SUNFLOWERS ARE BLOOMING FOR RETAILERS

AMY I. STICKEL

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Supermarket floral operators may not have much time to track trends, but they need to know what's hot -- and sunflowers are definitely hot now.

That is according to Matt Wood, a floral consultant and educator, who spoke at the Super Floral Show and Floral Marketing Association convention here last month.

"The sunflower was a fad three years ago. I don't think it's a fad anymore," he said. "It's a trend. It's hung on, and it seems like it's going to hang on for a while."

Wood said people associate sunflowers with morning and inspiration. "It's very intense. This is probably the one color we don't find in homes much, because it is so intense. But that's why you see it in morning rooms and breakfast rooms. It gives you inspiration in the morning."

Sunflower motifs can brighten up any floral department, he said. "The sunflower is so dynamic. The strong yellow is so good visually within our stores. We must work yellow in every season." Wood acknowledged that supermarket floral operators often don't have a lot of time or resources to devote to trends. But they need to make that effort if they want to be successful, he said.

Wood pointed to several emerging trends, including a resurgence of colors that were popular years ago.

"Color sells -- color motivates the consumer to buy," he said. What used to be called avocado green is now known as basil and moss green. "You know what?" he asked the audience. "It's the same color again."

Wood said sunflowers owe some of their popularity to a renewed interest in the color saffron. As if on cue, a Columbus-area retail tour revealed several stores were already getting into the act.

The retailers included Cincinnati-based Kroger Co.; Columbus, Ohio-based Big Bear Stores; Target Stores, Minneapolis; Meijer Inc., Grand Rapids, Mich.; Cub Foods Stores, Stillwater, Minn., and Anderson's General Stores, Maumee, Ohio.

While not all the stores had sunflowers on sale, most at least adopted the motif into giftware, or used silk sunflowers and sunflower-patterned cloth as decorations.

At one Kroger store, a freestanding display was devoted to canisters, tins and pots emblazoned with sunflowers.

A nearby Big Bear store also boasted a sunflower display with a sign reading, "Let the sun shine in." A basket of silk sunflowers retailed for $24.98.

A Meijer store offered silk sunflowers in a display with mouse and cow figurines near its indoor floral department. Sunflowers decorated a refrigerated flower case at a Cub Foods store. Cloth with a sunflower design ringed the outside of the open case, and silk sunflowers and greens were piled on top, accenting the yellow trim in the department.

At Anderson's General Store, miniature potted sunflowers were on sale outdoors, and an employee said the flowers have been very popular.