 Hey guys Ken Ross here. I'm a business consultant that specializes in reducing costs for businesses by looking at their essential expenses But today I got something a little different for you. I am actually on location. We are going to go into One of my favorite flower shops of all time blooming gardens. Let's let's get it I'm excited to learn from the best You are in luck because we we get these handy-dandy little things we call drop-in bouquets Okay, and we get these for holidays only We cut the rubber band And then I gave you clippers and then we cut the stems and give it about a two-inch cut for this particular vase And you want to make sure that even the shorter stems get a cut too. So you just you just you just let it let it fly That is the beauty of working in the flower shop Okay Kind of fluff it and let the Greens all fluff out so that it gives you a nice Okay like that Kind of like that, but you have to fluff it a little bit more. Okay, so it makes it nice and full. Okay Then we'll add a little bit more Just so that it gives it a little more shape and a little bit form So what we do is we'll take the lower leaves off We'll cut it not too terribly short But we add a couple of pieces in the middle We can use the clippers or you can use the knife some people are afraid of the knife So that's okay. Clip it. Is it at an angle or at an angle preferably? And the purpose of the angle cut is to keep your green your stem Opening at a wider amount So if you do a flat cut Then you just got that little bit of surface for the water to come through if you cut it at an angle Then that's more of a surface for your water to come in. Okay. Yeah, bigger surface area better better for the plant You can get more water to it. That's cool So the only thing is is don't cut the stems too short. Oh, okay, just and at an angle Yeah, even with the clippers you can cut them at an angle and you don't have to turn it upside down Okay, well, yeah, I guess I'm Using awkward motions. Yeah, I have my own way of doing things sometimes. I don't know. Okay. All right. Well, this is cool So um and sometimes we'll keep the lower pieces and use them in smaller arrangements Sometimes we don't do it. Just it depends on what's going on at the time and then it's on a turntable here Do you like to spin it? I find it easy to work with the lazy Susan Because then you can see all the sides Okay, and then you can make some adjustments Adjustments as you're working it. Okay. All right. So what you did the whole thing to accomplish it is to have Some coming around the outside to give you a framework and then in the top some of the longer pieces in the top To give you some height. Okay, and more of a framework With in height with the height. That's what we're looking for. Okay, so So that gives you a collar I call it Underneath to just frame up your flowers There's really no science to it. Just kind of kind of look there's a little bit of science to it I mean you want it to be balanced You want it to not go wonky on one side and not the other And you don't want it to be everything really tall or everything really short And you'll see leaves and trash in the water, but what happens is when we finish We take the flowers in hand pull it all out and change the base Fresh water with food In the base, okay So then that way they go out pretty and you don't have any trash in there because some of the greens and some of Flowers have trash Right, so if you kind of like it looks ugly and the customer will complain, right? And you're kind of like cleaning them a little bit to exactly so that you don't have I think some people will take the Under the water and rinse them off because if you can see yes, there's fur on it Yeah, but that's just an actual state of the block the leaves. Okay. It's how they grow Barbie 69 Sorry, are you 69? I don't know We're gonna work with red roses. All right, so this is a bundle of 25. Okay, that's how they come packed It doesn't look like 25 Because what they do is when they grade them at the farm they'll put Longer stems towards the top and the shorter stems and below the way all 60 centimeters, but they are layer for Convenience and for shape. Oh, okay. Yeah, and they're protected And then you'll see you've got some ugly petals But those are what we call guard pedals protects the rose in transit and shipping So what happens is when we're making the roses, then we'll pull those guard pedals off and you'll have a beautiful rose You don't leave them on because then that would be ugly for the customer. Absolutely but because you kind of have an even amount of each size you take Six of the short ones and six the long ones for each dozen roses you make And this is my favorite part. I get to throw trash on the floor Okay, and then you said the there's 25 so there's so would that be there an extra one There's always one extra one. I think just in case you have a broken head I'm not sure the whole science between why they do 25 But I think a lot of it is just so that if something breaks, then you've got something to replace it Yeah, or that one that extra one could be just for you So that's what we've got is we've got those so okay show you so we go through and we'll take the 12 These are mine, okay, those are yours Plus the one extra plus the one so you take your four short I mean you're six short and you're six long and lay them out and the easiest way to do it is put your Shorts all together and your mom's all together so that you are okay with that. You've you've got them separated Okay, so I think these are the short ones. I got Three seven there and six here, so that's good because I have the extra okay You've got the extra one so you want to take that extra and put it to the side for now, okay, so that you don't get it confused I'll put that one over here and you don't end up putting it in there And then they end up with 13 roses and God forbid there's somebody that's superstitious and they have 13 and then they get upset Okay, all right, so I got my short