Mothering Sunday / Mothers Day

March 16, 2010 on 2:53 pm | In Zara Flora | No Comments

What a wonderful Mothering Sunday (Mothers Day in the UK, on Sunday 14th March). Described by our florists variously as “FANTASTIC” and “JUICY”, we were blessed with entirely lovely clients and a respectable increase in business over last year, in spite of the ongoing financial climate. It seems that Mum remains a priority for most people whatever other hardships exist, and other maternal relationships were also being recognised - a lot of our clients ordered more than one item, remembering the Mother-in-Law and Nan as well as Mum.

Mothering Sunday is not just one day for florists - it builds up like a crescendo over the preceding week, with the busiest day in the shop being Saturday, followed by a rush on Sunday morning which usually tails off and comes to a stop around midday as everyone gets ready for the celebratory lunches. Most of the deliveries go out on Sunday morning, compressed into a manic four hour period between 8am and 12pm though many orders are aslo delivered on the Saturday.

This year was consistently busy in the shop from Thursday through Sunday and on the day itself it just kept on coming - by Saturday close of play we’d sold all the flowers we’d received, ordered again on Sunday morning and sold all of them too by the end of the day. We had planned to close at 2pm on Mothering Sunday but in the end we stayed open an additional two hours and had quite a few grateful late-comers, that basically cleared out the stock - THANK YOU!

We noticed an increase in advance orders this year and in people finding us through our web site (www.zaraflora.com) and other listings on the internet (including our Facebook pages and Twitter). Also, we realised that we were attracting customers across a wider range of age groups and budgets. We had planned in advance for this by broadening our selection of offerings and price levels and it was heartening to find that everything we had to offer found a buyer. The budget most frequently mentioned by clients (i.e. what they hoped to spend) was GBP 30 and most popular choices were those products which included or were based on Spring Flowers - which probably explains why our biggest seller this year was a Hand Tied Bouquet of Spring Flowers at GBP 30. The second biggest seller was an Aqua Packed Hand Tied Bouquet of mixed flowers at GBP 45.

Our range of products for Mothers Day included Narcissi in an elegant glass vase for just GBP 9.60 (these sold like hot cakes), houseplants such as Jasmine (GBP 11.50), Stephanotis (GBP 12.50), Hydrangeas (GBP 20) and Orchids (GBP 22.75, GBP 25 and GBP 37.50), Hyacinths and Ranunculus in miniature painted buckets for GBP 25 (another big seller), Hand Tied Bouquets of Mixed Spring Flowers (GBP 30), Planted Baskets (GBP 30), Planted Troughs (GBP 30) and mixed Aqua Packed Bouquets (GBP 45 to GBP 55). We also had many orders for bespoke bouquets and planted arrangements and supplied orchids for Mother’s Day Lunch gifts to local hotel clients.

We delivered Mothers Day flowers to all of our usual locations in West Sussex, East Sussex, Surrey and Kent througout the weekend - all day Saturday and until later than expected on Sunday as extra orders continued to arrive. The traditionally busiest period between 8am and 12pm on Sunday morning was the greatest challenge, yet our delivery drivers emerged unscathed and with honour! We did have a few Mothers at the the doors in their PJ’s though all were pleased to be disturbed, thankfully, and basically everyone was happy - HOORAY!

So, farewell to the rollercoaster for another year - the Twin Peaks of Valentines Day and Mothers Day are behind us, along with the stress, adrenalin rushes, sore hands and aching feet that accompany them. Now we move forward to a full season of weddings and events