Headlines

Floriculture Crops Survey Released

The overall value of floriculture crops was down 4 percent from 2005, according to the newly-released 2007 Floriculture Crops Survey, which covers the year 2006. The survey is compiled from interviews with floriculture growers by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Other highlights from the survey: 

  • The total number of floriculture producers fell to 6,546, or 9 percent, in the 15 states counted. Those producers with sales of $100,000 or more fell 5 percent. 

 • California has the highest crop value at $1.02 billion, which is nearly identical to the California crop value in 2005. 

 • The top five states ranked in order of production value in 2006 are: California, Florida, Michigan, Texas and New York, accounting for two-thirds ($2.67 billion) of the total 15-state value. 

 • Florida's crops fell in value by 16 percent, to $800 million, compared to 2005.

Ben Bolusky, CEO of the Florida Nursery, Growers & Landscape Association says Florida's fall in value was likely caused by the hurricanes the state experienced in 2005. "They certainly upset production availability and production value for '06." Now, however, "everything is humming along -- availability is very good," he says.

The Floriculture Crops Survey is important because it "tells us how domestic growers are doing each year, and what's going on in the market," says SAF's Ira Silvergleit, director of research and information. Due to U.S.D.A budget constraints, the 2006 survey was conducted from an abbreviated sample of 15 states, versus 36 states in previous years, that produce the most floriculture products: California, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Washington.

--Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org

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Farm Bill Passes House

The floriculture industry is one step closer to attaining increased recognition, with the July 27 House passage of the 2007 Farm Bill (H.R. 2419). The bill includes major new provisions benefiting specialty crops such as fruit, vegetables, floriculture and nursery, among others.

"SAF and the American Nursery & Landscape Association (ANLA), working as part of the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance (SCFBA) with 120 specialty crop organizations, have continued to work in support of H.R. 2419 and applauds its passage," says SAF's Lin Schmale, senior director of government relations.

Twenty-nine billion dollars of the $286 billion, five-year Farm Bill will fund programs for agriculture producers. About $1.8 billion will be allocated over five years to programs benefiting specialty crop producers. The largest portions support other social programs, including food stamps, conservation and social development.

On July 26, SAF joined other members of the SCFBA in signing a letter to each House member urging passage of H.R. 2419 and advising opposition to any amendments that would have a negative effect on specialty crop producers.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) has said he will not begin marking up the Senate's version of the Farm Bill until Congress reconvenes in September.
 
Schmale says SAF and ANLA are "thrilled" that floriculture and nursery are finally being given recognition in the Farm Bill process. "We represent one-third of total specialty crop values, and specialty crops are finally coming into their own in this process," she says, adding that the Senate will likely address the industry's key issues, "especially our pest/disease and research issues."

Read a press release about the passage of the Farm Bill from the SCFBA.

For more information contact Lin Schmale at lschmale@safnow.org.

--Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org

 
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Senate Leader Promises to Hold AgJOBS Vote

AgJOBS, the SAF-supported comprehensive immigration reform legislation that was included in S. 1639, has gained some much-needed support in the past week.

Sens. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) spoke on the floor in July about the worsening labor situation and its effects on the agriculture industry and this year's harvest.

Sen. Feinstein convinced Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to bring AgJOBS to the Senate floor, as part of the Farm Bill, alone, or attached to some other piece of legislation. 

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) also announced on July 26 that he is ready to unveil his new immigration bill, which is modeled on S. 1639 and would include AgJOBS.

"AgJOBS clearly has earned recognition and support of key senators," says SAF Senior Director of Government Relations Jeanne Ramsay, who adds, however, that Sen. Specter's plan "is very ambitious and Congressional staff believe that it will need to be scaled back and modified to actually have a chance of passage."

Read more in the July 27 issue of Week in Review.

--Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org

 
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Snapdragons in a Snap in Ala.

For many Alabama wholesalers, keeping snapdragons available for customers year-round means shipping the popular flower in from California, Florida or South America, but a greenhouse-like technology could encourage the state's growers to begin to cash-in on the crop.

Auburn University researchers recently reported that by using shelters, known as high tunnels, they discovered that top-quality snapdragons could be produced year-round in Alabama. The Floriculture Crops Report, 2007 showed Alabama produced $94.1 million in floriculture crops, including cut flowers, in 2005.

High tunnels are arched, plastic-covered structures that provide a level of crop protection somewhere between open field conditions and greenhouses, which have been used on horticultural crops to help producers extend the traditional growing and selling seasons.

"Snapdragons are extremely popular in floral arrangements year-round, and most Alabama florists have to ship them in from California," Raymond Kessler, the AU Department of Horticulture's floriculture specialist says in a release. "Local sources of fresh-cut, top quality snaps obviously would be extremely attractive as an alternative."

