Farmer-Florist Jessica Broyles of Starry Fields Farm harvested 100% of the botanicals from her Southern Kentucky farm for this charming arrangement, including: David Austin Roses, agrostemma, snapdragons, nigella, white dill, honeysuckle vine, Iceland poppy, anemone, bells of Ireland, ranunculus, bachelor button. Starry Fields Farm Photograph

Susan Gilmore
Example of a transitional dark wood floor eat-in kitchen design in Minneapolis with glass-front cabinets, medium tone wood cabinets, gray backsplash, stainless steel appliances and an island

Sunny, open living room in neutral tones with blue and coral accents. Circle motif on drapery and chair fabrics. Blue swivel chair to take advantage of ocean views or conversation grouping. Fresh flowers from local Key West florist shop arranged by the design team to greet the clients.

Interior Design: Lucy Interior Design Builder: Claremont Design + Build Photography: SPACECRAFTING
Transitional home design photo in Minneapolis

Floral designer Blair Roberts of Sweet Blossoms sourced domestic peonies from DV Flora for a picture-perfect white bridal bouquet. Photography: Elliott O'Donovan

Nobody would be foolish enough to knowingly purchase PIZZA using a third party call-center middleman.But every day, thousands of people do exactly that when they purchase flowers for delivery! That’s because a NEW TYPE of “florist” has appeared on the scene. And that means most flower buyers pay as much as 50% MORE than they should pay! Finding A Floral Supplier When a prospective flower buyer wants to buy flowers, his first stop is usually the internet. The author’s flower shop is in Charlotte, NC and the two most widely used search terms in this area are: “Charlotte flowers” and “Charlotte florist.” When the customer searches for either of these terms, he will get a list of results. Paid results (advertising) are usually shown first. Organic (website) results come after the advertisements. When a customer clicks on an advertisement, he is usually taken to a beautiful website owned by a call-center floral middleman offering beautiful flowers, hand-delivered by a LOCAL florist. And the products are sales TAX FREE. But what is not revealed is that the middle man does not actually have a flower shop in Charlotte! The Difference Between Toasters and Flowers With “durable” products like toasters and sweaters, the location of the seller isn’t terribly important. That’s because the products will be shipped from a warehousevia USPS, UPS or FedEx. But flower arrangements are *fragile* and cannot be shipped that way! Instead, they must be locally custom-hand-crafted and hand-delivered! And this means that if a customer orders from a middleman’s website, the order must – somehow – be passed from the middleman’s company to a REAL local florist in, for example, Charlotte, NC. This “order transfer” is done by one of the three florist-to-florist networks: FTD, Teleflora and Bloomnet (1-800-Flowers). Too Many FEES and COMMISSIONS Membership in these networks is not free, so the middleman always adds a “handling charge” – typically about $15 -- to the customer’s bill to help pay for hiscosts to access to the network. Please note that the $15 handling charge usually far exceedsany TAX FREE “savings!” But the “handling charge” only helps pay for *access* to the network. The florist-to-florist network also takes a 7% commission, and also credits a 20% selling commission back to the middleman! What this means is that, for a typical online floral purchase, just under HALF of the customer’s money vanishes in unnecessary FEES and COMMISSIONS. By comparison, when a customer buys a toaster from an independent business listing it on Amazon, only a few percent of the purchase price goes to fees and commissions. With this huge profit potential available to third party floral marketers, it is not surprising that these middlemen spend huge sums on advertising and sales promotion. A few years back, one even took an ad during the Super Bowl! Buy Direct For Better Value Clearly, the consumer will always get His Best Floral Value by placing his floral order DIRECT with a Real Florist n the City where the flowers will be delivered. Sometimes it may be difficult to tell whether a Flower Supplier is located “in town.”Here are three easy ways to separate a “real” florist from a floral middleman: 1. Look for the street address, city and state on the website. Often this will be found on a tab labeled “About Us” or “Contact Us.” If you cannot find an address at all, then this is almost certainly a middleman! 2. Look at the telephone number. If the only number on the website is a TOLL FREE “800” number, then the floral supplier is probably not local. 3. Look at the invoice (before you click the BUY NOW button!) for any “Handling” or “Service” charges. A REAL florist will never add these charges to your bill! For more information about Charlotte Flowers and Charlotte Florist, please visit the author’s Flower Hut website at http://flowerhut.com. BUT, if you do not want flowers delivered to Charlotte, Matthews, Mint Hill or Pineville, NC, please do NOT order from us! Take the time to find a REAL florist in the town where you need flowers delivered. You’ll be glad you did!

