Red roses? Really?!

You don’t need to be a cliche when it comes to flowers

Flora de Série is not just another conventional floriculture in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. So, don’t expect a last minute solution for a gift or red roses. Expect instead of it, personalized bouquets and a new experience with flowers. We talked with the owner of Flora de Série, Bruna Rodrigues, to learn more about her store, the new concepts its suggests and the feeling to work around flowers.

Bruna, what did you do before Flora de Série and how you come up with this new proposition?

I graduated in environmental engineering e after 2 years I started working with my father at his restaurant, because I was unmotivated with the lack of a routine. I used to travel a lot, couldn’t make plans and I wanted something more stable. At my father’s restaurant I started making the weekly flowers decorations and I realized that Thurdays were the best days because of it.

So I decided to specialize on it. I went to São Paulo and also took a course in the US. When I returned I was determined to work with flowers, but not the common floriculture. I did some research about the market and came up with my own style, disruptive in the flower’s world of Belo Horizonte. Then we started with the floriculture and after a year we expand to flower’s design events.

You create the bouquets according to someone’s personality. How do you choose the flowers?

It’s by my point of view. It’s not about what a tulip means or a bromeliad. I choose according to the color, texture, amount of flowers… It’s intuitive. So the client that is buying the flowers takes a look at the bouquet and immediately thinks it matches with the person to be gifted. It’s like this person that receives the flowers also realize it matches with himself. I receive a briefing about the gifted person or the events, this way who gives, who receives and who is making the events can identify themselves on the flowers.

I believe the idea came up because I thought floriculture was so impersonal, most of the times the secretary calls to order a bouquet, not the person who is buying it.

Tell us a little bit about your partnership with Shippify.

Shippify came on a very good moment. At the beginning I used to receive the briefing email, go to the distributor every day, buy the flowers, come back home, do the bouquets and then do the deliveries. I was involved on the whole process, even writting the cards.

Now, I don’t have to do the deliveries and it got so much easier. It’s a fast process where I go online and in seconds I can decide how is going to be the delivery, calculate the price for my client and it’s done. This partnership was essential for me to open my store.

How do you see Valentine’s Day? Is there a big demand for the traditional red roses bouquet?

We want to implement that small seed so people stop going after red roses, which is still a very strong thought of people who wants to present someone with flowers. Not only giving red roses, but also more interesting flowers and our kits, that are always with local producers and craftsmen that create products with a lot of care envolved. We want to promote the local economy and add our products to our partners that has the same identity as we do, same spirit.

People like our kits a lot because they have more to say than a simple red roses bouquet. We create a lot of different kinds of kits and for the first time we did a men’s kit too. We noticed a big demand coming from men, so it’s not only a female environment, they like plants too. We have men bouquets with green flowers, seeds and different textures. A lot of them are responsable for taking care of their home garden and we want to rescue that.

What are the plans for Flora de Serie’s future?

I don’t see Flora doing much different than what we already do, I started doing a little bit of the things I want to become. The events with scenography and floral design, the floriculture express with our bouquets that gets away from the ordinary and the flowers school where I give different workshops, and where I want to grow more, add more courses and styles.

Anyone can participate at the workshops and I think it’s even coller when the person doesn’t work in this area because it’s a more validate experience. We teach the theory of creating a harmonic bouquet, how to choose the flowers, where to buy them, how to take care of a bouquet after it’s done and then we go to the pratical part.

If you had to choose a favorite flower, what would it be?

A favorite flower? I think is the dahlia because it represents the beginning of my florist journey. When I went to Sao Paulo, I did a bunch of dahlias bouquet and when I went to the US, I visited the dahlias harvest and they were pretty marcable. But we can’t find them in BH because the market is “old school”.

Thank you so much Bruna! Any final thoughts?

A last thought is that I trully believe on rescuing people’s contact with nature, that they have a greener look, and this is already lived in BH and I think we are on the right track!

Bruna is one of our partners that has a story it’s worth it to be told. Thanks for having us and we hope the flowers conquer BH!