Flower start-ups cut out red roses for Valentine's Day
A budding group of flower-delivery start-ups filling orders for Valentine's Day this week are shunning the most popular way to say "I love you": red roses.
You won't find traditional cellophane-wrapped buds, teddy bears or heart-shaped chocolate boxes anywhere in the product selection of companies including Farmgirl Flowers, BloomThat, BloomNation and The Bouqs. Those products, and the online models that so often deliver them — sites like Teleflora and 1-800-Flowers — have become stale, say this new crop of entrepreneurs.
Instead, these companies are tucking plants like decorative kale, ranunculus and eucalyptus into arrangements as they attempt to tone down the Hallmark holiday cheese factor with hipper designs, locally sourced stems and gift box add-ons like gourmet gummy candies and red-tinted lip balm.
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When Valentine's Day hits this weekend, it will mark the biggest day of the year for the flower industry — nearly $2 billion is expected to be spent this year on flowers, according to the National Retail Federation. To be sure, with their romantic undertones, roses remain the most popular way to celebrate the holiday. And some of the start-ups still offer one or two red rose options.
But even flowers can go through trendy phases, and while roses may be classic, for some customers, they're no longer cool.
Out with the old
Part of the reason lies with the popularity of lifestyle sites like Pinterest and the desire to make a personal statement with our style, says J Schwanke, a fourth-generation florist who also runs a flower-education website called ubloom.com.
"People are getting really familiar with flowers," he says, "and the more familiar they are with flowers, they less apt they are to make stagnant decisions."
Enter kale in your Valentine's Day bouquet or tulips and unusual greenery instead of roses. More traditional bouquets like red roses paired with baby's breath feel "antiquated and old," says Matt Schwab, co-founder and president of BloomThat, which launched in 2013 out of San Francisco.
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BloomThat's website and app offer customers a curated selection of bouquets — usually between four and eight options — that change based on seasonality and are filled with flowers that are 80% sourced from California, which is unusual for an industry that sources the majority of flowers from outside the U.S.
Locally sourced beauty
Farmgirl Flowers, which started in San Francisco in 2010, takes an even more extreme approach. The company's flowers are 100% sourced from the U.S., bouquets come wrapped in recycled burlap coffee sacks and the company creates only one arrangement for customers to order each day, cutting down significantly on the waste the flower industry typically accumulates by overbuying in order to potentially fulfill hundreds of different designs, says the company's founder, Christina Stembel.
Data show Stembel and others have tapped into the desires of customers looking for an innovative way to send flowers. Farmgirl has grown at least 250% every year since it started and is expected to hit $10 million in sales this year. That's more than double the $4.5 million the company did in 2015. BloomThat saw sales grow 250% from 2014 to 2015, but declined to share specific figures. BloomNation also declined to share specific figures, but said that the company has been growing 10% to 15% a month.
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This week, Farmgirl will do 10 times as much business as normal, offering its standard larger bouquet as well as a smaller version with the same flowers that comes with a goodie box including heart-shaped sunglasses, a chocolate bar from Los Angeles-based company Compartes, a heart-shaped lollipop and charcoal and rose face masks.
Those additions are aimed specifically at a younger generation that doesn't always see flowers as a worthy investment and wants to "feel like they’re getting more for their money," Stembel says.
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Other companies maintain the local bent but try to offer customers a more technologically modern experience. BloomNation, whose site launched at the end of 2012, acts as a sort of Etsy for local florists, working with about 4,000 of them across the country. The florists post all their own photos and customers can browse options based on location. They will also receive a photo of the exact bouquet they ordered before it's delivered.
"When you go to 1-800-Flowers, you’re just seeing the stock catalog," says Farbod Shoraka, co-founder and CEO of BloomNation. "(With us), you’re getting a really deep variety of hyperlocal, unique handcrafted bouquets."
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For its part, 1-800-Flowers CEO Jim McCann says that the company's "local artisan" collection of bouquets arranged by florists in the market where you're sending are among the most popular options for Valentine's Day. Plus, his company continues to do well with more traditional arrangements because that's what customers want.
"The products we feature are selected by our customers," who generally range in age from 24-50, he says. He dismisses the idea that teddy bears and heart-shaped chocolate boxes are cheesy as an "urban snobby" attitude.
Still, the start-ups say they're catering to a specific audience that wants more unique options. Similar to Farmgirl, BloomThat is offering a Valentine's Day package that comes with extras including champagne-flavored gummies and pink nail polish. One bouquet comes with a complimentary lip balm from beauty company Glossier. None of its current arrangements include red flowers.
It's "about aligning with our demographic," Schwab says. "It’s not like we’ve invented a new flower. It’s the way we’re presenting them."