The Iconic Friendship Between Floral Designers and Flower Farmers

The relationship between a floral designer and a flower farmer or grower is one of the best and most special relationships there are. They’re like peanut butter and jelly, Spongebob and Patrick, Shrek and donkey, Oprah and Gayle, Pinky and the Brain - iconic friendship duos that share a special bond and appreciation for flowers that surpasses all expectations. 

I’ve seen it happen firsthand multiple times with our clients, and have seen it happen for many flower farmers all over the world. In fact, there are some relationships so legendary that a floral designer will literally fly across the world to host a design workshop at a location because the grower is located there (which is mindblowing if you think about a person who is willing to trek across the world because they know you’re able to grow such beautiful and perfect flowers)

But how do we get there? How do you, as a flower farmer (and likely a newer grower at that) develop a relationship with a floral designer and be able to build your business together with a successful floral designer in a Thelma-and-Louise style?

It’s first of all not something that is going to happen overnight. Especially if you’re new to growing and have no sense of floral design, there are some things you’ll need to learn and keep in mind if you’re going to be successful (I am writing this so that you can be successful as a new grower, and assuming that you don’t have any existing relationships or history with other floral designers). 

FIRST, UNDERSTAND THE NEEDS OF A FLORAL DESIGNER

In order to understand the needs of your floral designer customer, you need to understand what their needs are. And to understand their needs, you need to understand what their goals and responsibilities are.

Once you understand this, it will help to create a framework to create a relationship that works for both you and them. And even if you’re intimidated by how amazing floral designers are (some serious baddies when it comes to not only creativity and art but also in terms of organization and execution) this can help you to become besties with them. 

Are you ready for it? To understand the ultimate goal of your floral designer customer?

Here it is: 

A floral designer needs to fulfill the contract they have with their customer. 

What’s that? Is that not what you were expecting?

Oh, I get it. You were expecting something lofty like ‘creating beauty and passion with floral artistry’. Or ‘changing the world, one stem at a time’. 

These are amazing overarching goals that floral designers may tell you, especially if they are trying to be impressive and project a certain image with potential clients (certain clients actually expect a floral designer to be so avante garde that they won’t look at anyone who doesn’t have a mysteriously awkward website and floral designs that are shot in hard light)

When you boil it down to the most simple and basic statement, that’s all it is. The floral designers' goal and responsibilities are to ensure that they can create arrangements to fulfill their clients needs. 

That could mean making a gorgeous and ethereal compote arrangement that is dripping with rare and beautiful, locally grown flowers. That could mean creating a massive hanging floral installation shaped like a cloud. 

And that could also mean that they need to make a bridal bouquet full of hydrangeas and spray roses in a tight little roundy-moundy that utilizes absolutely no locally grown flowers at all.

In order for you to have any sort of business or relationship with your floral designer, you’re going to have to offer them something that allows them to fulfill the contracts with their customer. 

From our time as floral designers, we have had clients with wildly different needs and wildly different preferences. Some clients wanted creative control down to the color of the eucalyptus in their arrangements, while other clients didn’t really care so long as it was beautiful and seasonal and locally grown. 

But at the end of the day, it didn’t matter what flowers necessarily were being used in the arrangements and installations so long as it was done and completed. That might as a floral designer require driving to every single grocery store to snap up every bunch of peonies you could find, or wading out into waist-deep water to harvest cattails, or utilizing a weedy grass going to seed as a filler for your centerpieces because the wholesaler shorted you a box of limonium. 

That contract the designer has with the client is the most important thing. And for your relationship and for your business to work with a floral designer, you have to supply them the thing that they need - floral materials that fulfill that contract. 

UNDERSTAND YOUR OFFERINGS

But in order to understand your floral designer’s floral material needs, you’re going to have to understand their business and their model. 

Does that sound like I’m asking you to do a full psych assessment on your potential floral design customer? Because I kind of am - you need to be able to think like a floral designer and understand their design style inside and out before you even think about sending them an email or cold-calling them. 

Think about if you had a business selling snorkeling equipment. Are you going to be traveling to Nebraska or South Dakota? I mean you could probably make some sales, but you would be much better off being in a place that is by the ocean like Hawaii or California. 

Similarly, if you were trying to sell ice cream from a food truck, you’re probably not going to have a lot of success in the middle of February in Minnesota. Yes, you may sell some, but you’re going to be much better off selling ice cream in downtown Minneapolis when it’s August and the humidity and heat are starting to get to folks. 

By understanding your floral designer and their needs and their clientele, you’ll be better able to position yourself to be able to provide flowers for their needs and goals. 

How do you do this? You can start by taking a look at their social media accounts or websites. Luckily these days, most floral designers have some sort of social media account or website that has photographs of their work you can take a look at. You can identify the flowers that are being used in their arrangements and then take note. 

A word of warning: if you see your floral designer using a lot of wholesale flowers like carnations and spray roses and mums, it may be hard for them to start using your local flowers on a regular basis because they are likely using wholesale flowers since they are 1) economical at a price you can’t afford to sell at, 2) are uniform and consistent in a way that you can’t necessarily guarantee and 3) are expecting a certain look that your locally grown flowers may not be able to offer. That’s not to say that these floral designers can’t become small part-time clients or be converted into using local flowers, but it may not be an easy sell right off the bat.

If on the other hand if you see a floral designer utilizing a lot of unique or rare flowers - fiddlehead ferns, unique colored lisianthus, chocolate cosmos, Icelandic poppies, proteas and so on, you may have a good potential client on your hands because they may be interested in the unique or rare flowers that you can provide them. 

