What Is A Bouquet Subscription?

We are all familiar with purchasing a bouquet, known as a market bouquet, at the florist, grocery, farmer's market, or roadside stand. But what exactly is a bouquet subscription, and how is it different from a market bouquet? In today's article, we will address those questions.

Bouquet subscriptions go by many names, including flower shares, flower subscriptions, and flower CSA, which stands for Community Supported Agriculture, is probably the most accurate description. CSAs are a common sales model used by small farmers selling everything from eggs 🥚 to vegetables 🥕 and meat 🥩 to flowers. 💐 

For the flower farmer, the idea is customers purchase a subscription early in the season, which helps the farmer with upfront costs such as seeds, plants, soil, compost, and other supplies. In exchange, customers share in the rewards of farming by receiving a pre-determined number of bouquets at set times. As farmers cannot control the weather, customers also share the risks, including poor crops or even crop failure. As a side note, farmers will do everything they can to have a successful crop, and many have contingencies in their CSA agreements for crop failures, so read them closely to know what you are getting into.

So, the first difference between subscription and market bouquets is how they are purchased. The second is guaranteed flowers. Flowers will always go to subscription holders first. 

At Two Fools Farm, we plant at least twice the number of plants needed for our bouquet subscriptions to ensure we can fill those orders. We also plant smaller quantities of the more expensive or rarer flowers we grow, intending them for bouquet subscriptions only. Examples from this year are white and green marigolds, scabiosa, dahlias, chrysanthemums, and native perennials. Should we be blessed with more flowers from these plants than anticipated, we will add them to our market bouquets. However, that is not in our plan. Therefore, the third difference between subscription and market bouquets is flower variety. 

The fourth difference is the way the bouquet looks. In reality, this represents three things that I am combining into one. Size is the first one. On average, our subscription bouquets contain six more stems than our market bouquets. Second, we take the time to arrange them artistically, whereas our market bouquets are just grabbed up and wrapped. And third, as part of giving you a beautiful display, we are more intentional and generous with the greenery. We may sacrifice an entire plant to the greenery in a single subscription bouquet while only giving a shoot or two off the neighboring plant to a market bouquet.

Fifth and finally, all of our market bouquets come wrapped in Kraft paper. With a subscription bouquet, you choose to receive your bouquets wrapped in Kraft paper or to get the eco-friendly option of picking them up in a jar.