Floral Knowledge= Lifetime of Enjoyment

Did you know that you should leave the bulb on the stem of a Hyacinth when you put it in a vase?  The basal plate at the bottom of the bulb continues to absorb water and nutrients and can prolong the beautiful blooms even longer.
Did you also know that Hyacinth has a powerful, sweet fragrance that's reminiscent of gardenia or plumeria?

Well, I didn't either!

But I do now.  This little tidbit of floral education is just one of the many perks that happened when I joined the team at Sun Valley. I came into this business bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, with an average appreciation for flowers and a black thumb to boot. But all the flower knowledge I've gained has converted me into an avid lover of flowers and even inspired me to grow my own garden.

Through my personal transformation into a floral butterfly, I see an opportunity for the rest of the floral industry:

Gift a person flowers, they have a flowers for a week.  Teach them about flowers, and they enjoy them for a lifetime.

Like the old fishing adage, we can appeal to those who aren't already in love with flowers by educating them. Reach them by teaching them!

I'm walking (and talking) proof that an otherwise non-committal window shopper can be converted into a regular floral consumer just by learning a bit more about those pretty little mood enhancers. My romance with flowers is directly correlated to my increasing knowledge about them. And the more I know, the more I want to learn. The more I learn, the more I love flowers! This principle can be applied to all potential floral consumers. The tricky part is understanding what exactly they need or want to know to make the same transition.

People don't want to be left in the dark.  They want to know where their flowers come from, how they're grown and where they end up.  This is one of the reasons why the #Americangrown and #CAgrown movement, along with the Field-to-Vase aesthetic, is so strong.

In addition to farming and growing practices, there is A LOT to know about flowers.  Six months ago I certainly couldn't have told you what each flower symbolizes, their history, their country of origin, or which ones were appropriate for certain occasions. On top of that, there are the more practical educational bits, such as: what prolongs vase life, which ones smell the strongest, and what the heck is Lisianthus, anyways?

THIS is a lisianthus!

That's why it is important to reach out and offer information, photos, and educational tidbits about the flowers that we already love so much. These educational bites can be as simple as flower care tips or as complicated as a breakdown of the year-round tulip growing process. The point is to give people a sense of floral competency through the acquisition of knowledge.
 

Let's go one step further than telling people that flowers are great. Let's teach them about flowers, so they can bloom into flower enthusiasts as well!

If you have any questions about flowers, please let me know in the Comments!