From Blooms to Bouquets w/ Paul Miller

How do flower blooms - fresh from the fields in South America, become the beautiful bouquets we enjoy in North America each day? Paul Miller AIFD, PFCI of Sunshine Bouquet shares the story. Offering insight into the farm … people … and process of growing and importing approximately 1.5 billion flower stems annually. Paul explains how field cut blooms move daily from one continent to another for the pleasure of flower consumers.

How we Bloom podcast is an oasis of flower ideas. Hosts Sharon McGukin and Smithers-Oasis North America interview floral guests who dare to do things differently. We listen, learn, explore new opportunities and that's how we bloom!

Transcript

Paul Miller (00:09):

We see a bouquet and we think, "Isn't that pretty?" But, we don't realize how much goes into that. I think as employees, there's many of us that look at each other some days and go, "If they only knew what went into just making this bouquet."

Sharon McGukin (00:31):

Welcome to 'How we Bloom,' an Oasis of flower Ideas. I'm your host, Sharon McGukin AIFD, AAF, PFCI. And, I believe that every great success story starts with one simple idea. That's why we interview those who dare to do things differently, inspiring people who plant seeds, grow ideas, and bloom to their full potential. In this podcast, we listen, learn, explore new opportunities, and that's 'How we Bloom.'

Sharon McGukin (01:08):

Today's guest recently said to me, "I should be thinking of retirement, but I love my job. I'm the luckiest man in the world because I get to do what I love." After 50 years in the floral industry, Paul Miller AIFD, PFCI, one of Sunshine Bouquet's leading floral designers, still has an amazing passion for petals. His innovative work has contributed to industry trade and events throughout the US, Canada, Japan, and South America. What I can vouch for, through our years together on the Teleflora Education Specialist Team, is that not only is this flower friend talented, but Paul's a lot of fun to work with. He always has a smile and a laugh to share. This design show panelist, judge, commentator, and floral consultant has been past president of the AIFD Southwest region, a member of AIFD, National Education and Membership Committees, a runner-up in FTDs, America's Cup competition, an Arizona State Designer of the Year, and he was inducted into the Arizona Floral Hall of Fame. Despite his vast experience, Paul's resourceful down to earth approach to floristry, makes him relevant to any audience. Now working with Sunshine Bouquet, Paul's focus is on mass market design.
Proving the Sunshine mantra, "beautiful flowers grow into beautiful moments." Paul Miller is here today to share with us the story of how South American blooms end up in the beautiful bouquets that we enjoy here in North America. Welcome Paul.

Paul Miller (03:02):

Hey, Sharon. How are you?

Sharon McGukin (03:04):

Very good now that I'm here with you today. This is going to be so much fun. I always find the farm-to-florist story so interesting. And I know that our viewers will also.

Paul Miller (03:17):

Yes, I've loved doing what I do. I started going to farms in Columbia in 1995. That was the first trip there.

Sharon McGukin (03:26):

Oh, fantastic. That's been quite a while.

Paul Miller (03:29):

Yes.

Sharon McGukin (03:29):

<laugh>. And it's changed a lot there over that period of time also, hasn't it?

Paul Miller (03:34):

Yes, we grow a lot more flowers. We used to grow basic flowers, a rose, a mum, and a carnation. Now we grow many, many varieties, probably over 500 different varieties of species and flowers.

Sharon McGukin (03:48):

That's amazing. Now, I wanted us to talk today about the process of importing flowers. So I want to ask you about the farm, the people, the process, and in the information that you shared with me, I read that you have 3,200 acres of flowers and over 30,000 employees. Now are those employees in both South America and North America?

Paul Miller (04:17):

Yes. That includes our five offices and facilities here in North America, in the United States, and also includes all our farms in Columbia and Ecuador.

Sharon McGukin (04:30):

Which is the largest grower of flowers. I know Ecuador is the largest grower in roses, isn't it? But in terms of farmland, is it Columbia or is it Ecuador?

Paul Miller (04:43):

Um, I believe it's Columbia has more land actually, but Ecuador is right there with it. We have farms in both places. We actually have 56 separate different farms.

Sharon McGukin (04:54):

Amazing. Now your roses, I know that you have 951 acres planted in roses. Are those between the two countries?

