A Guide to Choosing Flowers for a Flower Bar Business
Flower bars are all the rage recently, and how could they not be? I mean, who doesn’t love flowers? If you’re new to the concept…
A flower bar, also known as a bouquet bar, bloom bar, or stem bar is a station of fresh cut flowers for people to build a custom bouquet.
Flower bars can come in the shape of a mobile cart, flower truck, or a station set up permenantly within a flower shop or other stores. It creates an experience that customers and guests miss out on when simply buying a pre-made bouquet from the store.
If you’re here and considering starting your own bouquet bar business, you’re in the right place.
Based on my own experience running my bouquet bar business in Charlotte, NC, I’ve put together some tips on how to choose the best flowers for your bar or flower truck. I even have a list of the flowers that I use HERE.
I remember not knowing where to start when choosing flowers for the first time. There are so many beautiful options! What will my customers want? How do I balance profitability with having choices that will keep my customers coming back?
Here are the factors that I take into consideration when choosing flowers for my flower bar.
Profitability
I focus on flowers that are the least expensive (under $2 per stem) but I avoid choosing the same assortment of blooms that can be found in bouquets in the grocery stores…
Longevity
One of my favorite comments I hear from clients is “wow, your flowers lasted so long!”. Choose as many flowers as you can that have a long vase life. Your clients will be impressed and you’ll create repeat customers.
Drying Ability
Whether or not this should matter to you depends on your business model. Occasionally I set up my flower bar at local markets where I don’t know how many flowers I will sell. Sometimes I sell out, sometimes I have a lot left over.
I dry the flowers that don’t sell and use them for dried bouquets and dried flower decor that I can sell online or at future events so the flowers don’t become lost inventory, aka lost profit.
Some flowers dry well whereas others become fragile and lose color quickly.
A Well Rounded Flower Bar
If you strictly choose the least expensive flowers available, you may end up with a flower bar full of small filler flowers, creating unbalanced bouquets. The goal is to choose an assortment that makes it easy for customers to create an arrangement they are proud of with little to no arranging experience. Below is a flower recipe for succes. Choose flowers that fall under each of these categories below:
Wow Factor
This has been easier than I expected, to be honest. Sometimes I have included very inexpensive flowers or greens at my bar and to my surprise customers love them! I think the key is choosing a well rounded assortment, stems that pair well together, and blooms that customers may not see in supermarket bouquets.
Fragrance
Having fragrant flowers is helpful if your business model includes pop up markets or events where you need to attract customers to your booth in order to sell or tell them about your services.
Durability
Because my business model involves transporting flowers to set up at different locations and customers are often pulling stems directly from the flower bar themselves, I like to include flowers that durable and won’t crumble or bend too easily.
If you find this helpful but are looking for more, I have the very list of flowers that I use for my own business available below. Feel free to copy my list exactly or use it as inspiration to create your own! I remember choosing flowers for the first time and feeling so overwhelmed by the choices! Just remember you can pick a list of flowers to start with and adjust it ass you grow and learn in your business. Best of luck!
