Musings on Dried Flowers & Wreaths from Our Flower Shop

Our flower shop focuses mostly on fresh flowers, but during the winter months, dried flowers become increasingly important to us! As florists, creating everlasting wreaths and dried flower bundles requires some of our best skills.

I am pleased to say our stash of dried flowers from the 2023 season has lasted us until spring! But just barely. We're combing through what's left now, creating a few more wreaths, filling bags with flower confetti.

Dried flowers are a bit of a head scratcher for me. Like many preserved products, they require more labor upfront, yet the market value of the preserved version is less than that of the fresh version!

Flower aren't unique in this way. Think about a can of peas. Those fresh peas would cost you a few dollars, but you can pick up the can for a dollar or so. (Although you should be buying organic peas, so probably more like $2.98.)

Or one of our 12-inch wreaths, which comprises about 75 stems of flowers. We would charge between $250 and $300 for those fresh flowers, but we charge $78 for the wreath, which also takes more labor than a bouquet of fresh flowers. A lot more. (Wreaths are a terrible, but we love them.)

The saving grace of preservation, of course, is that we don't have to deal with the perishability factor, at least in the short term. If stored properly, dried flowers will retain their quality for several years.

It's amazing how perceived value and hard work don't always go together! I think we would live in a very different world if they did.

But despite the weirdness of the dried flower market, we create them! They have their advantages in moments of uncertain demand, and they give us something to sell during the cold months — those are the business reasons. And then, there's the aesthetic reason. They're just beautiful!

I don't know why I'm sharing all this. Really, my intention was to celebrate the release of our new wreath design, the Soft Springtime Everlasting Wreath!

I think I'm just intrigued by the paradox of preservation versus perceived value. If you have any thoughts or insights, let me know! I'm giving a presentation about dried flowers in a few weeks an am always looking for new ideas.