Never Prejudge Your Clients

Option #1 Tulips & curly willow on the backside of a rocking birdhouse.



Option #2 Lemons, cherry tomatoes, grasses, green hydrangea & loops of the stems of the tomato vines.

Last week I was working on some new silk arrangements to fill the shop in preparation for Mother's Day & for some reason I found myself creating the 2nd arrangement you see here.

As I was working on it, I was thinking to myself, this is a truly odd combination of items to use in one arrangement, Lemons, grasses, cherry tomato vines, green hydrangea? I'm not quite sure why I chose to use this combination, but this was the result. After it was complete, I laughed and said to my husband, all this needs is a bit of cilantro & some avocado & I'll have a guacamole arrangement with a side of hydrangea.

I put it out on display all the while thinking..yeah... I'll be tearing this apart in a couple of months to make something new because this will never sell. I felt it was too unique for most.

Much to my surprise a couple of days later an older lady came in with her daughter & a gift certificate in hand. She was looking around for quite a long while, when all of a sudden she was placing different arrangements on my counter with me standing behind them switching them out as on the display table for her to scrutinize. She was trying to find something for a dining room table. I could see that she was having trouble making her decision, so I offered to let her take them both home & live with them over the weekend. I suggested that she swap them out & see how they look to her when she walks into the room unsuspecting. She couldn't believe that I would let her do that, but soon agreed & left with both arrangements in hand.

On Monday morning she returned the one she didn't want to keep & much to my surprise it was not the one I suspected she would return. She kept the one with the lemons & tomatoes.......once again I had to remember.....never prejudge your clients.