ones over here my long ones over here So what you start with is you'll take your take your short one short ones first And you want to pull those ugly guard pedals off Check to see if you've got any thorns on there Because you don't want to put thorns in there if you put thorns in with this You know the greens up and then it'll make more trash in your face Okay, so you don't want to do that and it breaks so you want to pull them off and You want to try and keep it as clean as you can because sometimes they they come through and you have to leave a little bit of residue and it Then if you have any broken leaves on that step you want to clean those off too because then that looks ugly too Okay, so you're sending out a thing of beauty so you want to make sure it's beautiful, right? All these details really do matter do matter when it comes to the appearance of what you're doing here You make a nice bouquet. You don't want and yeah, you can lay it off drop it on the floor. It's fine. Yeah, no I've gotten that part. I've got things like this leaf is kind of funky and everything else Just pull it off. Okay, and pull it off at the step because then that way that could break and then it makes it messy All right, so I got the I think I got the hang of this part Okay, so on that note then you you got your your staff here Creating your tick tock tick tock tick tock. You're definitely evolved over the many years here at Blooming Gardens Can you tell me a little bit about how I know we've talked about this before? Covid has affected your business in the past but it's more recently even within like the last six months You were telling me about finding people to do this this craft and what that entails It's it's challenging trying to find employees and staffers to be able to do the work and help us out We've been advertising for six months trying to find help Whether people have the talent and choose not to use it or they're all going out on into business on their own I don't know but it's a From everything I hear with all of the different florist boards that I'm on It's not uncommon. It's across the country Nobody can find So country-wide you're saying there is a a pandemic of sorts of experience floors That's definitely kind of like the new pandemic People talk about that even in different other industries too, and that's that's that's been the trend So it's been it's been a real challenge trying to get help and unfortunately or fortunately I have learned to say no to things As I keep saying in all the meetings If it's all the day get your order in early because I may have to tell you no and and that has happened quite a bit Is I have had to say no to regular customers to new customers because I just can't get all the work completed Without killing myself and killing my staff. Absolutely. Yeah, definitely and we've got to be able to get the work done and I don't want to Cause a problem with the quality of work because I can't get it physically done. Yeah, well, that's truly important I'm glad that you recognize that because I think a lot of business owners They've been forced even to just shut down because they're like I can't handle the work. I don't want to do this It's not fun anymore or not passionate about it because of the stress It's stressful and and if I want to take time off. I have to close up And which I have done Because I have breaks things I want to do. I've got things I have to do so I need to break I close up I just make sure that it's a weekend where I don't have anything that is urgent Okay, so that I work with my customers and help them out All right. Well, I'm catching up here. I got like three more here. I'm trying you're the you're the pro While Okay, so I'm going to change them for others To have make sure that I have what I want from my customers. Okay So and how do you make that determination? Is it really just kind of like the look of it? It's visual. Okay It's strictly visual. Okay So I've got One two three four that I'm not real happy with them So we trade those four out and replace them with others They may be fine in a Wrapped bouquet or a mixed arrangement, but in something that is the rose is the focal flower I've got to make sure that each one of the roses is a perfect rose Well, you may have to make that determination for me when it comes to this here I'm doing my best here. I kind of look for that beauty in the beast look You know, I know that's a popular movie that has a rose and it's just one single rose single rose But that's what I'm looking for I guess in some sense, but I don't know It felt like that one there. Yeah That one looks like it could probably Have a better one in its place. Yeah Okay, all right, so we would we would swap that out for the the extra one over here. Then I got this one If you look at it, if it's the same one rose then that would work. Oh, okay No, that one that one's the short one. This is another one so that we can trade that one out. Okay. All right. Let's try that All right. Oh, yeah that that I could definitely tell you can see the difference. There's a grade to each one you could you could probably Scale each one on a one to five type of thing or something and okay Oh, I don't know. There's this pedal there like that. Is that how that works? Yeah, you're just cleaning up and make it pretty And then the leaves like they look nice. Okay. All right. Okay. You set with that. All right. I think I'm good All right. So then what's next the next thing is what we do and what I do and I find it easier for me and for people When I'm teaching them is I'll take and I'll do the lower level first So I'll take my short roses first and sometimes what I'll do is I'll just set them so that they're all the same length And then I will cut them all together And you don't have to do it I find it easy and it easy for a lot of people to Follow me is I'll take and I'll cut them all the same length And I'll take them and put them in the vase equal distance around And that's part of the reason why I use