Archives for New Floral Products

Coronavirus has changed the world. People have been at home social distancing, and the flower market has been one of the most affected. In the news, we have seen flowers being discarded due to the declining demand and limited commercial flights. However, we must bear in mind that this is something transitory that will soon end and that we will return to normal.

At Virgin Farms we are committed to our community, to the progress of our clients’ businesses and to all those who are part of our company. For this reason, in this article, we share some ideas that will help you improve your online flower sales. In addition, you will find some tips that will be very useful during this challenging time.

We want to invite you to take advantage of this time to create a solid sales strategy through your website and social networks. Keep in mind that in times of crisis we use our ingenuity and creativity more to get ahead.

Create Content

Content is essential to make your consumers fall in love. If you create interesting content, you will gain organic followers, and with the appropriate strategy will become your consumers.

The purpose of creating quality content aims to attract as much traffic as possible to your website, your blog or landing page. To achieve entertaining content, help yourself with the different tools and apps available on the market, which are mostly free or inexpensive, but above all, easy to use.

You can do it with the means you have within reach. For example, you can produce an impressive video with your cell phone. The consumer is not looking for perfect videos, but instead quality content and topics of interest. Try filming a short video of about 20 seconds to capture your audience’s attention, followed by a longer segment to achieve loyalty and viewer retention.

Make a calendar planning all the content that you are going to produce and the channels you will use to distribute. Take advantage of your knowledge and your expertise, to make content according to your client.

Here we suggest some topics:

• How to preserve flowers or extend the vase life

• How to make simple but lovely arrangements

• Show a before and after of a home space without flowers and how it can brighten up space with flowers

• How to turn any type of object into a floral vessel

• How to decorate a home with flowers

• Host a webinar on how to make flower arrangements

• Take advantage of special dates, with the upcoming Easter holiday, and create content according to this important date

• Benefits of having flowers in the house

With this type of content, you will achieve engagement and generate sales or traffic to your social sites, such as YouTube (another way to generate revenue from ad sales in your videos).

An important factor that you should take into account is that the content you generate must be unique to you. Try to set yourself apart from other content creators to avoid being categorized in the lower ranks or similar topics. The goal is to promote your business in a way that interests and retains your audience and more importantly, satisfies the need of your client for interesting resources.

Define your strategy

Update your e-commerce channels and your social networks to sell. This can be a good time to create a professional blog and become a content generator.

Online stores. Right now your online store must be fully optimized because it is going to be your the face of your business while your brick and mortar location is inaccessible for the time being. Check prices and inventory. If you do not have a product available to sell, it is better to withdraw it from your online storefront until you have the necessary inventory. If you have any affiliations such as delivery couriers, make adjustments on your website to clarify if those services are still available to your consumers.

A professional blog. Using a blog with a hosting and domain as a platform to reach your audience is the most recommended method. Create impressive articles with topics of interest to your users. This will help you gain followers, who will, in turn, read your posts. Be sure to share posts on social media linking back to your blog post to drive traffic to your website. Additionally, seek an SEO professional that can help you optimize your keywords to increase your search engine ranking score on Google and other search engines. The goal is to get your page to show up in the top 10 search results.

Social networks. If you want to promote yourself through these channels, you must first focus on having a considerable number of followers and that they are of quality. You can achieve this with giveaways, and invite your followers to post their photos with the arrangements they have bought from you for social word-of-mouth.

Make a publication and content calendar, propose to put at least three posts per week. It can be a video or photos. Lean on all the technology at your fingertips. On Canva, for example, you can use free templates to create your posts for Instagram and other social networks. There are pre-made templates, or you can create your own from scratch, complete with visually appealing typography and free or paid stock images.

Later, if you have really become an expert content creator, you can start a YouTube channel. But if you are just starting or you do not have all the resources, focus exclusively on your social networks such as Instagram and Facebook.

Take advantage of social networks because they provide visibility to your posts. It allows the facility to effectively share content and reach your users of interest. Soon your followers will ask you for content on topics that interest them.

SEO Strategies. It is very important that you work on SEO strategies so that you can position yourself in the first places of search, with the correct use of the local keywords the consumer will find you easily and navigate your website or blog.

Take advantage of the marketing and CRM tools to continue building customer loyalty. If you do not currently have a CRM tool, this may be the time to implement it. You can use an easy and simple tool such as Mailchimp, where you will enter data such as emails or phone numbers so that you can offer personalized offers or discounts. For example, offer a discount for birthdays or customer loyalty rewards for repeat purchases.

Product delivery

Create an alliance with a courier service to personally send your customers the tracking number, always stay in touch until the product reaches the final destination. Review your financial calculations so shipping is free or relatively low-cost right now.

Tell your consumer that floral arrangements are a perfect way to show affection or gratitude since we are not able to personally visit our loved ones at the moment.

Take advantage of social distancing and quarantine to devise differential strategies for your flower shop. It is the perfect opportunity to gain followers and turn them into consumers.

We are going through difficult times, but we must be aware that this is something temporary and just as flowers bloom even in the most adverse environments, we will flourish, and it will be a better future for everyone. Stay strong, stay safe, and let’s spread joy with flowers.

What if the beauty of a rose lasted forever?

Our innovative product line brings the magic of the enchanted rose from Beauty & the Beast to life. The roses are natural with petals soft to the touch. They have been harvested and cut at the perfect aperture. The rose then undergoes a preservation process and dyed in unique color blends. It needs no water to survive. It is frozen in time, exhibiting the same beauty as its mortal state.

