Miscellaneous and Schedule Items
Spring Standing Order– We are booking orders now for the Spring Cream of the Crop. You should receive a flyer in the mail this week. Items you choose will be delivered every week from the end of March through June, the busiest three months of the year. Many items include a Double Up for Mother’s Day. Speak with your Sales Rep before March 8th to take advantage of this extremely popular program.
Spring Catalog– Watch for your Spring 2020 Essential Supply catalog. Your driver should be dropping it off with one of your next orders. It’s full of new and enticing products and sale flyers for the coming season.
Flower Availability Chart by Month– In case you didn’t know, our Flower Availability by Month is posted on our website for all to access. This is a great tool to help guide you on what flowers can be sourced during certain times of the year….perfect for helping to plan that upcoming event. You can see it here: http://www.dvflora.com/index.php/flower-availability-by-month/
Valentine’s Day Recap– Most shops and other wholesalers are reporting that Valentine’s Day was a good holiday, with sales around the same as last year, which is better than the slightly lower sales that were expected by most people. This bodes well for the upcoming spring holidays, indicating that consumer demand for flowers is still strong. The Rose market seems to have returned to normal, since demand is very low.
Women’s Day– International Women’s Day is celebrated every year on March 8th and is growing in popularity. To help our customers spread the word through digital outlets, we’ve created some downloadable material that can be found on our blog. Click here to view:
www.dvflora.com/index.php/2020/02/19/international-womens-day-2020-free-marketing-material/
Game of Thorns– Very soon we will be releasing the details on the first ever “Game of Thorns – DVFlora’s Exclusive Tournament of Roses” It will be an interactive, bracket style tournament to determine the most loved rose variety. Prizes will also be offered to DVFlora customers for participating.
Basics
Alstroemeria– Keep in mind if you need significant quantities of a particular variety of Alstroemeria, we need at least 10 days notice. Otherwise you will have to bank on us having enough coming in to fill your order. What do you think of this new variety of Alstro called Green Planet?
Asters– We recently switched to a new box for our S.A Aster. Our suppliers are packing and shipping in these new boxes designed to allow more airflow. We have seen a great difference in shelf life and quality.
Tinted Asters– For the Spring we will have two different mixes of Tinted Solidago:
Item # 57180– Aster Asst Spring Tint- this case is sprayed.
Each box will contain Hot Pink, Dark Pink, Purple, and White.
Item # 57179– Aster Asst Tint/Natural Spring- this case is a mix of sprayed Solidago and Natural Asters. Each box contains Light Pink, Hot Pink, White and Purple Sprayed Solidago, plua Natural White Sunspring & Purple Monarch.
Carnations– White Carnations will start to be a bit scarce as farms begin to hold them for St. Patrick’s Day tinting needs. We will start to receive Tinted Green Carnations around March 2.
Greens– Eucalyptus varieties are starting to change to the spring varieties. We are seeing seeded start to disappear and now cupped seeded will become more prevalent. Baby blue, Silver Dollar, Gunni, Feather, Willow and Weeping Seeded are all available. Myrtle, Silver Queen Pitt, Rosemary and Salal are also readily available.
Gyp/Laceflower/Limonium/Liatris/Statice- We should have a good supply for a while with the exception of White Laceflower, which will be somewhat limited. Our Peruvian supplier of Liatris has some new plantings which are doing well. We have a new source of White Limonium, which is always in high demand around the holidays in particular. And our Canadian Statice grower has some new lighting, so their crop may be starting a bit earlier, around the beginning or March.
Lilies– California Lilies have been in good supply and they should increase in availability over the next few weeks. LA’s are available in all colors. Oriental Lilies are increasing in supply in both Pink and White with some darker reds available.
Try a new South American Grower this week with a box of #35830- Lily Assorted LA.
This grower has some very nice offerings on the Spring Cream of the Crop so you can try them out just in time. Sorbonne Lilies are starting to be phased out in favor of new varieties.
One possible replacement is #67981- Lily Hybrid Pink Vancouver. Check it out.
Mums/Disbuds- We should continue with a good supply of Disbuds as we move into the Spring. Note that Purple Tornado is being supplanted by Purple Andrea, and Red Tornado production is being moved to Red Magna. These are very similar varieties, which most customers won’t even be able to tell the difference.
Pom Pons– Growers on the fore front of Pom production have started to see both production and quality problems with two popular varieties- White Coconut Daisy and Yellow Atlantis Daisy. They have pulled both varieties from their production schedule. We expect both varieties to be available from other growers, but in the long term, all growers will most likely move away from growing them. We have started to bring in a new variety of White Daisy called Alma.
Roses
The rose market is pretty typical for this time of year.
– Red Roses: due to the Valentine’s Day holiday, it is one of the only times of year where demand is extremely low but red rose prices are still very strong. This is solely due to the strong pinch that take place to meet the Valentine’s Day volume. I do not expect the red rose market to change until we get into the second half of March. Until then, Reds will be available but priced on the high side. I do expect there to be more Colombian Freedom than Ecuadorian.
– Colors: there is a good amount of colors in the market and prices are fair but on the low side.
Coming Soon!!
– As usual there are lots of new varieties presented each year but we are most excited about all the varieties in the “Country Series”. The response from our customers has been overwhelming positive and they want more!!!! As soon as production comes back from Valentine’s Day, my goal is to promote these heavily and work on a standing order promotion. Below are some photographs of some of the Country Series Varieties.
Country Sun
Candlelight
Country Blues
Country Home
Novelties
Agapanthus– Production in Chile will start to end soon, but after a few months of a limited availability from Ecuador, the Blue production is back on track. Mexico’s supply of Blue and White should start to ramp up in March. We do not expect to see any shortages in the Spring.
