Marketing ideas for florists: grow past the big two flower days

Most marketing ideas for florists start and finish with two Sundays on the calendar. Valentine's Day and Mother's Day are brilliant, exhausting and worth every pre-dawn market run, but a business that only really breathes twice a year is running on adrenaline, buckets and hope.

This guide is for independent florists, flower studios and growers who sell direct in Queensland and NSW: the shape of your year, recurring work that fills the gaps, sympathy orders handled with care, partnerships with the shops next door and green claims that survive a close look from the ACCC. You'll meet Paint in one short section near the end, and everything before it works whether or not you ever set foot in one of our rooms.

The florist's year, peak by peak and lull by lull

Both big days land on a Sunday in 2027. Valentine's Day is Sunday 14/02/2027, with Galentine's the day before, and Mother's Day is Sunday 09/05/2027. Offices are shut on both, so the desk-delivery surprise either moves to Friday or heads to the front door.

Flowers sat at the top of the gift list, with 40 per cent planning to buy them, in the Australian Retail Council's Valentine's Day spending survey with Roy Morgan. It surveyed 6,479 Australians, came out on 11/02/2026, put chocolates and alcohol together at 33 per cent and estimated the average spend at $152 AUD a person. The same team's Mother's Day survey, released 09/05/2026, found 39 per cent of people who knew what they would buy were planning flowers.

The big two look after themselves. The opportunity is the other 363 days.

Check the official Queensland public holidays and NSW public holidays pages before you set delivery days, and for school holidays and every other date worth planning around, our marketing calendar 2027 has both states side by side. If May is your Everest, the Mother's Day marketing ideas for 2027 post maps out the climb week by week.

Marketing ideas for florists that bring in recurring revenue

Recurring orders turn a two-peak business into a steady one. They smooth cash flow, make market buying predictable and give you customers you can talk to all year, not just when they panic on a Saturday.

Home subscriptions

Weekly, fortnightly or monthly, delivered or collected. A florist's-choice promise lets you use whatever is best at market, which keeps waste down and lets you show off. Sell gift subscriptions in three-month blocks, and add a pause button so people don't cancel just because they're going away.

Make leaving as easy as joining. Federal Parliament passed a ban on subscription traps on 02/07/2026, and it applies from 01/07/2027. As the Parliamentary Library's Bills Digest explains, the bill requires subscription businesses to disclose key information at the offer, send notices at set points such as before a renewal or a price rise, and make every way to cancel easy to find and straightforward. The fine detail sits in regulations, so check with your adviser before you launch. Easy exits build trust whatever the law says.

Corporate accounts

Reception desks, clinics, display homes and boardrooms all look better with fresh flowers, and the person who orders them wants one thing: no fuss. Offer a standing weekly order at a set budget, a named florist and one monthly invoice, then offer to run their client gifting list too. Pitch in January and around the new financial year on 01/07/2027, when budgets get set.

Workshops for grown-ups

Workshops turn your skill into a product and quiet afternoons into bookings: wreath-making in late November, a posy morning for mums and adult daughters in late April, dried arrangements in winter, team sessions for offices. Price them properly and photograph the proud faces (with permission). Every guest leaves knowing how much work goes into a good arrangement, which makes your next price feel fair.

Events and weddings

Launches, long lunches and private parties all need flowers, and event clients often rebook. Weddings are their own world, with the bride's mum, sisters and bridesmaids weighing in, so they get their own guide in the Keep reading list below.

Sympathy flowers: gentle, clear and never pushy

Sympathy orders are serious and deeply personal. The call often comes from someone in the hardest week of their year, who has never ordered funeral flowers before and doesn't know what to ask. Marketing here means being easy to find, easy to understand and kind on the phone. It is never about persuasion.

• Make ordering simple. A phone line answered by a real person, clear price points shown up front and a plain-words page explaining how funeral and home deliveries work.
• Help with the card. Offer a few gentle message suggestions, because blank cards freeze people.
• Keep it out of promotions. No sympathy flowers in sale emails, no countdown timers and no retargeting ads following a grieving person around the internet.
• Ask before you post. A beautiful casket spray is still someone's farewell, so get the family's permission before it goes anywhere near social media.
• Follow up only when invited. An anniversary note can comfort some people and hurt others, so send one only to customers who have opted in.

Partnerships that put your stems where people already are

A florist's best advertising often sits on someone else's counter. Partnerships work when both businesses gain something and neither hands over a customer list. A few pairings worth a phone call:

• Cafes. A bud vase on every table, swapped weekly, with a small card naming you. The cafe looks lovelier and every customer sees your name. For the cafe's side of the arrangement, our cafe marketing ideas show how they think about their own customers.
• Real estate agents. Open-home arrangements on a standing order and settlement bunches billed to the agency. Agents already chase the gesture that gets remembered, as our event ideas for real estate agents explain.
• Boutiques. A seasonal window collaboration styled to match the new range, credited on a small sign. The boutique marketing ideas post is a handy read before you pitch one.
• Jewellers, salons and day spas. A proposal package with the jeweller, or reception flowers on a standing order, with your card on the counter.
• Local growers. If you buy from farms in your region, name them (with permission). True stories sell.

