As soon as the snow melts, and the danger of frost is passed, the enthusiastic homeowner gets out into his garden, sews a few packets of seed and is very happy when the flowers appear. It's all very hit and miss.
But in the very serious business of growing flowers commercially, nothing is left to chance. Every step is of the utmost importance – humidity, temperature, soil conditions, chemical content of fertilizers and even telephone equipment are all factors affecting the year end balance sheet.
There's not much point in planting 300,000 chrysanthemums only to have them bloom a week after they are needed on the market. "Timing is essential if we are to have our supplies ready for peak demands like Mother's Day, Easter, and Christmas," says Lloyd Veit, head of the family run company, Fernlea Flowers Ltd., Delhi, Ont.
Lloyd Veit started growing flowers in 1939 on part of the farm homestead property farmed by his father since 1906. The flowers were sold in a small store in Delhi. As the demand increased, more flowers were grown. Today, Fernlea retails from its own stores in Tillsonburg, Aylmer, St. Thomas, Ingersoll and Simcoe in addition to the much enlarged and modernized Delhi store. The company wholesales in other parts of Ontario and even into Quebec markets.
Nearly all telephone calls into the warehouse and growing facility in Delhi are long distance. "And in spite of the fact we have a store in Tillsonburg, many of our customers call us here," says Mr. Veit. "To make it easy for them to call we have installed a Tillsonburg Foreign Exchange line." This enables Fernlea's customers to make toll free calls by simply dialing a local Tillsonburg number. The company also benefits from a fixed monthly charge, in place of long distance charges on each call, for its own heavy use of the line to call the store and customers in Tillsonburg.
Annual production from the company's three and one half covered acres runs close to four million flowers and bedding plants in 150 different varieties. This output keeps 25 people busy all year round. The payroll is boosted to 65 in March, April and May with skilled help. Delhi is in the heart of tobacco country and Fernlea's peak spring planting time is just prior to the tobacco planting season.
While planting and growing are major operations, filling orders is another. Most are taken by phone at the order desk. However, nearly all orders have to be confirmed by one of the growers before acceptance can be given.
Fernlea has speeded order-taking using a two-way Business Interphone F installation. With hands-free speaker-microphones attached to all telephones in the offices and owner's residences, plus loudspeaker-microphones throughout the greenhouses, immediate confirmation of deliveries are given. "This system saves a lot of legwork," says Lloyd Veit. "And if we are wanted on the phone we are paged. It's faster than having someone come to search us out. It also saves a lot of our time and doesn't keep the customer waiting. Most of our callers now dial direct. It's quicker and saves them the added cost of person to person calls."
The Business Interphone F installation saves valuable steps at Fernlea Flowers. But more important, says Mr. Veit, "it improves our customer service." And with more and more customers buying more flowers – Lloyd Veit says people are taking pride in living graciously today – Fernlea Flowers Ltd. Will continue to bloom.