Ellen Frost, owner of Local Color Flowers in Baltimore, joins host Jennie Love for a five part series focused on key drivers of flower math for floral shops. An informative listen for both florists and growers!

In Part 2 of the Flower Math series, we dive into product shrink and how it can be devastating to a flower shop's bottom line. A staggering 45% of wholesale flowers never get sold, instead ending up in the trash as a total loss. We discuss best practices at both the farm and in the shop that will help reduce this product shrink so florists can be more financially stable. Growers, you'll want to listen because the less shrink florists experience with your product, the more they will buy from you!

Ellen and Jennie both teach online courses that may be valuable to your floral business. Here is a link to Ellen's course and here is a link to Jennie's courses.

Ellen also has a YouTube channel and a valuable weekly education email.

This podcast is brought to you by the Philadelphia Floral Guild, where we're building community around sustainable local flowers. If you're a florist in the Philadelphia area, we'd love to have you shop with us! Click here to learn how.

Not a Philadelphia area florist? Look for flower farms near you on the Rooted Farmers website or through localflowers.org.

Why use local stems? You'll hear a lot about that throughout this podcast series but here's a few of the reason:

• Less Shrink: Without the stress of a long ride in the global supply chain, our stems are superior in quality with much less breakage and far better hydration.
• Less Labor: Our growers do all the work of a studio assistant, stripping stems and making fresh cuts on stems that go directly into water and never leave a water source. This means you do not have to process anything!
• Less Trash: There are no boxes, packing paper, bubble wrap, box straps, plastic sleeves, and all the other usual trash that comes with a flower delivery from the traditional wholesaler.

• Less Carbon Burned: Imported flowers in the US typically travel 2,500 or more miles in refrigerated planes, trucks and boats to reach you.