What Happens to Your Flowers Before We Ever Design With Them?

When you receive a flower arrangement from The BloomBox, the part you see is the finished product. The flowers have been selected, arranged, packaged and delivered, but the work behind that arrangement actually started well before a designer ever picked up those particular stems. In many cases, it started weeks earlier when we were deciding what flowers to order in the first place.

Our flower orders don't begin with us simply looking through what's available and picking things we like. Before we place an order, we review everything that's already on our schedule. That includes everyday pre-orders, our BloomClub subscriptions, weddings and corporate events, funeral services and any other orders where we already know we'll need particular flowers, colours or quantities. Those existing commitments form the foundation of our flower order.

Flowers generally aren't sold to us individually. Most varieties arrive in bunches containing anywhere from about 5 to 25 stems, depending on the flower. That means if we need seven stems of something for a particular design, we may have to purchase ten. If a wedding or funeral requires a large variety of flowers, there may be portions of several bunches left after we've allocated what we need for that event. Those aren't wasted flowers; they become part of the inventory we'll use to create other arrangements throughout the week.

This is also one of the reasons we encourage customers to pre-order when they're looking for a specific flower or colour. For most special requests, giving us a week or two is usually plenty of time. We can simply add what you need to one of our regular flower orders, and when it arrives those flowers are marked as already spoken for. Larger events requiring significant quantities are a little different. For weddings, funerals and corporate events where we know we'll need large amounts of particular products, we'll often order a month or more ahead of time so our suppliers have an opportunity to source the quantities we need.

Once we've accounted for all of the flowers already committed to orders, we look at what's coming in, what we expect to use and what will be left for everyday work. From there, we strategically fill in the gaps. We choose additional varieties, colours, textures and greenery that will give our designers a useful selection to work with throughout the week.

Season plays a significant role in those decisions too. The greenery and textures we want in the cooler during fall and winter aren't necessarily what we want during spring and summer, and our colour palette changes throughout the year as well. We're also considering what is seasonally available, what has been performing well, what our customers are asking for and what will work with the flowers already coming in. By the time the order is finished, we've essentially built a palette for the week before we've seen most of the flowers in person.

Then our suppliers take over.

The flowers in our cooler can originate from farms all over the world. Once the product has been sourced, growers harvest and pack the flowers for a surprisingly long journey that eventually brings them to us here in Brandon, usually with a final stop in Winnipeg along the way.

Keeping flowers at the right temperature throughout that journey is incredibly important. Depending on where they were grown and the time of year they're arriving in Manitoba, the difference between the growing climate and the temperature outside our shop can be extreme. In the middle of a Manitoba winter, that difference can approach 70 or 80 degrees Celsius. A flower that began its journey in a hot growing region may start out in air-conditioned transportation and eventually need heated transportation as it travels north.

That temperature control is about much more than preventing flowers from freezing or overheating. Cool temperatures slow a flower's metabolism. Most cut flowers are still very much alive, and once they're harvested they're essentially living on the resources stored within the stem while making their way to us. Keeping them cool slows that process and allows them to survive days of transportation, often without access to water.

When our shipment finally arrives at The BloomBox, the first thing we do is get everything out of the boxes and start inspecting it. We remove the protective cellophane and packaging around the blooms, separate the stems and take a close look at what has actually arrived.

That step is more important than it might sound. A bunch of flowers can look absolutely perfect through its packaging, but once we open it and begin separating the stems we may discover a crushed bloom, a damaged stem or signs of mold or fungus hidden somewhere inside the bunch. We want to find those problems before the flowers ever enter our cooler.

Mold and fungus are particularly important to catch because they don't care what variety of flower they're growing on. Put contaminated product into a cooler filled with fresh flowers and a relatively small problem can spread surprisingly quickly. Anything questionable needs to be dealt with immediately rather than simply putting the bunch into water and hoping for the best.

Once the flowers have passed that initial inspection, we work quickly to get them drinking. Every stem receives a fresh cut and is placed into clean water with the appropriate flower food. Depending on the product, there may be additional processing required as well, including removing foliage or damaged material and preparing the stems so they'll condition properly.

Ideally, we like to give newly arrived flowers up to 24 hours to drink before we use them in an arrangement. Many of them have been travelling without water for days by the time they reach us, which is another reason the temperature-controlled journey was so important. As soon as those flowers come out of their boxes and enter our warm shop, their metabolism begins speeding up again and getting them properly hydrated becomes the priority.

This is one of my favourite parts of the process to watch. A hydrangea or another thirsty flower can arrive looking slightly tired or wilted after its journey. Give it a fresh cut, the right conditions and plenty of water and it's remarkable to watch it recover. A flower that looked exhausted a few hours earlier can become firm, hydrated and beautiful again, almost as though it were still growing on the plant. Nature is considerably more durable than we sometimes give it credit for.

Processing a normal shipment isn't a quick job. Typically, it takes three of us somewhere around three to four hours to unpack, inspect, cut, clean and hydrate everything properly. During major floral holidays, when the volume coming through the door increases dramatically, that process can take considerably longer.

After the flowers have been processed, we initially allow them time to drink and condition at room temperature. Once we're satisfied they're properly hydrated, they're organized and moved into our coolers, where the cooler air once again slows their metabolism and helps preserve their vase life until we're ready to design with them.

Even then, we don't simply have one temperature that works for everything. Different flowers and greenery respond differently to cold, so our coolers operate at different temperatures. Some tropical flowers can be damaged by temperatures below roughly 10°C, while other varieties are perfectly comfortable at temperatures approaching freezing. Our display cooler generally sits around 8°C, while our back cooler is kept closer to 10°C, allowing us to manage different products according to what they need.

All of this happens before we start talking about the actual design.

Before a flower ever becomes part of the bouquet you pick up or the arrangement we deliver, someone has reviewed the orders coming up, calculated what we need, planned the rest of our inventory around those requirements, ordered the flowers, and given our suppliers time to source them. The flowers may then travel thousands of kilometres under carefully controlled conditions before arriving at our door. Once here, we spend hours unpacking, inspecting, processing, hydrating, conditioning and storing them correctly.

And eventually, after all of that, a designer walks into the cooler and chooses the stems that will become your arrangement.

It's easy to look at a finished bouquet and see flowers, greenery and a vase. That's what you're supposed to see. Most of the work that happened before that moment is invisible, but it's an important part of what you're buying from a professional florist. Proper planning, sourcing, inspection, processing, hydration and storage all contribute to the quality and longevity of the flowers that eventually arrive at your door.

It also explains why a little advance notice can make such a difference when you want something specific. A week or two usually gives us plenty of opportunity to incorporate a special request into this process, while larger events benefit from considerably more notice. We don't necessarily need to have your favourite flower sitting in our cooler when you place the order. We just need enough time to make sure it's part of the journey that ends there.

Only then does the part most people think of as floristry actually begin: turning all those carefully prepared individual stems into something beautiful.

Fresh. Unique. Flowers. It's What We Do!