MIAMI _ Juan Palacio's interest in agriculture sprouted from his grandfather, who worked on an arabica farm in Colombia not far from where Palacio grew up. Palacio worked on the farm and learned the value of hard work and dedication.
"Once I got old enough, I channeled my viejo's drive and sense of adventure and moved to Miami," Palacio said. "I had a heavy accent and was not fluent in English but worked hard to learn while selling flowers door to door to hotels in Miami Beach. I'm sure it's no surprise to you that I was yelled at and had doors slammed in my face."
But Palacio eventually established a clientele. He taught himself online marketing and search engine optimization, which led to the creation of an e-commerce site that sold flowers in bulk to do-it-yourselfer brides-to-be and event planners called theflowerexchange.com, which he sold in 2009. "I then worked in more corporate roles, such as a consultant for Hotels.com, but the lasting memories I had of the farms of my youth had me longing to return to growing."
Palacio then came up with the concept of a monthly flower subscription model and launched BloomsyBox.com in 2015. He went back to the same farms in Colombia and Ecuador he had worked with for years and he negotiated a great rate by cutting out the flower distributor and working directly with them.
"We only work with farms that are Rainforest Alliance and Veriflora certified, meaning they follow a specific set of rules that makes them ethically and environmentally friendly. These rules cover all aspects of the business from the treatment of workers on the farm to the disposal of the flowers," he said.
Each stem is hand-picked, arranged into a hand-tied bouquet and delivered to the customer in less than four days. Most of the blooms arrive in bud form, so they're guaranteed to last longer than typical store-bought bouquets, he said. Monthly subscriptions start at $39.99 with shipping included.
The secret sauce is the discovery factor. Customers will be surprised by what they are getting. BloomsyBox works mainly with growers in the flower capitals of Latin America and also buys from Holland and Thailand. "We also wanted to walk away from the typical bouquet you can buy everywhere, so we only do single-variety bouquets."
For instance, customers recently received about 15 stems of oriental lilies of various colors, each stem with several buds on them, in the smallest subscription box. In August, BloomsyBox shipped out 30-35 stems of lisianthus. It also offers a roses-only subscription, but they too will be unusual, maybe even multicolored, including the Free Spirit and Magic Times varieties or the deep purple Ascot.
Customers buy them for their homes or offices, but many of them gift them, often as corporate gifts. Realtors buy them as closing gifts for their home-buying customers, for instance. "We also ship to a lot of retirement homes nationwide," he said.
BloomsyBox.com now has about 7,000 subscribers and recently inked a branded deal with Costco.com. It also plans to run a campaign and contest this fall called #MyForeverBloom. Participants will be asked to submit stories about inspirational figures in their lives, and the author of the most compelling, heartwarming story will win the opportunity to permanently name a rose variety after that individual, Palacio said. "We are very excited about this campaign and hope it will spark conversation about the family, friends and mentors who make a difference in our lives."
