The Lunch Club Podcast
A space for wedding vendors and creatives. We are offering you a seat at the table as we share all the behind the scenes and details to get you feeling creative and celebrated.
The Lunch Club Podcast
Blooming Insights with The Utah Flower Market
Prepare to cultivate your understanding of Utah's blooming floral industry with Utah flower market president Julie Hall. This episode promises to plant seeds of knowledge about the tenacity required to grow flowers in Utah's capricious climate, the collaborative spirit that's nurturing a dozen local farms into a vibrant flower market community, resources for you to utilize this season, and the push towards sustainable, local agriculture.
Our discussion with Julie sheds light on the textural and tonal shifts that are captivating the hearts of florists and customers alike,.The Utah Flower Market is set to unfurl an enriching lineup this year, and Julie gives us a preview of the resources aimed at helping florists weave local flowers into the tapestry of their work. It's a colorful conversation that paints a picture of a blossoming future.
In our final chapter, we go beyond the bouquet, offering practical tips for navigating the aromatic maze of the flower market. Embracing seasonality and flexibility can lead to arrangements that are as memorable as they are beautiful, particularly for life's big celebrations. The rhythm of the market is a dance of communication and collaboration, and we revel in the joyous energy that peaks during the busiest months. We wrap up the episode with an expression of deep appreciation for the floral community, celebrating the shared growth that blooms from the fertile ground of ongoing dialogue and feedback. So tune in, and let the scent of innovation mixed with tradition lead you through the thriving landscape of Utah's floral scene.
Okay, I am so excited I have Julie Hall here who is going to be telling us all about the Utah flower market. She's one of our farmers. So before I spoil all the fun stuff, go ahead and tell us about you, what you do, and yeah, all of that.
Speaker 2:Farmer in Mapleton, utah. My farm is Maple Bloom Flower Farm and I've been growing and selling flowers for five years, but I'm also the president of the Utah Flower Market, so lots of work, yeah, it's a lot of work, but we're a collective of 12 local flower farmers. We all work together to sell our product to florists and to the public. Um, and it's been an incredible experience. We're entering our third season um working together and selling at Grove station from April to October.
Speaker 1:How have you guys like made that work for Utah's conditions right, Like it's not the most ideal.
Speaker 2:Utah is a little tricky and from year to year, you know, it can change a lot right.
Speaker 2:Last year was a crazy winter and this year is a more mild winter, but our farmers are always looking for ways to extend our season, so we're putting in high tunnels and low tunnels and things that will protect our crops and make it possible to get earlier blooms yeah, and later blooms. But we're also one of the things about working together is that, even though most of us are in utah county um, our farms are at different elevations or in different locations, and so if my daffodils start, you know, really early april, someone else has them longer and later than I do because they're start later yeah so the more farmers we have working together, we actually extend even the season for each flower, yeah, um, which is really great it's.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's. One thing I've really enjoyed is like I think each farmer kind of has like something. I don't know if this is intentional, but I swear every farmer has like their product that is just always thriving, or like they always have a lot, and so you kind of learn like what everyone's bringing to the table right yeah, and some people do specialize in certain crops.
Speaker 2:you know, like Joyce at Benjamin Bloom, she does a ton of dahlias, yeah, but even the dahlias that she grows.
Speaker 1:sometimes I'll grow those varieties at my farm and they are not great, but the ones I grow she can't grow at her farm and so it really is just, we each kind of find the thing that we grow the best and then we bring that to the market and you end up with this room full of gorgeous local flowers, yes, and that really leads us into a question that somebody asked that I was like oh my gosh, like this is such a straightforward, like on the nose question I didn't even think to originally include in this, but like what's the difference between local flowers and, you know, your standard wholesaler? What are the benefits? So why don't you kind of share some of your insights and I'll share some of mine afterwards, and we'll kind of give you all the reasons of why you want local flowers?
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's so many reasons to buy local. I mean a lot of people don't realize that 80% of the flowers that come into the United States I mean that are used in the United States are imported into the.