Paul Miller (05:05):

Yes, those are between the two countries.

Sharon McGukin (05:07):

That's, that's incredible to think. It's kind of hard to think in terms of those numbers, isn't it?

Paul Miller (05:13):

It's always amazing to me, even though I get to make one bouquet and they get to multiply it many, many times. I might make a bouquet once, and it might have 25 stems, but they have to make 5,000 of that bouquet.

Sharon McGukin (05:26):

Well, when it comes to bouquets, does the farm plant for you or do you work with what they plant.

Paul Miller (05:34):

That works a little bit of both ways. We're always working out - in collections that we offer to our customers, I'm working on 2024 /25 already. So, if a customer decides they want that collection a year out, we can usually plant for them. And that's only in certain flowers, because some flowers are you plant it and you pull it out and that's the end. For example, mums and lilies are a one-time flower, but roses, alstroemeria, gerbera, things like that, are l a five to 10 year plant. So that one is a little more difficult.

Sharon McGukin (06:13):

That is so interesting. And there's such a fine science to all that, isn't there?

Paul Miller (06:19):

There is a science to everything there, and that's part of the things that I just am amazed by. Every time I go, I look and I find out new things. How many in one row, how many flowers are an average bloom, how many blooms, and how often it is. And it's all recorded on the end of each row. So they know that they're going to expect 40 blooms from that row today, 40 tomorrow.

Sharon McGukin (06:46):

That's crazy. Now, you shared with me a video that I'm going to put the link into the transcript and people can go to see that process explained a little more clearly. With you, Paul, right out in the middle of those big fields of flowers, how amazing that must feel to stand in the middle of that much beauty and that much fragrance.

Paul Miller (07:09):

The countries are absolutely beautiful, but actually being in the greenhouse is one of the most exciting things. There's always people working in there, and the passion they have for what they do is really amazing. Just watching their faces. One thing they never get to see is the finished product. When we were filming this, we brought the bouquets that featured those six flowers into the greenhouse where they were working. They were just totally amazed and just loved seeing their product in the finished bouquets.

Sharon McGukin (07:41):

Well, one of the things I noticed on the videos and in the photographs that you shared with me, they're all smiles all the time. you can tell they're like you, they enjoy that job and working there.

Paul Miller (07:53):

Well, you know, we always say that flowers make you smile, and that is true. And I think each person there really does have a passion for what they do. They're proud to do whatever job, whatever menial task it may seem to us - planting the flowers, growing the flowers, all the different processes that one stem goes through. It's just an amazing journey from the ground all the way to processing and then sending it away from Columbia or Ecuador. Putting it on a jet to head here.

Sharon McGukin (08:27):

Well, for example, the disbuds. Taking all those extra buds off so you end up with one bloom. That's just incredible detail.

Paul Miller (08:36):

Right. As I share with people around the United States and in different places where I've taught, one of the most interesting things that I do is take a stem of what we call spray Chrysanthmums, and I'll take a stem of a disbud, and I ask, what's the difference? Most people don't know. Really it's the same flower, but a person has to take all the extra buds off the disbud, hence the single flower gets its name - disbud. A person has to go a couple times during that process to take those extra buds out so all the energy goes up that single stem to make one big large flower.

Sharon McGukin (09:16):

It is so amazing to think about how much hard work goes into raising just one blooming flower. I know that people very often say, oh, well, why do flowers cost that much? And then I watch the video and I see the process and I think, how on earth can we do this as inexpensively as we do? That's pretty astounding.

Paul Miller (09:39):

It is. And that's just one process. Then, when a field is ready to be harvested, what happens two weeks before that field's ready to harvest? We've all seen a disbud and how it comes in the box. When we get it from our wholesaler with the little net above it, well, that doesn't grow on the plant. <Laugh> That is put on the stem two weeks before it's processed and harvested. So then two weeks later, another person comes by, they know exactly how big that bloom has to be, and they pull the net up on top of it. Then another team comes in and harvest all those, and then in three days, that field will be totally harvested, and then it will be replenished with soil and fertilizer for the next crop. So within a week's time, usually a whole hector can be turned around.

Sharon McGukin (10:38):

That's just hard to imagine, actually. Well, I saw in the video also that there was paper put over certain blooms and the date that they needed to be cut. I thought that's very time consuming as well.

