Avante Gardens Florist, Anaheim, CA - Orange County Florist Since 1984

Valentine’s Day Flowers Adwords: Feasting on the Bones of Local Florists

avantegardens — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 05:37:00 GMT

Valentine’s Day Flowers Adwords: Feasting on the Bones of Local Florists

Vultures. It’s the only way I can think to describe Google’s Adwords ads this past Valentine’s Day holiday.

‘Don’t be evil’ flew out the window and Google opened it even wider for the birds of prey to strip consumers and local flower shops of their hard-earned dollars.

First, we had ProFlowers telling shoppers seeking local florists BY NAME in Google searches that the stores were sold out of flowers. It’s a completely despicable ad tactic that diverted consumers by lying about local flower shop inventories. Despite having plenty of beautiful blooms for Valentine’s Day, the drop-shipper tried to suck in late buyers by falsifying the flower availability at these shops. Shame on Liberty Media. Shame on ProFlowers. And shame on the Google staffers who approved those ads.

Lots of local florists took note of the ad scams and thankfully, a few others blogged about it.

Next, we had buyers looking for local neighborhood flower shops using Google’s Maps. ‘Search nearby’ produced Map balloons that included not only our own company data, but contained ads for ‘national florists’.

I spent just shy of 23 minutes with a single customer trying to convince her she wasn’t looking at our website. She’d mapped her friend’s location and then found our Anaheim flower shop nearby. She had unsuspectingly clicked the ‘ad’ link in the bubble, not realizing she’d been taken to a ‘national’ (relay company) advertiser site rather than out locally-focused selection of products.

The way I finally convinced her she was looking at an order gatherer site was to tell her our Saturday deliveries cost the same as weekdays. ( The ‘national’ site charged a premium price for weekend delivery) ... so she finally conceded she’d been duped.

Loads of local florists are going through this time-consuming exercise daily.

Google has long been a company I’ve respected, but this holiday they put ad dollars way, way ahead of truthful advertising and consumer/user interest.

Google: Don’t tell your users drop-shippers are ‘located nearby’ and don’t let advertisers misrepresent the inventories of real local florists.

Both are evil and are far more vulture-like than the Google brand I’ve respected for many years. Lose the trust of local businesses... and buyers...and you lose a whole lot.

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One Last Expression of Love

avantegardens — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 01:57:00 GMT

As florists, we get to be a small part of many of life’s most memorable moments – births, weddings, celebrations, anniversaries, graduations and so many more special occasions… yet it’s often the expressions of love and remembrance during times of loss that touch us most.

Last week, our shop created a flower arrangement for one of the most memorable requests we’ve ever designed.

A customer called asking us to make something really special, really beautiful… and that’s a request we hear daily. It was the circumstance of the order that made it so incredibly memorable.

Her uncle knew he was in his last days of life. Before he died, he requested his family arrange for his beloved wife to receive a large bouquet … the day after he passed from this earth…and that a special letter he’d written her be delivered with the flowers. He wanted to make sure she received one last love note from him.

What a beautiful way to express his love... and their unforgettable life together.

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Google Business Photos Visits Our Flower Shop

avantegardens — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 21:22:00 GMT

I was working from home on Wednesday and received a call from the shop telling me a photographer from Google had stopped in and wanted to shoot our store. Even though I was aware Google had a newish program regarding Business Photos for Place Pages, (having read about it on Mike Blumenthal's excellent blog) we never applied to participate - and my initial reaction was one of skepticism. Too many less-than-honest companies have been using Google's name to market their small business services for us to just accept these kinds of offers at face value.

Thursday morning, Kim - the photographer - again visited our shop and she was wearing a shirt with the Google logo. She noted the 'We're A Google Favorite Place' decal on our front door and smiled. Sure enough, Kim is part of a team working here in Orange County and they're attempting to capture the in-store flavor of local businesses.

We received a document describing the program and set an appointment time for her to return Friday afternoon to take the pictures. Gotta say that having at least a day to 'fluff up' the shop a bit gave us the comfort level cushion to say 'yes'. Am guessing other business owners likely feel the same way.