Speaker 2:United States, so that there's a lot that goes into that, right, and there's a lot of um implications. But the things that we can do that maybe your traditional wholesaler can't do yeah, our flowers are picked fresh, right, so we're picking them fresh. We're picking them at the perfect stage of harvest are picked fresh, right, so we're picking them fresh. We're picking them at the perfect stage of harvest. Um, and then they come directly to the market like the next day, yeah, whereas most flowers are flown sometimes for, you know, they travel for like a couple weeks yeah, before that you're getting them right, and sometimes they're moldy or soggy well, they pick them like early, so you're like crap.
Speaker 1:Yeah, these aren't blooms. Sometimes they don't open or they're way past like what you want.
Speaker 2:So just the freshness, the quality I mean. Um, when you get 10, stem bunch from us. You're getting 10 usable yeah, good ones, so less shrinkage, um, and those flowers are just gonna they're gonna perform better and last longer, and there are just some things that we can grow locally that don't ship. Well, yeah, like dahlias and zinnias, and the locally grown lisianthus is incredible yes, well, even like cosmos, cosmos, they don't do well, they don't ship.
Speaker 2:Well, right. And so there's. There are certain flowers that you're just gonna find in a local market that aren't even comparable to anything you're going to see in wholesale, right, like they're. Just the quality is going to be better. Um, you're supporting the local economy. You're supporting these, these in our collective, we're all women who own our own businesses. You're supporting these women. You're supporting their families. Um, that's, you get to know us at the market, so you know where your money's going and who it's supporting, which I think is really incredible. Also, most of our growers I mean, I would say all of our growers are using regenerative, healthy practices on their land. Right, so they're supporting local ecosystems. They're not using harsh and nasty chemicals on their flowers, because they're growing where they live, exactly right. Yeah, care about that space in the environment. Um, so you don't have to worry about getting flowers that are coated in some sort of gross chemical yeah, and that's something we discussed before.
Speaker 1:We, you know, started recording. Was that that's something people aren't very aware of, um, and I mean it happens in lots of produce you know fruits and veggies, like we do it all the time where we don't even question like what we're bringing into our homes or what we're touching and all of that, and I definitely feel like there is something to be said about that fresh quality and like you feel better, um, and knowing you know where it's been and you's on it, and for your clients too, right.
Speaker 2:Like you can say, these are chemical free and one of the things on our Rooted Farmers platforms each farmer has a profile that you can look at their farm. And we've asked them to put what their practices are. So if that's something, that's really important to you.
Speaker 2:You can look and see okay, this farmer only does organic, like there's no chemicals or whatever, and then you know what you're getting. You can also talk to our growers at the market, right, and find out about that and and get information about how to handle the flowers and what they need.
Speaker 1:That's the part about the market that I really love is that we're just there interacting yeah, that face-to-face experience and I feel like I mean, from my perspective, some of the benefits for sure are processing takes basically no time because you guys have kind of done that for us. By the time we get it, I'm not spending hours and hours picking off all the extra foliage on the stems and recutting them and, you know, making sure they're fresh, because they're already freshly cut and I know they're like pretty much ready to go. And another thing too is the cost is very competitive to what you'd have to pay at a wholesaler and for the quality you're getting is so much better. And the reason for that is you know you're not paying for someone to put these on a truck and ship them. And then you know you have to pay for the time that the wholesaler spends cutting and then processing them and getting them all labeled, and all of that adds extra cost. And so at the end of the day I've explained this to my clients like my goal is always to buy local because I can get them more flowers for their budget and I'm not out any money like we're just able to maximize you know what their budget is and make it so bloom heavy and beautiful. And I also feel like we have so many more options.
Speaker 1:Like you said, some things just don't ship at all or very well, and so that was kind of a fun learning curve for me as a florist. I had been doing it for a couple years before local flowers became really accessible, and so there were things I was I'm still learning about new flowers that I just would never even have learned or seen or thought of, because they don't sell them at a traditional wholesaler and you know they might be just local to Utah, and so that's something that I've really appreciated is it helps me to stand out as a designer. It's not that cookie cutter, you know nothing against a brick and mortar store, but you know, usually it's just you see the same few items, and so I love getting to see what you guys are growing and asking you guys like, hey, what's this Like? I've never seen this before.