Paul Miller (10:55):

It is. There's a lot of time consuming things we don't think about. Just to intersect a note, one time we had someone visiting the farm and they were really watching the life of a mum from the time we planted it. Which is usually 85 to 90 days before it can bloom. And then he saw the processes and he goes, "That mum should be $20 a stem."

Sharon McGukin (11:19):

<laugh>. I was thinking when I was looking at that. I was like, wow. All for the costs that we pay. And then people complain about that. Now, I've never been to the South American farms. I've been to US farms and flown over farms and just the beauty of the flowers is amazing just to see it all at one time. But I have done some work in bouquet houses in Miami, making up bouquets and creating collections. And I know that when you create that recipe, you consider trend season stem availability and price point. So this is something you had to teach to the people on the farm. And I think you said there's probably about a thousand designers a day.

Paul Miller (12:03):

There's actually, on an average, about 1200 designers hand-tying Dutch-styled spirals every day.

Sharon McGukin (12:14):

Uh, well speak to us about bouquet making. Is that something that you especially love to do because you make some beautiful hand tied bouquet <laugh>?

Paul Miller (12:22):

Well, I absolutely love to do bouquets, and what I do is a little bit different. We actually have the guru of trends working with us, Talmage. He watches trends and designs the bouquets to match the trends. I sort of watch the trends because of him, and I know what's happening, but I'm really extremely interested in what looks good together, what's pretty, and what I think is trendy for today.

Sharon McGukin (12:51):

And before you go on, let me give a shout out to Talmage. We're going to have Talmage in to talk about trends also, so I'll put a link to that podcast in the show notes as well. So if you'll continue, Paul.

Paul Miller (13:03):

Yeah. And what I usually do is design collections. And I've done this for many, many years. I'm always coming up with new ideas. Well, I really was interested in education.
So that's how the greenhouse collection started and really wanted to start sharing with people no matter who they are, if they're flower lovers or if they're just a one-time flower buyer, to let them know what goes through the process of actually growing that flower. And I started with just six flowers. I'm actually working on the next series for the next six flowers for 2024.

Sharon McGukin (13:42):

And we also have the link to that in our show notes so people will be able to see what you're speaking about. And I hope that you'll take the time to look at that (to our listeners) because it really was interesting. Paul was serious when he said he was looking at information that he wanted to share educationally, and it also was in Spanish and English.

Paul Miller (14:06):

Yes. That's really important. When I'm talking, I know enough Spanish to get by., But the agronomist, we have a different agro for each farm and each flower. Like there's an agronomist for roses in one farm, and they have extremely a lot of knowledge on that particular flower they're in charge of. And they're very proud of what they do too. And they get excited when you're talking about their gerberas or their roses or their delphinium. They share that on the video in Spanish. And I act like I'm listening to every word. I was. And I can get some of 'em, but not all of 'em. But I pretty much know the process that they go through. So it is fun, and the people there are always excited to see anybody from the states come down and love what they did and see what they do well.

Sharon McGukin (14:57):

And the flowers were just incredibly beautiful. So that's easy to get excited about. And speaking of the flowers from Columbian and Ecuador, I was astounded by the information you gave me on the number of shipments per day. You said there's two to three full 767 flight charters per day. 10,100 full cases of flowers per day, 3.5 million stems of flowers per day, And, 1.5 billion flower stems annually. That is just hard to fathom.

Paul Miller (15:32):

<laugh>. It still is for me too. And, I just love it when those flowers arrive. You mentioned the plane. The jets are very interesting because for the flowers, there's no wasted space even in our boxes, we maximize every stem that can go in it. And, the pallets are not like a pallet that goes on a truck. It has to be re-palletized. It's actually arched. The pallets are arched just like the side of a plane so they can move everything in there.

Sharon McGukin (16:04):

That's interesting.

Paul Miller (16:07):

Yeah,

Sharon McGukin (16:07):

Again, the detail, it's just astounding how minute the details are to make such a big picture work.

Paul Miller (16:15):

Right. We see a bouquet and we think, "isn't that pretty?" But we don't realize how much goes into that. I think as employees, there's many of us that look at each other some days and go, "If they only knew what went into just making this bouquet."

