Flower Mixology

The flower business has its own bouquet terminology which can get distilled even more by individual flower companies, florists, designers, and wholesalers.  This can be quite confusing for the layperson as well as the expert, so today we break down flower purchasing terminology and dive into how each floral component acts like a flavorful ingredient in Flower Mixology. 

The Terminology

At Sun Valley Floral Farms we sell flowers a few different ways:

• Consumer Bunch (aka simple bunch): Typically 3-20 stems of a single flower, such as 5-stem bunch of Asiatic Lilies, or a 10-stem bunch of tulips.
• Enhanced Bunch: Like a consumer bunch, but enhanced with greens, or paired with another flower or specialty branch.
• Botanicals and Specialty Branches: These bunches include items such as brassica, crocosmia, dianthus, hypericum, and ilex--these are textural, focal fillers.  In a mixed bouquet, they bring a lot of color, contrast, and texture, and make arrangements feel full and complete.  They tend to have the longest vase life out of any flower (useful for progressive bouquets, see below!).
• Greens:  Foliage fillers, such as salal, horsetails, bear grass, huckleberry, and woodwardia.
• Mixed Bouquets:  Designer bouquets created by our Sun Pacific division.  Usually based on a theme (color, emotion, holiday, etc) and built with a mixture of flowers, botanicals, and greens to represent that theme.

Floral "ingredients"

This kind of floral breakdown allows our customers to cater their order depending on what their customers want.  So what do your customers buy? Do they go for the single variety in a vase?  Do they buy a few different varieties/colors and make their own arrangements? Do they buy pre-made bouquets and call it good? Do they ask for ideas?


There are hundreds of variables in arrangement and bouquet building, and endless possibilities for buying and selling your flowers.  This is all part of the art (and fun) of Flower Mixology.

Flower Mixology

We can thank the culture of social sharing for the do-it-yourself (DIY) trend which has been steadily growing for a decade. This movement encourages people from all walks of life to do-it-yourself, get your hands dirty, learn a new skill (and then show it off!). I love this trend as I myself am a DIYer and will try my hand at almost anything--whether it be flower arranging, replacing the starter in my car, or building a mini-greenhouse (thanks YouTube!).  Enter Flowers: The DIYers are your flower mixologists who will be purchasing multiple bunches of various varieties, enhanced bunches, botanicals, and greens.  For your customer, the best thing about flower mixology is the freedom to experiment, the adventure of trying something new and to have fun along the way.  For you, it is the opportunity to educate, provide resources, and to turn someone from an occasional flower buyer into a flower enthusiast.  Encourage their interest with educational how-to cards, color-wheels, and all the tools they need to build their own brilliant bouquet.  Below are some flower mixology ideas and trends that you can use to your advantage, or at the very least, have fun yourself!

•  Color-Blocking: Color-blocking takes bold, contrasting colors and puts them together en masse, usually with a defined line (see Green Ball Dianthus arrangements below).  This could

  

  Color-blocking Hyacinth and Tulips

  be accomplished by purchasing a few simple bunches of differing colors, or it could be simplified even more.  For example, one of our enhanced bouquets of hyacinth and tulips comes with a mix of bright orange tulips and deep blue hyacinth (see photo on right).  You could buy one of these and have your color-block fix immediately, or you could break it down into groupings.  This is the method of using multiple small containers, with each one holding a single color of flowers, and then you group the containers together to create a potent color-block effect.

Color blocking using grouping (left photo), and altogether, en masse (right photo). Photos via Style Me Pretty

• Monochromatic:  Monochromatic arrangements use one color in an entire arrangement, but with different flowers, hues, texture and form.  Depending on the color scheme, one could use multiple consumer bunches along with botanicals and specialty branches.  Monochromatic arrangements are simple to achieve, but pack a dramatic punch and can speak volumes.  Check out the simple, but elegant, all-white arrangement below.

Photo (and DIY instructions) found on hgtv.com

Sun and Surf progressive bouquet

•   The Progressive Bouquet: A progressive bouquet starts with a mixed bunch or an enhanced bunch--basically any arrangement with a combination of floral ingredients that age at different rates, each progressing at a different time.  One example a bouquet with Asiatic lilies and iris  (see photo on the right).  Asiatic lilies have a vase life that is hard to beat, and can outlast iris by about a week or two.  Add in the super long-lasting power of greens or botanicals, and a single bouquet can become two or three over the course of several weeks.  During the December holiday season, I gave my friend a bouquet which contained white lilies, red ilex, and port orford cedar.  Ilex has a ridiculously long vase life, easily lasting a month.  Once the lilies lived their life, my friend continued to use the red ilex by pairing it with some eucalyptus and decorative rocks and voila, she had another beautiful arrangement that lasted for another three weeks. 

The bouquet on the left can progress into an immaculate Ilex display

•  Thematic Bouquets: These are bouquets created around a particular mood, trend, or season.  When our own Sun Pacific Bouquet builds a bouquet, they first create a "mood board" with a specific theme.  They then research the theme; collecting pictures, colors, ideas and trends in order to create the "mood" they want the bouquets to reflect.  These boards become a collage of inspired ideas which will then be transferred into a bouquet that speaks that theme--be it whimsical, somber, celebratory, or romantic.  These are the gorgeous mixed bouquets that many people will buy, straight up, as is.  They are convenient, beautiful, and thoughtful. However, this is also the kind of bouquet that many people want to create on their own, and when the proper tools are provided (high-quality flowers of all colors and varieties, botanicals, green, branches), they will, with pleasure. 

Clockwise from top left: Patriotic bouquet, Autumn-inspired bouquet, Romantic bouquet, and Spring-inspired bouquet

Flower mixology is fun, adventurous, and good for business.  Just like mixing a cocktail, you take a few ingredients, mix and match until you find the flavor YOU want.  There are people who prefer to buy a pre-made Bloody Mary mix, a bottle of vodka, and call it good.  And there are others who buy the horseradish, the tomato juice, the celery salt, the Worcestershire, and build their own, personal Bloody Mary from those ingredients.  There is a need for both--the individual ingredients and the pre-mixed, and it all comes down to personal taste.  The same goes for mixing up flowers. As flower farmers, we are here to supply the options, the inspiration, and the ingredients, and let the customers have at it.