Speaker 2:Well, another beauty of having that relationship with the growers is that in the early season, you could tell us like, yeah, this is something I want more of, and we can put it in the ground.
Speaker 2:You know like we can have that interaction where we can really respond to what you're looking for and what you need. Um, and then that idea of finding unique things in the market. Our growers grow flowers because they love the experience of growing things. Right. And for me, like I know that I want to grow things I've never grown before, right?
Speaker 1:So we we're trying to grow unique things and we love bringing them to the market and seeing how you guys react, you know, and what you're excited about, and then growing more of that Exactly, and that's something, too, that I've really, really loved this season is like, as soon as you guys opened pre-orders like I have pre-ordered up until August, like I know the weddings that I have and that's something my clients have also vocalized is something they appreciate it's like, wow, that's really awesome that you are supporting Utah's local economy and also you're gonna get me flowers that were just picked a couple days ago.
Speaker 1:Like there's that peace of mind for them, knowing as well like I'm likely to have a lot less substitutes, because I know that you guys have flowers here where, especially during, like after COVID a lot, it was very common for trucks to not make it on time. Like there were shipping delays in every industry and it really affected the flower industry and and it was nine times out of 10, half my order didn't show up and I was left scrambling. But I feel like, obviously, weather permitting, like things happen, but I've really never had half my order just not show up with you guys, like you always have it and you find a solution, and there's just that like reassurance of like I'm going to get what I ordered, I'm going to have options, I'm not going to be left scrambling last minute.
Speaker 2:Well, and part of that is we have our collective, so we can support each other right Like so. If my crop fails, I have someone else who can?
Speaker 2:back me up on that, which is really incredible. And we're also very active in the floral community within the whole state, so if, for some reason, we couldn't even get it within our collective, we can reach out to this, this whole community that we're a part of, and and it really is an incredible collaborative thing, and we want to collaborate with the florist and we want to collaborate with other growers and we really want to make it happen, because it helps everyone get local.
Speaker 1:You know when we work together yeah, yeah it's, it's a big difference. I will say, like I just love, I look forward to my flower pickups way more when I'm doing it at the flower market than when I go to the wholesaler, just because, like you mentioned, that face-to-face experience is so different. A lot of people I mean there are some people at the you know whatever wholesaler, some of the reps that are really great to work with and they're really kind and nice, but a lot of them, like this is just their nine to five and they don't really care. They don't really care if your ranunculus look crappy or you didn't get what you ordered and it's kind of like, oh, you're lost, you know, and that can be frustrating and it can be like like I, like I said, I would dread going to my pickups because I'd be like, oh well, it's not going to be there and what am I going to have to say to make sure that they get me what I want?
Speaker 1:But I just feel like it's an exciting, fun thing to get to go to the pickups and see my friends there, see all the growers there, see what's new, and it's just a lot more of a fun experience. I love that. I'm so glad. Yeah, um, okay. So my next question is is there like an item that you grow, or you've been asked to grow, that you didn't expect to be so popular or that you didn't know like was a sought after, like product or item?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, last year we had, uh, ag agrostema, like the corn cockle, yeah, which is a beautiful tall floating flower, right like it just has this very dainty look and that we could not. We did not have enough of. I was surprised. Yeah, how many people wanted it? Um, it's a beautiful flower, and this year we're growing blush varieties too, which we're really excited about, so that'll be awesome.
Speaker 1:Calendula we have like a rusty like color that one's a favorite of mine for sure A rusty colored calendula.
Speaker 2:That is just really unique and pretty and it's a good blend, but not one that I expected to like really sell super well.
Speaker 1:Well, it's not like the main star right, Like your dahlias or your peonies are kind of an obvious choice but those are some fun, like supporting blooms that just like add some texture, but they're not, or like silene, which is these little fun little pods?
Speaker 2:You know, just these interesting like textural elements that I think are really fun, but obviously, like the dahlias, the zinnias like this year, we'll have florets zinniasas, which are all these beautiful.
Speaker 1:Like I love soft tones.
Speaker 2:Zinnias are usually really saturated, but these are really soft tones that should be great for wedding work and so we're all very excited um to see how those turn out this year.
