Flying B Bar Ranch
Purchasing Policy Information

CONSUMER ALERTS
We here at the Flying B Bar Ranch take a great deal of effort to make sure that our prices are comparable or better than our competitors.  It should be noted that we try to make sure that you are fully informed about size and quality of what we are providing. This is not necessarily the case for all providers, so caution should be exercised.  If you have questions about our prices, or the size of something, then don't hesitate to give us a call. 

One thing that should be brought to the attention of any consumer of dried floral products is the usage of the terminology "preserved" and "freeze-dried". "Preserved" flowers is an overall description of any flower that basically dried, thus has increased longevity. Freeze drying is just one method of floral preservation. It's benefits are that for certain flower types it results in more consistant-to-fresh-looking flowers than, say, silica-gel drying, air drying, or kiln drying. One of the most important aspects of benefit of freeze drying is that any insects, larvae, or their eggs are destroyed by the drying process. This is not true of all, or even most, of the other drying methods.

One other aspect of all preserved florals should be brought to the consumer's attention: preservatives. What distinguishes a "dried" floral from a "preserved" floral is that some form of preservative is used. Usually the point of the preservative is to provide flexibility, maintain color, and deter re-absorbtion of moisture. Some "preserved" florals are preserved by the use of glycerine, and glycerine dye baths to return and maintian the color of the flowers. While these flowers generally have longer color longevity in a general sense, the glycerine retained in the flower can have serious detrimental effects if the flowers are placed in a fully enclosed arrangement (known as the green-house effect). Some "preserved" florals, are treated with their preservative before they are dried. Sometimes this is necessary in order to keep the flower from self-destructing during the drying process, but sometimes it is because the provider would rather use only one type of preservative.

We here at the Flying B try to use the best industry known method for drying each different type of flower. That means that if necessary, we will use a pre-treatment preservative, in order to have flowers that are stable after drying. However, on most flowers, and most specifically on our roses, we use a post-treatment, non-water based polymer which saturates the flower and provides the best available most natural results. We NEVER use glycerine, nor do we dye our flowers to achieve their colors. Be aware that most of our competitors in the "preserved rose" market these days are producing color dyed roses. This is not necessarily bad, unless you are placing these roses in an enclosed container with other items, just not resulting in naturally colored roses. Heirlooming, or preserving other types of objects, such as cloth, photographs, or other paper items in an enclosed device with glycerine preserved flowers can result in damage and deterioration to those other objects over the long term.

SPECIAL NOTES: 
With regard to freeze dried roses, most other providers don't sort or price by size.  A dozen roses costs X, but no mention of what size.  Simply put, be careful!  If  a vendor can get a dozen roses into one 9" square acetate clamshell box,  7" square of full height space, then those roses can't be bigger than 1 3/4" in diameter, or they squish each other or don't fit.   So don't be fooled into thinking that they are comparable to something other than our "Small" sized roses. 

With regard to rose petals, both freeze dried and air dried, be careful.  Most vendors are pricing rose petals by the "cup".  Strategic, but not very fair to the consumer.  A cup of Ecuadorian rose petals is far fewer rose petals than a cup of Hothouse rose petals.  The bigger the rose, the fewer petals fit into a cup because nobody is smashing those petals into the cup to make it fully packed.  Some vendors may pack their cups tighter than others.  Or, if the petals are stacked neatly more fit in.  So, how does one make sure that everybody is playing fair?  Like potato chips, don't measure the size of the bag (because there can be a lot of air in there), check the weight.

This is why we have gone to weight-based pricing.   For comparison purposes, here are a couple of conversion factors:

• 1 generously filled cup of freeze dried petals weighs between 0.1 and 0.15 of an ounce, depending on petal size
  
• 1 cup of air dried petals weighs about .3 of an ounce, again depending on the size of the petals