Top 8 Perils of a Canadian Florist

 

As Canadian florists, delivering flowers can at times be somewhat of a miracle.

We're professionals. We know what we're doing...most florists in Canada have been doing deliveries for years...delivering hundreds if not thousands of orders each year.




But flower delivery in Canada poses some unique perils, such as:

1. It's often cold here. Sometimes very cold. Imagine delivering flowers in Canada when it's minus 20 outside. Layers and layers of wrapping...and a delivery driver that can run quickly are very helpful!
2. It's windy. All too often we get requests to leave flowers at the door. That can work if there is shelter, but left out in the wind, there can be petals flying everywhere by the time the recipient comes home.
3. We have deer...lots of deer. Once again, leaving things at the door usually isn't the answer. We MUCH prefer hand-delivery of flowers to the recipient, otherwise Bambi may be having a lunch of flowers before you receive the gift.
4. Dogs. Dogs are wonderful animals...most of the time. Not so wonderful when they use a gift as their personal washroom, however. Cats too, for that matter. Enough said.
5. Transportation. Gas costs money. Lots of money. The majority of flowers consumed in Canada come from South America. For example, flowers are flown from Bogota to Miami, then trucked from Miami to Vancouver, and trucked again from Vancouver to Victoria. And then we have the local delivery service. That's a lot of gas!
6. The "don't call first" request. We get requests not to call the recipient ahead of time. But if the recipient leaves work early, and isn't coming back for three days, now what happens? We were told to deliver, and we do. But the flowers sit on her desk until she returns to work. Not good.
7. Much of our country is still rural. Can you imagine delivering to Township Road 254, Site 3, Comp 4, RR 3 in Spruce Grove, Alberta? Without a telephone number?  We're good, but we're not that good. The local florist may know a lot of people, but sometimes the driver needs directions. Please have that phone number handy.
8. Another rural dilemna is the Post Office Box. A P.O. Box is fine if we're mailing a parcel. Not going to work when we're delivering flowers. We need the physical street address, or at least a phone number to call for directions.

So next time when you have an order going out for delivery, remember your local florist.

We're doing the best that we can!