By Peter Buxbaum, AJOT Let’s say a couple is planning a fall or winter wedding and the bride has her heart set on having the wedding party carry flowers like hydrangeas, tulips, peonies, ranunculus or anemones. Until relatively recently, that would have been impossible, as these are traditionally spring flowers in North America. But with advancements in global logistics and new opportunities to ship flowers from global farms to the United States, these same flowers can be available to weddings in the United States on a year-round basis. These developments have enabled online flower retailers like The Grower’s Box, headquartered in Winston-Salem, N.C., to offer a wider variety of flowers shipped directly from farms worldwide to customers in the United States. Eighty-five percent of the company’s customers are do-it-yourself brides, said Jonathan Greene, the company’s president and co-founder. “Traditional distribution channels may take up to 15 days for the flowers to get from the supplier to the consumer,” said Greene. “we have streamlined the distribution channel to enable us to deliver flowers within three or four days.” The Grower’s Box ships to wholesalers, retailers, and consumers, including brides and event planners who can save a lot of money if they have a creative touch. “Some consumers order the flowers and then hire a florist to arrange them,” said Greene. The key development which has changed the global logistics picture for flowers, according to Greene, has been FedEx’s entry into the market within the last year, offering new services and competitive rates that makes the enterprise worthwhile. At the same time, this innovation has had a negative impact on Miami as an a hub for imported flowers. Miami is still a major player but its role has been diminished thanks to the new business model of direct from the farm shipments. “Flowers like ranunculus and anemones are very popular with brides,” said Greene. “The traditional growing season for these flowers in the United States has been from the beginning of the year to Mother’s Day. After that, they peter out when the weather in California warms up. These flowers can’t handle the heat.” But because these same flowers are also grown Ecuador, Africa, and Holland, they can be made available far beyond the four-month growing season that prevails in the United States. Improvement in air freight and refrigeration services have allowed flowers to be imported from more areas of the world, according to Greene. “It used to be that refrigerated services were limited to Colombia and Ecuador,” he said. “The flowers were generally shipped on commercial passenger airlines, which meant they were subject to being bumped if the aircraft was short on room. The flowers were kept in coolers and may have been shipped to three different locations as a flight made its way across the country. Now there are more direct flights and many offer refrigerated services.” In preparation for shipment, the flowers are pre-cooled to 34 degrees Fahrenheit and then loaded into refrigerated containers for the flight. “The cargo agencies wait until shortly before takeoff to wheel the containers onto the airplane,” said Green. “Once the plane lands, the flowers are whisked off the airplane and into a 34-degree cooler. The refrigeration equipment takes measurements along the way to ensure quality and consistency.” The interest that FedEx has taken in the international flower market has been key to the kinds of expedited services that the Grower’s Box has been able to offer its customers. In one dramatic example, FedEx has made overnight services available from Holland to many locations in the United States. “They came up with some phenomenal rates for the floral industry,” said Greene. Most flowers carried by FedEx still transit through Miami, but Miami now functions more as a flow- through center rather than as a flower storage venue. FedEx has partnered with several airlines to bring flowers into Miami and then ship them out via FedEx to provide two- to