Category Archives: Flower Arrangements

Three Simple Ways to Appreciate Your Boss for Boss’ Week

October 17th is the beginning of Boss’ Week! Time to show your employer or supervisor some appreciation. You could show your gratitude for the support and advice they’ve given you, or simply your thanks for their continued confidence in you.

daisies-boss-week

There’s no better way to convey your appreciation for your boss than a gift of flowers. This year we’ve got a large selection of beautiful flowers ready for Boss’ Week. We’ve also got three sure ways you could thank and impress your boss.

smile-bouquet-of-flowers

Smile Often – A smile goes a long way! Smiling while you interact with your boss can show interest, engagement, commitment and appreciation all on its own. You’re conveying that you like their presence and their conversation. You can easily turn a depressing discussion about a negative subject into something completely different through a simple smile. In addition, they say that when you smile the world smiles with you. If you smile at your boss they’re likely to smile back. Improving their mood in this way will make you seem an overall more pleasant person to have around.

boss-week-food-basket

Dine Together – One of the most commonplace gifts North Americans get for their bosses is treating them to a nice meal. It’s a great way to share a personal moment with your boss and get to know them better. If you treat them to a specific cuisine that they like it’s even better, as you’ll demonstrate that you’ve paid attention to them as a person, not just as a boss.

Add to this time together a flower centerpiece to carry on your sentiment of appreciation.

This idea has become so popular that in some companies the employees have turned Boss’ Day into a different celebration, such as Toast Day. For this occasion everybody brings something they can toast, including bread, bagels, etc. They share it with their boss and coworkers, forming a simple potluck.

bear-bouquet-of-flowers

Create a More Personal Bond – As we mentioned for the food, getting your boss something that has personal interest to them indicates that you’ve paid attention to and value them as a human being, not just as your supervisor.

Do they have a hobby? Consider a book they’d enjoy. If their hobby is gardening or floral care, you’re in luck, as a bouquet of beautiful flowers would be just the thing to brighten their day. Are they part of a local cause or group? Perhaps you could make a donation or get involved. Do they have a family, perhaps young children? They might just appreciate something cute and cuddly like a teddy bear.

bouquet-of-flowers-for-boss-week

This year, give your boss something they won’t soon forget. It might be something to enhance their personal pursuits, a lovely meal or even just your winning smile. Whatever you decide, don’t forget the beautiful flowers to complete the gesture. You can see Brant Florist’s full lineup of Boss’ Week flowers here.

Brant Florist shares their secrets on how they get fresh flowers into your flower arrangements

By looking at an arrangement of fresh flowers, you might not think about all that those flowers went through and all of the people that were involved to get them to your door. Each and every flower has a story, as do the people who care for them. This is why we are giving Brant Florist customers and readers a special sneak peek behind the scenes to get fresh flowers from all over the world into your unique flower arrangement.

Early-morning flower deliveries

Brant Florist receives their first shipment of the day each weekday bright and early about 6:45am. The team is always at the shop to receive the trucks to ensure that the flowers are cared for immediately.

The Willow Creek Floral truck delivers the fresh flowers first thing in the morning every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at Brant Florist shop

We work only with the best flower suppliers

Tim Bolt helping to unload the Willow Creek truck

Over the years, Brant Florist has worked with various partners locally and internationally. We have now created long-standing relationships with the best growers, greenhouses, importers and wholesalers in the world.

This includes Willow Creek Floral, owned by Robert VanNoort, servicing flower shops from Niagara and throughout the GTA. Robert grows both fresh flowers and plants in his Niagara area greenhouses. Crops include different varieties of lilies, alstromeria and other seasonal flowers.

Caring for the flowers

Once Robert VanNoort delivers the order, Tim Bolt, co-owner of Brant Florist, unpacks, cuts and places the orders in water. The Bolt family are on hand to ensure that this is done quickly after the flowers have arrived to
maintain their freshness and lengthen the life in your bouquet.

Removing the leaves from the stems helps to improve the vase life of flowers because leaves will foul the water. It also reduces the natural ethylene gas given off which causes flowers to age quicker.

There are some flowers, such as lilies, that can take up to one week just to open up. We don’t want these types of flowers to show up for someone’s wedding or event unopened. To avoid this we like to be prepared.

Tim explains that the flowers will open for about two to three days in the shop store front on display, and then will be moved to the refrigerators to help slow down the opening process. This is what florists refer to as stasis mode.

“Since we are managing perishable products, careful planning and attention needs to be paid to ensure the best quality of freshness for the deliveries of bouquets for our customers”, says Tim.

Designing beautiful bouquets

Once the shipment of flowers has been trimmed and placed in either the fridge to slow down the aging process, or out front to quicken it up, the designers come into the shop to check out the delivery of fresh flowers they get to work with.

Brant florist floral designers creating beautiful flower arrangements!

The designers set out to create the arrangements for the orders that come in for the day, again, being very careful to use flowers within their “sweet spot” so that the recipient can enjoy their flower arrangement for as long as possible.

One of our one of a kind crafted flower bouquets ready for delivery!

Once the designers have arranged the flowers into a beautiful bouquet, they are ready to be delivered. The number of deliveries per day vary depending on the time of year. On average, Brant Florist does about 30 to 50 flower deliveries per day.

Only quality service

The Brant Florist Team works extra hard to time the deliveries perfectly so they arrive right when you need them. “We take pride in our customer service efforts,” explains Ken Bolt, who has managed the family business for over 50 years and has now proudly passed on to his two sons.

