If you were one of the 580 that participated in the Society of American Florists’ Petal It Forward flower giveaway last week, you saw firsthand the joy flowers bring.

Bangor Floral in Bangor, Maine, joined the Petal It Forward movement for the first time this year and their team was thrilled to see the joy it spread through their community.

“Everyone who saw us approaching them with flowers in our hands immediately smiled,” says owner Joseph Langlois. “So many were excited to ‘Petal It Forward’ to someone else, they would come back with only one flower in their hands and tell us proudly that they gave the other away.”

Rachael Vander Heide, president of Eastern Floral in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and her team passed out 1,500 bouquets last week. The flowers had a profound impact on several recipients, she says.

“One recipient said that they did not want to get out of bed morning due to a feeling of hopelessness and this changed the entire course of their day,” Vander Heide says. “What they say is true; flowers do make people happy.”

Here are two marketing messages to keep reminding customers that flowers spread joy:

1. Flowers are a way to relieve stress and anxiety. Studies show that people who lived with flowers in their homes for just a few days reported a significant decrease in their levels of stress and improvements in their moods. Flowers are also proven to have a long-term positive effect on moods. SAF has social media graphics to help you spread those messages.
2. Flowers are a form of self-care. Use the marketing campaign, “Flowers. Self-Care Made Easy,” by CalFlowers (the California Association of Flower Growers and Shippers) to help consumers see flowers as a form of self-care. The campaign, which launched in January, includes assets such as printable graphics, vehicle wraps and videos, which are available to anyone by registering here.

Amanda Jedlinsky is the managing editor of SAF NOW.