Summer’s over and school’s back in, which has Greg excited about the busy autumn season! With Halloween and even Christmas around the corner, it’s back to business as normal. Exciting times!

100-billion-pound industry

However, it’s not only the balloon industry that will be busy! While watching TV, Greg came across an interesting program called ‘The Billion Pound Flower Market’ on channel 4, which provided a real insight into the florist industry. He learned that the industry is worth one hundred billion pounds globally; now that’s a lot of pounds! Amazingly, the UK is the world’s 4^th biggest buyer of cut flowers which is very impressive when you consider its size. 90% of these flowers come from outside the UK. Things have changed a lot since the 70s, when florists could only sell UK-grown flowers. The program also showed all the clever processes put in place when storing and selling the flowers at a huge auction house. For such a non-technological product, Greg was amazed at the amount of technology used!

This got Greg thinking about all of Balloon Market’s florist customers. Most florists will need to pick up their flowers from a wholesaler, where they might pick up some balloons, ribbon and other odds and ends for their stock. If they find out later that they need something else, they will have to make additional trips, which is something Balloon Market hopes to help with. Enter our fantastic floristry range! This is a range that Greg wants to expand, so please do let us know if there is a product you use that we do not have in stock.

Balloons AND flowers you say?

2016 has introduced the trend of combining balloons and flowers, we’ve found some fantastic examples online and our decorator Rachel has also tried her hand at a few creations! For florists, balloons have gone beyond a simple ‘balloon on a stick’ in a bouquet of flowers and they are able to make some more ambitious creations.

There are also florists these days using balloons as another revenue stream for their business. This may just include a standard foil filled with helium but there seems to be more balloon artistry going on as florists tend to be artistic people. This makes a great alternative for customers who would like to decorate an event as they could substitute flowers for balloons when on a budget.

What we stock

With that said, here’s what we have to offer! Pull Bows make a great accessory; they are made of 2 inch ribbon, and simply require pulling to make an instant bow. We also stock pull bows made of organza. If you like to do it yourself, our Florist Ribbon comes in a large range of colours. We also stock a brand new Satin Ribbon which was a request from a customer. We have a variety of colours available but if any more are required, please let us know! Lastly in our Eleganza range is the Diamante chain; Greg is not entirely sure how this works, but he knows that creative people will find a use for it!

Next up we have the Diamante gems, which are great for scattering around, cellophane, which is a staple accessory that any florist will need to keep stocked up and our Lomey accessories. These include Lomey Dishes and Lomey Pedestals, which you may have seen Mark use in some of our How To videos. These originally came from the florist industry but have been adapted into the balloon industry where they work just as well!

Balloonlites are great for attaching to balloons but can also be used in floral arrangements. Twinklelites are a relatively new acquisition for us; these are little individual lights that will flash when a little tab is taken out. These are also waterproof and will float! Glue guns and glue sticks are both staple tools for a florist but you may not have heard of Crystalite Aqua-Gel Ice, which can expand up to 70 times its volume in water. This is presumably for use in a vase to keep the flowers hydrated for longer. Any florists out there, please let us know how best to use it! We also now stock tissue paper, which is ideal for lining balloon boxes and using with all sorts of floristry displays.

Chop Shop

A couple of weeks ago, we had some Halloween samples in from Amscan and we began stocking them according to your preferences. There was however one product we weren’t given that caught Greg’s eye: The Chop Shop Meat Market Hand. He has already left one on Rachel’s desk to prank her and plans to leave one in the freezer at home! It comes with its own realistic nutritional information and apparently contains only 300 calories! Yum yum?

Here’s the question of the week for all you florists out there: Which piece of floristry work are you most proud of? Leave a link in the comments to let us know!

That’s it for this week!

James

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