Everything I've Learnt about Ordering Flowers for Valentine's Day

For florists, a flower order can make or break your whole day. When it comes to an occasion like Valentine’s Day or Mother's Day, your order could mean perfection, profitable, enjoyable, or it could be a sweaty mess of rose thorns and tears.

I've been going and ordering from the flower markets for 12 years now and I've learnt that there are some simple strategies that you can use to make sure that you have a higher rate of success in getting your flowers.

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, I wanted to share with you my top 5 tips for ordering flowers to make February 14th as smooth as possible:

Be Specific

Be as specific as possible. If you know the exact colour or variety, if you know how long you want your stem lengths, how big you want the flower heads, if you want the petals to be variegated, if you want a pompom dahlia or a spider dahlia, give the details! Sometimes my orders are SO ridiculously specific, for example: “Short, white, fluffy, large headed dahlias. 10 in a bunch” or maybe I'll simply list the number of stems required.

The more specific you are, the more likely the grower is going to get you exactly what you want. Don't be afraid to put details in there. Even if it's just to say, “As tall as possible, please and thankyou!"

Be Flexible

Having a flexible mindset when you're ordering flowers and recognising that the grower is just going to get you as close to your order as possible.

Flowers are very temperamental, they can be affected by a storm the day before or by other people's orders. If your grower says they can't get you that exact colour, but they can get you with something very similar or get you that colour in a different flower that's going to still allow you to deliver the brief, that's a massive win (and much better than being short on your order)/

Being flexible and working WITH your grower is going to help you out so much more in the long run.

Be Open to Substitution

Substitutions are a godsend and having them ready for your grower so they can straight away substitute your order, means that you know you're going to get your quantities and you know you're going to get something that aligns with your order and the colour palette and what you're delivering.

For example, if I wanted to order beautiful, fluffy dahlias in pink, but I wasn't sure if the grower was definitely going to be able to provide those for me, I could ask them to substitute in peonies or roses, carnations or something else that's big and fluffy, even hydrangea.
Think of any other flower that could deliver the same look but still be able to still carry the look of your brief.

I like to offer 2-3 substitutions. That way, when the grower is packing your order, if they realise they don’t have the exact colour, there’s a suggested substitution to replace it straight away.

When you don’t offer a substitute list, the risk is that the grower will substitute the flower and they will guess. But, they might not know what you're actually trying to achieve.

I've had some interesting substitutions in the past, so now I like to offer my own substitutions. 

Send Reference Images

This can communicate so much more than words. If you're saying ‘peach’ or ‘watermelon’ or ‘blush pink’, send an image for the grower to understand the colour palette.

This goes the same if you're saying a specific type of flower. Sometimes they have different names for flowers and might not know exactly whet you're asking for. They may need to understand what variegation you want in the colours, the height, size or texture of the petals. If you have any photos or references, send them through.

Alternatively, if you have the mood board of your job, shoot them a screensho. That way they know if it works in with the whole vibe or not. So, if they're finding a substitute, they can see straight away that the reference image does not align, and they can choose another flower.

Get Your Order in Early

The earlier you can get it in, the better. That way the grower can let you know if these options are available, if you need to substitute them out, and sometimes they can even give you better pricing, and that way you know that your order is more likely to come through.

Valentine's Day orders are known for being placed a month early, so you can be popping your orders in straight away. Even if it's just a vague order or confirming if a certain variety will be available. You can then go and add more to your order later on, but get your must haves ordered straight away.

If you want to know some more information on my top tips for ordering flowers for Valentine's Day, I've created a handy little free guide for you to download. It includes an order recipe template and email template, so that you can get your orders the way that I order. Which is the way I order every single week.

Nail your orders so that you don't have to stress about this part of the Valentine's Day prep. It's all taken care of. Happy flowering and good luck this V-Day flower lovers!