Upscaled designs comprising keepsake ornaments and containers offer profitable options for customers who want to send gifts that will be cherished long after the flowers have faded.
Delight your customers this holiday season with upscaled designs incorporating keepsake ornaments and utilizing premium blooms in “art” containers. It’s all about distinguishing and elevating your seasonal offerings—and increasing profitability by upselling. And the holiday season Sponsored by Erik Witcraft, AIFD, CFD, shares a versatile idea is the perfect time to offer gifts that keep on giving after the fresh flowers have been enjoyed. Here, that achieves all of those goals—and the variations (and price points) are as limitless as your creativity.
Create two or three “Midollino extenders,” each comprising five to seven of the malleable rattan sticks and one long piece of aluminum wire. For each extender, bundle the rattan sticks (stagger their positions so that the ends will taper) and the length of aluminum wire (make sure the aluminum wire extends a couple of inches beyond the ends of the rattan sticks). Bind the bundle of rattan sticks and aluminum wire with bullion wire, starting in the center of the bundle and wrapping the bullion wire to one end of the bundle and back to the center. Continue wrapping the bundle with bullion wire from the center to the opposite end of the bundle and back to the center again.
Wrap each rattan/wire “extender” with yarn, beginning at one end of the extender and wrapping to the opposite end, and then back to the end at which you started. Secure the yarn in place at both ends of each extender with adhesive dashes, and tie off the yarn at the finished end.
Fill a tall, narrow rectangular container with floral foam (soaked in flower-nutrient solution), and secure the foam into the container with waterproof tape. Cut various lengths of red sparkle ribbon garland, and insert the ends into the floral foam, creating artful loops and curls with each length. Bind sections of the ribbon garland to each other, where necessary, with thin-gauge red metallic wire, to secure the ribbon in the desired positions.
Place the yarn-wrapped “extenders” into the design, inserting the aluminum wire ends into the floral foam. Create similar artful loops and curls as you did with the red sparkle ribbon garland. To keep the extenders in position, secure them atop the floral foam, if and where necessary, with red aluminum wire hairpins, and bind sections of the extenders to each other, if and where necessary, with thin-gauge red metallic wire.
Place a various shapes of Christmas ornaments (balls, finials, etc.) into the design, attaching some to the ribbon garland with thin-gauge red metallic wire and inserting others directly into the floral foam.
Arrange boughs of deodar cedar into the design, allowing it to drape over the edges of the container. Arrange Rio’s ‘Freedom’ roses low into the design, in groupings. Add more cedar boughs, as needed, to fully cover and conceal the mechanics.
Arrange two stems of Phalaenopsis (moth) orchids to arch over the composition.
