Behind the scenes

We have been very busy over the last few weeks getting new designs, styles and images together for our new design guide which gets sent out to all of our 2000 local florists. This is a good way of ensuring that we establish continuity in the creation of all of our bouquets. Because we send out such a high volume of bouquets every day, quality control is essential and the design guide is an effective way of doing this.

The photoshoots are always really good fun, a mass of creative minds trying to decide which bouquet should go on the window sill and which basket should sit by the mantel piece. (oh, the choices!)

You , as the customer,  get to see the completed image on the website in all of it’s glory but, what you’ve never seen is what goes on behind the scenes, and all of the hard work that goes into developing the perfect shot.

So, we thought, now we are back to using our blog to engage with our customers and give them sneak peeks of what life is like here at iflorist HQ and what goes on as the cogs are turning behind sustaining the brand and its processes – why not let them into one of the most important dates in our calender – photo day!

Now this is one hurdle if you like in a very long process. It usually starts with us all sat around a table, thinking where do we start, what flowers, arrangements and collections do we want to feature?

Once all of the shots are taken .. well that’s another story that we will tell you all about in a  few blog posts to come, but, this is the stage we are at now…. Enjoy!

Giving the flowers a good spritz!

Our photographer Michelle certainly dressed for the occasion!

Inspiration …

Very country chic!

Always need a pair of scissors on hand!

Chrissy’s lovely little flower cupcakes – perfect for a table centre-piece!

All finished off with a good old ‘Fuzzy Duck’ latte and yummy salad! What a good day…

yum yum

Delicious!

A right Royal collection

Here at iflorist we know everyone likes to get a little patriotic from time to time. We get particularly over-excited about England and Great Britain in the World Cup, Wimbledon, rugby and of course, the extremely iconic Olympic games last summer. We have certainly had something to celebrate over the last two years, with a pretty special Royal wedding, Queen’s jubilee and Royal birth to name just a few reasons to be proud that we are British.

Our imaginations were working in overdrive thinking of ways to create one-of-a-kind gifts and bouquets that stand for everything we love about our country. It was all systems go at iflorist HQ – all it took was reams and reams of red, white and blue flowers, a sprinkle of Chrissy’s creative vision and flair and some buzzing minds to come up with the perfect names and descriptions.

We did it, and we believe our beautiful collection truly encapsulates everything we and the nation love about Britain. Our ‘Best of British’ collection went live last week and it’s already taking the flower world by storm.

Let us introduce it to you…

Prince George has his very own ‘Prince Charming’ bouquet – a perfect gift for a new baby or just your way of showing your congratulations to William and Kate.

‘Royal Trio’ incorporates 3 contrasting yet complimentary blooms – one to represent each member of the new family.

‘Best of British’ is exactly that – the very best of British design and skill from our Queens Award winning florist, Chrissy Price.

‘Jubilant Red’ is regal in every way with finest luxury red roses and over-sized red gerberas.

Buy the collection here >> http://www.iflorist.co.uk/best-of-british-EN.html and do something alternative to the old flag waving…

The Royal seal of approval…

“iflorist is a great Lancashire success story. It is fantastic to hear that international sales have grown so successfully.” – The Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire

Firstly, we would like to get things started by giving you a quick update of our own extremely prestigious award wins. Back in 2012, we were honoured with the 2012 Queen’s Award for Enterprise for outstanding achievement in international trade. Yes, it’s a bit of a mouthful, but it was a huge achievement for us all and needless to say we were pretty elated, on cloud 9 in fact!

Our Queen’s Award win comes after Her Majesty visited our hometown of Burnley as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, where we were on-hand to specially create and present a unique historical-themed Weavers Posy, celebrating the heritage of the town.

The Royal visit to Burnley

In the last two years, our international sales have more than doubled due to a combination of global knowledge, use of excellent technology and reputation for service which saw us pip thousands of other eligible businesses to the post.

It was huge smiles all round as we enjoyed a real British afternoon of cream tea and cakes aboard the historic East Lancashire Railway, where we were presented with our award by the Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire on behalf of her Majesty the Queen.

We were also lucky enough to be invited to join the Diamond Jubilee celebrations at Buckingham Palace alongside other Queen’s Award winners – a true honour, a real deserved treat for the passion and commitment that our team deliver every day and a once in a lifetime experience!

And the rest…

To top off an already great year, we were lucky enough to scoop a further two top prizes – the Export Award at the Lancashire Telegraph Business Awards 2012 and the Online Business of the Year Award at the 2013 Red Rose Awards.

Both highly prestigious accolades locally, the awards attracted a large number of nominations and so to win them both was a huge achievement!

The Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire presents the team with their award

What an elated bunch!!

Hello everyone and welcome back to iflorist’s blog…

Chrissy (Creative Director) and David (Managing Director)

Hi there! We realise we haven’t been the best at keeping the blog up-to-date and letting you all know what fabulous things we have been getting up to on a daily basis, but we have made a promise to ourselves (and now to you!) to make-sure that from now on, you know all the goings on at iflorist HQ.

This includes sneak previews of new collections, advice and some top tips from our award-winning (yes that’s right – we’ve won some awards) designers and florists, the latest floral trends and fashions, the perfect bunch to buy for a specific occasion, a weekly Q&A session with different members of our team so you can really get to know us, and much, much more.

We want to invite you to get to know us as a brand and as people, so you know you are not only buying very special, beautiful and unique bouquets, but you are buying bouquets which you know have been made with a smile and with nothing but passion and enthusiasm…

See you soon, the iflorist team x

 

 

Calla Lilies

When you think of lilies, the Calla Lily is one of the first that comes to mind.  This is significant since they aren’t really lilies at all.  They were catalogued incorrectly at first and the name just seemed to remain regardless of their re-classification.  They are popular in a number of different arrangements for various occasions including wedding flowers.  Brides have been known to include one or more Calla Lilies in their bridal bouquet.  It symbolizes magnificent beauty and every bride wants to be the beautiful focal point on her special day.

Calla Lilies are native to South Africa and have also been known to thrive in places such as Madagascar.  As with most living things, just because they are native to a certain part of the world does not mean that they can’t flourish elsewhere.  In the case of the Calla Lily, they are really easy to grow just as long as your location provides the right weather conditions.  Take into consideration the weather conditions of South Africa.  Snow only falls on the mountains and frosty conditions occur in the deeper valleys.  However, in general, South Africa enjoys a hot summer and a moderately chilly winter.  Temperatures usually don’t drop too low especially in the coastal towns like Cape Town and Durban.

So, if you live in an area where it snows or heavy frost occurs, your Calla Lilies will be grown as annuals.  If you are fortunate enough to live in an area where winter conditions are much like that in South Africa and Madagascar, then you will be able to plant the Calla Lily as a perennial and see it bloom year after year.

Calla Lilies make excellent cut flowers and they can last between four days and two weeks as cut flowers.  Of course, if they only last four days then it really means that they have not been cared for properly.  Every cut flower should be cared for according to the advice of a professional or florist.  The better care you take of your cut flowers, the longer they will last and there is no reason for your cut Calla Lilies to perish after just a few days.  They have strong stems and the flowers are nice and firm.  They will not wilt like tulips and their thick stem should also allow for more than enough absorbtion of water and nutrients.

When displaying one or a bouquet of Calla Lilies, you would really only do the flower justice by placing it in a nice, tall vase.  The flower only blooms on top of a very long stem so, take advantage of this and create a lovely long-stemmed arrangement.  If you cut the stems too short, it will also appear out of proportion.  The flowers are quite large and would look best with a longer stem.  The vase should also be simple, just like the flowers and tall enough to support the stems.