As the local floral season shifts toward winter, evergreens become your best friend for creating texture, fragrance, and longevity in your designs. This is the first year PFG has offered evergreens, sourcing from farms in Pennsylvania and Maryland. As such, we’ve heard from a few of you that you’re intrigued by evergreens but haven’t had any experience with them as a floral pro. Ever your source for timely education, this week’s newsletter is all about tips for evergreen storage, use and sales.
Storage
Evergreens may seem indestructible, but proper storage makes all the difference in their freshness and longevity. Store bunches in a walk-in cooler set around 36–40°F. Avoid overly humid or sealed environments (like a trash bag) that trap ethylene gas. Yes, evergreens are ethylene sensitive and will drop their needles if levels build up!
If possible, stand bunches upright in clean water just like tender foliage. Cedar, pine, and boxwood especially benefit from hydration before use. If a cooler isn’t available, you can lay piles of evergreens outside in a very shady spot (say, on the north side of your house under a tree). Lay them directly on the grass or soil as that will keep them more moist. Also mist lightly with the hose once a day. However, it is not recommended to store evergreens this way for more than a two or three days.
No matter what, avoid keeping greens near any heat source. Their natural oils dry up quickly when exposed to any heat, such as radiators or heating vents. And advise your customers to keep them out of direct light for the longest enjoyment.
Designing
Evergreens can elevate winter designs far beyond the ubiquitous holiday wreath. When considering your selection, make sure to combine needle types (i.e., long thin needles on pine with the bulkier cypress or juniper) and varying colors (i.e., the blue hues of Atlantic white cedar or eucalyptus with the rich brown of southern magnolia or golden arborvitae). .
And don’t forget fragrance! Layering the fragrance of cedar, pine, eucalyptus and juniper elevates the sensory experience for your customers and helps them appreciate your designs even more.
Evergreens aren’t limited to just garlands and wreaths. Pair them in the vase with wintery blooms like hellebores, amaryllis, and tulips along with dried pods, berries, and bare branches. Like all stems, be sure to strip off the needles from the lower few inches of your evergreens before placing them in a mixed vase. Bacteria builds up on evergreens just like everything else. To help with that, consider adding a CVBN tablet to the water in the vase.
Winter Accents: Berries, Pods, and Branches
Evergreens are the foundation of most every winter design, but accents are what make your winter work sparkle. Textural, colorful, and often fragrant, these seasonal elements add depth and storytelling to your creations.
Beautiful berries like ilex (winterberry), viburnum, nandina, privet, and holly bring bright pops of red, orange, or black that draw the eye. If you’re getting ilex and other berried branches in, store them dry and cool, ideally around 36–40°F. Too much humidity and lack of airflow can cause berries to mold or drop. In the vase indoors, berries tend to last 2-3 weeks. Outdoors in cool temperatures they will last much longer.
Pods and cones like lotus pods, pinecones, magnolia pods, and poppy pods add earthy contrast to the greens. They also harken back to the season when these pods were alive in the summer breeze. To store these dried elements, keep them in a warm and well-ventilated space. Do not put them in the cooler where they will take on moisture and start to deteriorate. If you are including in a vase arrangement, add just before the design leaves your studio.
Bare or budded branches such as curly willow, red twig dogwood, birch, alder or pussy willow lend height and movement to winter compositions. Their natural lines help guide the eye and provide balance. Storage for branches varies depending if you’re getting them in fresh or dried. If fresh, store in water for longevity. If already dried, keep out of the cooler and out of water until you are ready to use them in designs.
Other natural, earth-friendly accents can include cinnamon sticks, walnuts in the shell, cotton bolls, dried flowers, and dehydrated slices of fruit such as oranges or apples. For these, use floral picks or sturdy wire to secure them in a design. A dab of hot glue can reinforce heavier elements.
No matter what the accent, add them after you’ve built your evergreen base. Evergreens provide stability and hydration; all those fun accents are the jewels on the crown. Group them in odd numbers and vary textures for a layered, natural look.
Customer Education
When big box stores roll out mass-produced wreaths and garlands in November, it can feel hard for a small local florist to compete — but we florists have so much more to offer in terms of artistry, freshness, sustainability, and connection! And it all starts with customer education and a thoughtful marketing plan.
In next week’s newsletter we will be going into more detail about how to market your evergreen products and generate sales. But for now, know that you need to start marketing NOW. It might feel like the winter holidays are far off and you are too tired to think about any of that as your wrap up wedding season. But the truth is that consumers are already being bombarded by holiday decor and most sales of wreaths and garlands happen in a seven day stretch between Black Friday and the first Saturday in December. You need to build your runway for sales now, not later.
It doesn’t have to be as overwhelming as you might think. You just need a few images to post on socials to let your customers know you’ll be offering winter decor. This is particularly important if you’ve usually gone quiet in the winter. Your customers would love to continue supporting you! Just let them know there’s going to be a way.
Canva has some really lovely stock photos for evergreens (like the two above – feel free to screenshot and use them if you don’t have time to get on Canva now). Have a quick brainstorm with yourself over a cup of coffee or chai to decide on what you’ll generally be offering (wreaths for pre-order, a winter centerpieces pop-up, a hands-on workshop to make porch pots, home decorating, etc.). Then put just enough text over those photos to pique customer interest. Post something in the next day or two and then you can dive into details as your brain comes back online after your last autumn events are done.
Of course, don’t forget to order your greens soon! That’s one thing you can’t put off. We have lots of local, super-fresh winter stems for pick up on November 19th or December 3rd. You may also find option as your local Christmas tree farms.
Evergreens and winter accents extend the local season and provide a little more cash flow to get you through the slower months. With thoughtful choices and creative designs, you’ll deliver beauty that lasts—and secure customers who make it a tradition to come back year after year for that winter glow up.