A Blooming Business

Francis Iacovelli was just 19 years old when he established in 1949.  His mother, who owned a small grocery store in Milford, helped set him up in the business. Over the years his wife, Tess, and many of their family have worked in the business. His daughter, Patrice, worked at Francis Flowers when she was growing up. After living the city life in Manhattan, she has returned full-time for the past eight years to help the family business continue to blossom.   

When is your busiest season or holiday?

I’d say the two busiest holidays are Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. Christmas you sell flowers the whole month of December.  People send Christmas poinsettias and gifts the whole month.  But Valentine’s Day is a one-day holiday, Mother’s Day is a one-day holiday, and it really makes a difference in terms of the pressure put on us, and we just have to crank stuff out. We’re here all night. It’s just different from the Christmas holiday. Easter used to be really busy, but it is not as generations change. What the old folks used to do for Easter time was to buy corsages they would wear to church. 

Is the wedding season busy?

I had two weddings last weekend. I was surprised the people chose to get married on the Fourth, but they didn’t care. Every week this summer we’ll do wedding work. And I’m glad for it. It’s a lot of work because for the brides it is their most important day, so they are all excited and nervous about it. You really have to pay attention to it.  It is not just the work, but making sure the bride is calm as well. 

How do you go about designing a floral arrangement?  

I think we’re in a unique position because my dad started the business when he was 19.  He went to floral school and he taught all of us how to design. I have a brother who works here part time. I have a brother who is an attorney in Worcester, but he has to come to work on the holidays too. It is a big family operation. I have a niece and nephew and they are always working here. He taught us how to do everything.  Plus I get online, and honestly I can see something and think, “Oh I can do that.” After all these years I hope I could do that. I go to New York a lot because that is where I used to live. I keep an apartment there. When I’m there, I’ll stop at every flower shop as I’m walking up and down the street. I’ll see what their styles are. I just try to replicate them. 

What is the most popular flower requested by customers?

To this day, still the rose. People come in for roses all the time. We sell a lot of gerbera daisies. They almost look like sunflowers. They’re pretty with multiple colors. 

Are flowers a recession-proof business? If not, how do you stay competitive when people are budget-conscious?

Nothing is recession-proof. Because we’ve been here 63 years and we’re very fortunate, we have quite a following. It’s kind of an icon.  We always have friends coming in the back and customers coming in the front. There’s always a lot of activity here. We’ve been able to hold our own during the recession. There is always funeral work and wedding work. I think we’re in a unique position, and I think we’re lucky because we’ve been here so long. 

Where do the flowers come from?

We try to get as many grown locally as we can. That is our priority.  New England, the Northeast, anything in the USA. We have really strong feelings about that. This time of year we get a lot of merchandise from New Jersey. They have a lot of farms down there. But we can’t always get everything grown here. A lot of things are grown in South America, especially Ecuador, Holland, Israel, and now China and India. Holland always sends beautiful premium merchandise. I went to Amsterdam just to check out the sale and distribution place.  It is the size of 10 football fields. All the flowers are on conveyer belts.  They ship all over the world, and it was fascinating. But now I know why it is so complicated to get them because I went and saw it myself. 

How do you put in an order to receive flowers from another country?

Suppose you wanted lavender baby calla lilies. I’d do it one of two ways. I’d call our wholesalers in Boston and place the order, and I’ll also call Holland. I’ll get online and order straight from Holland. I’ll order both. Even though you may only need 10, I’ll order both, like 40 of them. If the ones the wholesaler sent aren’t absolutely pristine, then we can count on the one from Holland and vice versa. You always need to order way more than you need. If someone needs 10 sunflowers, you can’t just order 10. You have to order a lot of them. You want to give them only the most beautiful ones. 

What is the rarest, or most unusual, flower you've ever worked with?

One of my favorites, which are very hard to get right now, is the old-fashioned African violet. Not an African violet plant you see everywhere, but they only grow in a place called Parma, Italy. It is very hard to get them now. It is just a little cluster of violets. They would cut right from the grass and they had beautiful greens around them, and you can’t get them anymore. Now they’re unaffordable. You have to put in a substantial order to get any shipment at all. They were just like a little Victorian bouquet. It is a plant that grows in a more Mediterranean environment. 

What are the challenges of the floral business?

It is a hard business because you’re always lugging buckets. It is very labor intensive. [The challenge is] maintaining your cool under pressure because there is such a quick turnaround time. You can’t drive up and point to what you want and get something in two seconds. Flower shops aren’t like that. All our designs are unique, and I may not have exactly what you’re looking for. It is hard to maintain a small family business given the competition that is out there because everything has changed. [In the past] they had to come to a flower shop to buy plants, and now you can buy them anyplace. They may not be as nice or the same quality, but people don’t really care. Also, so many people order online on our website. We have 3,500 items on there, and we can’t carry all 3,500 all the time. 

Is it a fulfilling or an interesting business to work in?

It is actually quite fascinating. You work with beautiful merchandise all the time, and because it is perishable merchandise you have to get it in right away and make it up and send it out. It is not like dry goods that can be left on the shelf for two months. Everything has a very fast turnaround time. And you’re here for the community all the time. In the old days, my dad used to help the high school kids to do fundraisers, so they used to sell Christmas trees out front. We’ve done all kinds of things with the community over the years. It has always been a lot of fun. We get to see everybody all the time. When I was growing up my friends used to work here. There are so many family members and friends. Everybody just pitches in.