Preserved Rose Size and Colors

There are two sizes of preserved roses: Large (6.0-6.5 cm bloom diameter) and Jumbo (10.0-11.0 cm bloom diameter). Large roses are packaged in a tray of 6 roses, and they are available in 20 unique colors. Jumbo roses are packed one in a small box, and they are also available in the same color choices. The Jumbo roses are also available as flag roses! These are hand-made and each petal is glued individually to form the flag in rose shape.

We are proud to announce our recent partnership with Alexandra Farms—exceptional growers of fresh cut garden roses. As a result of our association, floral designers can now order varieties by the bunch instead of by the box. We will have a weekly availability of popular garden roses including David Austin varieties.

Alexandra Farms takes great care and pride in producing exceptional, high-end garden roses. Not every supplier can distribute their flowers; strict packaging and shipping standards must be met. We are honored to have been regarded with the same quality service and products as our partners. Garden roses are delicate and must be packaged and shipped with utmost care. Unlike other suppliers’ methods, we package flowers in trays within boxes to ensure they are snug during transit. To preserve the freshness, we place cooling packs and insulation in every box.

With so many colors and shapes available, it’s easy to fall in love with more than one variety. Alexandra Farms produces the most exquisite David Austin garden roses, which are highly regarded in the floral industry. After much request, we will be able to offer luxurious roses such as Constance, Patience, Keira and Beatrice among others.

Visit Our Flowers to browse the photo catalog.

Garden roses add a touch of elegance and a sweet aroma to wedding bouquets and centerpieces. The TV series Downton Abbey and the movie The Great Gatsby continues to influence the vintage trend characteristic of the Roaring Twenties decade. Neutral tones such as peach, coral, white, pink, and cream are found in the delicate David Austin varieties such as Peach Juliet and Alabaster.

A bridal bouquet composed of a single variety of fragrant garden roses makes a luxurious statement. Floral designer, Cary Vesco, accomplished just that in her latest client work using the David Austin rose, Patience. The bejeweled bouquet of creamy white and ruffled blooms is simple, without compromising sophistication.

Patience (David Austin) garden roses compose this luxurious wedding bouquet designed by Cary Vesco.

 What is your favorite garden rose variety? Take our survey.

At Virgin Farms we like to keep our product line fresh (literally). When we bring in new varieties we keep you, the designer, in mind by choosing exotic flowers, colors and visual textures. As always, our products must pass our quality test—some of the benchmarks we check for are bloom size, color, stem/bloom durability, and vase life.

Orange Party

This rose has gorgeous hues in orange-red and yellow with spatters on the petals. It has a strong resemblance to volcanic lava, don’t you agree?

Blue Intrigue

If you’re familiar with the white Mondial rose, then you’ll love the Blue Intrigue. It is a “tipped rose”—meaning the edges of the petals are carefully spray-painted, in this case blue. The farms have perfected this method down to a science to create a “color dip” effect.

Amelia Tint

Purple has always been associated as the color of mystery and royalty. This novelty is actually a white Amelia rose stem-dyed in purple. It absorbs the color from the water and turns a beautiful periwinkle purple with darker edges. Isn’t it enchanting?

Which of these new varieties do you like most, and how would you use them? Share your comments and ideas with us. Subscribe to our blog posts, and check back news and inspiration! 

In the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, a prince is condemned to a curse for judging an old beggar woman by her haggardly appearance. This old woman presents a rose as a gift in return for shelter. Without a single ounce of compassion, the prince crudely turns her away. Suddenly the old woman transforms into a beautiful young lady, and tells him that true beauty lies within.

To teach him a lesson, she transforms him into a beastly animal and presents him with “The Enchanted Rose.” The prince is to fall in love and find true beauty before he turns 21. In representation of time and youth, the rose will bloom and eventually perish, condemning the Beast to remain in his state forever.

As with most fairy tales, the prince or princess always finds true love and live happily ever after. Luckily the Beast finds Belle, a young lady who teaches him to see beauty from within.

What if you could make the beauty of a rose last forever?

The Eternal Rose is an interesting product we may offer soon to floral design professionals.

The Preservation Process

These roses are grown at the farms and cut once it has bloomed to the perfect diameter. They are then taken to facility and processed to remove the color. When they are translucent, the roses are placed in a tray for the artificial color tinting process. To maintain the rose’s appearance and shape, it is placed in a chamber to begin the “baking” process of preservation. The end result —a rose that lasts forever: An Eternal Rose.

Colors and Sizes

Eternal roses are available in an array of interesting colors. Some look as natural as the real roses such as the Freedom, Santana, Pink Floyd, and Ocean Song. Other colors are more novelty like black, green, baby blue, teal, and midnight blue.

• • • Petite (Diameter 5 cm)
    • Standard (Diameter 6.6 cm)
    • Jumbo (Diameter 7 cm +)

Ideas for Arranging and Styling Eternal Roses

• Sample Roses

You can keep a display of eternal roses in your floral shop for demonstration purposes.

• Wedding or Party Souvenirs

Send guests home with an eternal rose as a keepsake of your wedding or event. Place it inside of a glass dome and create a floral terrarium for a rustic appeal.

• Preserved Bouquets

Most brides wish they could keep their beautiful floral bouquet forever. With eternal roses, the original bouquet can be recreated and kept on display forever.

• Seasonal Wreaths & Centerpieces

Unfortunately the holidays are only once a year. With preserved roses, you can arrange a wreath for Thanksgiving, Christmas and other major holidays. Bring them out for the season to display at your shop and show customers the designs you can create.

• Craft Flowers

For crafting projects, eternal roses are ideal. They are dried, so you don’t have to worry about damaging the flower. You can hot glue the rose to Styrofoam or any other surface.

Share your thoughts and Ideas!
We would like your feedback about these preserved roses. How would you utilize them? If we include Eternal Roses in our line of products, would you purchase them?