Trash to Treasure

OK, as a florist, we use a lot of water and generate a lot of trash. I’m used to living in the country with a well and septic system where we could put out all the trash we wanted.
Our shop is now downtown, and we have to pay per gallon of water and sewer used, and we’re only allowed 6 bags of trash twice a week. Well, a busy florist can easily generate more than what they allow us. So, we either “stuff” the bags til they’re too heavy to lift, or we have to hold some until next trash day. That is, until now.
A neighboring family recently started to compost, and they’ve asked if they could take our fresh trash for use in the compost heap. (I confess to knowing very little about how this all works for them, but apparently one needs certain percentages of dried, fresh materials, etc. to make the perfect compost.) But, we were ecstatic because we had someone to haul away some of our trash.

How cool! They even agreed to separate it.  But, as the one who does most of the designing, I’ve found that it’s really easy and efficient for me to do the separating as I go about my day. One big barrel gets all the fresh waste - leaves, stems, thorns, guard petals, broken blooms,etc, and the regular trash bins get everything else. Our neighbors take a couple of barrels on our big processing days, and the girls love processing the flowers this way, as it makes for much easier clean-up for them.

I can’t begin to tell you how well this has worked out, both for us and for them. We now no longer exceed our number of trash bags per pick-up, and I can go a whole week without having to change the regular trash bags at the work table.

The Traveling Bouquet

The dog days of summer have arrived. In an effort to keep our marketing skills honed, and spread a little kindness at the same time, we are launching a Traveling Bouquet program. Every week we will deliver a bouquet to a business, nursing home, senior center, police station, fire department or the like, wherever there is a mix of people. Attached to the bouquet is a note that says: "This is a Traveling Kindness Bouquet. Please enjoy these flowers for the day, then pass them on to someone else who could use a little joy, along with this note. See how spreading a little sunshine improves their day, and yours!" The idea is that everyone can use a little pick-me-up now and then, especially during these long, hot summer days, when they can't get outside and enjoy the sunshine.

Our first bouquet was delivered today to Accolades, a local nursing home, where two ladies are going to share the arrangement for the first two days. After that, who knows? It could get passed to another resident, to one of the nurses or go home with someone's relative. The good thing is that some cheer is being spread around. And it makes us feel good to know that we had something to do with it. Here is a picture of Lois and Treva at Accolades. It was hard getting them to smile. ; -)

Cemeteries aren't so scary ... or sad

When flowers are lovingly left at grave sites and tombstones, cemeteries can really be quite lovely.
A recent thread in a forum I belong to was boohooing the fact of less-than-robust sales of flowers at cemeteries particularly over Memorial Day. And, how sad it was to see empty tombstones and bare (devoid of flowers) cemeteries.
So I wanted to share with you how pretty a cemetery can look when decorated, in this case, with fresh flowers.

Mr. Robinson became our customer after his wife passed away and commissioned us to provide flowers for his wife's grave, a new arrangement every season (in silk). This year, he passed away too, and his daughter asked us to provide fresh arrangements for each of her close relatives, as they were all buried in close proximity. The cemetery looked so pretty at his graveside service. I hope you agree. Now she will be taking up her father's charge of providing flowers seasonally at their tombstone. What a good daughter!
So, as a reminder, next holiday, birthday, anniversary of your loved one, please remember them by placing some flowers on or next to their grave site. Note to self, Momma's birthday is July 9th - and high time to get some new flowers on her grave.

The Treehouse Florist "jumps in" with fellow florists to support The 3/50 Project

The 3/50 Project is dedicated to saving the brick and mortar stores that our nation is built on.

3 – What three independently-owned businesses would you miss if they disappeared? Stop in. Say hello. Pick up something that brings a smile. (Research reveals that flowers create instant delight and happiness, and increase enjoyment and life satisfaction.) Your purchases are what keep these businesses around. The staff at The Treehouse Florist and their employees not only appreciate your business, but they also shop locally, spending money with other merchants to support local businesses. Who said "It takes a village"?