Farmer-florist Beth Barnett grows cut flowers at her Michigan farm and designs beautiful bouquets and arrangements from her Chicago-based studio. This arrangement features Larkspur Farm-grown peonies with ferns, anemones, scabiosa and roses. Photography: Larkspur Chicago

Farmer-florist Kirsten Bosnak of Blue Morning Glory, serves Lawrence, Kansas and Kansas City area clients. She grew and designed these mixed bouquets for Mother's Day, featuring peonies, Sweet William, orlaya, native columbine, bupleurum foliage, ninebark, baptisia, snowball viburnum, spirea, seed heads of wild mustard, and cool-season meadow grasses. Photography: Blue Morning Glory

The Modest Florist is a popular flower shop in Hamden, outside Baltimore. Its owner Libby Francis Baxter passionately supports local Maryland flower farmers and shares her enthusiasm with her customers. For American Flowers Week, Libby's "fireworks" inspired bouquet features red Monarda (bee balm), white Queen Anne's lace and snapdragons and blue delphinium (c) The Modest Florist photography

Local florist Strawberry Street Flowers & Finds worked with artist and jeweler Karyn Shonk to create a one of a kind wreath.
Example of a large transitional red two-story brick exterior home design in Richmond

Floral designer Jenn Pineau of Nature Composed created a fresh, seasonal arrangement featuring peonies from Peony Meadows in Stony Point, Virginia; poppies from Wollam Gardens (@wollamgardens) in Jeffersonton, Virginia; cherry branches, choke cherry branches, and clematis foliage from the gardens at Nature Composed (@naturecomposed) in Rochelle, Virginia Photography: Nature Composed

Photo by Juilette
Inspiration for a mid-sized timeless family room remodel in Chicago

LauraLee Symes of Portland-based Sellwood Flower Co., sourced all Oregon-grown flowers for this lovely seasonal centerpiece, including peonies and viburnum. Photography: Sellwood Flower Co.

Phoenix and Scottsdale area floral artist Morgan Anderson, Ph.D., features 'Coral Charm' peonies in a refreshing, new way, paired with, Craspedia, Bayleaf, Free Spirit Rose and Pincushion Protea Photography: The Flori.Culture

Adam and Jennifer O'Neal are farmer-florists at PepperHarrow Farm outside Des Moines, Iowa. This sweet peony bridal bouquet includes ingredients from PepperHarrow: Anemone, Salvia, Lupine, Sweet pea tendrils, Baptisia, and of course, peonies. Photography: PepperHarrow Farm

Trendy kitchen photo in Orlando

Floral designer Laurie Henderson of Fab Floral incorporared local and seasonal peonies with an eclectic mix of blooms and antlers for an unique bridal bouquet. Photography: Alex Knight Photography

This small third bedroom in a 1950's North Vancouver home originally housed our growing interior design business. When we outgrew this 80 square foot space and moved to a studio across the street, I wondered what would become of this room with its lovely ocean view. As it turns out it evolved into a shared creative space for myself and my very artistic 7 year old daughter. In the spirit of Virginia Wolfe's "A Room of One's Own" this is a creative space where we are surrounded by some of our favourite things including vintage collectibles & furniture, artwork and craft projects, not to mention my all time favourite Cole and Son wallpaper. It is all about pretty and girly with just the right amount of colour. Interior Design by Lori Steeves of Simply Home Decorating Inc. Photos by Tracey Ayton Photography.

A centerpiece is a must have for a dinning room table. I brings color and life to the room. This beautiful piece can from a local florist- Recollections by Lynn