Parksville Flowers in Nanoose Bay and Qualicum Beach?

It's a sign of the times. We had a customer call us at Simon Says Roses looking for a plant to be delivered in Nanoose Bay this morning.

We get it.

Customers are searching the internet looking for Nanoose Bay florists or Qualicum Beach flowers or Coombs floral arrangements, or even Errington flower designs.

But nothing much comes up on Google search results.

Because there are very few florists in smaller communities across Canada these days.

So flower delivery in Parksville now includes Qualicum, Nanoose, Coombs & Errington as everything becomes more centralized.
 
Instead of just delivering in town, flower delivery services must now be willing to travel 15 to 20 minutes away from the flower shop to reach towns & villages in outlying areas.

Looking for flower delivery in Canada to smaller places?

Give us a call at 1-800-705-7673.

We're getting really good at sending flowers to little outlying communities!

 Parksville sand castle competition

 Photo by Marty Borsboom

No Flowers or Plants in Port Alberni Hospital?

We send flowers and plants to a lot of cities & towns in Canada.

Private homes, schools, businesses, funeral homes...and yes, even hospitals.

But in all of Canada, there is one hospital that has the most stringent rules imaginable when it comes to gifts to cheer up patients that are not feeling well.

The West Coast General Hospital in Port Alberni does not allow flowers or plants to be delivered to their hospital. And that makes Port Alberni flower delivery from an Alberni florist impossible to accompish.

Period.

No vase arrangements. No flower baskets. No tiny bud vase with 2 or 3 roses. No blooming azaleas or violets or kalanchoes. Not even a little green plant to put on the ledge.

According to this CBC News report, one staff member was having allergic reactions, but flowers and plants will be allowed "once the staff member's specific allergies have been identified".

This was reported in October of 2013, and nothing has changed.

So I guess the only option left to cheer up a patient is this:

Fruit or fruit & chocolate basket

SSR2-2991C

 

And this kind of surprises me. Of all things to allow into the hospital, why a fruit basket? With dietary restrictions for many patients, they allow fruit & chocolate? Apparently there might be bugs on a plant basket, but how about fruit flies? Rotting fruit after 3 or 4 days at room temperature?

I guess they win. We've STRONGLY suggested that our customers provide a home address for all hospital deliveries.

It may not have the same impact, but at least a gift of Port Alberni flowers or plants may be peacefully enjoyed at home.

Because there doesn't appear to be much joy for patients in this hospital!

GRAND #Grand Opening Business Gift

Yesterday we had a customer sending a business gift of flowers from Milton with flower delivery in  Georgetown, Ontario.

It was for a Grand Opening of a new pharmacy, and the sender wanted to make a splash.

No carnations or daisies with this order, but that's the problem. The order was for delivery within 24 hours, and there was no way that the tiny shop in Georgetown had all of the flowers in stock. Nor could they get them on short notice.

After all, we're talking a mix of Bells of Ireland, Dendrobium Orchids, Ginger, and Asiatic Lilies. Most shops might carry one of these items on a regular basis, but all four? Not a chance.

This would be a custom floral order at best, and would need a week's advance notice just to make sure the wholesaler could obtain everything that was needed.

Thankfully we have choicse in our Canada Florists Network to choose from flower shops in neighbouring communities. We made some phone calls, and sure enough a florist in Brampton had everything we needed.

This is what the sender selected:

 Simon Says Roses SSR2-4170

The shop also made the choice of delivering the arrangement in a basket, which was very wise. The shallow dish in the image won't support the weight of these large blooms, and would likely tip over from the breath of a baby (bad pun, I know).

Congratulations to the management & staff at the pharmacy. You're thought of very highly!

We Can't Deliver Milk in our #Gourmet Baskets?!

You have to be careful sometimes, when language becomes a barrier.

So yesterday we had an order for a fruit & chocolate basket going to a patient in the University Hospital in Saskatoon (as an aside, I always get a kick out of sending gifts to my old home town. You never know, I might know the recipient!)

But back to the point, we were trying to send the following item:

SSR2-2991A Fruit & Chocolate Basket

In the description, I put "Fruit basket, with milk & dark chocolates".

Sounds simple enough, until I get this reply...

"We don't do milk in our fruit baskets".

O.K.

Lesson learned to provide a full description of "milk chocolates AND dark chocolates".

And to imagine the look on the patient's face if a gift basket arrived with a carton of milk.

Too funny!

What gift to get Baba for her 90th Birthday?

It's Baba's 90th Birthday today in Yorkton!

But what gift to get her? How to celebrate, without going overboard?

Our sender in Regina had so many choices for delivery...

...flowers, a fruit basket, mixed gourmet foods, chocolates...

But she lives in a seniors complex, in a small room with little shelf space, and the temperature is kept overly warm.


We went back & forth with various options & combinations until the sender made the best choice under the circumstances.

 Simon Says Roses SSR2-3610

A single blooming plant in a basket works perfectly!

Low maintenance, bright, colourful, little shelf space, withstand a warm environment...YES!

Love it when the gift matches the sender.

From all of us at Simon Says...Happy Birthday Baba!

#FTD Buys #Proflowers...the Big Just Got BIGGER!

The news is just in.

FTD is buying Proflowers by the end of the year.

For $430 million.

So the big just got bigger.

This will not have much of an impact for flower delivery in Canada, as the Proflowers model of shipping flowers overnight has never worked up here.

In the summer it's too hot...in the winter, way too cold for flowers to be sitting on a tarmac or in the cargo area of our country's airports.

But in the U.S....this will be huge.

Previously, Proflowers would ship their overnight boxes by FedEx for arrival the next day across America. FTD has now purchased this system and the customer base as well.

If the customer wanted same day delivery, they would funnel the orders to local florists by Teleflora.

Now these orders will be funneled to FTD florists, with Teleflora flower shops being cut out of the loop.

And that is going to have a huge impact on whether florists become members of FTD and maybe even drop their Teleflora memberships.

Either way, it's going to be an interesting year in the floral industry!

Online #Flower Orders Made REALLY Easy

In this high tech world, we can sometimes over-complicate things.

Like ordering flowers.

Yes you can order flower arrangements online, and yes you can still order by phone.

But why not a simple email?

But here's what happened to a returning customer that simply wanted to send another floral gift to her friend:

> Hi Dale and Simon(?)
> And a Merry Christmas to you too.
> Yesterday I submitted an order for Santa's Rosy Cheeks SSR1-2932 $53.99, promotion code SSR-CY13 for Patricia D on Salt Spring Island to be delivered December 21st.
> You have delivered flowers to her for me before.
> I did not receive a confirmation email from you so attempted to resubmit this morning. My cart came up as a double order so I did not submit it. My mistake??
> Do you want me to start over again or do you have my original order from yesterday and just not had time to confirm? I know it's a busy time.
> Awaiting your instructions, Iris F

Our response was simple. This was a returning customer. We had all the sender's information already on file. We had all the info for the recipient too.

So instead of asking our customer to go through the entire online ordering process one more time, we sent a simple email reply.

"Thanks, Iris. We have almost everything we need for your flower order in Salt Spring. Can we use the same credit card as your last order, with the number ending in 7654? And if yes, please email reply with the greeting card message. Once received, we'll send you an Order Confirmation Invoice."

Two minutes later, our customer replied authorizing the credit card and supplying the card message.

It can be SO easy sometimes, that we sometimes forget to K.I.S.S.