Since I closely follow the happenings in Local Search (and have been delighted to participate in David Mihm's Local Search Ranking Factors survey the last couple years), I was curious how the other businesses in our neighborhood were responding to this offer. As with many other opportunities on the web, it sounds as if the owners who use the internet infrequently don't quite understand how search engines and search marketing on the desk-top and mobile web are impacting their businesses - positively and/or negatively.

Kim is precisely the kind of representative Google should have on the street visiting local businesses. She's well-spoken, thorough, approachable and easy mannered. Her confident, professional demeanor has no-doubt lead more owners to say 'yes'.

I asked if we could take a photo of her taking photos. She got clearance 'from above' (Mountain View ;) ) so here's a shot of her with the still camera capturing an image of our tropical flowers.

A couple key points:

- Kim (and I presume other photographers) have a pre-set list of businesses to contact. Companies in our neighborhood not appearing on the list could only apply for a future opportunity.
- The photographers are using two different types of cameras and both are described in the FAQ.
- The sessions takes about an hour.
- Businesses who agree to participate can delete the images from our Place Pages if we don't like them.
- There's currently no time-line stated as to when the photos will appear on our Place Page.
- Software will automatically blur faces, but customers still need to grant permission to be included in the photos.

We're looking forward to seeing which shots make our page. It hasn't been updated much by us since late '08 and early '09 when our listing completely disappeared for 3 months. Updating info can have unintended consequences - just ask Matt McGee - and we don't want to go through that again.

I'm also curious what other uses these photos might have in the future - alluded to in the FAQ:

24. Will Google be using the business photos in other applications besides Place Pages?

Google is committed to continually innovating, and we're always looking for new ways to make business information more useful and accessible to our users. In doing so, we may create new applications that use the business photos we take at your premises. Your consent to allow Google's photographers to take business photos will also be used for these applications.

Click on a product display area and then be offered items in the category for purchase via Google Shopping? Image search for business so users can quickly compare storefronts, interiors and customary inventory? Any other ideas?

If you're a small business owner and get the opportunity to participate in Google Business Photos - take it. It's easy, quick and best-of-all...free. Hopefully you'll be lucky enough to get a visit from Kim or someone just like her. :)

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Local Memorial Day Services

avantegardens — Sat, 29 May 2010 20:47:00 GMT

On this holiday weekend, the Avante Gardens team wants to take a moment to remind our readers what the celebration of Memorial Day is really about: commemorating the men and women who gave their lives in military service of our country.

Many local Orange County cemeteries will be holding Memorial Day services on Monday including:

Magnolia Memorial Park -12241 Magnolia Street, Garden Grove - 10:00 a.m. (The memorial wreath we designed for their 2009 service is pictured above.)

Loma Vista Memorial Park - 701 E Bastanchury Rd, Fullerton - 10:00 a.m.

Anaheim Cemetery - 1400 E. Sycamore Street, Anaheim - 11:00 a.m.

Fairhaven Memorial Park & Mortuary - 1702 Fairhaven Avenue, Santa Ana - 10:30 a.m.

Holy Sepulcher Cemetery - 7845 Santiago Canyon Rd, Orange - Outdoor Mass and Service - 10:00 a.m.

Memory Garden Memorial Park - 455 W Central Ave, Brea - 11:00 a.m.

We honor the men and women who have so bravely given their lives to preserve our freedom.

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Prom Flowers and Leis

avantegardens — Thu, 20 May 2010 14:07:00 GMT

Corsages and Boutonnieres

Just a quick note to let our readers know we've been updating our flower shop website and have added online ordering of prom flowers, corsages and boutonnieres. Our florist has had so many inquiries from prom-goers about the custom corsage and boutonniere gallery in our blog, we thought adding an online ordering feature would help showcase the most popular designs, styles and colors for the 2010 dance season.

Most popular prom corsage colors? Purple, black, white, aqua and silver.

Most popular flowers? Orchids! including dendrobiums, phalaenopsis and mokaras

Most popular wrist corsage accessories? Gems, rhinestones and feathers.

With all the planning that goes into prom fashions, wearing flowers that reflect the styles and colors of the gowns and accessories adds that essential, personalized finishing touch.