Sharon McGukin (16:31):

And you can almost feel the spirit of all those people when you handle flowers. We, enjoy spending our time with the flowers as we work. But there's a lot of people's hard work that went into that with us.

Paul Miller (16:45):

There are. And you mentioned something how beautiful it is, and I just want to mention that too. Becaus,e my first trip to the farm, I expected to see so many beautiful flowers. There's many flowers you don't see color on when they're harvested like a lily or an alstroemeria. They're cut tight. So they will last for the consumers. So when they get here, they're at the perfect stage. And that's the interesting thing. All the people know exactly when to harvest those flowers. They're trained for that. I look at it and go, I'd cut that one right now. They go, "Oh, no, no, non. It needs another three days." <Laugh> And it's pretty fun to when I do that. They're like "No, no, no. Can't do that now."

Sharon McGukin (17:29):

<laugh>. Well, in one of the videos, it was so interesting to me that they knew exactly the size that each of the lily blooms needed to be. They were, as you say, all green, no color showing. But when they then cut them, they're all the same dimension.

Paul Miller (17:49):

That's right. They're all the same dimension, the same length, whatever it is. And different customers want different length flowers. So if someone wants a 50 centimeter and we are not going to send them a 60, because that would waste space in the box and would not be profitable for anybody down the line. Yeah. So we're very careful at that.

Sharon McGukin (18:09):

That's amazing. Now, sunshine Bouquet sells primarily to mass market, and then Esmeralda, who is a subsidiary now of Sunshine bouquet, sells to wholesale. Am I correct?

Paul Miller (18:23):

Right? That is correct. So we do have two distinct markets and two amazing varieties. Now, we use Esmeralda products in some of the bouquets that we sell to the mass market, but we have both companies. We've grown tremendously in the last 20 some years.

Sharon McGukin (18:44):

So our retailers have access to Sunshine Bouquet flowers through their wholesale supplier.

Paul Miller (18:51):

Right. All they have to do is look at that Esmeralda logo and that is actually sunshine bouquets.

Sharon McGukin (18:57):

Okay. That's very interesting. Now, speaking of wholesalers, let's talk about bringing the flowers over from South America to North America.

Paul Miller (19:08):

Actually, most every flower that comes into the United States comes through Miami. Other than if it's from Europe, it might come to New York. But, all the facilities are in Miami for the quality control and actually customs for the flowers to be able to come in the United States. Now, there are refrigerated coolers and so forth in the Customs at Miami Airport. We're fortunate, we're one of the very few that we actually have Customs in our buildings. So when a jet is landed, it is brought directly to our facility in a cooled environment where everything is 34 degrees and the boxes are then forced with cold air, so that inside of the box is the same temperature as the outside of the box. And then it keeps that cold chain all the way through shipping and trucking it all over the United States.

Sharon McGukin (20:01):

I was amazed when I saw that Customs comes into that particular building. There were two other things that struck me as surprising. The big conveyor belts that are like airport conveyors in that they move all the boxes of flowers like the airport moves luggage. Those were huge conveyor belts. And then we went into a room that was filled with what, 350 maybe designers designing bouquets at the same time. Just the size of that operation, I found to be pretty amazing.

Paul Miller (20:34):

Right. It is. And when you were talking about the airplanes, literally what I consider the pallets, they are almost like big cookie sheets, they're unloaded and then they slide. We have a floor system where they slide and can be moved very easily. And Customs is right in our building. As a matter of fact, we're moving into another big building. We've just built a new facility for all the Customs and that processing .

Sharon McGukin (21:01):

And can you speak to us about how important the cold chain actually is to the longevity of flowers, especially holiday flowers?

Paul Miller (21:11):

The reason you need to keep up the cold chain is once you disrupt that, it's almost like waking up in the middle of the night and you've only had two hours of sleep. The flowers actually go to sleep, and they need to stay that way until they're ready to be used. So it's really important. From the time they leave our facility, they're in a truck in that same temperature all the way to whatever warehouse or distribution or wholesaler that that needs to be. And then those facilities need to follow that process all the way to the store level,

Sharon McGukin (21:48):

Because that's the most important thing - the freshness of the flowers.

