Proven Tips to Prep for the Holidays with Ralph Giordano AIFD
December has a way of arriving all at once — Christmas centerpieces, holiday decor, and everyday orders colliding in the same two frantic weeks. This week Vonda and Lori sit down one-on-one with Ralph Giordano of Giordano's Floral Creations in Fort Pierce, Florida, the member other Flower Clique members turn to first when they have a question. Ralph walks through exactly what his shop is doing right now to get ahead of the holiday — and why the work you do in early December is what saves you when the rush hits.
Four generations of flowers (and a shop bought at 21)
Ralph is a fourth-generation designer whose family has been in the industry for over a hundred years, starting with fruit and flowers pushed down the streets of Manhattan — flowers on one side of the family, a funeral home on the other. He bought his own shop around age 21 or 22: a tiny one-person operation doing about $150,000 a year. He added phone lines, brought in a point of sale system, and started marketing — and doubled sales over his first three years, because "the business was there. She just didn't go after it."
One smart move worth stealing: he didn't rename the shop right away. For the first year they answered the phone as Flowers by Ann Smith, then simply "Flower Shop," and only later as Giordano's — giving customers time to know him before the rebrand. Twenty-five years later, he's still there.
Pre-green now, design later
Ralph's biggest holiday secret is happening in his cooler right now. He buys Christmas greens in bales — better quality and more product than boxed or tipped greens — cuts them to manageable sizes, and starts pre-greening centerpiece containers weeks before Christmas. Each one is labeled and dated, so during the crazy final stretch a designer just grabs the right size container, adds a few greens, and starts designing.
A detail many newer owners don't realize: stored properly, Christmas greens last for months in the cooler. Ralph greens only the sides of the wet foam — about 75 to 80 percent, left airy — keeping the entire top open for candles, hurricane globes, pine cones, glass balls, and ribbon. Then he layers six centerpieces per wax box (a wax-coated box that insulates like an inexpensive cooler — he starts saving them in September), mists them, covers them in plastic, and dates the box. That adds up to over 200 centerpieces ready before the rush.
Let your point of sale tell you how many
How does he know how many to make? Reports. Ralph categorizes holiday items in his POS — Christmas centerpieces with or without candles at each price point, cubes, vases, rose sales — so after every holiday he can see exactly what sold. Compare that history to how the current year is trending, set a goal, and pre-green to that number. No guessing, no gut feeling.
The timing matters too. Most shops hit a lull right after Thanksgiving, when customers are focused on gift shopping. Ralph's staff is already on the clock, so they use that slow window for greening — which keeps labor even and avoids piling overtime onto the two weeks before Christmas.
Prep everything that isn't fresh
The same logic applies to hard goods: ornaments get wood sticks now and go back in their boxes ready to design with. Pine cones, glass balls, candles, and picks come in around Thanksgiving and get cut, taped, and prepped. Bows and "plunkers" go on a sheet of styrofoam inside a garbage bag in the corner until they're needed. Add-water-daily tags go on care cards. As Ralph puts it, it's the same half dozen to a dozen steps for every holiday — just with tweaks for each one.
He's also honest about trade-offs. Post-COVID staffing means his shop stepped back from installation work like car dealership trees: for him, the retail counter is simply more profitable than a dozen installs in a busy week. That's the profit-first mindset Vonda loves — as Ralph asks, would you rather be a broke artist or a profitable one?
Key takeaways
- Pre-green centerpieces now — greens stored wet and cold in the cooler last for months, and dated boxes make crunch week a grab-and-design operation.
- Use POS category reports from past holidays to decide exactly how many pieces to prep at each price point.
- Exploit the post-Thanksgiving lull: your staff is already paid for those hours, so fill them with holiday prep instead of overtime later.
- Stick, pick, and prep every hard good — ornaments, pine cones, bows — before the rush, not during it.
- Price for profit: a little extra stem in every design quietly eats your margin.
Vonda also mentions the brand-new Real Life Retail Florist course — tools to run your shop on real numbers, not gut feelings. You can watch the orientation for a sneak peek, or email lori@flowerclique.com with questions.