Speaker 1:Well, and that's one specifically, that you really can't get at a standard wholesaler because you're not supposed to put them in a cooler, yeah, and so it's like they just don't even have anywhere to store it like they have their tropical coolers. But I never used zinnias until I started shopping local because, yeah, it's just like the zinnias they did get were not when. I was like ooh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but these ones this year, yeah, and they hold up really well.
Speaker 1:They do really well out of water. I'm always really happy. They're like a good hardy flower, which, again, you wouldn't expect, and that's been fun for me to like experience too. Yeah, I think one that I'm always surprised is explosion grass, oh yeah. Because, like it's kind, of a weed, like I'll see it like growing on the side of the road and I'm like I want that, like yeah, it's one of those that people comment on a lot too at my wedding it's like what is this?
Speaker 2:yeah, what is this? I'm like you probably have this pulled out yeah, well, there are a lot of things that are native or like you can forage yeah are really just incredible textures and um so, um so. You know, some of our growers are more foragers and they do get that stuff and they bring it to the market and it's great for the textural element.
Speaker 1:It's just funny to see. Yeah, like all the different textures or things that people are seeking after. Um, okay, and what would you say? Your most popular requests with flowers are either flower blooms or colors, anything like that.
Speaker 2:So most of our florists are event florists. So, yeah, we are, you know, seeing the blush and peach and white and you know like, yeah, those standard wedding colors. But I think we're also seeing, uh, lavender, lavender, like little pops of lavender coming in, I feel like the trend is moving towards more color which. I'm excited about. I'm very excited.
Speaker 1:I know you're excited about colors like my whole thing.
Speaker 2:Oh, the light blue delphinium that we have. It's like a very loose delphinium, it's not like tight column and it has this really beautiful, soft um look, which has been great, but I mean lisianthus, we can't locally have enough of lisianthus either it's just a good bang for your buck.
Speaker 1:Yeah, from a forest perspective, like the lisianthus I'll get from my standard wholesaler, like you're getting like five blooms maybe and just a lot of unopened blooms and extra foliage, which is fine if that's the look you're going for. But the lisianthus you get from the, from the local growers, is like it's packed, jam-packed of beautiful blooms. Like and you can use them for boutonnieres yes like and they do so well out of water they hold up so well. They're amazing, it's just an amazing plant. I'm just picturing that right now. I'm so excited.
Speaker 2:I know that our growers have invested in lots of lisianthus this year so we should have lots of variety and lots of volume.
Speaker 1:I'm sure that's music to every florist's ears. Okay, so kind of on that note, what can florists expect from the utah flower market this year that might be different from last year. Anything that you've noticed was high demand or something that you noticed was a need.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think all of our growers are increasing their volume because we know that like we need to have enough volume for you to do an event.
Speaker 2:So, across the board, we're looking at just more, more volume, right. But we've also just tried to, like, create a lot of resources that would help people know how to use local flowers, because we know there's a learning curve, right. If you're used to the certain way of doing things and working with wholesalers and having flowers, you know peonies available throughout the whole season, like, um, it takes a little bit of help, right, and resources to help you know what's blooming when and when. You know, like, what you can expect to find in the market at different times. So on our um website, utahflowermarketcom, you can create a member account and we have a bunch of free resources available on that page.
Speaker 2:So there's a bloom availability sheet that shows you each flower that we have and when we expect it to bloom. We have our price sheet on there. We have our Pinterest boards so you can go to the Pinterest boards and actually see, like a visual, yeah, of what these tulips might look like or what this peony looks like and what months they'll be blooming. We also have new, these little graphics, which I'm excited about. So if you want to promote to your clients that you use local flowers, there's a cute little graphic that says I love local.
Speaker 2:It's got like Utah and flowers and it's in all sorts of different colors, so you could download that and use that in your marketing materials oh, I love that um yeah, so we're just trying to make it easy for you guys to use local, because we know there is that learning curve, so there are great resources available there. Um, and on our Instagram, we're always trying to share ways to use local too yeah, well, that's something I've definitely utilized this year.