Fresh Flower Leis

For graduation season, we've also expanded our catalog of fresh flower leis for delivery in Anaheim, Fullerton, Anaheim Hills and most Orange County cities and are offering a special value this week during the Cal State Fullerton graduation ceremonies of single dendrobium orchid leis with a cash and carry price of just $14.95. Online shoppers can take advantage of this great savings value by using coupon code GREATLEI when ordering for in-store pickup.

Unique, premium orchid leis are now in stock, too.

Please phone us at (714) 635-4800 for a list of the current colors and styles of these stunning fresh flower leis and remember to order early as supplies are limited.

Don't see your favorite corsage, boutonniere or lei? Give us a call and we'll be happy to custom design the perfect flower accessories for your prom or graduation ceremony.

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Battle of the Flower Designers: Championship Round

avantegardens — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 04:49:00 GMT

We've made our way up through the March Madness Battle of the Flower Designers brackets and are now in the Championship Round! Videos have been uploaded both from our Anaheim flower shop:

And the team from Belvedere Flowers in Philadelphia PA:

Cast your vote here.

Each finalist was allowed to present a 'designer's choice' arrangement and we used the Glee cast's version of 'Defying Gravity' as the inspiration for our finale entry. (Can you tell how much we love Glee since we used music from the show in each of our videos?)

The arrangement features gorgeous pastel tropical flowers from Green Point Nurseries including upright and hanging heliconias, ginger, king proteas, anthuriums and monstera, ti and areca palm leaves. My favorite accent materials were the epidendron orchids cut right from our garden.

The prop to hang our suspended design is truly vintage since my husband Phil had it custom built in 1978 when he competed in the Atlanta Invitational Competition. (I think that makes the prop older than Adam from Belvedere. Ha!)

The entire design, more than 5 feet in overall height and 3 1/2 feet in width, is constructed in an Oasis CORSO Holder (a 1/2 block of caged floral foam) so the large stems and sheer volume of flowers presented a real challenge. And then there was the weight balancing issue to further push the limits.

It was fun to include my family at the end of the video. They inspire me to do my very best every day and I am truly blessed in so many ways.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank the 'families' from both the flower shop and the floral design school who truly contribute to our success every day. So here's a big thanks to Gordon (camera-man extraordinaire), Judi, Nid, Manny, Mary, Phan and Darlynn for all you do. Your commitment to delivering 'Wow' shows in everything you touch.

This competition has been great fun and we're delighted to have been able to showcase part of our design thought processes - and to share our passion for unique floral designs.

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Battle of the Flower Designers Competition

avantegardens — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:52:00 GMT

It’s been almost 2 decades since I last entered a floral design competition but one of the young designers at FlowerChat.com asked us to be part of a fun March Madness Floral Design Challenge so we agreed… in part to encourage more local florists to show their own work in social media and in part to make me finally learn how to use my cute little Flip.

The challenge required each entrant to create an arrangement using the following flowers:

- 5 tulips
- 5 gerbera daisies
- 3 hydrangeas
- 7 roses
- 5 snapdragons
- 3 dendrobium orchids
- 1/4 bunch of statice
- 7 carnations
- 4 types of greens (foliages of choice)
- 1 twig-type material (birch, curly willow, pussy willow, flowering branches)

We had to use all the flowers on the list but could select our own color palettes, foliages and containers – giving us plenty of leeway to show our own signature styles.

Each designer filmed and uploaded his/her entry to YouTube where it could be reviewed and then submitted for voting.

Rather than just video taping the arrangement from different angles, I included a little bit of information about our Anaheim flower shop, my foliage selection process and our philosophy on floral design. So here’s our first foray with the Flip and Windows Movie Maker:

And a static shot of one side of the flower arrangement:

We're competing against the talented designer at Affairs to Remember in Melrose, MA who managed to garner some fantastic local coverage about the floral design competition on Wicked Local's Melrose edition.

Vote in the Battle of the Flower Designers here.

In all, 8 florists are vying for this March Madness prize and you can view the videos and vote in the other head-to-head competitions by following the links below:

Hollyhocks Flowers and Gifts, St. Louis, MO vs Twig Flowers, Yerington, NV View videos and vote

Everyday Flowers, Tustin, CA vs Mums and More, Wagner, SD View videos and vote

Anytime Flowers, St. Paul. MN vs Belvedere Flowers, Havertown - Philadelphia, PA View videos and vote

Congratulations to all who entered. Break a stem.

