This past year has been quite the rollercoaster. Here at WildFlora, we've done our best to go with the flow and still provide you and your loved ones with flowers through the toughest of days, but an industry shortage has meant doing things a little differently.
Mayesh, one of our flower wholesalers, recently posted an update on their site, sharing this message about the industry floral shortage. To make a long story short, production has dipped due to:
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domino effect of the global pandemic shutdown in 2020
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giant companies buying up farms that were previously supplying the open flower market
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unlucky weather (which, with global warming, may only prove more tricky in future years)
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increased demand for truck drivers during an already-existing truck driver shortage
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increased cargo rates for international shipping
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increased demand for product - flowers are SO HOT these days
...Sooooooo what does this mean for you, the WildFlora Patron?
STYLE & COLOR WIGGLE ROOM
Since flower availability is inconsistent and we don't know that we'll be getting the exact same flowers each week, the arrangement you get may vary a little from the photos on the website. However, we guarantee that you'll still get the same value and we won't deviate in extreme ways - meaning the subtle English garden-looking bouquet you ordered won't show up as a bold, tropical cacophony, or visa-vera. It could also mean that ordering a pink-colored bouquet results in not solely pink flowers, but also some whites or peach flowers - again, nothing too extreme.
PRICING
This part's a bit of a downer - we know. But for the reasons listed above, as well as our efforts to pay our staff fair wages, we, like many other small business owners, have to adjust our pricing. This is especially apparent for flower-heavy times like Mother's Day & Valentines Day, since demand is high and even in normal years, wholesale flower prices are elevated for these holidays.
WEDDING REFERRALS
While we are definitely NOT complaining about the increased demand for flowers (thank you all so much!), the sudden surge has made it difficult for us to also do a lot of weddings and events. Therefore, when we hit capacity, we refer wedding inquiries to some of our favorite specialty florists here in Los Angeles.
BUT HAVE NO FEAR!
At the end of the day, we are a group of florists with trained eyes for creating flower magic. All of our designers are here because of their genuine love for flowers, and honestly, making your flowers brings us just as much joy as they bring you. We truly appreciate your trust in our craft and hope that you'll continue to give us opportunities to curate botanical beauty for you in the future.
Owner, Alexandra Scholtz visits the Los Angeles Downtown Flower Market to pick up Valentine's Day Flowers.
Processing flowers from the market includes unwrapping them, trimming stem ends, snipping excess leaves, removing thorns, and placing them in water.
Valentine's Day and Mother's Day are our craziest weeks. Luckily, we get to borrow some overflow space from WildFlora Design Studio, our brother company, owned by Alexandra's actual brother, Michael.
Flowers are our passion. Even with masks, you can see how much fun we have designing your arrangements!
i worked at a floral shop and had no fun doing i wanna work with these people because it genuinely looks fun and happy
Thank you for this interesting and informative message. Despite all of the difficulties and challenges you’ve been facing your arrangements are still stunningly beautiful.