Speaker 1:That's really helped as I've been making proposals for clients. I just go straight to the Pinterest board and I pick the month that I'm looking for, because a lot of them are categorized by month, so I know when it's going to be blooming, um. And then I incorporate those exact images of flowers that I'm going to be able to use and put them on the inspo board so my client really can expect that. And then it helps me in my planning of like, when I pull it up and I'm ready to order stuff, I'm looking exactly at the photos that you guys have provided me. I know the month that it's going to probably be available, and that's helped me as well because, like you said, it's a little bit of a learning curve of like, when is this actually available? Um, and that's actually been really fun.
Speaker 1:I feel like to learn and you guys have definitely made that easier, and I think those are just resources people just don't even know are there yeah so I'm excited hopefully people will listen and go and implement like being able to know better what to expect and when, um, which is going to be really fun. Yeah, kind of a secondary question with that is have you guys been surprised with how much demand there is for farmed florals?
Speaker 2:Yeah, like when we started, it was just kind of like seven of us got together and hoped that we could make it work and we didn't really know what to expect. And I think we've all been blown away by the response and we're constantly trying to keep up with that and like make it work for our farms. A lot of our farmers, a lot within Utah, most of the flower farmers probably have only been doing it for the last three years maybe that's impressive.
Speaker 2:We have some that are longer, like I've been doing it for five, and some that have been doing it for eight or ten, right, but it's a fairly new thing, um, and so just recognizing there is this, this demand for local, and then trying to keep up with that and and innovate and grow more and expand our farms to meet that need, yeah, um, it's really exciting. It's exciting to be a part of and it's exciting to work with these other women and um to to know that we could really make this local flower movement a feasible option in utah so that people can get local flowers.
Speaker 1:Okay, what are some things that you wish florists or the public who like to shop with you guys knew that you guys offer, or about your processes that would just help their experience be better overall yeah, I'm not sure.
Speaker 2:A lot of florists know that we offer advanced ordering. So if you are wanting to put in an order, like for an event that you have coming up in august or september, whenever you know like far out um, that you can submit a wish list to us and we'll coordinate with growers and we'll reserve those flowers for you. Um, there is the, the. I guess we need people to understand the, the seasonality of things, and also that there is, you know, a little bit of weather dependency on it, but but we usually can say, yes, we'll have this many dahlias at this time and these colors. You know, if you can be kind of open and a little bit flexible, we can make those orders work for you and and reserve those flowers way in advance. Yeah, um, and then we'll be in contact with you as that goes on. Um, as far as the public, I just I just feel like um understanding seasonality and what's available when and I think that just takes time to like coming to the market and seeing what's available.
Speaker 2:It's a skill that people have to like learn, yeah it is and it's I mean, it's a skill that I've had to learn about, like what's going to be available when? But there is something so beautiful about using seasonal flowers, um, especially for weddings. You know that, bride, anytime, those flowers bloom locally, right, it's going to be when they were married, because they use seasonal flowers. So, you'll have this like automatic reminder of that time and that place and what was actually blooming at that time, you know. So I think it's really cool.
Speaker 1:Okay, tell us about some of your pain points with growing flowers specifically for florists or weddings, like things maybe that we wouldn't have thought of, or some of the more obvious ones um, pain points, I think, are just just helping people understand that we can definitely work with color palettes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we can. We can work with a mood board. If you can be flexible on, maybe, specifics, you know that's really helpful. Um, and then we can help you make this gorgeous look right Like and helping your clients understand that too, right Like. Maybe not promising specific flowers, but promising a certain look. Um is really helpful when working with local flowers.
Speaker 2:Right, because then you can, we'll always have peaches, we'll always have blushes we'll always have those colors and we'll have focal flowers, but it may change what the focal flower is. Yeah, so just that, um, and then I don't know. I like pain points. It's kind of hard for me to think of because we just love it so much well, that that's good.
Speaker 2:But just the communication, just just recognizing that it takes communication to coordinate with our growers. And we have um Paige who is our incredible administrative assistant and she coordinates all those orders. She's got a floristry background so she understands what it's like to be on the florist end and she's awesome at helping create those advanced orders. So just, I just wish they would know, they knew that they could just reach out to us, yeah, with any questions, any comments, any problems. We want feedback because we are new to this. So if you ever come to the market and you have something that you're not happy with, or you get home and you're like this thing died, how can I fix it? Or like what's the problem? Like we want to help with that, right? So feel free to give us all the feedback about your experience and let us know, because that will just help us become better and meet everyone's needs and meet everyone's needs.