Randy Stephens, president of Hall Wholesale Floral Co. in Opelika, Ala., agrees and says that even though a few years ago he was able to purchase snapdragons from a local grower, that option is no longer available.

"I sell a lot of snaps here," Stephens says, who also gets his supply from California or South America. "I'd like to see more of them growing back around here."

Glenn Freeman, manager of Carlstedt Co., a wholesaler in Birmingham, says he buys snapdragons from a local grower during the summer and sees the benefits of year-round availability.

"I can get snapdragons just as pretty, if not prettier, right here, rather that some place far out," Freeman explains.

Maximino Santillan, president of Brand Flowers, Inc. in Carpinteria, Calif., a grower which has raised snapdragons for about 20 years, warns that the flowers can be temperamental, and humidity control in high tunnels can be a problem with snaps.

According to the researchers, unlike greenhouses, high tunnels don't have electric heating or fan systems, so you have to manually roll up the sides for ventilation.

"You could end up with mildew, if you don't control the humidity, and that can be devastating to the crop," Santillan says, adding that if the temperature gets into the lower 30s, "The crop doesn't do much. It doesn't die, but it doesn't grow."

--Kori Kamradt
kkamradt@safnow.org

 
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SAF Provides Flowers for USDA Event

--Lin Schmale
lschmale@safnow.org

 
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Newsmakers

Boesen Buys Chicago Floral Operation; Plans More Growth

Boesen the Florist of Des Moines, Iowa, is quickly becoming a Midwest power player with purchases of stores in Omaha, Neb., earlier this year, and now, its latest acquisition: six Amlings Flowerland locations in the Chicago suburbs.

And, this won't be the last business deal for Boesen the Florist co-owners, Ed, Tom and Frank. As Ed says, "We're always on the hunt," to grow the family business, which, with this year's acquisitions, has 26 locations.
 
"I, personally, would confine the target [acquisition] area to the Midwest, where people are like us," says Ed, who's handled the recent Amlings purchase. "I don't know where that stops."

Boesen the Florist, founded in 1923, acquired Piccolo's Florist & Gifts in Omaha in 2007 and Locker's Florist in the Milwaukee area in 2001. Amlings Flowerland locations include: Arlington, Deerfield, Naperville, St. Charles, Willowbrook and Wheaton. In each case, says Tom Boesen, the shop owners sought out Boesen the Florist when it came time to sell their business.

"We have yet to pick up the phone and call people to say we want to buy; we were approached," Tom says. "Every phone number has come our direction."

In all cases, the store names remain the same. "We keep the names, we keep the people," Ed Boesen says. "We just become tools in the tool box to better help them do their jobs."

Ed says he decided to buy Amlings because it was one of "the most recognized names in the business," as well as one of the oldest, at 118 years running.

Ed suspects businesses approach Boesen's because of its emphasis on service, quality and adapting each store to match the constantly changing customer needs. For example, he says, the company operates with a modern, technology-embracing business model that depends on a specific marketing structure, complete with purchasing and risk management plans.

"We have a reputation of growing businesses, not shrinking them," Ed Boesen says. And, he says, shop owners who sell their flower operations to Boesen know the store will benefit from the enhanced employee benefits and advertising scale of a larger operation.

The Boesen family has owned the business since 1923, except for about a little more than two years, from October 1998 to February 2001, when Gerald Stevens, a retail consolidator that eventually failed, purchased Boesen the Florist. The Boesen brothers bought back their operation in February 2001.

--Cassandra P. Foster
cfoster@safnow.org

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Florist Celebrates 50th With a Memorable Bang

The Virginia Florist of Alexandria, Va., capitalized on its 50th anniversary with a party worthy of media coverage -- not necessarily for the party's overly-lavish nature but for a particular event -- one that left the store with a noticeably absent plaque.

Owner since 2000, Kevin Green has made a ritual of escorting children of patrons in the shop to see his "prized jackalope," a mounted trophy of a rabbit with antlers. Green decided to raffle it off as a prize for one of the 500-plus patrons who attended the celebration, which featured a large array of sale items, door prizes and food and drinks.

Could this quirky way of thanking customers really get your business more bang for its buck? Proof positive: The Alexandria Gazette covered the lucky jackalope winner: "I think I'm going to give this to my 8-year-old grandson. He'll think it's great. But, I also have another 13-year-old grandson. They'll probably fight over it," said the winner and longtime patron of the florist in the article, Mary Janet Renaud.

Quirkiness drives much of The Virginia Florists' giftware, which comprises about 30 percent of the shop's sales (50 percent during the holidays): mounted antlers, classic political campaign memorabilia, rock concert posters, fine art, garden encyclopedias and vintage local maps, to name a few.

