We speacialize in hand tied wraps and sell a lot. We call them European Poseys, to add the flair. When my wife and I studied in Europe, these flower stands would be all over the place with these grab and go bouquets. It is what inspired us.
We go for the more natural look(butcher paper brown or white)and not use cellophane. It really stands out and is more classy imo. Plus customers are used to getting cellophane from the grocery stores and we try to position ourselevs far from those guys and find a niche. (I am a long way from knowing anything, but in my humble opinion, I think florists should go in the opposite direction when it comes to what your local grocery store is doing - just my 2 cents)
We tie it with Cecil twine, put a sticker on the wrap with our logo and place flower food down in the wrap wth our name/logo too.
We don't put the flowers in anything... no water... we do educated the customer on how to re-cut the stems, etc... If it is extreamly hot, we will caution the customer about keeping it cool and to get into water fast. If we are out on delivaries, we have a vase or short bucket we put them in.
We never get a complaint about the flowers dieing and our customers don't mind cutting the stems and placing them in a vase.
I know all of our niches are different and I'm not saying I have the answer, just passing on what we do.
Another thing we do, is I set up on the back of our business cards 6 flowers across the back. I call It our Frequent Flower Miles. Everytime someone comes in and buys one fo them, we stamp their card. 6 stamps = a free hand tied bouqet = to $15. This has helped our business and is a great idea if you have a lot of walk by traffic. Make it convienit, fun and give them an incentive.