Some of the local businesses The Treehouse spends its dollars with:

McKnight Appliances

Paesano's Pizza

Corbin's Auto Repair

50 – If half (50%) of the employed population spent $50 each month in locally-owned, independent businesses, it would generate more than $42.6 billion dollars in revenue*. You could spend all $50 at The Treehouse (we'd like that!), or spread it around to other local businesses. Imagine the positive impact if 3/4 of the employed population did that!

Some of our employees' favorite businesses in town:

Bonkey's Ice Cream

People's Bank

Boomtown Tattoo Studio

Matthews Garage

Hodle Tavern

68 – For every $100 spent in locally, independent stores, $68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll and other expenditures. So if you buy a $100 flower arrangement at The Treehouse Florist, $68 of that money stays in the local economy of southern York County. If you spend that on a national chain, only $43 stays here. If you spend that $100 online then $0 comes back - zero, zilch, nada. So remember, when you shop 1800flowers.com, you are adding nothing to the local community.

1 – The number of people it takes to start the trend … you.

Pick 3. Spend 50. Support your local economy.

*Employment statistics courtesy U.S. Labor Department 2/6/09 report; 68/43 stats courtesy Civic Economics 2008 study

Nice Gift!

A bride from our early years in the shop was celebrating a milestone birthday for which her husband ordered a vaseful of roses for her party. Care to guess how old she is?
We'll let the pictures tell the story, as the order is filled. Is it ....

Nope.                                                                             Is it...... Nope

Yep, she's 50.
And when I was asked if I had a vase big enough for 50 roses, I said, "Oh, yeah, sure". But let me tell you, I don't think I could have gotten any more in this vase. And very heavy ... definitely a two person delivery.
Happy Birthday, Diane. Hope you loved your roses - you sure have a wonderful hubby.

Yeah, that's right - It's all about HER!

For those guys who think that Valentine's Day isn't a big deal to their wife, fiancee, girlfriend, wannabee girlfriend, or someone they want to attract, please think again. It's all about you showing that you think she is special to you, at least on the one day that everyone counts. If every woman in the office, except yours, received flowers, chocolates or some other gift, it's a BIG DEAL. So next year, don't be one of the guys we heard from the last couple of days who were trying their best to get out of the doghouse. Of course, we'll be more than happy to help you on either side of Valentine's Day, but your life will be a whole lot nicer when you get your gift to her before or on the big day. Just thought you should know.

Our New Website

We've been working diligently together with our new florist website provider, Epic Flowers, to update our website over the past couple of months. This change brings us a lot of flexibility and a host of new options, not to mention a much friendlier web presence.  One of the greatest features it provides is mCommerce. Some of you might be asking “what exactly is mCommerce?”.

Great question!  For starters,  Wiki defines it this way:

"Mobile Commerce is any transaction, involving the transfer of ownership or rights to use goods and services, which is initiated and/or completed by using mobile access to computer-mediated networks with the help of an electronic device."

So, basically, it means you buy something using mobile access, like a smartphone.  This definition can be expanded to talk about "True mCommerce", which uses a site that is re-formatted for mobile use.  You may not have noticed it, but all of the big boys are on it!

Below are the standard sites for eBay and Amazon, and next to them, the mobile versions, re-formatted for the iPhone.

So, why is this important to you?

If you’ve tried to do any online shopping from local businesses through your smart phone, you’ve probably found the process to be less than desirable.  The reason is that most independent eCommerce sites are not capable of providing a truly mobile formatted page.  So, you end up zooming in, zooming out, and fumbling through the shopping cart process.  Mobile formatting changes all that.

Here are a couple of screen-shots of what the The Treehouse Florist’s new mCommerce-ready site looks like on the iPhone.  We know you’ll love this new feature, because you no longer need a computer to order flowers on-line. And, we hope you enjoy browsing our new site from the comfort and ease of your smartphone.

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