Paul Miller (21:52):

Exactly. And, just a quick little idea, let's just walk a flower through its life after harvest. It's harvested, processed and hydrated with the proper chemicals and solutions that we use, and then it's put into water. And then let's say it's a bouquet. Then that next morning there'll be a team that will make those flowers into bouquets. And that afternoon it'll be on a truck to the airport in Bogota or Quito. And then it's flown to Miami, and the the next day it is on a truck anywhere in the United States or Canada.

Sharon McGukin (22:37):

Isn't that just amazing?

Paul Miller (22:40):

Yeah. There's not, there's not much time.

Sharon McGukin (22:43):

You can be a bloom in the field one day and shortly thereafter, a flower in a bouquet.

Paul Miller (22:49):

Yes, exactly.

Sharon McGukin (22:50):

That's pretty cool. Do you have any favorite stories about trying to prepare for the holidays? You know, you have to prepare flowers in advance to be cut a little earlier and shipped a little farther? And maybe there were issues with the shipping, say during Covid, for example.

Paul Miller (23:11):

Right. Oh, wow. There's a lot of questions in that short sentence. Literally when it comes to shipping, that is probably the biggest problem that most people have during holidays, because we double our jet capacity. We use carriers. But what we've done for the last few years is charter our own private jet, so we don't have to deal with that. Then we always try to bring in things a day or two early for our customers into Miami, because you never know, especially during the biggest day of the year, Valentine's Day, you never know what the weather's going to be around the United States. So we don't want to get to a customer when it's bad weather. So we try to work out a day or two ahead of what's normal.

Sharon McGukin (24:02):

Well, and I, I know the earlier you shared with me that there's five to six jets coming in per day in advance of a holiday like Valentine's Day.

Paul Miller (24:12):

Right,

Sharon McGukin (24:13):

About 6.5 million flower stems per day. it's hard for me to comprehend.

Paul Miller (24:19):

Yes. I know. Cause I think you and I, we were both in retail for a while and then we taught florists and we're like, "Oh wow, the cooler's so full." <Laugh>. And now it's a whole different world. And there's a lot of flowers and we have a lot of great consumers out there that love flowers. And I you mentioned Covid. I think that only enhanced the love of flowers. So we're still seeing growth in flower sales in many, many areas.

Sharon McGukin (24:51):

I think Covid reminded people who had forgotten and taught people who never knew that flowers can speak for you. Flowers can be there when you're not there. So, I think that we did have a rediscovery of the value and the impact of flowers during Covid.

Paul Miller (25:11):

Right. And I, I definitely agree. And, it was very interesting because the owner of the company (Sunshine Bouquet) during Covid, he didn't lay one person off at the farms or in the US.

Sharon McGukin (25:23):

I was so impressed by that. I heard that at the time and I was so impressed that he held the jobs of everyone and just toughed it out because you lose those valuable employees and you might not get them back. And, you want to take care of your employees. So, he was very impressive in my book when he made that move.

Paul Miller (25:45):

Yeah, it was really interesting because the idea is the farms wouldn't be taken care of if there was anybody gone, even though we had to throw a lot of flowers away for a short period. And then it was great because we were prepared for what happened that year, as well as continuing to happen - the growth in sales for fresh flowers.

Sharon McGukin (26:07):

Do you consider that you will continue to see the growth of the farms? Do you think that the fields will be expanded even more? Or, do you think that space has been allocated as best as it can be?

Paul Miller (26:24):

That's an interesting question because that's sort of the science behind this. We were growing as in the spring, we were actually building a hector a week in a greenhouse. And, doing a new greenhouse every week for a while. And, then because the demand is there and then they know that it's going to sort of settle out and be flat again. This knowledge is through years of experience. Having flowers, and we all know that it is a perishable product, is almost like a gamble. You know, like one customer one year might want 500 of something and the next year they want 1500, and it can work the other way too. So it really is a gamble. And, we have an amazing sales team that works with customers individually on both sides, the Esmeralda and the Sunshine side. So it makes it very difficult, but very rewarding when you get it right.

Sharon McGukin (27:23):

<laugh> love those days when you get it right. <laugh>.

Paul Miller (27:27):

Yeah.

Sharon McGukin (27:27):

Now Paul, I see you always zooming from one place to another. I will text with you and you're like, "I'm off to Columbia," or "I'm headed to California." You're here, there and everywhere and do a great job of always maintaining a positive attitude in spite of consumer travel, which be tough these days.