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Organic Center VIP Dinner Flowers

avantegardens — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 05:21:00 GMT

For the third consecutive year, we’re delighted to have been selected by the Organic Center to create the floral designs for their VIP Dinner in conjunction with the Expo West Natural Products Show.

Each year the flowers have been donated by OrganicBouquet.com and we’ve had the privilege of designing and delivering the more than 50 centerpieces for this prestigious event to the Anaheim Marriott Hotel. This year, the flower selection was an assortment of organic roses. (In previous years, we’ve used roses, tulips and gerbera daisies.)

A new twist was added when the recycled glass artisans of BottleHood.com agreed to provide all the vessels for the event - so each centerpiece was designed in a re-purposed wine bottle hand-crafted to be a flower vase.

If you’re ever tried to take wine bottles to a recycler in California, you know glass wine and spirits containers are not accepted (a real disappointment) so it’s great to see a company utilizing the containers in a both useful and attractive way They do more than wine bottles so be sure to look at their site for some clever vases from your favorite spirit companies.

Our Avante Gardens design team added structures of curly willow with light touches of lily grass to the bottle-vases and organic roses to deliver eco-chic and environmentally-friendly centerpieces to this special event.

The speaker’s podium at the Organic Center’s VIP Dinner was also accented with a collection of elevated BootleHood vases and organic roses accented with curly willow and river rocks.

We salute the Organic Center for all their fine work on behalf of the public and thank them for choosing us and eco-friendly flowers and containers to add to the beauty of their very special event.

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Flowers for Expo West - the Natural Products Show

avantegardens — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:07:00 GMT

One of our favorite trade shows returned to Anaheim this weekend - Natural Products Expo West. The massive show utilizes the entire Anaheim Convention Center and adjacent hotels, features more than 1700 exhibitors of organic, natural and healthy products and drew more than 50,000 attendees in 2009.

The companies and groups represented are ‘green’ through and through (both in products and practices) and many utilize flowers and plants in their show displays to convey their ‘fresh’ commitment to consumers and our environment.

We thought you might like to see a few of the fresh flower selections delivered to these fine participants.

Amy’s Kitchen

The leading provider of frozen organic foods, Amy’s Kitchen requested we create designs to match their warm, vibrant booth color palette. Their team provided us with unique vintage containers and vases and selected bright green hypericum berries, bupleurum and orchids with vermillion roses plus coordinating seasonal flowers. The style was soft and casual with a fresh garden feel.

Bionorica

An internationally recognized brand of plant-based remedies, Bionorica asked us feature a wildflower theme in their blue, lavender, white and green colors. Seasonal California grown flowers were the perfect choice with blossoms like delphinium, bupleurum, montecasino, campanula, hypericum berries, veronica and gerberas. Accented with grasses and submerged leaves, the arrangements were abundant in a fresh, casual style.

PetGuard

The leading manufacturer of organic products for cats and dogs, PetGuard featured their product colors of purple, red and black. Bright purple phalaenopsis orchid plants in black cube vases and casual table arrangements of red gerberas and hypericum with purple montecasino and matsumoto asters were selected to accent their contemporary booth decor.

Loose bunches of blooms like cherry blossoms, tulips, hydrangeas and orchids were also selected by a large number of exhibitors so we know Expo West was quite flowerful this year.

Most popular booth flower in 2010? Fresh California bupleurum for its ‘wildflower’ texture and vibrant chartreuse blossoms.It's a fantastic and versatile 'green' flower.

At Avante Gardens Florist, we feature flowers from Veriflora and Florverde certified flower farms and are committed to providing our customers with flowers from socially responsible and environmentally sustainable growers. Eco-friendly for both you and us.

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Local Florists vs Online Florists

avantegardens — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 06:50:00 GMT

Kudos to Bob Sullivan of MSNBC for his well written article about online flower companies' low-ball flower prices loaded with hidden fees: Online Flower Prices Still Grow and Grow.

"If you study hidden fees and price distortions for a living, Valentine's Day is your Super Bowl. Can you name another industry where the true price of an item is routinely more than double the advertised price? Yet that's precisely what you'll encounter this week"

Uh-huh, the marketing practices do smell really bad - and leave shoppers paying more for less.

