Christmas is here and to celebrate and give a little back to our amazing customers we are running a competition. Here at FlowersMadeEasy.ie we offer a Christmas Tree delivery and decoration services to companies and business around Ireland, so with all the christmas cheer around here we thought it would be nice to see some other trees all lit up and covered in tinsel.

If you would like to win this Christmas Door Wreath for your mum or for yourself then follow the simple rules below and be in with a chance to win.

Step 1:

Take a photo of a Christmas Tree, doesn’t have to be your own, just a nicely decorated one. Like this one made by our amazing team here at FlowersMadeEasy  -

Step 2:

Email the photo to us at info@flowersmadeeasy.ie or share the link with us if you have uploaded it to a blog or somewhere else on the interweb.

Step 3:

Wait till Thursday afternoon when the winner is contacted. We will announce simultaneously on our Facebook, Twitter and and on our blog.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook so you dont miss any of our amazing special offers, discounts and competitions.

Also check out our 12 Days of Christmas Special Discounts, new offers every day on Christmas products, only available from out Facebook and Twitter feeds.

So lets see those Christmas Tree Photos and kick start the Christmas Spirit.

The seasonality of flowers gives you a guide as to what flowers are going to be available at certain times throughout the year. Naturally, there are certain flowers such as freesia and the “Regan White” chrysanthemum that are available all year round  but the various seasons bring out beautiful varying shades and characteristics that are unique to each season.

Spring flowers often supply the prettiest and most fragrant flowers in a fresh and cheerful palate of pinks and yellows. Popular spring flowers include the Aqua Rose, the Milano Rose, Hyacinths, Ranunculi’s, Mimosa, the Calla Lily, Taxi Rose, Narcissus and Gerberas. These flowers are simply beautiful and would look amazing at any event.

Nothing quite says summer time like the beautiful aromas and shades of blue and hot pink flowers. There is a wide array of beautiful summer flowers available and some of the most beautiful  include delphinium, which is the flower of the month for July, the Blue Hydrangea, Sweat Pea, “Extase” Rose, the “Karl Rosenfield” peony and the “Dark Serena” Gerbera. Summer time brings out the best in flowers, so indulge yourself into the world of summer flowers during the month of July.

One should not forget the beautiful shades of autumn flowers. Many summer flowers continue to grow into Autumn and it is always a tough choice to select a flower that has continued to blossom since summer time or a rich auburn palette to reflect the colour of the changing season. Some amazing Autumn flowers include the Snowberry, “Jacaranda” Rose, “Illusion” rose, “Treasue” calla lilly, “Macarena” Rose and the “Regan Orange” chrysanthemum. They all fuse amazing shades that simply are not seen in any other month.

Last but not least are the winter flowers. Whether you prefer deep, warm reds or cool, crisp whites, there is a wide selection of festive berries and flowers for your seasonal floral displays. My favourite winter flowers include the Hippeastrum “Red Lion,” “Early Bird Red” chrysanthemum and the “Prominence” tulip.

No matter what the season you will always find beautiful flowers to suit your mood.

Summer time is peak season for florists across the world due to the seasonality of many popular flowers. The amazing scents of summer flowers lead to people’s desire to fill their homes with beautiful arrangements and gorgeous bouquets.

During the summer season 2011 thus far we have seen a dramatic increase in people ordering blue and purple coloured bouquets. Those appear to be the colours of the season along with the ever popular yellow and pink. Additionally, we are experiencing numerous orders of delphinium, hydrangea and alliums. Popular bouquets are Citrus Tint, Rustic Summer Twist and the Pink Flower Bag.

We are experiencing an increase in orders from this time last year; this demonstrates to us that people want to brighten up their house with amazing colours and aromas that beautiful bouquets offer.

We offer beautiful bouquets from as little as €35 to brighten up your house. Visit www.FlowersMadeEasy.ie to add some beautiful flowers to your home this summer.

We would like to thank everyone who entered our Father’s Day Competition.

There were some amazing entries this year and they spread the love and appreciation for Father’s in Ireland and across the world.

Once again thank you for entering our competition and we wish Father’s around the world a Happy Fathers Day this Sunday.

From The Flowers Made Easy Team

Father’s Day is the one day of the year that celebrates Fatherhood and the influence of Fathers in society. It is celebrated on the third Sunday of June every year. Father’s Day was celebrated first in the early twentieth century to complement Mother’s Day. The day usually involves gift-giving, a dinner for the father and family orientated activities. Father’s Day is this Sunday June 19th. Fathers do so much for the people around them and want to offer one lucky winner the perfect gift for a special father in their life.   We are offering one lucky the perfect prize for Father’s Day: a Bottle of Wolf Blass Eaglehawk  wine, a wine cooler bag, a Waiters Friend corkscrew and a box of Lily O’Briens Chocolates. All you have to do to win this amazing Father’s Day prize is:

• Like our Facebook Page www.Facebook.com/flowersmadeeasy and,
• Post a comment in this blog  telling us why you think you have the world’s greatest Dad.

