Sadly, the American Florist is constantly confronted by in lieu of statements in advertising, obituaries and the media. We, of course, are passionate about the impact of flowers on a person's life and understand the benefits exceed the vase life.

Aside from the daily denunciation in the newspaper obituary section we are also faced with a slew of companies who seek to sell their product at the expense of our own.  The list is too numerous to enumerate here but advertising executives and marketing representatives from teddy bears to diamonds have all been at a loss to sell their product based upon its own merits and have resorted to the ease of disparaging flowers.

The Society of American Florist (SAF) has long campaigned against such marketing tactics and actively addresses the negative campaigns to varying degrees of success. There are firms who are so entrenched in their practice of negative pitch they will probably never stop the practice of hatemongering florist and our product.

One such company, The Vermont Teddy Bear Company, has actively refused the request of our industry to drop their tagline "It's a great gift idea and a creative alternative to sending flowers!" This company's steadfast campaign against our industry continues to baffle me. I like their product, I would order their product and do think their teddy bears are adorable.  But their lack of regard for the untold thousands of people in my industry who are affected by their form of negative advertising simply won't allow me to ever consider them as a great gift idea.

Today, however, I am writing about another company.  In its Wednesday broadcast to it constituency SAF mentioned the website https://www.treesinstead.com/ whom they contacted to remove the negative tagline "Trees Instead of Flowers" from their website. According to SAF a company representative contacted them within twenty minutes and agreed to remove the negative tagline from its site. SAF noted the company even removed the references in its FAQ section.

What a company, I applaud them and their willingness to change their practice. I am certain this was an honest mistake and the company never intended to be disparaging about flowers.  I love their concept and I have already visited their site and am making personal selections to pay homage to some loved one's I have lost.  I highly recommend you visit https://www.treesinstead.com/ and check out the very affordable offerings they have.  Planting a tree is always a good idea as they breathe life into our world. The first tree I am going to order will be to commemorate a friend I recently lost in my garden, my beloved Apricot Tree. While I will replace the tree, I will also plant one in honor of it somewhere else to celebrate the oneness of our great planet.