Miscellaneous and Schedule Items
Extended Hours & Delivery Days for Mother’s Day:
- We will be delivering on Saturday 5/5 and Saturday 5/12
- Friday 5/4 the sales office is open until 6PM. DVFlora.com & our After Hours staff is available until 7PM for Saturday 5/6 delivery. (customers in New England, Syracuse NY, Western PA and Richmond VA areas have a 6:00PM cutoff)
- Saturday 5/5 the sales office is open until 2PM.
- Sunday 5/6, DVFlora.com & our After Hours staff is available until 4PM for delivery Monday 5/7.
- Friday 5/11 the sales office is open until 6pm. DVFlora.com & our After Hours staff is available until 7PM for Saturday 5/12 delivery. (customers in New England, Syracuse NY, Western PA and Richmond VA areas have a 6:00PM cutoff)
- Saturday 5/12 we will be open from 8:00 AM – Noon. Your individual Sales Associate’s hours may vary.
Mother’s Day week is one of the busiest weeks of the year. Please allow for some later than normal delivery times. Every effort is being made to limit any delays. One way to help is by taking advantage of our Friday 5/4 and Saturday 5/5 delivery dates. If you need botanical, supplies or flowers and greens to start preparing these are the perfect days to take them. We kindly request you avoid the delivery of Botanicals and Supplies on Monday 5/7 in order to save space for fresh flowers and greens.
Holiday Prebook
- The order cutoff for the Mother’s Day Prebook period ends Monday April 23
- The order cutoff for the Dutch Direct Mother’s Day Prebook is Tuesday April 24
California Report
Larkspur is now in good supply. Bupleurum slowed last week but is coming in well now. Sunflowers are increasing in volume. Waxflower continues in full production in a multitude of colors and varieties. Stock is in good supply and of very good quality and has moved from the southern low desert to high desert in central CA . Snapdragons are also good supply and quality. Kale is still showing good color but will transition to more green as night time temps increase. Gerbera has started to become more available and we will see this continue through April. There is still a good supply of Cymbidiums from farms in Carpinteria. Huge blooms and excellent quality. Their season is usually finished around Mother’s Day.
Tulip, Iris, Hyacinth and Lily production are strong. French Tulips are in full production along with several novelty and parrot varieties. We are seeing good quality Dianthus. Anemones and Ranunculus are back in production. Fillers are limited to Solidago, Green Mist, QA Lace and Orlaya. Boronia, Rice Flower and Viburnum are now coming in. Flowering branches have been affected by the rain but are somewhat limited. Diosma and Lepto are now available. Pincushions are dropping in production. Godetia, Sweet Pea and Bella Donna Delph are increasing in numbers.
Basics
Mother’s Day Market– Most Basic products will be at Holiday pricing sometime next week and we only see prices moving up from farms going forward. Alstroemeria and Carnations looks to be the two items that are in greatest demand and production is limited. If you do not prebook you run the risk of not being able to get the product you want for the Mother’s Day Holiday. To give you an idea of how scarce supply will be, we use eight Carnation Farms to fill our needs and seven out of the eight are not taking additional orders for the next 10 days.
Also, a strong word of caution for the week after Mother’s Day and party work. When production gets this tight, farms are cutting anything that is showing color. This tends to make availability VERY tight in supply for about two weeks after the Holiday. If you have party work after MD, you will need to be flexible, and consider promising colors, rather than varieties.
Asters– Two new Varieties we started carrying that are worth mentioning are Pink and Purple Butterfly (pictures below). Left is Pink Butterfly Item # 57138- Right is Purple Butterfly- Item # 57537
Novelties
Peony- We have Peony coming in from Israel, France and North Carolina to fill our needs. Please read the descriptions to see the stem count- with all the different regions and different farms, we have different stem counts sometimes even for the same varieties. From North Carolina we will have Assorted 10 packs, as well as some Festiva Maxima, Jules Elie, and Karl Rosenfeld. From France we will have Coral Charm, Pink Pecher, Coral Sunset, White Odile and Red Charm. We will have some Sarah B from Israel.
Viburnum- California Viburnum is now available!
Japanese Product Update– Please note the Spirea season has come to an end from Japan. We won’t have any until next January from Japan. Also Note the Ranunculus is ending as well. We will have limited items for next week and after that it is likely to be finished.
Clematis- Remember that again that our Florida Clematis supplier is not growing this year due to damages from Hurricane Irma. We will have Clematis, just not White. We have not been able to find another supplier who grows White.
Gardenias- It has been a struggle to get enough Gardenias since September. We can finally say we are pretty much in the clear. Production has picked up and our main source is back on track and expects to have a good availability for Mother’s Day.
Sarracenia- This week we received our first shipment of the season. This comes from Louisiana and is a 10 stem bunch. We will carry these until our local season starts in July.
26890- Sarracenia Louisiana
Larkspur- Larkspur production has improved and we should have plenty available. Pricing has stabilized.
Bells of Ireland- The supply is great and prices remain low. Have you checked out the Bells from Mexico, #21559?
Tinted Items- These are becoming popular. They look better in person than in photos. We have the following boxes available for Mother’s Day:
Item # 57280– Pom Pon Asst Tint C/D Spring Pack, 10 Bu. Each box contains: 2 Daisy Pink Tips, 2 Daisy Purple Tips, 2 Cushions Difuminated Lavender, 2 Cushion Difuminated Pink, 2 Cushion Splatter.
Daisy Pink Tips, Purple Tips, and Cushion Splatter
Cushion Difumated
Item # 57281– Mum Spider Asst Tint- 10 Pack (These are 5 STEM bunches)- Each box contains: 2 Painted Center Purple, 2 Painted Tips Purple, 2 Painted Tips Pink, 2 Painted Swirl Pink/Purple and 2 Painted Pink.
Spider Purple Center, Purple Tips
Spider Painted Pink, Swirl Pink and Purple
57180- Aster Asst Tint Solidago Spring pack- Case 10.
Each box contains: 2 Hot pink, 2 Dark pink, 3 Purple, 3 White
57179- Aster Asst Tint/Natural Spring Pack. Case 12
Each box contains: Tint- 2 Light Pink, 2 Hot Pink, 2 white, 2 Purple. Natural- 2 White Sunspring, 2 Purple Monarch.
Heather- California is done for now. The good news is New Zealand has started and the quality looks great.
Boronia- Production remains strong. Please keep in mind that this is a very short season and does not usually make it to Mother’s Day.
Snapdragons- Once again there is plenty of White but colors may be limited, Yellow being the most difficult. Have you tried the snaps from Mexico? If not, you should!
Asters Matsumotos & Dianthus Amazon- It looks like Matsumoto production is gapping. There will be extreme shortages for next week on all colors. Dianthus Amazon, and the Sweet varieties are available.
Iris- There is plenty of Dark Blue and a great price on Dark Blue from Mexico. There could be shortages on some of the colors. North Carolina has all colors except white.
Snowberries- Snowberries from Chile are coming to an end. There a few available for next week and this may very well be it for 2018. The same grower is shipping a few Rose Hips. Take a look below, the quality is great!
Grower Direct
Things are starting to become very tight for Mother’s Day. Some farms, are beginning to cut off their availability, which is not a great sign. Remember, most of the cutoff times will be advanced so get your orders in earlier than normal! Friday Fresh also changes for the Holiday – we will be cutting off the offer for delivery 5/4 and 5/5 at 8 pm Sunday 4/29, which is earlier than normal, in order to give the farms time to label everything.
