As Mother’s Day is drawing near our growers are putting the final touches on making sure they will deliver the best flowers possible. Keeping with our mission statement ‘We aspire to be our customers most valuable supplier’ we focus on making sure all of our growers are on the same page. It takes a great deal of planning to try and assure that the correct flowers are available at the best time. Every grower has to keep a few things in mind to control that process. First, they have to have the correct color assortment set aside to plant. With annual flowers like snapdragons, stock, lilies and chrysanthemums growers can plan exact assortments for any given week. Perennial flowers like gerbera, roses and delphinium are set in their color assortment year round. That is why color driven holidays like Valentine’s Day and Christmas are more difficult for these flowers. Whereas Mother’s Day is more friendly because all colors and flowers are used. Secondly, growers have to monitor weather since it is out of their control. So through the use of shade, plastic and light they do their best to keep the flowers on track for a Mother’s Day harvest. Lastly, the growers have to plan the most effective and efficient harvesting of the flowers. Keeping in mind what the peak days will be for shipping from their specific regions. This involves labor needs, materials for packing and adequate facility space for the increased volumes of the holiday. The more information the growers have with regards to what volumes are needed the better they can prepare to fulfill those needs!
Transflora California has to ramp up our efforts to assure that the volume of flowers is handled in the best way as well. Our inspections at farm and in our coolers increase as the holiday approaches. Boxes are pre-cooled just as they are every week. We are fortunate enough to be in a facility large enough to handle holiday volumes without restriction on space to move the flowers through and get them loaded on our refrigerated trucks. So, as the rush of Mother’s Day approaches rest assured that we have been preparing for it and will do our utmost to deliver the best quality flowers!