Put the terms in writing first: who pays for what, how long it runs, who collects opt-ins through their own offer, and what happens to the vases. Vases have a way of going missing.

Green claims that stand up to scrutiny

Flowers look natural, which is exactly why green claims about them need care. When the ACCC reviewed 247 businesses in a greenwashing internet sweep, it reported on 02/03/2023 that 57 per cent had made concerning claims about their environmental credentials. In December 2023 it followed up with eight principles for environmental claims, including having evidence to back up your claims, avoiding broad and unqualified claims and using clear, easy-to-understand language.

Origin claims sit in the same bucket. The ACCC's country of origin guidance says "grown in" generally means all the main components were grown in that country and almost all processing happened there, and it names flowers as an example. That matters, because plenty of stems arrive by plane. Hort Innovation's Australian Horticulture Statistics Handbook 2023/24 reports $96.7 million of cut flower imports in the year ending June 2024, against domestic production valued at $289.9 million, with Malaysia, Kenya and Ecuador the biggest suppliers by value.

Before a green word goes on your website, van or wrapping, ask:

1. Can you prove it? "Locally grown" means you know the farm. If a bunch mixes local and imported stems, say so.
2. Is it specific? "We've stopped using floral foam in our everyday arrangements" beats "eco-friendly" every time.
3. Do the pictures match the words? A sunlit paddock on a page selling imported roses gives the wrong impression.
4. Is it still true? If you stopped composting green waste last winter, update the page this week.

This is general information only. If you're unsure about a claim, read the ACCC guidance in full or get legal advice before you print the labels.

A florist's place at a Paint night

Paint runs mobile paint and sip nights in venues from Cairns to Penrith: hosts up front, a blank canvas at each place, a singalong led live and trivia while the layers dry, over up to 3 hours. Guests are mostly women, thirties to nineties, usually there with friends, sisters, mums or workmates, so the tables are full of birthdays, anniversaries and friendships worth a bunch. The big nights get very big: Springfield booked 151 guests and Cessnock 110.

Two hypothetical ways a florist could use one:

• Picture a florist dressing every table at a presented-by night with low seasonal centrepieces, thanked by name from the front. How that runs is set out on the event sponsorship page.
• Or a florist tucks a single wrapped stem and a card into each goodie bag, offering a free vase with a first subscription delivery when she signs up within a fortnight, tracked with its own code. The mechanics sit on the product sampling and goodie bags page.

Either way, the venue approves anything on its tables, the paid relationship is disclosed to guests, and sign-ups come through your own offer, never Paint's guest list.

Florist marketing questions, answered

How can a florist make more money outside Valentine's Day and Mother's Day?

Build income that repeats. Home subscriptions, corporate standing orders and paid workshops all bring in money in months when walk-in trade is slow, and each one gives you a customer you can talk to again. Add a couple of partnerships with neighbouring businesses so your stems are seen every day, and use the big two days to collect opt-ins rather than simply sell bunches.

What should a flower subscription include?

Keep it simple: a delivery rhythm (weekly, fortnightly or monthly), a clear price per delivery, a florist's-choice promise so you can use the best stems at market, and an easy way to pause or cancel. A vase or care card on the first delivery adds value without cutting the price. Show every term before sign-up, and send a reminder before any renewal.

How does a small florist win corporate accounts?

Make life easy for the person who orders. Office managers want one contact, a set weekly budget, reliable delivery times and a monthly invoice. Offer to look after their client gifting list too, from birthdays to thank-yous, so they never have to remember. January and the start of the new financial year on 01/07/2027 are good moments to pitch, because budgets are being set.

Can I call my flowers sustainable or locally grown?

Only if you can back it up. The ACCC expects environmental claims to be accurate, specific and supported by evidence, and its country of origin guidance treats "grown in" as meaning the main components were grown in that country. If you know the farm, name it. If a bunch mixes local and imported stems, say so. This is general information, so check the ACCC guidance or get advice if you're unsure.

How should a florist promote sympathy flowers?

Quietly. Make sympathy ordering easy to find on your website, with clear prices, a phone line answered by a person and help writing the card. Keep sympathy work out of sales emails, countdown timers and retargeting ads. Build steady relationships with local funeral directors, and never share photos of funeral flowers without the family's permission.

Fill the quiet months with flowers

If your stems belong in a room full of friends celebrating birthdays, milestones and a well-earned night off, let's work out which towns and nights suit your shop. Share what you grow or buy in, your delivery zone and the months that crawl, and we'll map out which Paint nights could carry your name. Why Paint Juicy CONNECT? Because Paint Juicy connects!

Talk to us about a florist partnership

Curious where Paint is playing near your delivery zone? Start with your state.

Keep reading

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• Valentine's Day marketing ideas for 2027: couples, Galentine's and everyone in between
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• How to plan a product sampling campaign: nine steps from goal to follow-up
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