Speaker 1:This is like a heads up for anyone who's new to the local flower market, or if you're, you know you haven't utilized it as much is leave some room to spend extra, because if you've maxed out your budget and you're gonna go pick up thinking you're not gonna add a bunch of extra stuff like guess again. So that's something I've actually forked out for myself this year is like okay, I have $500 that I'm planning on and I'm going to leave myself another $300 just to spend and see things, because, like you've mentioned, the seasons change and so sometimes I didn't expect to see something available, or maybe the color is just exactly what I needed and I didn't know until I saw it. So that's been something too that I think could be helpful for someone. It's like save some budget just to go shop, and I think it's just fun to do.
Speaker 1:That, too is like really make your clients order like one of a kind instead of instead of, like you know, when I order from mayesh, like I'll do a, a product lit and I just you know, I'm like, okay, three carnations, four roses, you know my standard stuff and I create that simple recipe that's gonna create my base. But then what's really great to do is get all the texture and all those luxe blooms from local growers and that really is what makes your product stand out.
Speaker 1:I think that elevates it yeah and that's you know what's kind of fun is like. Okay, I'll place my boring order of like whatever greenery, the roses that I need, and and we're talking boring roses, because your guys's roses, the garden roses you provide, are like beautiful, they're stunning, right like game changing, like things you just again you can't buy from a wholesaler and and so, yeah, we're definitely lucky yeah, I think the other thing about the flower market is like just being in that space, yeah, especially in like August and September when it's just full right yeah, I mean it's like good for your soul it is.
Speaker 2:I can't describe it and be surrounded by flowers and just to have you know everyone who's coming in there is is coming for a reason of connection, you know, like they're creating something beautiful for a bride or they're getting flowers for someone they love, and it's just like there's just a good vibe in the flower market and being surrounded by that kind of beauty is just good for you. Yeah, I think it's.
Speaker 1:It really is and I think the culture and like the Utah, I guess, for Utah florist has definitely changed in the last couple years as well where, like my best friends, are my quote-unquote competitors and it's so fun because we're all so busy that, like we don't see friends in general or, you know, family members a ton during wedding season. We're busy, so it's really fun on market days when we're picking up and it's always the same day, so I know I'm going to see some of my friends and you know it's really helpful too. There's times when we use it as a place to meet up. If I'm renting something from somebody, like we know we're gonna see each other on Wednesday, we meet up, we swap items, we get to see each other's color palettes come together, like it's just a really fun social experience. In addition to, you know, work like it makes work a lot more fun.
Speaker 1:Another benefit, I think that I want to mention some of the novice florists or people who are really dipping their toes into floristry. It's really hard to get a resource of good flowers to practice with outside of trader joe's, you know, because you need a tax license and all these things, but with the public markets a lot of people who reached out to me, you know, to take a class, and they said you know, I don't know that I want to set up a business yet, but I really want to get my hands on some flowers. That's something that they were so excited to learn about was the public markets are still a great opportunity to get good quality blooms. Yeah, um, and they don't have to worry about how many hoops they have to jump through to make that happen. So that's something as well.
Speaker 2:That I think people don't take advantage of is like it's okay if you ready to, you know if you don't have a wholesale license yet and you're not ready to do that thing, like it's a great option. And we have our bouquet bar, which is incredible like $5 bunches, smaller quantities. So, like I know we've heard Flora say, like when you have a mock-up or something that you're just doing in a smaller quantity, you don't want to buy 10 stem bunches. Yeah, like the bouquet bar is a great opportunity just to get a few flowers I'm at a good price and work with them and kind of experiment right and see how it goes and that's definitely and it's just funny.