Give us a call at 905-639-7001 or send an email to gifts@brantflorist.com to place an order for your very own fresh flowers!

5 Easy Ways to Celebrate Canada Day… Right in Your Backyard!

With Canada Day around the corner, we Canadians are getting ready for the first long weekend of the summer! The July long weekend means so many wonderful things: warm and sunny weather, blossomed summer flowers, and celebrations to show our pride in Canada and in being Canadian.

We have a few ideas on how to show our Canadian pride this long weekend as we celebrate Canada Day:

1. Backyard party

Canada Day falls right at the start of summer, which (generally) means great weather! This is the perfect opportunity to invite friends over for a backyard BBQ. Outdoor dinners are tons of fun for the whole family, and it doesn’t break the bank. Ask your guests to bring something to contribute and make it a potluck! There’s nothing better than being with friends and family on the long weekend.

2. Canada Day arts and crafts

There are lots of easy and fun crafts you can make with the kids to celebrate Canada Day. Check out our Canada Day Pinterest board for ideas on what to do this long weekend for crafts, food and more. Here’s one great idea: paint two red vertical lines on a piece of white paper or bristol board, separating it into thirds, and paint the outer blocks red. Instead of a maple leaf, have the kids make a red handprint in the centre white block of the bristol board to create personalized Canadian flags!

3. Decorate for Canada Day

If you’re having people over or not for Canada Day, show your patriotism by decorating your house and backyard with red and white! Use red and white paint and glitter to decorate mason jars. You can use these as holders for your cutlery or as vases for patriotic red and white flowers to make Canada Day themed centrepieces! Decorate your backyard or your house with string lights and hanging pots of summer flowers, red table cloths and napkins.

4. Explore

You don’t have to go far to discover the beauty of this country. In almost every town or city, there are hiking paths, bike trails and parks to walk around and enjoy the Canadian summer weather and nature. Do a quick search to find where you can explore in your town this long weekend. Many communities will also organize events to celebrate Canada Day.

5. Fireworks

Plenty of cities and towns offer free fireworks for Canada Day. Find out if your town is doing a fireworks display near you. You are also likely to see and hear your neighbours setting off red and white fireworks this long weekend… grab a blanket to cozy up outside and enjoy the show!

Whatever you do to celebrate Canada Day this long weekend, we hope you enjoy it with lots of Canadian pride, laughter and flowers!

Visit our special Canada Day page for red and white flower arrangements for your backyard party or to just decorate your house this long weekend.

You can also give us a call at 877-545-5535 or email us to place an order for easy delivery!

Let the Outdoor In – Beautiful Floral Decor Idea

With the spring already here, you are thinking about how to redecorate your household in order for it to reflect the blooming surroundings. The best way how to add a spring flair to your interior is to go for some flowers that will get your house brimming with colours.

Choose a pink boost

If you have a living room inspired by Scandinavian design, you can spice up your surroundings by adding some pinky hues. Pastel colours are the trend of the year. Even Pantone chose rose quartz and serenity as the hues of the year of 2016. So, go for some light pink tulips to refresh your environment. A white vase will match the interior design and the light hues of pink will suit your Scandinavian minimalism perfectly.

Create the abundance of colours

Those of you who are fond of having living rooms brimming with vibrant colours will love having a lot of colourful flowers, too. If you like Mediterranean-inspired indoors, you can have a living room resembling a Spanish one with some sun-yellow walls, red sofas and a rustic container with red roses, peonies and loosestrife in yellow and orange.

Nothing brings such an abundance of colours as these do, so let positive vibes spread all over the place.

Matchy bottles are a must

If you like having everything matchy, think about getting some bottles you can paint in hues of the flowers they will contain. These are best placed near white windows to be easily spotted.

Get busy

There are a lot of us who are not satisfied with the existing choice of flower containers, but there is still something we can do! Why not make some by ourselves? You can invite some friends over and have an unforgettable experience creating your own little pieces of art.

The choices are endless and you can easily get motivated online. An easy thing to do is to get your mason jars and a piece of wood to create the containers you have always dreamed of. You can use them as planters too. But you will need to have some adequate tools, so check out some quality tools online that you will definitely need. You do not really want to make those jars loose and you certainly would not like them to fall down and break apart in a matter of hours, so choose quality items and tools in order to fix them.

Chalkboard is all the rage

You have seen a lot of mugs with chalkboard, but this is not the only thing where it has been recently used. If you like the effect you can create some similar pots and place some blooming lilacs to have a contrasting effect. The black colour of chalkboard will be perfect for your yellowish surroundings. You can even name your flowers and write down their names. Get creative!

Create monochromatic magic

If you do not like an abundance of colour you can still enjoy the spring lights in your home. Choose a lot of small terra cotta containers where you will plant yellow tulips, daffodils and freesias and have a sunny corner at your place.

Choose a contrasting vibrant bouquet

Get a white glass where you will place your bouquet with blue and orange hues and let the positive vibes get into your room. If you have some monochromatic items in your living room, this will be excellent for introducing a bit of vibrant colours. However, if you have a lot of colours already, be careful about where to place the flowers as you do not want them to merge with the surroundings and become invisible.

There is no better way to spring refresh your household than introducing a bit of floral décor. Choose flower arrangements and matching containers that will spice up the environment and let the colours spread all over the place while you enjoy the positive vibes.