mixed bouquets stems vs filler

15 years ago

I make mixed bouquets with a lot of perennials such as catmint, echinacea, yarrow, feverfew, queen anne's lace along with larger flowers such as peonies, snaps, delphinium and lupine. The smaller flowered perennials or biennials are often act as my fillers. I am raising prices this year and am using a state pricing report as my guide. They have averaged a 10 stem zinnia bouquet at ~$6.00. For those of you who make mixed bouquets, what do you count as stems? Do you count the small flowers like Bach buttons and yarrow? That would be a pretty skimpy $6.00 bouquet in my opinion.

I have been selling mine at the same price for several years and have decided to start selling 2 different sizes, one at 6 and one at $8-10.

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Comments (5)

thinman
15 years ago
I think it's a good idea to sell bouquets at different price levels, and it's worked well for me. The ten stem zinnia bouquet has me a little confused though. I've seen flowers of all kinds listed on the USDA website in ten stem bunches, but not bouquets. Can you tell us where we could get a look at the state guidelines you mentioned? I don't think I would have the nerve to charge 60 cents a stem for zinnias at my market, even with some filler stems and foliage. On the other hand, I've been told that my prices are too low and will be asking a bit more this year than last.

ThinMan
marthacr
Original Author
15 years ago
Perhaps I misspoke. It is not listed as a 10 stem zinnia bouquet, but as a 10 stem bunch. This may just be a matter of semantics. They also list one farm as selling single stems of zinnias at 1.50 and .75 in two different months. Of course they don't say whether they sold any, lol! When you get to the linked page, scroll all the way down to the bottom and choose 2010 retail summary report. If you don't find it, I can send you the pdf via email.
Martha

Here is a link that might be useful: mofga price reports
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bfff_tx
15 years ago
Martha
The mofga web site is giving error messages. I'd be interested in seeing your PDF you refer to.
I sell a small and a large bouquet at my markets in Houston $8 (pint) & $13 (quart). I count fillers/foliage and flowers as part of the total stem no. in an arrangement.
If I sell a bunch of Zinnias (8 stems), I'll add a few stems of gomphrena or some such thing and charge $6.
The other vendor at my markets sells her flowers for $5 & $10 and they are pretty big
I could'nt do the link but the USDA still supplies the prices of flowers at Boston. Input the following info/keywords into your browswer and you'll find it.

BOSTON Ornamental Terminal Prices as of 15-FEB-2011
Provided by: Fruit and Vegetable Market News,
Federal - State Market News Service, USDA.
marthacr
Original Author
15 years ago
If the USDA site lists a bunch without defining how many stems, is there anywhere on their site to search to find the definition? For example, I was looking at prices for last August for echinacea and zinnias. They call them a bunch, but no # of stems.
gardengirl77
15 years ago
Marthacr, The USDA web site doesn't say how many stems are in a bunch of Zinnias...but years ago I worked as a florist, and unless things have changed.....Zinnias are sold from wholesalers in bunches of 10. Hope that helps!