For a florist, two dates do most of the work. Valentine's Day is fixed on February 14. Mother's Day moves, falling on the second Sunday of May. On both, nearly every order is for the same day, a large part of them are wanted in the same few hours, and the product starts to die the moment it leaves the cooler. It is a delivery problem with almost no slack.
What follows is a countdown, working back from the day. It assumes you use a courier for part or all of the volume, and it is built around the questions that tend to be settled too late.
Why peak days behave differently
On an ordinary Tuesday a florist's deliveries trickle out over the day, and a delay is absorbed by the next order. On a holiday, the same trips are all promised for the same window, and capacity runs out in a fixed place: the pickup. A courier can only collect so many orders in a short slot, and a route can only hold so many arrangements. If either limit is reached, the rest slide, and there is no later in the day to slide into.
That is why the countdown starts four weeks out. Almost everything that goes wrong on the day was decided, or not decided, in the weeks before.
The four-week countdown
- Four weeks out: forecast and reserve.Look at last year's orders for the same day and add what you expect from any new channel. Place supplier orders against that number. Then talk to your courier: give a range of orders by day, the neighbourhoods they go to, and the time slot in which you will have them ready. Ask whether extra runs can be added on the peak day, and how short the notice can be. Peak season planning covers what a good version of that conversation looks like.
- Three weeks out: fix the order form.Open pre-orders and use them to collect cleaner data. Ask for the recipient's address in separate fields, including the unit; whether the recipient will be at home or at work; whether it is a surprise; and whether the courier may leave the arrangement with reception or a neighbour. Each answer prevents a failed attempt, and failed delivery attempts explains why.
- Two weeks out: set the cutoff and publish it.Work backward from the delivery slot to a cutoff you can keep. A florist who accepts orders until noon for a delivery that needs to leave at 11 has promised something that cannot happen. How to set a cutoff time has the arithmetic. Publish last-order dates, in both languages, where the customer decides.
- One week out: build and test.Group the orders you have by area, assign windows, and run a trial pack: the largest arrangement in its delivery box, the vase and the card, checked for stability on a tilted tray. Confirm the pickup time in writing, and agree on what happens if the weather changes the plan.
- The day: run it tight.Have orders ready in sequence, with delivery notes and labels checked. Hand the courier the most time-sensitive and most fragile orders first. Keep a short contact list for the day. Do not take late orders you cannot reach.
February is not May
The two dates present opposite problems, and a plan copied from one to the other tends to fail.
| Factor | Valentine's Day | Mother's Day |
|---|---|---|
| The date | Fixed on February 14. It can land on any day of the week. | The second Sunday in May, always a Sunday. |
| Which delivery day matters | The day itself if it is a weekday; the Friday before if it falls on a weekend. | Because the date is a Sunday, the working delivery day is usually the Friday or Saturday. Confirm what your courier can run. |
| The weather risk | Cold. Flowers are vulnerable to freezing between the cooler and the door. See winter delivery in Montréal. | Warmth. A vehicle left in the sun can ruin an arrangement quickly. |
| The light | The sun sets a little after 5 p.m., so evening deliveries are in the dark. | Long evenings, so late deliveries are easy to read and photograph. |
| What to protect | Time and temperature. | Time, heat, and the larger number of arrangements that go to a home. |
The recipient who is not home
Flowers are unusual among deliveries in one respect: the person who orders and the person who receives are usually different people. The sender knows the recipient's habits; the florist and the courier do not. If a delivery is a surprise, calling ahead defeats the purpose, and leaving the arrangement outside may defeat the flowers.
The answer is to ask the sender, at the time of order, three short questions. Where will the recipient be at that time of day? Is it all right to leave the arrangement with reception, a neighbour or a concierge? And if nobody can take it, what should happen: a second attempt later that day, or a rebooked day? A rule agreed before the day takes seconds to apply. A rule invented at the door takes minutes and usually ends in a phone call to the sender.
Show the sender what happened
A sender who has paid for flowers wants to know they arrived, and to know it quickly. A drop-off photo, sent to the sender as part of the delivery confirmation, answers the question before the phone call starts. It also protects the florist if a recipient later says nothing came. What florists should look for in a courier partner explains why tracking and confirmation matter as much as speed.
The day after
Write down what happened while the details are fresh: which slots filled first, which orders were late and why, which addresses caused trouble. Next year's forecast, and the next conversation with your courier, will be better for it. If you also sell to events or run corporate accounts, the same notes will help there too.
Planning for Valentine's Day or Mother's Day? Share your expected volume and your busiest days when you request a quote so we can plan routes around them.