Do not forget to tell your friends about this amazing competition to help spread the appreciation and love of fathers throughout Ireland this year.

The winner will be announced on Friday 17^th June at 2.30pm.

We wish you all the best of luck in the competition!!

Delivery to Ireland only

Bloom this year was bigger and better than ever before reaching an all-time high number of visitors; 90,000. This figure is up 50% on 2010, an remarkable increase. On Saturday a record number of 22,000 people visited Bloom. Those statistics prove that Bloom was bigger than ever before but do not describe the amazing event that the Bloom organisers put on.

To describe the event I feel I should mention there were 49 Artisan food traders, 400 exhibitors from the food and horticulture industry, 53 international media including 1 Arab; 1 Dutch and 3 Chinese TV crews, 78 medals awarded to garden designers, nurseries and floral artists and 22 cookery demonstrations with celebrity chefs such as Neven Maguire, Catherine Fulvio, Jenny Bristow, Donal Skehan and Rozanne Stevens.  Bloom attracted former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and current President Mary Mc Aleese, who both took time out to speak to the public and exhibitors. That gives you an impression of the lengths Bloom organisers went to put on the best show possible. The weather was favourable from Thursday until Monday, with the exception of a few showers on Sunday, which naturally increased the number of visitors; however one should not take away from the amazing event Bloom put on.

On Thursday, we launched HobbyFlorist.ie at Bloom. HobbyFlorist.ie is a brand new website which enables you to order all of your floral sundries from the comfort of your home. HobbyFlorist.ie aims to be the best one-stop-shop for all your floral sundry needs with the added advantage that there is no minimum order. HobbyFlorist enjoyed great success during the Bloom weekend, HobbyFlorst talked with visitors and shared tips and advice on how to improve your floristry skills.

TheFlowerSchool.ie was also present at Bloom and enjoyed the event. Florists from FlowersMadeEasy were on hand every minute of the event representing TheFlowerSchool.ie  and they gave amazing floral arrangement demonstrations and also shared tips and offered advice on flower arranging and what are the best tools to use and  how to use every floristry tool imaginable.

Flowers Made Easy, HobbyFlorist.ie and TheFlowerSchool.ie thoroughly enjoyed Bloom and would like to thank all the Bloom staff, organisers and volunteers that put on such an amazing event.

We are looking forward to Bloom 2012.

Ireland’s largest garden, food and family event is coming to Dublin this Thursday 2^nd June to Monday 6^th June. The festival takes place in Phoenix Park and is an event not to be missed. Bloom offers something for everyone from live cookery classes and craft demonstrations to free garden advice, and remember kids go for free.

This year at Bloom we have a stand where we will be promoting our two sister companies; HobbyFlorist.ie and TheFlowerSchool.ie. We are going to be officially launching HobbyFlorist.ie at Bloom on Thursday morning, so be sure to swing by. HobbyFlorist.ie is a “one-stop-shop” for all your floral sundry needs with the added advantage that you can order from the comfort of your home. HobbyFlorist supply everything you could possibly need if your hobby is floristry or if you just want to attempt floristry for the first time, from foam to vases and from floral scissors to wedding products. The Flower School was set up to share the latest techniques of modern and traditional floristry through its floristry courses. The Flower School aims to push your creative boundaries and teach you the practical elements you need to progress.

HobbyFlorist will be available to offer advice and tips to everyone at Bloom 2011. Additionally, they will be providing you with everything needed to make all of the arrangements that will be demonstrated by the floristry team. They will be selling a hobby florist starter pack which will have everything you need to get started in floristry including floral scissors, pins, raffia, foam, pots and strippers etc. In addition to floral sundries, HobbyFlorist will be selling flowers such as Delphiniums, Hydrangeas, Scented Stock, Roses and Lilies.

During Bloom TheFlowerSchool will be demonstrating how you can make a number of floral arrangements. Every member of the exceptionally talented Flowers Made Easy floristry team will be guiding you, step by step, through the process involved in making beautiful floral arrangements such as floral wreaths, candelabras, modern table centre arrangements and baskets.

HobbyFlorist believe that Bloom offers the perfect setting to launch as it is the one place in Ireland that HobbyFlorist can meet with their customers and bestow some useful floristry tips and techniques. Both HobbyFlorist and TheFlowerSchool are designed to help you discover your floristry passion and are there to help you every step of the way along your floristry journey. Both companies will welcome any questions about floristry or gardening throughout the Bloom festival.

We look forward to talking with you at Bloom 2011.

Bloom is Ireland’s largest gardening, food and family event, and it takes place in the Phoenix Park Dublin during the June bank holiday weekend for 5 days from Thursday June 2^nd to Monday June 6^th. Bloom offers something for everyone from live cookery classes and craft demonstrations to free garden advice, and remember kids go for free.

To celebrate the Launch of HobbyFlorist.ie and TheFlowerSchool.ie we are giving away two tickets to this amazing event for Thursday or Friday.