"People come in here with an eye for [one-of-a-kind] home decoration," he says about the draw of offering distinct items in the store. "We tend to offer them things that are complementary."

Green, who says he's pleased with the outcome of the anniversary event, points out a side benefit of throwing the party: it helped clean up the shop's database: "We had a mailing list 8,000 people long." Green mailed invitations to the entire list and he says he received about 1,000 responses, saying either they'd attend, or the person at this address is now deceased.

--Cassandra P. Foster
cfoster@safnow.org

 

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Life at Work

Did I Ask for Your Help?

"Have you tried doing it this way?" "Maybe this would look better." "I know this is what I would do in your situation." If any of these phrases sound familiar, you could be giving out advice to your employees or co-workers that may not be as well received as you hope.

Mark Murphy, CEO of Leadership IQ, a leadership research and education company in Washington, D.C., says making the recipient defensive, angry or insulted are among the reasons why you "Stop Giving Advice."

There are ways, however, to share your knowledge and experience effectively, without being written off as judgmental or overbearing, as Angela Spaxman, a career and executive coach based in Hong Kong, explains in her blog, "Loving Work and Leading." 

"Instead, focus on what is needed by the recipient of the information while humbly offering yourself as a resource," Spaxman says. "Paradoxically, you'll find that being humble and open actually proves your value much more readily than sharing too urgently your solutions."

Gina Ziegler, manager of the Enchanted Florist in Alexandria, Va., voted one of the "Best 50 Places to Work" in Washingtonian magazine in 2004, says when it comes to giving advice to co-workers she draws upon her own experiences to let the person know that she, too, had been in their position once. Ziegler says she conveys how she had learned to work through a problem to find a resolution.

"I don't think I've ever had anybody that's taken my advice the wrong way using this method," Ziegler says. "For example, a few years ago while making an arrangement I cut the stems too short and it starting sinking right in front of the customer; I'll never forget how that felt. So, now, if I see someone cutting their stems too short, I'll tell them that I noticed it and then share my story to let them know that I've made that mistake, too."

--Kori Kamradt
kkamradt@safnow.org

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Accident Prevention: Protect Your Business, Customers

A recent judge's ruling in favor of a man who sustained injuries outside a flower shop validates the importance of shop safety.

Bella Patel, 45, owner of the England-based Chiltern Flowers, located in London's Marylebone Railway Station, must pay 1.5 million in pounds (approximately $3,042,207 in U.S. dollars) in damages for Brian Piccolo, 50, the man who claimed he was walking outside the store and slipped on a yellow flower petal which caused him to fall and injure his back.

According to an msn.com article, the 2003 incident left Piccolo in the hospital for six months of recovery.

"I have been told my condition will probably deteriorate and I may end up in a wheelchair," Piccolo says in the article.

Last week the court ruled that Chiltern Flowers should have kept its storefront clean and clear of debris. One of the judges on the panel said the shop owed Piccolo "a duty of care."

The judge called the store's "clean as you go system" ineffective and said, in an article in The Evening Standard, "it was not a safe system of work."

The lawsuit underscores the importance of workplace safety for florists.
 
"Slip and falls are probably the leading cause of liability claims," says Peter Fornof, senior vice president of Hortica. "Anybody who has a main street type of business -- it could be a problem for them."
 
Employees are likewise vulnerable: According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor statistics for 2005, 20.7 percent of all work accidents involve falls and 13.6 percent of all accidents are slips and falls.

Hortica Loss and Prevention Manager Jill Hoffman adds that slips and falls are "typically due to uneven walking surfaces" and that they occur in store doorways as well as inside and outside a shop's highly traversed areas.

"Any change in elevation should also be painted yellow to prevent slips and falls," Hoffman advises.

Fornof also suggests that shop owners make sure aisles are wide enough for easy passage and floors are dried after plant waterings.

For more prevention ideas check out Hortica's tip sheet.

--Cassandra P. Foster
cfoster@safnow.org

 
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Trends and Tips

Consumers Still Choose Magazines

Trying to update your advertising strategy? Don't be too quick to trade traditional mediums entirely for high-tech outlets. According to a new study, blogs, forums and social networking sites may be the new media buzzwords, but a traditional medium -- magazines -- still holds sway, even with younger generations.

"Consumers ranging from ages 13 to over 60 said they enjoy reading magazines and indicated they had a greater receptivity to print ads compared to Web ads," according to an AdAge.com story on the recently released Deloitte Media-Consumption Study.

The study found that, in many cases, lines between new and old media are blurred -- with younger generations embracing print publications and the 60-plus group trying out user-generated content Web sites, such as YouTube.com.