Paul Miller (27:46):

<laugh> Sometimes it does get tiring. I remember as a kid, I told my mom I always wanted to travel when I grew up. I really had no idea that when I ended up in a flower shop, that I'd be able to do this. Many times of being in the right place at the right time. I first of all got involved in traveling when I was asked to join the FTD education team back in the 80s, through a contest I won. And that began my series of travels and I've been doing that ever since then. One of the things I love, I count myself as support for the salespeople. I love to go and I love to teach. I love to train the store managers. I love all the ideas that we can come up with and how to use flowers in a different way and how to make it simple and quick so consumers can enjoy them at home or for any occasion

Sharon McGukin (28:41):

You're known for your down-to-earth way of presenting to an audience. That's a really great thing. <laugh>, I loved the travel too. They say you can find the roots of what you will be in the future back in your childhood. And even in school. My favorite subjects were geography and social studies. I loved learning about other people. We got to do a lot of that, didn't we?

Paul Miller (29:07):

<laugh>? Yeah, so, very fortunate. Very fortunate. As a matter of fact, I leave Sunday for the farm for four days to go down and work on some things and actually get to visit the farms. When I go to the farms, I sort of get stuck in sort of a studio as we call it. They bring the flowers to me and say, "stay there, make bouquets," <laugh>. So it's always a real joy when I can go and visit the farms. Actually, I enjoy it and I always learned something. There's a new process, or it's a hydroponic flower, or it's a new variety. Sunshine's really good at trying new things and they don't just try it once. If it didn't work the first time, they're going to give it another try two. And sometimes it's with my begging. <Laugh> "Oh, please grow this one. Please grow that. Or, please bring that back.". And sometimes I win and sometimes I don't.

Sharon McGukin (30:02):

<laugh>. "I've had that experience at Oasis, too. A favorite product pulled away and I'm like "No! I need that." <Laugh>.

Paul Miller (30:10):

Especially when you really learn to like it, you know, it's like okay, this I wasn't sure about, but now I really, really love this flower. I really love this product.

Sharon McGukin (30:19):

Yes, that experience in Miami of being in a room completely filled with buckets of flowers, just, the whole room completely filled. And you're standing there alone making one bouquet at a time, trying to develop the collections. That's just kind of special, isn't it?

Paul Miller (30:38):

It is. And, and even when it's just one variety. We were in the design room the other day and new employees come in and go, "Oh!" They were just amazed. They look at me and go"What do you mean? You got so excited when that new box of carnations came in?" And I still do. I think every flower has a special place no matter what. It's a mum or a carnation as well as a hybrid Lily, an Oriental Lily or a Lisianthus or a Scabiosa. They all have their own beauty. They do. One of my favorite quotes about flowers is this one, and it's unknown, but I, I would love to have been the author of it. "If we could see the miracle of a single flower, clearly our whole life would change." And I think that really says a lot about just one flower. It doesn't have to be a bunch. It can just be one and it can change your life.

Sharon McGukin (31:33):

And speaking of having your own beauty, what would you say is your superpower, Paul?

Paul Miller (31:40):

Oh, my superpower. Let's see. That would be letting people enjoy the product that I work with. You know really that passion - the understanding flowers and why it does make you feel good. I always try to have them in my home too. And I just threw out the last ones <laugh>, sort of getting ready for the holidays. So I'll bring more in tomorrow.

Sharon McGukin (32:05):

<laugh>. Well, and letting people enjoy something you've created, but also I think they can feel your passion for the thing that you created. I think being able to transfer that feeling is a superpower.

Paul Miller (32:20):

Yeah, I think so too. I I've just been blessed with it. I never really planned on doing this. I was going to be going to school when I was 17 to be a Baptist minister and that didn't work out so well. I, I walked into a flower shop and started there at 17 and haven't stopped <laugh>.

Sharon McGukin (32:39):

Well, you were saying that you had been in the business 50 years. I've been in the business 49. And it was that same thing, a flower shop in high school and caught the disease <laugh> and you never work out of yours.