Speaker 1:That's one of my most commonly asked questions from you know, the public, who are like, oh, the flowers you make are so beautiful, but you know, it's for my fee for designing something and picking it up is obviously going to be a lot more. And I think it's fun for people to have their own experience like, well, let me go pick. You know they get that farmer's market experience of like kind of shopping around and seeing what's there and then going home and creating something for themselves. I think it's like super fun that I love seeing people get that experience, just because, like that's where my love came from was just playing with flowers and then I learned like, oh, I actually have a skill and I want to, you know, monetize it. Um, but I think that's something too for people to keep in mind is like it's a great recommendation for people who are interested in floristry or they just want to have pretty flowers on their table every week. I get that comment a lot too, too Like oh, I bet you just always have flowers.
Speaker 1:I wish I could, you know, afford to do that every week, but with the flower market I think it's definitely more of a realistic goal to just have fresh flowers on your table every week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, another resource that we provide for the public is we have on our website featured florists, so if they're looking for someone who uses local flowers, they can look on our website and see some of you know the people that we shop that shop with us the most that we know use local flowers a lot in their events and things Like. It's a great way to connect with a florist.
Speaker 1:For sure, and I love that you guys do that. It's always fun to just see what people's favorites are. You know the reasons that they shop local. Um, okay, are there any exciting changes or events for florists, public farmers, to look forward to with the utah flower market this year?
Speaker 2:yeah. So this year we're trying to um incorporate some demonstrations. So we know there are some flowers that are a little bit tricky to use, like daffodils, because you know they can't always be combined with other flowers. Well, so, like at our opening market, we're going to have a demonstration um, one for our wholesale customers and one for our public retail customers so fun yeah marianne seal from bushel and a peck is going to come and do.
Speaker 2:I know she's so great she's going to do just a demonstration so people can come and shop the market but they can also see someone putting a beautiful arrangement together and kind of see what the process is, because I know a lot of people are interested in that process.
Speaker 2:So we're excited about that and other collaborations throughout the season where we can have kind of that interaction between our florists and our public and you know this collaboration that works well for everyone, um, but that opening market's going to be great and we'll have our soda shop and open and also food trucks available. We're also partnering with the juniper market this year for our early um season markets, where they'll have other vendors at grove station too, so you could do some other fun shopping while you're there. Just what I need.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, okay, so tell us when the opening market is, and what blooms can we expect to see for the opening market?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the opening market is Wednesday, april 17th. Okay, and we do. Our wholesale hours are 9 to 11 in the morning, so that's florists, and then we open to the public from 11 to 1 30 and so you can come have lunch and and get a soda and shop those other vendors at that time. You can expect to find lots of beautiful narcissus. So those are daffodils. They're not your just run-of-the-mill yellow daffodils. We have gorgeous daffodils that are white and peach and pink and really probably unlike ones that most people have seen, we'll have ranunculus, we'll have specialty tulips, we'll have blooming branches and anything else that decides to bloom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we never know in that time it's getting pretty warm, so we might have some unexpected things there, um, but yeah, we'll have lots of beautiful spring flowers. I do want people to know that our spring markets are a little bit smaller just because it's early in the season, and then, as the season progresses, we just get more and more flowers and fill up Grove station.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel like for me, like mid July is like pretty much full swing. Would you say, that's like yeah, yeah. July, yeah, july, august, september, we are like full of flowers, yeah, but I think with every month there's always something yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, yeah, yeah, april leads into May, which has ranunculus and peonies, and then you get into June with garden roses and it just there's always something new, there's always something beautiful, um, and it's fun to see how it changes, yeah, week to week well, and, like we've just talked about which I, you know, I don't want to overdo it, but I do think it is so fun, like to implement flowers that are growing, with whatever season, because often the style that your bride has coincides with the seasons outside, and so that early spring, those spring weddings, a lot of my brides do want blooming branches and the tulips and just a very like, yeah, organic spring look.
Speaker 1:And then as we get into the summer, you know people aren't really asking for blooming branches. They want like big bloom, heavy dragons, yes, like vibrant colors and things. So it's kind of fun to see things evolve and that's what keeps my job interesting. For sure is like each season brings new flowers, new colors, new options, and so each bride's wedding is still one of a kind, even if we have the same color palette over and over. The flowers that I'm going to use are going to be completely different from an April bride to an August bride.
