October 04 2019

DIY - How Hard Can It Be?

Tags: At LoCoFlo

Doing your own flowers should be a fun and creative experience that enhances your event and changes your life for the better. However, without the proper resources, some planning, and a little bit of pro-style help, your DIY floral project could totally blow.

Example: Our new friend, Andrea of The Codex Club, got married just a week before we became besties, and she didn't know about LoCoFlo's DIY services. Let's just say her DIY flower experience wasn't magical.

"There was so much we didn't know. We just thought we would buy some flowers and design the arrangements. It wasn't that easy."

"First, transporting everything was a nightmare. My car still smells from all the dirty flower water that spilled from the buckets."

"We did have a great time designing the arrangements, but that only made our disappointment worse on our wedding day - everything wilted. I loved my wedding. The only thing I would have changed were the flowers."

Oh No! DIY disaster!

Bloom Battler Chris, on the other hand, was on his DIY game. He brought his out-of-town aunts and gran, plus friends, over to the shop a few days before his wedding to make bud vases, centerpieces and accent arrangements. We provided the flowers, some of the vases, the tools and materials, and all of the fun.

"My family was so happy to be part of the floral design. It was a fun activity and a great memory."

"We brought our arrangements to brunch the next day. Gran was still talking about the flowers. She loved it! I'm bringing her back to make our Thanksgiving centerpiece."

LoCoFlo kept all of Chris's arrangements looking fresh in our cooler. We also did the heavy lifting with the large ceremony pieces and handled the deets with bouts and corsages plus delivered everything on the big day.

Yesss! DIY domination!

LoCoFlo's DIY services:

Space to Work
Everybody needs a proper workstation to do their best design. And, do you really want all that mess at your house? Design your flowers in our inspiring floral studio. Bring drinks and snacks. Spread out, chill and have fun.

Flowers
We will facilitate your flower order from our network of local farmers. Have a brief consultation with us about your requirements and flower availability, variety, and colors. The flowers will be ready when you arrive. Easy peasy.

Materials and Tools
We are a full service flower shop with all the materials and tools you need. (As a green florist, we do not use floral foam, but we have alternatives.)

Advice and coaching
We got the skillz. Our designers have years of training and experience. We have provided floral arrangements for thousands of events. You got this - we can help (that sounds familiar).

Storage
Flowers are dying from the moment they are cut. Proper care and storage will extend their life. We will store your floral creations in our walk-in cooler, and care for them until the big day.

Delivery
Arrangements are delicate. We have years of experience safely delivering flower arrangements to weddings and events and a van.

Do it right. Do it fun. Do it yourself.

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August 29 2019

This Sombitch Got Inside The Van

Tags: Bugs

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August 07 2019

Hunnid Bands Bucket

Tags: Farmers, Flower Profile

We got the Money Plant. It has a lot of names and a lot of stories. And it's weird: how it looks, how it grows, how to harvest it, how we prep it, how we use it. Even how we get it. All of this makes it one of our favorites.

Lunaria (from the Latin meaning moon-shaped) is the botanical name. Money Plant is the most popular common name. It is also called Chinese Coins, The Pope's Money, Silver Dollar and Coins of Judas. Obviously, the unique silver color and flat round shape of the seed pods are what gives Lunaria so many monetary nick-names.

Not to be outdone by Jess, Stacy grew ours. It's a biennial. Stacy planted the seeds last Fall and it sprouted up this Spring. Lunaria is easy to naturalize - it reseeds itself. Set it and forget it. When they're young, they flower and their seed pods are green. As they season, the seed pods brown and the stem turns a pied purple. The signature silver color of the pod is achieved by letting the plant age in the ground. But that is when the work begins.

After cutting the plant, each of the pods has a dull husk that needs to be peeled back, like gold foil on chocolate coins, to reveal the shiny silver disks. Do that 100 times per plant and it's finally ready to go. It's a real money shucker.

That's one reason so few people are growing it, but the response we get from customers is worth all the hassle. One Lunaria lover stopped by Open Studio because she remembered it growing in her grandmother's yard. The nostalgia even prompted her to pack Lunaria as her carry-on to share the memory on a trip to visit her mother in California. Yeah! Maryland flowers going to the west coast.

According to Feng Shui, the Money Plant is to be placed in the Bagua area of shop to enhance the energy of wealth and prosperity. We just display it among our other seasonal local flowers. It's a treasure, even if we are still looking for those hunnid bands.

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July 28 2019

Flower Club

Tags: At LoCoFlo, Nerdy AF, Flower Club

The first rule of Flower Club is: You MUST talk about Flower Club.

But, before you talk about Flower Club, you have to know all about Flower Club.

Former Bloom Battlers Jen and Meredith were gabbing at Open Studio one Spring Wednesday night. They missed the competition of Bloom Battle and wanted a new challenge.

Meredith: "What if LoCoFlo had a 'Chopped' style competition, where we wouldn't know what the flowers were and we would need to include unusual elements in the design!"
Jen: "Ooh, that would be fun. Or like 'Nailed It', where we would try to arrange a complex floral installation."
Meredith: "Yeah, that would be fun!"
Jen: "Yeah!"
Meredith: "Yeah!

Ellen then put her MBA training to use and recognized the customer need.

Ellen (internal monologue): "I bet I could get this floral shop cookin' with a new LoCoFlo event: Flower Club! It would be a fun floral activity night for our flower MVPs and new friends. Wow, I'm really good."

Ellen workshopped the idea with some other Bloom Battlers, Heather and Liz, and, boom, the ideas kept flowing: floral bingo, large group project, speed dating flower edition, flower trivia night... The possibilities, and flower fun, are endless.