Paul Miller (32:54):

Yeah. And you never get it. You go to school, you work there and then you start working and yeah, it's pretty amazing how that happened. And actually when I think about it, 1971 is when I started. So that's going to be 52 years coming up <laugh>. I was used to think people were really old when they said that. It's all in how you feel, you know. I know you feel young.

Sharon McGukin (33:15):

I do. I do. Now if you remember, someone came up to me that we were working with, I think at Nature's flowers. Someone came up to me and said, "If y'all are as old as Paul says you are, you don't look like it." <laugh>

Sharon McGukin (33:36):

And she said, "How do y'all stay young looking?" And I said, "Paul, you started this" ... "How do we stay young looking?" And you said, "I think it's the flowers." And from that time on, I've believed that that handling the flowers makes us healthier.

Paul Miller (33:53):

I think it makes you healthier and happier because we all choose our own destiny. But I really do think we're some of the luckiest people to get to work with such beautiful products of nature.

Sharon McGukin (34:04):

And I always say it's not brain surgery. Nobody dies if you make a mistake except maybe a bride's mother or two thought they were going to. <Laugh>.

Paul Miller (34:14):

Yeah. It's sort of like my daughter-in-law is a school teacher. She said, I love teaching school and I love being a principal. If I didn't have to deal with the parents. <laugh> Sort of like the bride. She's great. It's the mothers. It's her mother or her mother-in-law.

Sharon McGukin (34:29):

<laugh>. There's the challenge <laugh>. Well, when it comes to flowers on the farm, the way that things are processed, and the way that the farm brings everybody together in one flower family, actually, do you see that? That people who work on the farms take a lot of pride in the fact that they have that opportunity?

Paul Miller (34:55):

Well, they have that opportunity and we're very good at taking care of the people at the farm, their families, teaching them how to garden at home if they want to. How to help take care of their children. We're really good at that. We've won some awards for that internationally, too. And I think that really makes a difference in how people feel.

Sharon McGukin (35:17):

I had heard that Sunshine does an excellent job at the farms, so I'm glad that you shared that. As we move forward. Is there anything else you can think of that you would like to include?

Paul Miller (35:27):

One thing, you mentioned Valentine's Day and what helps. If people to order flowers early, that always helps. The earlier you do and for us when we grow flowers, if a customer's ordering a year out, we can definitely grow for that customer. But it's very hard because we always have excess, but pretty much that excess disappears too. So it's just, it's not like making a dress or product like that or clothes. It's something that takes a long period of time to grow. I remember one of my first times at the farm, I was doing a whole series for six months and he looked at it and said "We don't have any more red carnations. You've used them all." <Laugh>. And I'm like, how do you know that ? <laugh> He says, "We can only grow so many in that amount of land." So it's always a learning experience. I know when we go to our wholesale house, well, what do you mean they're out of this? Well, there might be a reason. <Laugh>

Sharon McGukin (36:24):

That is true. You don't really think behind the, 'why are they out of it?' And, seasonal flowers. When you are working ahead of time on projects, because I too have had to work like a year ahead and such, you have to remember what's going to be in that season a year from now. That's always the challenge.

Paul Miller (36:44):

Right. Now it's interesting because years ago a lot of things were more seasonally grown than what we have now. We really can grow almost every flower 12 months out of the year. The biggest problem for our side of the business, we have mums, but we want fall mums and then all of a sudden we turn, and we don't want fall mums. December 1st, we have to have all red, white and green. So that's a very difficult task when you change seasons abruptly. And just like after Christmas, there's no more red, white, and green. They all change to wanting a bright color. And then we have Valentine's Day. So one thing I am seeing generally everywhere we go, we think of Valentine's Day, red, white, pink, lavender maybe. But we're finding a whole new generation out there that isn't this traditional that wants brighter colors, sunflowers, at Valentine's Day, things that we 20 years ago would've never thought could even sell. And I think we're seeing the same thing for Mother's Day. We have a new generation of mothers that want bright vivid flowers.

Sharon McGukin (37:51):

You know, I just hosted a podcast with Chris Norwood AIFD and he alluded to that in a whole section in his Valentine’s Day Prep podcast and I’ll put a link to that. And he said, "I never understand why nobody wants it on February 15th." <Laugh>

Paul Miller (38:09):

Right!

Sharon McGukin (38:10):

But he also said that we have now to think to the generations when it comes to developing trends because each generation has its own thought process as to what is appropriate for a holiday in terms of color, style or function.

