Floral Update: Ways You Can Advocate for Floral

April 23, 2024

Advocate (noun)/ advekat : The act of publicly standing for or supporting a cause. This month’s topic is all about Advocacy. What may come to mind first is related to government and policy advocacy, but it is so much more than that.  The Floral Industry has so many things we can advocate for. 

We have all heard about the excess flowers that come back after Valentines Day and luckily this coincides well with Mother’s Day.  The next wave of excess flowers comes during a longer stretch of time and falls in July, August, and early September. Retailers, responding to the excess flowers grown for the year’s major holidays, started selling a lot of roses in the summertime. In this instance, what happens to all of the flowers besides roses?

The Floral Demand Creation Task Forces is working on strategies for this summer period.  While they work on strategies to improve for next year, you can be a great advocate for the industry no matter where you are in the supply chain. If you’re a grower, talk to your retailers about how to change the trajectory of sales in the summer. If you’re a retailer, take notice and find ways to drive demand in the typically slow months. Any small action could click with your consumers. Last month’s newsletter listed lots of days to celebrate from Friendship or Girlfriends Day to Mental Health.  Take part in the movement and advocate for more sales.

Another way we can advocate is what the Floral Logistics Collaboration Task Force is doing.  This group of volunteer leaders are testing an approach that will consolidate products earlier in the supply chain and then de-consolidate at a location closer to multiple retailers. This will mean full trucks making transportation more efficient and sustainable. This pilot will test whether this approach will be sustainable profit-wise as well! The pilot is focused on plants at this time; consider letting your suppliers know if you’d like to be a part of the pilot project down the line!

The first test will begin in British Columbia, Canada and bring a consolidated shipment of plants to a point in California where it can be de-consolidated into short runs or back hauls to save money.  In this way we help each other get fresher plant product more often per week and save money which is a win-win for all.  When this works, and we can prove it, we will open the lanes between Canada and the US making plants more accessible.

The Floral Sustainability Task Force is trying to help AFE and North Carolina State University break-down into smaller bites what can be done at all different levels to make Floral more Sustainable. It’s important that these kinds of solutions are being developed with input from our industry! If you have any stories, we would love to share what you are doing as a company. This way more members of our Floral Community can learn and replicate best practices. In the case of sustainability, we’re all on the same team!

One way to support this work between AFE and NC State University is to help them collect more refined information on sustainability resources, barriers and practices across the floriculture industry. They have released a survey and all public results will be aggregated and will be shared through the new Sustainabloom website. Please share with colleagues and connections, as well!   

There is another way to advocate and it is about helping grow potted plant awareness. One of our largest taskforces is updating a Blooming Plant guide so newcomers to the industry know what to expect. Some of the data in the 30-year-old guide we use presently is not even relevant anymore. The goal is to have an updated guide with an opportunity for growers to share more about the products they grow for a more updated directory.  Now that should help some sales and is a great way to advocate for our members.

If you are already part of the Floral Volunteer Committee, please join one of our 6 Floral Task Forces.  We need industry experts and beginners alike.  Just bring your passion for making our industry a better place for the future.

Happy Mother’s Day to all, sell lots of plants and flowers!

Floral Update: Ways You Can Advocate for Floral

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