And every year we read the pages of post-holiday complaints that fill consumer review sites. No doubt, this year will be the same, if not worse, due to the weekend holiday and its delivery issues.

When last I checked, there were 126 comments to Mr. Sullivane's article: some from consumers, some from obvious shills and many from local florists. One comment really inspired me to write this post and it came from a person who claims to have worked for one of the online compaines:

"I worked both sales and customer service. We do try to offer products that of high quality for a reasonable price. However, we are at the mercy of the local florist that we contract with to do the order as requested."

You have got to be kidding me. "at the mercy of local florists"? She has it entirely backwards. Due to the marketing clout of that online company, local florists often feel at the mercy of her former company - with photos of arrangements that cannot be made 'as shown' in real flower shops - which is why local florists have been quitting the network at a speedier pace.

During this 'no service charge' advertising period of the Valentine's holiday, many of these local florist affiliates will only be paid about $30 to make and hand-deliver $50 consumer purchases - as mandated by the company. Decline to fill the orders for those prices and florists can and will be cut off from most future orders. Now who is at whose mercy?

The corporate side of most flower affiliate marketing isn't much different than the commenter (ex-employee) to the MSNBC article - top-down with little feedback from local affiliates - it's just they don't post their contempt.

Will the low-priced deals be enough to lure shoppers? For a glimpse at a consumer perspective, read this recent post from the Orange County Register's OC Deals Blog: What Do You Think About 1-800-Flowers?

Bottom line: go direct, go local, save loads of fees (service fee, handling fee, relay fee, same-day fee, rush delivery fee) and get what you purchased without all the small print about substitutions and all the credit card slam scams.

Know who's really delivering your flowers without all the smoke and mirrors and get a pretty Valentine's Day arrangement delivered - as promised - at a good value. :)

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Valentine's Day Flowers for Anaheim and Orange County

avantegardens — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 06:23:00 GMT

Just a quick reminder that Avante Gardens Florist will be delivering Valentine's Day flowers on both Saturday, February 13 and Sunday, February 14 to Anaheim, Fullerton, Brea, Anaheim Hills, Fullerton, Placentia, Yorba Linda, Orange, Tustin, Villa Park, Irvine and most Orange County cities - for only $8.95 to $11.95 and that's a huge savings over 'online only florists' whose delivery and service fees will average $25 to $35 just to get the flowers delivered.

We're confident you can find the perfect gift for your Valentine in our wide selection of styles and prices including

Orchid designs from just $34.95

Dozen rose arrangements from just $54.95

Contemporary Tropical Arrangements from just $49.95

Plus our ever-popular Valentine's Day Puppy Flowers

Order online at AvanteGardens.com or give us a call at 714.635.4800 and we'll make sure your Valentine gets great flowers - on time - at a great value.

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We're a Google Favorite Place

avantegardens — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 04:06:00 GMT

The buzz about Google sending out Favorite Places packets with window decals to 100,000 of the “most sought out and researched businesses on Google and Google Maps” began last Monday with an announcement on the Official Google Blog.

Actually, I first read about the Google Favorite Places campaign on Mike Blumenthal’s blog, which covers the ins, outs, ups and downs of Local Search. (If you are a small business owner who cares about what’s happening on the topic – and you should - add him to your feed reader today.)

I kept crossing my fingers, hoping we’d get one. I mean… how cool to be called out as a Google Favorite Place among the millions of small businesses in the US.

At Avante Gardens Florist, we’ve worked hard to distinguish our Orange County CA company from the myriad ‘online florists’ (out-of-state call centers) and franchise type flower shops who have a look of sameness. We focus on Local, since that’s where we can best control the quality, uniqueness and service our customers expect… so being found by people searching for a local florist in Anaheim and the surrounding areas is extremely important. We want to actually provide the flowers, not just shuffle orders off to someone else after we take a big commission and fees cut.

Christmas 2008 was especially tough because this time last year, we weren’t even showing in the Google Local business listings. Our flower shop’s identity, a listing claimed a couple years earlier, had been mistakenly merged with the listing of my husband’s school of floral design, which is located next door to our shop. (They teach, we don’t. We deliver, they don’t.) It took months for us to get the two companies separated and for our shop’s LBC listing to reappear.