Paul Miller (38:27):

Right. And, we can sort of force some of those things too when we make a beautiful bouquet and let's say it's for Christmas and we've put, put a lot of pink, I call it peppermint, you know. And so we can sometimes change the consumer a little bit when they see something beautiful mixed with red. It might be something they didn't think of or shades of green. And when you've been in the business this long, one of the things that I think is really interesting is the shade of green used for Christmas. I remember our dear friend Matt Wood, when he first used lime green at Christmas. I thought that was crazy. And, only emerald green was allowed for Christmas. And then you change with the styles.

Sharon McGukin (39:15):

Mattie always wanted to go first, didn't he? <laugh>

Paul Miller (39:17):

Yes, exactly. I just couldn't understand that. I still remember that when he showed me that. I go, "It's pretty, but.."

Sharon McGukin (39:24):

<laugh> I remember the first time, I think it was in Hong Kong, the first time I mixed yellow green with blue green materials in a design. Someone said to me, "You can't do that." And I said, "Mother Nature does it. If she can do it I can doit too. <Laugh>.

Paul Miller (39:41):

Right.

Sharon McGukin (39:41):

And now that's just common place. We all do it. Yes. Someone had done it and we all thought 'I can do that too.' <Laugh>.

Paul Miller (39:49):

Right. Exactly. It is interesting how colors change through the years. We like certain things, but it's just sort of like fashion. Fashion's really important to a lot of people, but it's not like it was. And I think our communication and technology has changed that to where pretty much anything goes. It used to be, I remember my mother waiting on the spring styles. How long were the dresses going be? Now nobody cares because it's, our world is much smaller even though it doesn't seem like it sometimes.

Sharon McGukin (40:21):

And the transitionals. My mother-in-law always talked about finding some transitionals, an outfit or two that would carry her from one season to the next. <Laugh> And, now everybody just shows up in their t-shirt <laugh>.

Paul Miller (40:34):

Right, right. It is a different world.

Sharon McGukin (40:40):

And that being said, it is a different world and we have to adjust to it. The only constant is change. With change comes challenge. And once you look into that challenge, you can find opportunity. And we've just found so many opportunities to grow in a different direction. I know I'm thankful that y'all have done that at Sunshine Bouquet for the farms. And, that you bring those gorgeous flowers to us and we get to enjoy the roses that are grown in that temperate climate up in the mountains near the sunlight. And they're just huge and beautiful, and we're grateful for them.

Paul Miller (41:19):

One thing I just want to add too is one of the things you said about growing. That's the interesting part about Columbia and Ecuador, the different elevations. Certain flowers grow better and you might plant the same from the same mother plant in two different areas. And the color of the flower will actually be a little bit different. It might be a lavender, it might be more purple in one area. So it's a lot of scientific trials before you really know. But that's the nice thing about Columbia and just a little bit about Bogota and the Savannah, where most of the farms are. It's the same temperature 365 days a year. It's between about 50, 65, to 70 degrees maximum every day. And when the sun goes down, you need a jacket. So people think, oh, it's hot and tropical. That's not the part of Columbia that we grow the flowers and it's up in the high mountains.

Sharon McGukin (42:19):

That's very interesting. Very interesting. Well, Paul, we just can't thank you enough for taking time for us today. I know how busy your schedule is. And also to our listeners, thank you for being with us to explore the bringing of blooms to bouquets from South America to North America,

Sharon McGukin (42:43):

Smithers Oasis North America, Paul and I want to thank you for joining us today. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend and be sure to hit subscribe. You don't want to miss the inspired solutions. Our upcoming guests will share with you for your personal or business growth. If you have a topic you want to hear or a guest you'd like to hear from, please message me. We'd love to hear from you.

Visit your wholesale supplier or oasisfloralproducts.com for traditional or on-trend products and seasonal inspiration. While you're on the website, be sure to subscribe to the 'How we Bloom' podcast and 'Floral Hub blog.' Until next time, I'm Sharon McGukin reminding you that like the unfurling petals of a flower, we grow by changing form. Soaking inspiration in like raindrops. Absorbing energy from others, like warmth from the sun. This growth opens us up to new ideas and that's 'How we Bloom.'