Speaker 2:Like it's going to look different even though it's the same colors, yeah, and from year to year we have flowers that just are like this year is great for zinnias, or this year is great, you know, like there are just seasons and the weather changes which flowers are really looking amazing each season, so it's fun to see that difference too awesome okay, so for any of our florists, where can they reach out to place an order in advance or to order in general, and where can people find you guys to see any updates or things?
Speaker 2:yeah, so you can always go to our instagram, our social media stuff that's at utahflowermarketcom or just at utahflowermarketcom or just at utahflowermarket, and then our website is utahflowermarketcom, so there's great resources on there. There's sections for florists, so you can find everything you need. It's also important to know that we use rootedfarmerscom as our selling platform, so that's where we list all of our inventory. That's where you can do pre-orders each week before the market. So those are the main places that you're going to want to get started. But if nothing, else go to our website.
Speaker 2:Everything is listed there. All those resources that I mentioned earlier are available.
Speaker 1:Perfect. And then for someone who hasn't done pre-orders before and they're new to the market, how far in advance can they place their orders and anything to know about that?
Speaker 2:So we are working all the time to have more inventory listed out farther right. So there are actually things listed on there through the whole season from some of our growers. Like people have ranunculus listed for June and different things like that so you can see what's available and you could list. You could order those right now. But most of the time our growers are posting their inventory the week before. So we try to get the inventory up the Thursday before and then you can get your pre-orders in and those pre-orders close Monday night and then we harvest on Tuesday and bring it to the market on Wednesday, so definitely the week before you're going to want to look and see the week before is pretty much everything they'll see.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely the week before you're going to want to look and see the week before is like pretty much everything they'll see.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's I mean that's our growers are more confident in like this is exactly what I'll have that week. So they're going to list it all out. But there are some things that we know, like we're going to have tons of zinnias in August, and so we can say with more confidence like yes, you could order those now.
Speaker 1:If someone wants to create a wishlist so you know higher volume far in advance, how?
Speaker 2:do they do that so they can reach out to hello at utahflowermarketcom. Okay, um, paige will send you a wishlist form and you can fill that out. That that wishlist is also available on in our members um portion of our website so you can get it there as well. You just fill out the form and then we start working together to come up with an invoice for you and an order for you, and then you get to approve that and look it over and as we get closer to the event we can make changes to it and make sure it's exactly what you want.
Speaker 1:Perfect. Well, for anyone who hasn't done it yet, I've done this a few times already so I can attest it is really nice. It creates a lot less stress as well. So I reached out to Paige and filled out the form. So I said you know what colors I'm looking for, specific items that I want, and what I actually did is I gave a lot of creative freedom to the farmers.
Speaker 1:I'm someone who I like to see someone else's perspective. I kind of forget about flowers sometimes that are available, or I just kind of get in my routine and I get bored with what I've been ordering. So I just said, like here's my budget, this is my color palette. I submitted my inspo board that I've sent to my clients so they know exactly kind of what I've promised. Um, and then I just said, like you know, I want these amounts of quantities. So I even said, like you know, I need 10 bunches of a line flower.
Speaker 1:I don't really care like how many different line flowers. That is, um, you know my, my standard blooms, I want this. Or my floaty blooms, I have this many. So I really give them a lot of freedom, which is something that you guys mentioned is like okay to do. You don't have to know like every single quantity and how many you want of everything, um, so that's something that I've tried out this year that I've been really I've already really enjoyed. And then, yeah, paige got me my invoice pretty much right away and that's really helpful for me to be planning and it's been really fun to kind of know that it'll be a little bit of a surprise for me and I don't know. It's exciting. Yeah, it's exciting.
Speaker 1:Thanks for being flexible yeah, I'm like you know what you guys know better than me what's gonna be available and what's gonna look good. So, um well, thank you so much for taking the time to come and tell us more about the flower market, because I know I'm not the only one who has been so grateful that it has come together, and for all the work you guys put together and making it happen, because it helps us be better florists when we have better flowers. Anything else that you want to add or to share?
Speaker 2:No, we just love the floral community. We love seeing you guys at Grove Station, we love the interaction, we love the feedback. So just keep showing up and talking to us and we'll keep growing this thing together.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Yeah, thanks, Andrea.