Fast forward to Monday… a stack of mail looking like advertisements… and there it was, “Congratulations! You’re a Favorite Place on Google” right on the front of the envelope. (Yes, I did stroll through the shop singing “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”)

Miriam of the SEO Igloo blog thoughtfully queried the potential reasons why a visitor might scan one of the Google’s Favorite Places posters (which was placed on our front door about 5 minutes after the envelope was opened) and all I can say is an echo of Blumenthal's comment to her post:

“They are giving a nice recognition to those folks that have been both active in the LBC and have benefited from…ie their supporters. They are more likely to sing its praises than most.”

So I’m singing. (BTW, also add Miriam’s blog to your feed reader. She’s a fabulous writer covering Local Search.)

Gotta say though, I was hoping for a bigger poster,

but we’re tickled with the one we got.

I know of one other florist in Orange County receiving the designation, Everyday Flowers in Tustin, whose owners Eric & Linh Shaw also hold the same philosophy we do: focus on being a uniquely Local florist.

Via FlowerChat, an online community for professional florists, the following local flower shops have also been name Favorite Places:

Central Square Florist, Cambridge MA

Powdersville Wren Florist, Piedmont SC

Maine Bride, Portland ME

Bloom'in Bee, Aurora CO

Coleman Florist, De Witt and Syracuse NY

Chez Bloom, St. Louis Park MN

Affairs to Remember, Melrose MA

Avenue Gardens Florist, Wilson NC

Flowers From The Rainflorist, Sunrise FL

Bloomers Floral Design, Wilmington NC

Harkins the Florist, New Orleans LA

Smith's Flowers, Midland MI

Ferrari Florist and Gifts, Santa Cruz CA

Design Perfected, Denver CO

Flowers By Karen, Monroe WA

Herndon Florist, Herndon VA

Debbie's Bloomers, El Paso, TX

Millinocket Floral Shop, Millinocket ME

Sprout Flowers, Worcester MA

Mioux Florist & Greenhouse, Carlysle IL

Blooms on the Squaer and C's Florist, Carrollton TX

The Garden Gate Flower & Gift Shoppe, Cedar Rapids IA

Sherry's Flower Shoppe, Orland Park, IL

Chappell's Florist, Burlington VT

Thornapple Floral, Middlevale MI

To read more about how local businesses might make the Favorite Places list, be sure to check out Matt McGee’s Small Business SEM blog (and definitely add his blog to your feed reader, too.)

I haven’t been able to scan the window decals bar code yet and am offering a free dozen long stem roses arrangement to the first visitor who can read it with an Android or iPhone, so come on down! We’re also offer a free gift to anyone who scans the decal between now and January 31.

And a big thanks! to Google and the users who put us on the Favorite Places list.

(florist list updated 1/13)

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Christmas Flowers Hands-On Workshop Dec. 12

avantegardens — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:56:00 GMT

Deck your house with boughs of holly and bouquets of flowers this year and immerse yourself in the holiday spirit!

We’re pleased to announce our first-ever Christmas flowers hands-on workshop in conjunction with our sister company, the Southern California School of Floral Design.

Many of our customers have visited the floral design school, located adjacent to our Anaheim flower shop, and watched students from across the US being trained for careers as professional floral designers.

Now it’s your opportunity to have fun creating fresh flower designs to decorate your own home or to give as gifts to friends.

This one-day workshop, held Saturday, December 12 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. is geared for both beginners (with no previous floral design experience) and also includes advanced options for attendees with design training.

Each attendee will create four beautiful Christmas arrangements:
- a fresh Wreath
- a Door Swag
- a Christmas Table Centerpiece
- a holiday Topiary using fresh winter foliages, flowers, ribbons and accessories

The workshop cost of $199 includes all flowers, greens, containers, accessories and instruction. Bring your own tools (knife, scissors & wire cutters) or purchase them at the beginning of the workshop.

This special hands-on Christmas Flowers workshop is limited to 16 attendees and you can Register Online or call the school at (714) 776-7445 to reserve your spot.

Come join the fun and learn how to create holiday magic with flowers.