Other highlights from the study include: 

  • Almost three-fourths of all consumers read print magazines even though they can find the same information online. 

 • Millennials (ages 13 to 24) make "extensive use of instant-messaging and texting tools, and the group's power to create amplification of messages is enormous." 

 • Gen Xers (ages 25 to 41) embrace "digital video recorders more than other generations and are most likely to visit TV-show sites online." 

 • Boomers (ages 42 to 60) remain "very dependent on newspapers and spend the most time with local news and weather content. The group does not embrace new media platforms as readily as younger generations." 

 • So-called "Matures" (ages 61 to 75) "use the Web more for personal use than Millennials and are the most frequent online purchasers. They spend the most time with national and world news content as well as financial information."

SAF's PR Fund and the SAF/FPO Alliance have been generating national magazine coverage for flowers for years. Read about the latest coverage.

-- Mary Westbrook
mwestbrook@safnow.org

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Survey Takes Owners' Pulse on Economy, Relationships

Female business owners are more likely to use the Internet for work than their male counterparts (90 percent compared to 84 percent), and women who run their own companies are slightly more optimistic about the short-term economy than men who run their own companies (66 percent compared to 59 percent).

Those are just two of the findings from the semi-annual American Express Small Business Monitor survey, which queried 626 small-business owners across the country to come up with its findings, as reported by The New York Times.

"Entrepreneurs are a bellwether for many of the country's most important industries because they are so closely connected to purchasing decisions," Susan Sobbott, president of Open from American Express, said in a press release promoting the study. "Business owners continue to grow in their optimism, a good sign for the small business sector and the economy in general."

Other highlights from the study include:

 •  65 percent of women and 73 percent of men say they make sacrifices in their personal life in order to run a business.

  • 85 percent of women say being an entrepreneur contributes to a "happy relationship" with their significant other, compared to 77 percent of male small-business owners.

--Mary Westbrook
mwestbrook@safnow.org

 
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Mark Your Calendar

Meet and Greet at Town Hall Gatherings

Summer congressional recess, which begins Aug. 4, means Town Hall meetings for many members of Congress who head to their home districts. SAF urges members to attend these meetings -- and makes it easy by sending members an e-mail during the recess with details about any Town Hall meeting being held by your representative or senators. 

The meetings generally are informal gatherings, says SAF's Jeanne Ramsay, senior director of government relations, where the lawmaker says a few words and then opens up the floor for constituents to ask questions and express their concerns. "That's where you fit in," Ramsay says. "Making contact with your legislator can benefit your business, but also helps SAF and the floral industry advance its legislative goals."   

During the next few weeks, SAF will send members an e-mail including details about Town Hall Meetings, as well as some talking points to raise with members of Congress. For more information contact Jeanne Ramsay, jramsay@safnow.org, or Lin Schmale, lschmale@safnow.org.      

--Drew Gruenburg
dgruenburg@safnow.org

 
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Check out the Convention Early Birds!

The Early Birds are flocking to SAF Palm Springs 2007. If you're not one of them, time's a wastin'. You can register online or download the registration form and fax, or mail, it back to SAF today. Early Bird deadline is Aug. 24. Look who's registered already!

Questions?  Contact Laura Weaver, CMP, (800) 337-4743.

--Shelley Estersohn
sestersohn@safnow.org

 
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Regular Features

Product Spotlight: FedEx

So, you need a shipping service that is fast, reliable and inexpensive. Sound impossible to find? Not so! SAF and FedEx have teamed up to offer SAF members major savings on shipments. SAF members can save up to 21 percent on FedEx Express shipping and 15 percent on FedEx Ground service. And, the more you ship, the more you save. In 2006, participating SAF members saved an average of $1,429! Click here and enter passcode CY9FU713, or for more information, call the FedEx Association Advantage Hotline at (800) 475-6708.

--Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org

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Talk on the Forums

One florist is remodeling her storefront, and is wondering what kind of color and/or type of lighting is best for displaying flowers. Weigh in.

Also on the forums:

Outside displays

Accounting systems

Start your own discussion.

--Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org

 
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Florists Fuel Employee Friendships

Fifty-four percent of florists responding to the previous week's e-poll say they actively encourage employees to socialize outside of work. About 46 percent say they do not.

--Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org

 
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Floriculture Crop Value Decreases

The 2006 domestic wholesale value of floriculture crops fell 4 percent to $4 billion from the revised 2005 valuation, according to the USDA 2007 Floriculture Crops Survey. The survey includes growers with sales of $10,000 or more and in 2006 covered 15 states rather than the usual 36 states.

Floriculture Crop Value, By Year

Source: USDA/NASS, Floriculture Crops 2006 Summary, July 2007.

--Ira Silvergleit
isilvergleit@safnow.org

 
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