Concern about late deliveries and poor quality product has prompted FTD to launch two new initiatives, one that ranks florists based on rejected and refunded orders and another that charges a fee for orders not rejected in a timely fashion. 

A tour of two greenhouses and a reception raised substantial funds for an influential member of Congress last Friday. Kitayama Brothers Inc. in Watsonville, Calif., hosted a fundraiser for Rep. Sam Farr's (D-17-Calif.) election campaign at the family's business, which was founded in 1948 by four brothers. 

The trustees of the American Floral Endowment (AFE) recently announced they have selected the Society of American Florists as the Endowment's new management team.

To help support the U.S. military, Teleflora is partnering with a non-profit until the end of 2008 and donating a percentage of sales from its new patriotic arrangements.

At press time, a handful of florists already had entered a Web-based floral design competition sponsored by JTV,  uBloom and Vans Floral Products. The competition began June 1 and will extend to the end of the month, at which time uBloom members will vote on the entries and award one lucky florist the grand-prize package: an all-expenses paid trip to the JTV studios to co-star with J Schwanke, AAF, AIFD, PFCI, during a JTV episode. Other prizes include Vans Floral Products Supply Dollars, and an Ipod Nano.

One of the largest U.S. lily and dahlia growing operations is expanding and changing the name it's held since it was founded. As of July 1, 2008, Brand Flowers will become Farmers' West Flowers & Bouquets, Inc. "I wanted to 'go back to the farm' (when considering the name)," says Wilja Happé, owner of Brand Flowers. "We grow the flowers, we touch the flowers. I wanted to transfer that more to our customers . . . And 'West' shows that we're California."

Some marketers are looking at a new and growing target audience: Divorced Americans. According to Adweek.com half of first marriages in the United States  are expected to end in divorce, and many advertisers are starting to market directly to those separating couples.

One of the country's biggest retailers recently announced that, for certain products, more customers are choosing "green" options.

Are you a floral designer who enjoys fellowship and the thrill of competition? Then be sure to enter the 41st Annual Sylvia Cup Design Competition, set for Thursday, September 18 during SAF Palm Beach 2008. The oldest annual live national floral design competition in the industry, the Sylvia Cup draws top designers from across the country.

• "Keys to Communication" by SAF's PFCI featuring Sharon McGukin, AAF, AIFD, PFCI: July 7, 2-3 p.m. in Chicago, in conjunction with the AIFD National Symposium.
• SAF Palm Beach 2008: Sept. 17-20, 2008, at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Fla.

The update on FTD being bought by United Online, Inc. was far and away the top story from last week's E-Brief. The corresponding article initially reporting the acquisition also drew a lot of clicks.

Planning a wedding can be a stressful time for your customers. Help your brides-to-be make their wedding planning less stressful with SAF's Wedding Flower Calculator. Just download the calculator from the Sales and Business Tools page on SAF's Web site, enter your shop information and flower prices into the simple Excel spreadsheet, and load it onto your Web site. Brides enter the quantities they need and the worksheet calculates approximately how much they can expect to spend. They can even compare three different budget levels (Economy, Most Popular, and Premium). Requires Microsoft Excel. You can also find additional wedding tools on SAF's Web site such as customizable wedding ads, fliers and more.

It's wedding season and that subject dominated the discussion forum this past week.

A majority of employees will be packing their bags and taking a summer vacation this year, according to last week's e-poll results.

Number of Times Florists Raised Delivery Charges in the Past Year

Source: SAF Online Survey of Retail Florists, 2008, preliminary data. Based on 593 responses (response rate = 16 percent).

Eight out of 10 florists have raised their delivery charges and/or implemented a fuel delivery surcharge in the past 12 months, according to preliminary results of SAF's online survey of retail florists. The chart shows how many times they have done so in the past year. More than half (55 percent) have raised them once; almost a quarter have done it twice (23 percent) and a few have done it three times (2 percent). One in five (20 percent) have not raised these fees at all in a year.