the turntable Because it allows me to do that And then how much how much are we going to take off at the bottom? We're going to take off about Maybe a half inch. Okay. So not very much and then you cut it at an angle I'm going to try to Try to Fire them this way instead of it doesn't matter why you get stems flying rubber bands flying all kinds of stuff all the time All right So got them all the same length and then I just stick them in around the outside equal distance around This one's a little bit closer I'm a perfectionist at heart. So I'm sure this is there's probably a better science to this At some point I would I would change my process. I'm sure Okay I want you you do it often enough you develop a rhythm to it. Yeah It's like that. Yeah, not bad. Not bad. Okay. Not bad for my first try. Yeah. Yeah, okay So this one's mine And that one's yours And uh, just spin it around just a little bit like that. It looks it looks good for uh, for college trial there So then what we do we have this fantastic stuff. It's called leaf showing. Okay. It's I call it hairspray for the flowers It's not really what it does is it The flowers all come in with a little bit of water Um, you know, you get you get the mineral residue on your house and on things at home You get the same thing on the on the flowers and on the leaves So it just it shines them up. Yeah shines them off It's it's the finisher Gives it that nice Nice fresh look even right. I love it. So that's what you do Before I was rudely interrupted by my battery. I'm sure we missed some of it, but In general we got it all Sorted out here. We got the the five in the middle the longer stem and then the six On the outside with the one in the center there. That's pretty cool. And then you sprayed it, right? And I think I got that part and now we're going to add you said wax flower This is called wax flower. It's it's on the same ideas baby's breath But I like it better. It's a little bit more upscale. Okay, and it's just it's an accent That's all it is is it's an accent and again, you can you can use baby's breath or any other types of things Are there other often have it? Are there other things people use? There are other things too There's lots of stuff. So you just kind of add it in in different places kind of Disperse it around again. You want to keep your garbage off of the stem. So you want to clean your stems up and you just kind of Add it in in different places in the middle Okay, so that it dresses up your flowers a little bit Is that in between? In between Okay And if you've got little pieces of it, you can keep them for something else a smaller flower arrangement We try not to throw away too much. You don't really like to have too much trash Because as somebody who worked for me at one time said every flower is money Flowers equal money, right? Every flower they all cost money. Yeah, so Sort of like time is money time is money too So, I mean we'll have little pieces like these these we can use for other things when we have a small vase arrangement or something short Yeah, I see you got got a little container here on the side What we call trash containers so you can make a little trash arrangement out of it Okay, I think I've got a few in here. I need probably one right there Take one like that So I think mine is is pretty well done. I might need one or two more somewhere Right maybe right there Actually you got let's see Do and what you can do is you can move them around so that it just forces it a little bit better. Yeah So, okay Let's give you another piece for right down in the center. So don't cut too much off of it That looks perfect. Okay. So all righty. There we are. Is that that's pretty much it and then you got to take it take it out Right. What we do is we'll go ahead and get fresh vases. Okay, and and you don't have to do it that way But it's easier sometimes we'll come up with water and put a sort of flour food in And then we will take those were great roses the whole piece Without the base and drop it in a new vase Okay So it's literally the same it's the same vase too. Like it's nothing different. So you just lift it out Gently lift it out. You want to pull some of that trash that might get caught in the stems Off so it doesn't trash your water and then just drop it in the new vase See the difference in the in the water. Yeah, I definitely see the difference there. So you went from something like that To this And make sure you get all the stems back in the vase Absolutely So there's your your dozen roses and then you do the finishing touch And you can really touch you and make you have to make a bow. Oh, I don't know. I don't know about that I think I want to leave that to the extra. I think that's that's the touch right there. I know Takes probably a little more Dress it up with just a little bit of a bow And it makes a pretty gift presentation. Now do you use different colors of bows then? Depends on what you're using for flowers So we actually try to match it. I don't really want to put a pink bow with red roses necessarily But um, we'll we try to match it out depending on what the occasion is or if the customer has a request Sometimes they have a request. Yeah, so match the bow to the roses unless unless otherwise, uh You know requested or or maybe even a thought like I could see maybe even like on the fourth of july You have the red roses with a blue bow or white. Yeah, do red white blue. That would be cool. But um, but yeah, that's that's awesome Okay, and we keep leftover stems that You know, we didn't throw away and use them for stick to put the bow in the arrangement because otherwise it's just kind of float freely Okay goes right in there like that Finish it off and then For marketing purposes, we put a blooming garden sticker on it Yeah so awesome Well, I I really I really enjoyed that this has been quite an experience to know kind of how things work when it comes to Flower arrangements the different aspects of it. This is this has been wonderful Thank you