Astilbe– Pricing should start to come down over the next few weeks. We will NOT be carrying any varieties that are not reasonably priced, but you can still order them through the Dutch Direct System.
Bells of Ireland– There is a good supply of Bells from all regions, Ecuador, Mexico and California. We have introduced a 4 pack of DVFlora Bells #52084. This is much easier pack size for customers to handle than the original 8 packs. Try them.
Bouquets– We will have a full line of Bouquets for the spring season, with some old favorites and a bunch of new ones. You can see pictures on dvflora.com. Try a few and find your favorites.
Callas– Production this time of year is always limited. However, demand is low so we should have a good looking inventory for next week. Local callas have started to ramp up and we will have a good supply from now thru April. Mini callas are also limited and you should encourage you customers to place any special orders early with at least 10 days’ notice.
Delphinium– There is a good supply and demand has been strong this past year. The Pacific varieties have been popular and are selling well. Peru is on crop with the Candle varieties. Sea Waltz and Sky Waltz have been plentiful and there is still a fair amount of Bella Donna in Light and Dark from California. The Purple Asia and Black Velvet varieties seems to be a success and produces some very tall lengths, and the River varieties in Blue, White, and Pink have become staples. Full moon and Manuela are two new varieties now grown by our Ecuador supplier and have been producing very tall lengths. Production is very limited now but the varieties are beautiful.
Hybrid Delphinium Manuela (Lavender) and Full Moon (White)
Dianthus– There is plenty of Dianthus Amazon from California and Mexico. Solomio and Tessino Dianthus is always limited.
Flowering Branches– As we move into spring, we will start to see more items available. Keep in mind that some of these items come in a very tight stage, so you need to plan ahead. For now, we have Cherry Blossom (Pink & White), Forsythia, Peach Blossom, Pieris (Pink & White), Pussy Willows, & Quince (Appleblossom, Pink, & White). Starting the end of March there will be some White Dogwood. Heading into April we will see Lilac, Magnolia White Star, and Spirea. May will bring Beach Plum and Snowball Viburnum.
Heather– The season will end soon.
Hypericum– Production has been low during the winter months due to our Ecuadorian grower pulling some old crops that were not performing well. We should start to see the production pick up in the next few weeks but we will continue to bring in more from Ethiopia to fill our needs. Between the two sources we should have plenty. Assorted Spring Packs will be somewhat limited this year. It Is being offered on the Spring Cream of the Crop so it would be a good idea to book a standing order for this item if it’s something you will you want regularly. Spray Hypericum is practically nonexistent. Ethiopia is no longer growing Sprays and Ecuador is reducing production as well. They don’t expect to add any additional sprays anytime soon.
Iris– There is plenty of dark blue, but Light Blue, Purple, Yellow and White are still limited..
Larkspur– Lark is always very limited this time of year. Suppliers from California and Ecuador have limited production. This will start to improve in the next few weeks. Prices remain high.
Lisianthus– We are finally starting to see a little bit of production out of California. It will be limited for the next few months but by May we should have good availability. Production in Canada, Israel, and Holland. has been strong and will continue.
Matsumoto Asters– Matsumoto production has improved but demand has been low.
Mimosa– We have Acacia Mimosa coming in from both California and Italy. It should be around for a few more weeks.
Peonies– We are still in the beginning of the Israel season. They have had some cold weather and this is delaying the production. Right now we have Red Charm and Coral Sunset from the greenhouse crop and some Sara B, Alex and Kansas from the outdoor crop. We are hoping to see some whites soon.
Protea, Leucadendron– There is a good supply of protea for next week and many varieties of Leucadendron available this time of year. King protea demand seems to have slowed. White King are still not in season and not expected until the end of April. We were not able to find any regular White or Queen protea for next week. There is a good supply or Orange and Red Pincushions but very few Yellow for next week. There are very few Yellow this time of year and we do not expect that to change anytime soon.
Scabiosa– There is a good supply of scoop Scabiosa.
Snapdragons– There is a good supply of Snaps, especially White, from Canada, California, Colombia and Mexico.
Sunflowers– There is a good supply of Sunflowers from California and South America, but Firewalkers are somewhat limited.
Stock– We are seeing a lot of improvement in availability from all regions, California, Ecuador, and The Baja. We should see prices come down a little for the next few weeks, but Lavender and White are still in high demand.
Thistle– Blue Dynamite is still very Limited. A large supplier pulled their crops a few months ago since they were having quality issues and have not been able to replant fully yet. They are planting small amounts at a time and monitoring the new crops to make sure the problem is completely gone. At this point they cannot confirm when production will be back to normal. In the meantime, we will continue to carry Alpinum, Blue Bell, and Supernova.
Waxflower– ‘Tis the season! There is plenty of Waxflower and some varieties are attractively priced. As always, varieties come and go. There are a number of newer hybrid varieties available, which command a much higher price.
Helix Hybrid wax is a variety that was originally grown in Australia and South Africa. This year the breeder, in cooperation with one of our California suppliers, has begun to grow Helix in the USA. Sarah’s delight and Moonlight Delight, two incredible varieties, are just finishing, while Nina’s Delight, Kerryn, and Raspberry Ripple are still available.
Waxflower from Peru has also begun. This is incredibly early. The grower improves varieties each year, stretching the season and making it longer every year.
Waxflower Nina’s Delight
Botanicals
Shamrocks/Oxalis– We have just been informed that the 2.5 Shamrocks will NOT be available. The grower has pulled them off of their offerings due to crop issues. We do have Green, Red and Iron Cross Oxalis available.