To win these two tickets simply follow @theflowerschool and @hobbyflorist on Twitter and we will select and announce the winner Wednesday morning.

Best of luck to you all and we hope to see you at Bloom 2011.

This year one of our amazing florists, Eileen Gavin, visited the Chelsea Flower Show on Tuesday 24^th May. Eileen visits the Chelsea Flower Show every year and would not miss it for the world.

Eileen planned the trip to the Chelsea Flower Show with her sister and her sister in law and they had all arranged to meet Eileen’s son, Neil, at the flower show. However, this year due to a volcanic eruption, Eileen made the trip to Chelsea by herself and met her son Neil as planned. Eileen describes the very moment she entered the show; “The atmosphere was amazing, everybody was admiring the beautiful flowers”.  ”All you could see was garden after garden after garden. You could have spent an entire week there trying to see everything,” explained Eileen.

One of Eileen’s favourite gardens was a beautiful  Japanese garden, pictured below. “Oriental style gardens always look beautiful and this garden was one of the best I have ever seen,” explained Eileen.

Chelsea Flower Show Japanese Garden 2011

Another of Eileen’s favourite gardens was the Monaco Garden which illustrated the architecture and landscape of Monaco. This garden showed how landscape and architecture can work together to look beautiful and be environmentally sustainable. There was a  pool at the end of the garden which was naturally filtered and collected water from the rooftops. “There was also a balustrade surrounding the pool which gave a perfect finishing touch to a beautiful garden,” added Eileen.

Eileens favourite moment was when her nephew, who is Irish garden designer and TV personality, Diarmuid Gavin won the Gold Medal for his “Irish Sky Garden”. Diarmuid’s garden was the largest the Chelsea Flower Show had ever seen and the garden was “astonishing, simply astonishing” said Eileen. The theme of the garden was to delight in the concept of outdoor entertainment and fantasy. “Diarmuid’s garden had a contemporary feel to it whilst exciting each visitor to the garden,” says Eileen. There was a floating pathway which swung through the garden back and forth leading each visitor throughout the entire garden. There was also about thirty circular pools throughout the garden which reflected all that was happening in the sky.

The following are several pictures of Diarmuid’s breathtaking garden:

A view from inside the garden.

The notorious Irish flag.

The overall winner was  ”The Daily Telegraph’s” garden. However, Eileen firmly believes that Diarmuid should have been awarded this prize for his breathtaking garden.

Eileen’s favourite flowers on the day were the Peony Rose and the Orchid. “There were so many beautiful flowers at Chelsea but the Orchids were breathtaking, there were just so many different colours and they all looked so beautiful,” says Eileen.

Orchids

Roses

Another one of Eileens favourite flowers from the day was the Hosta seen below. The Hosta won a silver medal and was very close to winning gold. Eileen admired the Hosta as she has attempted to grow the flower many times in her own garden, “they get attacked and killed by slugs every time,” admits Eileen. She truly appreciated the effort that was put into making the Hosta look so beautiful. Eileen would strongly recommend that everyone visits the Chelsea Flower Show at some stage and cannot wait to make the trip next year again.

Great news recently came into the Flowers Made Easy office; we have been nominated for three awards in the Social Media Awards 2011. We are thrilled with the nominations and hope we can come away with an award on the night.

We have been nominated for three awards on the night, including;

Best business Twitter account: Here we have been nominated alongside some great competition such as TV3 Expose, Newstalk 106-108 and the Irish Food Guide. We take our twitter account very seriously at Flowers Made Easy, using it as a tool to engage with the public by listening, contributing to and starting interesting topical conversations. Twitter really is a magical tool enabling you to engage with people that it may otherwise be nearly impossible to engage with on a daily basis.

Best blog for a business: We are thrilled with this nomination!  We have been nominated alongside A-Wear, Tourism Ireland and Rabo Direct among others. “Content is King,” is a phrase that always gets used in our office. Blogging is an important aspect for our business for many reasons. It gives us a chance to show the public that we truly care for them by giving tips and advice on many different topics from flowers and floristry to Feng Shui. Additionally we host our competitions on our blog, and let the public know what is going on within the company at any given time. We aim at posting blogs with a conversational voice and listen and respond to all comments.

Best online PR campaign: We have been nominated alongside great companies such as Pizza Hut and Vodafone Ireland among others. Once again we are absolutely delighted with this nomination. Our focus on PR campaigns has always been on creativity and innovation. We always try and stay one step ahead of our competitors by daring to do things that nobody else is doing or perhaps doing things in a way that is different from our competitors.  This past Mother’s Day we launched www.flowersmadeeasy.tv where people from abroad could upload a video message to their mum in Ireland and their mum could then see this message. We thought it was a brilliant way to connect sons and daughters with their mothers on Mother’s Day as so many Irish youths have emigrated in the last few years.

We are delighted with all our nominations and wish everyone the best of luck on the day! Check out www.socialmediaawards.com to see the full list of categories and nominees.