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Containers & Vases: What’s new for ’07
What's new for '07 |
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Written by Karen Hall
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There was a time when flower containers had just one
look, but that no longer holds true, says Sandra Murphy, national
accounts and sales manager for Floridus Design Images in Mississauga,
Ont.
 “They are completely changing – from their colours to their designs,” she says. “For example, because orchids are large this year, and extremely popular, we’re adjusting our sizes in order to influence more of the grower pots. So everything fits intact.”
And although selling containers and stems separately was popular last year, for 2007 the company has noticed one of the trends is pre-made arrangements with the artificial water and flowers already in the pot. This is especially true with orchids.
“They’ve been the hot seller this year,” Murphy says. Another hot item for Floridus Design Images is printed pots. “We’ve really been moving these products,” she says. “They are the ones you’ll see in the odd shapes, such as a square, with a leaf around the side, for example. Square pots are really neat with any sort of flower.”
Tony Graaf, general manager and partner at Signature Floral Supply in Burnaby, B.C., says one of the trends continues to be in clear vases, and agrees the square style – anywhere from a four-inch to an eight-inch – is very popular today.
“They’re great for single flowers but they’re also very nice for a small bouquet,” he says. “The cylinder style is also very popular at the moment. And anything in clear is popular because of the hand-tied bouquets that many customers are doing. And then when you get into the pottery, people look for the unique and the different.”
Graaf adds that it’s a challenge to stay on top of the trends, particularly when there is not one clear trend. “And I don’t think they are defined as often as we would like them to be when it comes to vases and containers,” he says.
According to Sonya Meyer, vice-president of Meyer Imports in Waterloo, Ont., what she loves is the fact there’s more than one trend at one time. She says she once went to a trend session and 10 were presented to her.
“And that is one thing that I would reiterate – there’s not just one trend,” Meyer says. “And that’s beautiful because you get to play around a little more and you don’t have to have one in your store and it’s going to be a hit. You can have different things going on as long as you’ve got enough of it to make a story in your store.”
Meyer says they sell everything from a square urban look in strong pastels to a resin pot in a wire lace frame, which is “typical Mother’s Day.”
“And we’ve had a really strong reaction to that,” she says. “It’s not urban and it’s not modern – it’s very cute. And in my Mother’s Day collection I put in a filigree pot – a nice simple clean line pot with filigree on top. Different textures are big … so anything that’s got somewhat of a pattern on it works really well.”
Although the company sells glass pieces as well, Meyer says she definitely sells a lot more pots.
“But for glass I sell unique shapes – I sell a lot of glass for entertaining,” she says. “There are glass logs, for example, and you can put short little flowers in them along with tea lights. Those are really nice gift ideas.” So what colours are hot? According to Graaf, one of the hottest colours has been lime green.
“And I don’t believe that’s going to stop for awhile,” he says. “But clear is definitely outselling the colour by far percentage wise.”
According to Meyer, earth tones, plum, and strong pastels are quite popular today. “I don’t like vibrant and I don’t think vibrant is really the case anymore,” she says. “But they’re a little stronger pastel than years ago and they still have good colour content to them. We’ve got a good purple, pink, and chartreuse green and they are just awesome to put with spring bulbs. And that’s where those colours can’t really change much because your flowers are those colours. So coming up with different shapes … is important.”
Chocolate brown is also popular, and because it’s a neutral now it’s never going to go out, Meyer says. “It works with so many accent colours like red, aqua, black, and white,” she says. “You’ll see it in the spring as well, but everyone likes having fun with colour in the spring too. Everybody needs it psychologically.” Murphy agrees chocolate is “huge again,” along with the greens and turquoise colours.
“And of course you’ve always got your standard colours like black and white,” she says. “Those are always a fair seller because you have your people who don’t want to divert for anything or buy anything too trendy.” But no matter what it is consumers want, Murphy believes they are more educated today.
“They’re more cautious in their buying at this point and they want better quality and they’re demanding better quality,” she says. “This is good because it makes everyone else stretch that much further.”
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