonly and cheaply available, as
counter-intuitive as it might seem. Roses are "traditional" on Valentine's Day
simply because they ship well. Really really well. Roses are practically
indestructible, and can be grown in Kenya, go without water for a while and
still look great when they're rehydrated. Other flowers (Lisianthus, for
example) don't appreciate being tightly packed into boxes and living
without/with little water while they're hanging out in the dark. Shipping
delicate flowers raises the price dramatically, and if there's an option to
purchase them without that overhead, I'm certainly game.

