Lane DeVries, head of Sun Valley Group in Arcata, CA, is a man on a mission. And when Mr. DeVries speaks, as he did at the recent International Floriculture Expo in Miami Beach, the breakfast table conversations stop and people listen.

Lane DeVries of Sun Valley Group proposed to an IFE audience that the industry promote Women’s Day on March 8 as a new floral holiday for the United States. A few years back, Mr. DeVries urged that California growers cooperate to use standard box sizes to cut shipping costs. One trucking firm had reported 1,524 box sizes used by California growers. NORCAL, the California Association of Flower Growers & Shippers, soon began to think outside the box, so to speak. Now, 80 percent of flowers shipped from California travel in 50 box sizes. Today, Mr. DeVries has another cause: selling more flowers through Women’s Day.

Mr. DeVries showed charts and graphs to make his point that U.S. flower sales had been flat for the past 10 years while grower costs rose 40 percent. His conclusion: The floral trade needs to sell more flowers, and promoting Women’s Day on March 8 could boost sales. “Women’s Day in Eastern Europe is huge,” he pointed out. “And in Italy it is bigger than Valentine’s Day.” In Europe, the event is called International Women’s Day, a title Mr. DeVries shortened since it began here.

Great Britain, he recounted, had the lowest flower consumption in Europe until retailers there mounted a quality and freshness campaign that made Great Britain the leader in floral sales growth in Europe. “We can do the same here,” Mr. DeVries proclaimed. He went a step further and offered retailers point-of-sale materials to promote the day.

The materials have photos of tulips, care and handling instructions for tulips and bear the Sun Valley logo. They come in groupings of six or four items, or four items in reduced sizes. Sun Valley is offering free digital copies of the items so retailers can print them in-house. Or Sun Valley will print them with the store’s logo for $110 for the largest set to $39 for the smallest.

Materials include theme posters with the Women’s Day heading and two slogans: “Flowers to Honor and Delight” and “Fresh flowers for the women who make your days bloom with happiness.” The posters come in two sizes with tulip care and handling instructions on the back. Other items included bucket flags printed front and back, hang tags with a message of appreciation to women, and bucket sleeves with a Women’s Day logo and photos of women with tulips.