If you love flowers you're already a member of the club. Some meetings will be drop-in, some will require registration. All will be awesome. Look for the schedule on our Classes and Events page, social media and our email.

Join Flower Club. You probably won't get punched in the face.

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July 01 2019

Meet a LoCoFloer: Ellen Frost

Tags: Meet the Owners, Hilarious

Ok. President Business. The Man. Allen Armitage Winner. MBA. Local only. Whatever. We are finally meeting Ellen Frost, LoCoFlo founder and owner, for the blog. You really think you are the shit, don't you?

Don't be weird.

Is it true that you are so flower famous that you were recognized, like you're frickin' Linsey Lohan, at a botanical garden in Florida?

Lindsey Lohan? Is this 2002! Yes, it happened. It was wicked weird. I was in line to enter the West Martello Tower garden in Key West and they ask you where you are visiting from. When I said Maryland, the woman in line behind me asked if I owned Local Color Flowers! She attended a talk I gave to her garden club. I would say it was more coincidental than fame.

"Wicked weird" - who says that? Where are you from?

Buffalo. You know that.

I'm asking for the reader. Why do you think you are so much better than everybody else in the flower industry?

Come on, I don't! I am sensitive to some people in the flower industry who think our model is a critique of their business. Our local-only approach works for us and gives our customers a choice if that is important to them. It is not possible to do this everywhere in the US. We are not the best climate in the country for flower growing, but we can get fantastic local flowers all year. It isn't easy, but local flowers are important to us and is what the business is based on.

That's where the Allen Armitage award comes in! Yeah, let's get after it! This how the BLOG BLOWS UP!

What are you talking about? And why are you yelling?

I get excited.

You know the staff doesn't like it when you come into the shop and start yelling.

I'm not yelling at them. Why can't I get excited about flowers? YEEHAW!

OK. That's enough.

Moving on... What is the nerdiest flower thing you do? It's gotta be that Darwin book club. Not only do you read books. The books are about flowers. Then you add Darwin on like homework.

Why don't you read a book and join us?

I like TV. And video games.

I know. Maybe you could just spend one night reading a book instead.

No. Isn't awesome to work with your husband?

Yes.

So, you have been doing this for like more than 10 years. You don't make any money. What are you doing? What are you doing?

It's fun. And we are making a little money.

Alright. Let's get into the story. How did all of this get started?

I finished business school and was inspired by an entrepreneur class. I knew I wanted to start my own small business but didn't know what the business would do.

MBA. We get it.

My friend Marina, who was in my Master Gardener class, had read the book "Flower Confidential" by Amy Stewart and suggested a local-only wedding flower business.

MBA and Master Gardner? You slipped that one in pretty easily.

So, I then read the book - it's all about the global flower industry. Most cut flowers sold in the US are grown overseas. It takes a lot of resources and chemicals to ship, store, and preserve foreign flowers for sale in the US.

So you're a flower protectionist. A Trumpian florist?

You're being weird again. We're a small business selling local products. Economic globalization is beneficial for many industries. Our local flowers are a cleaner, greener product that are grown by our friends who run small, family farms. Plus there are so many more interesting varieties with longer vase life.

BORING!

So, Marina and I joined with our friend Jen, who worked part-time with me at Bridenbaugh Farm to start the business.

OK. Marina - the ideas guy. Jen - the farm guy. Ellen - the business guy. What about the skills necessary to do the work. I guess it can't be that hard to put flowers in a vase. Did you just wing it?

No, we didn't just wing it!

Ow! No punching during the interview.

We took a design class at BCCC. We practiced. This was just on the weekends. And, we only designed flowers for friends at first.

OK. You have your little weekend wedding side-hustle going. How long before you dropped the dead weight and ramped up to be the floral juggernaut LoCoFlo is today.

Those are my friends! Marina moved to the Eastern Shore and Jen had twins, so they couldn't be in the business anymore. And that's not nice.

Whatever. I have done more for LoCoFlo than the two of them combined.

Yeah, whatever.

Double Whatever! So what happened next?

We rented a space to work and I eventually left my job to work on flowers full time.

That's it?

Well, I increased my design skills - took more classes. Joined the ASCFG. Built relationships with farmers and customers. Cultivated our social media. Established our brand. Received reviews and referrals. The business grew, we got some part-time help. We bought a van. And we were booking over 100 weddings year.

That's it? What about when I jumped on board?

What about it?

That was awesome.

Hello.

Ok. What about the building?

That changed our business. We were casually looking for a space for years. We were on the roof of a potential building and a man in the street below called to us. We went down and he said he owned the small warehouse across the street and was willing to sell!

Aw, that was so lit!

You sound so stupid when you talk that way.

It's what the kids are saying.

You're not a kid, and they're probably not saying that anymore.

But, I'm cool.

No, you're not.

I'm trying.

Stop trying.

Just keep going.

Well, we made a deal that night and after renovations, we moved in January 2013. We are doing so many more fun things at the shop like Open Studio, Sat@LoCoFlo, Classes, Book Club, private and community events. Plus some more exciting plans.

Oh, right, the thing?

Yeah, the thing.

Ok. Let's wrap this up. Is there anything else you want the readers to know?

I don't know if they got much out of this.

What do you mean. This was great!

I don't think so. I have to do my actual work.

Just finish this up with something schmaltzy.

I'm so grateful for what LoCoFlo has become. We are the largest buyer of flowers for several local farmers. We provide flexible employment for some of our Mom friends and flower growers. We have created a cool place in Baltimore where people can learn and be creative. I am especially proud of remarks by State Senator Mary Washington who recently visited our shop...

Ok hot shot. Cue music: I had the time of my life...

Don't be weird.

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