It’s much easier to sell local flowers these days compared to previously - most floral designers at this point are at least aware of locally grown flowers and likely have some client demand for things like dahlias and tulips and ranunculus and lisianthus that may not be available through the wholesale chains. 

BUILDING THE RELATIONSHIP

Of course you can’t just plop down a bucket of flowers in a floral designer’s shop and expect them to buy them. They’ll be extremely suspicious of you at best, and at worst you will be a horribly intrusive distraction and interruption in their very busy day.

You have to be much more subtle. Think of yourself as trying to become a friend (or at least friendly) first and then once you’ve built that relationship you can start actually looking into create sales channels. 

You don’t have to be weird or dodgy about what you want - in fact, I would urge you to be transparent about what it is you do. Something along the lines of “I’m a local flower farmer and I’m wanting to get more local flowers into the world. I would love to be able to work together and be able to supply you flowers.”

See? Easy, simple, straightforward and friendly. And even though you’re trying to sell them stuff, you don’t do it yet because nobody likes to be sold stuff right from a cold-call or stop-in.

But it’s not over yet - this is just the beginning. You’re going to have to continue to build that relationship and keep their interest. And most of all, you’re going to have to build trust with that floral designer - because without trust, you don’t have anything. 

PROVE YOURSELF TO BE TRUSTWORTHY

When we think about someone being trustworthy - especially as a business - what do we think of?

Take for example, if you were taking your car to get the oil changed and the tires rotated to someone in town, you’re going to want to have someone that you can trust and is reliable. You don’t want to have someone doing shady stuff to your vehicle, nor do you want someone who is only available Tuesday through Thursday 11 AM to 3 PM - that just doesn’t work for most people. 

You’re going to want to go to the auto shop or business that takes care of you. They get your work done in a timely manner, treats you right, and are transparent and easy to work with. And once they do that, you’re going to want to keep going to them?

The biggest things I would recommend are reliability and volume. You need to have a reliable supply of flowers for floral designers to be able to pick from, and you need enough of them to make it worth their while. 

Nothing will lose you trust faster than if you overpromise and underdeliver. If you say you’re going to have five bunches of white zinnias, you’d better have five bunches of white zinnias in the most pristine condition ever. Not ivory, not yellow, not sunburnt or water spotted, not two weeks old, not bug-eaten, but good, useable product. 

You may get one chance to make a mistake. But even then, I’d recommend that you don’t make any mistakes - ever. Confirm and communicate, but never promise something that you can’t deliver. 

EXPAND YOUR SALES

You know how pretty much every streaming service and shopping service has recommendations these days? You watched this TV series, so you may also enjoy this? Or you looked at a toilet lid on Amazon and here are now fifty other toilet-related accessories or items that may be relevant for you?

We’re going to want to create that for your floral designer clients. Let’s say that your floral designer can’t get enough of your white zinnias - they rave just how well they pair with everything, how they are just so unique and beautiful and how long they last in the vase. 

That’s where you make note of this, and you start thinking about what other things you have in your field that they may find useful or enjoy. Let’s say that we run with the color white, and you check and see what else is white and blooming for you. 

And then you go back in and ask your client “Hey, do you have any more weddings that can use more white flowers coming up? I’ve got white scabiosa, white gomphrena, white dahlias and this really cool green and white variegated mint that smells like pineapple you might be interested in.” And then you get your phone out and start scrolling through pictures of the various white flowers and materials and you start getting your floral designer excited about it. 

Or, let’s say that you don’t have anything else white growing - but you do have some frosted explosion grass that is just starting to come into bloom, and you have some apple mint that is just gorgeous right now. That’s where you bring in some samples, like a salesperson selling makeup or carpet, and let your designer see the goods and find out if they’re interested in it. 

My caveat is that it does help if you have some floral design experience so that you know what pairs well together. I know that white zinnias pair well with the greens of frosted explosion grass and apple mint, but if you don’t know what pairs well together then sticking with related colors is a good start. 

This way, you can start making recommendations for your designer. The same way the algorithm can track and make educated suggestions based upon your browsing history, you can start suggesting material to your designers in the same way. 

SOLVE A CRISIS

You know what is great about being a flower farmer? A lot of times you have a lot of flowers or floral materials literally sitting around. The only other people in this world that have the same luxury are wholesalers. 

You know what’s also great about being a flower farmer? When your floral designer calls you in a panic because the wholesaler is out of a certain color or variety of flower and they desperately need to find something to substitute. Would you happen to have anything that would work for them?

Sometimes the answer is no - the roses have gone over, the sunflowers and dahlias aren’t ready yet, and you already promised the ranunculus to another floral designer. 

But sometimes the answer is yes - and better yet, you can have it cut and ready for them this evening. 

And then suddenly you become the hero of this story. Not only does it allow you to make a sale now, but it allows you to endear yourself to the floral designer client. You’ve just saved their bacon, and they now feel like they owe you.

It’s not about them owing you something, it’s about the fact that you were there for them when they needed you and you were able to help them out in a time of need. Even sometimes, if you aren’t able to help them with their material need but you were willing to take the time to see if something was available, that is enough for them to still be grateful that you were willing to help. And this is how you play the long game. Because to truly build a good relationship with a floral designer client, you have to be able to gain their trust and build familiarity and show that you’re willing to go the extra mile. That is how you win clients, that is how you build your reputation and your business, and that is how you ultimately become successful. 

And if you continue to grow your business and continue to grow your client list, you will find that you suddenly have so much demand that you can’t keep up with it. It takes time, but I’ve seen it happen again and again to where flower farmers go from having no sales to suddenly have a good steady stream of income just from selling to floral designers alone.

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Thanks again for reading! Talk soon flower friends :)

Kee-ju & Steven