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Fear the Florist Will Ruin the Surprise?

avantegardens — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 16:53:00 GMT

Like thousands of florists, we request the phone numbers of recipients when flower orders are placed - just in case we need to contact them in the course of making the deliveries. Previous posts about the topic explain why we sometimes call the recipient first (from Bloomery's blog) and detail some of the unique flower delivery issues we face here in Orange County.

We flower shops are keenly aware gift givers complain about florists who ruin the surprise by phoning ahead of the delivery, but sometimes it's unavoidable - especially if the delivery address is incorrect or incomplete.

Lately, we've noticed more customers giving us their own phone numbers as the recipients' numbers and this practice has delayed some time-sensitive flower gifts (especially Birthday flowers) from being delivered promptly.

Just recently, we received an online order for birthday flowers and balloons and the purchaser gave his own phone number instead of the recipient's. The address provided for the recipient was incorrect, with the street name being the same as a street in an adjacent city and similar to a street in the same city but in a different zip code. We started calling the customer at 10am and left several message plus an email to request a call back to get the proper address and/or a phone number.

As it was getting later in the day, we sent out a driver to attempt delivery at the possible locations, but no one was home and the information available at the houses lead us to believe these too were not correct. We really tried - because we know how cool it is to get flowers on your birthday.

Finally at close to 6 p.m., after our delivery team had left for the day, the customer called to say he'd been in meetings all day and hadn't had the time to return our calls. He said he hadn't given us the recipient's phone number because he didn't want the surprise ruined. He then gave us the correct address and phone number and the order was rescheduled for the next day's delivery. Per his request, we did phone the Birthday Girl to tell her flowers would arrive the next morning and were delayed due to an incorrect address.

Trust me when I tell you that flowers that miss the birthday are far more disappointing than having the surprise ruined by a phone call. Having a direct phone number to each recipient is an important tool to help us get your thoughtful flower gift delivered on time.

If you're concerned about a call being made in advance, try the following:

Provide the florist with the phone number and request the recipient not be called in advance. The florist will then have a number for a follow-up in case no one answers the door. (We're amazed that people don't stay home all day waiting for flowers, but it happens. ;) )

And do remember, even if you know you're getting flowers a little in advance, you'll still have the delight of receiving them, reading the personal message sent along with the bouquet, enjoying their fragrance and color for days, and remembering the thoughtfulness for a lifetime. :)

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Shades of Surprise: When Rose Colors Aren't an Exact Match

avantegardens — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 15:04:00 GMT

If you are a bride combing through images on the web in search of the perfect flower color varieties to match your wedding, here's a quick lesson in rose color variation.

Popular sites like SierraFlowerFinder.com display thousands of flower photos by variety and can be quite helpful by letting you see color options and seasonal availability - but be sure to remember four key points if you expect exact color matches:

When it comes to roses, the same variety can produce subtle color variations depending on the season and growing conditions.
Different flower growers from different parts of the world can and do produce slight color variations of the exact same variety
The stage of 'openness' of a rose can affect the color.
Your PC monitor may not be calibrated properly and could slightly distort the actual color.

Case in point: We recently received numerous bunches of White Majolika spray roses to use in wedding bouquets and reception centerpieces. Their creamy color and high petal count make them a favorite to use in both personal flowers (bouquets and boutonnieres) and reception decor. As we processed and hydrated the shipment, we realized the importer had sent is White Majolikas from two different growers. There was slight but noticeable difference in the bunches, with one grower's blooms displaying slight pinky peach center petals and the other showing a more consistent cream-ivory color throughout the blooms.

We gave the 'colored' bunches a little more time to open and they did indeed lighten over the course of a few days. Both fit well with the creaminess of the larger 'Vendella' roses also being featured in the designs. From a photographic standpoint, the slight color differences even helped make the cream flowers add visual depth and dimension when paired with crisp white flowers like hydrangeas.

We sometimes hear concerns from brides about matching exact colors and gently remind each that nature doesn't usually produce 'exact matches', only factories do. Since fresh flowers aren't stamped out in an assembly line, there's going to be some subtle variation.

So allow for a bit of leeway, choose tints, tones and shades that coordinate with your color theme and celebrate the inherent beauty fresh flowers bring to your wedding.

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