Equipment brands for a florist business, compared

What to take away

This article compares equipment brands for a florist business on the points that separate them: blade steel, spare parts, sharpening and service. It is general florist business information, not licensing, safety, tax or employment advice. Confirm current duties with your provincial or state authority.

The bench tools, brand by brand

Felco. Swiss-made pruners with a replaceable blade and spring, sold in left- and right-hand versions. The Felco 2 is the standard bypass model and typically sells for $55 to $70. The Felco 6 suits smaller hands. Replacement blades run about $10 to $14, so a chipped edge is a parts order, not a new tool.

ARS Corporation. Japanese blades with harder steel and a thinner profile than Felco's. The ARS 8-inch needle-nose snips, typically $20 to $30, are the tool for carnations, alstroemeria and anything you cut above the bench.

Harder steel holds an edge longer but chips on wire, so keep the snips away from bind wire. Replacement blades come in packs, so they rebuild like a Felco.

Husqvarna. Chainsaws, hedge trimmers and clearing saws. Relevant if you cut your own branches for birch and dogwood arrangements, or maintain a display garden. A 16-inch gas chainsaw typically costs $200 to $300; battery models sit lower. Not a bench brand.

John Deere. Compact tractors and utility vehicles, with 1 Series tractors typically starting around $18,000 to $22,000. Farm-direct florists use them for field rows and moving buckets. Irrelevant to a 900-square-foot retail shop.

Corona and Fiskars. Mid-price garden lines sold in hardware stores, typically $15 to $30 a pruner. Both publish limited lifetime warranties on several models, which suits a loaner drawer for a seasonal hire. Not what you hand a designer.

Foam, mechanics and care

OASIS Floral Products and Smithers-Oasis are the same company; OASIS is the brand. The line covers foam, cages, tape, wire and floral adhesive. A standard brick typically retails for $2 to $4.

FloraCraft sells foam, styrofoam forms and containers, widely stocked in craft retail. Cheaper per brick, typically $1.50 to $3, with softer foam that crumbles sooner on a heavy arrangement.

Syndicate Sales makes vases, containers and foam in the US. Useful when you need a case of one shape rather than a mixed pallet. It sells through wholesale distributors rather than retail.

Chrysal and Floralife make hydration and care products. Both publish dilution rates on the label, and flower food sachets typically run $0.15 to $0.40 each in bulk. Follow the label, and check the safety data sheet before you change anything on the bench.

Software and sourcing, briefly

Details Flowers Software handles proposals, recipes and event costing on a monthly subscription, typically in the $50 to $100 range per month. Floranext bundles POS, website and delivery on monthly plans, so a small shop carries one bill instead of three.

Sierra Flower Finder and Mayesh are wholesale sourcing channels, not equipment, and neither replaces a pruner or a foam order.

How to compare two brands

Score each candidate on the same five attributes, whether the brand sells pruners, foam or software.

Run the head-to-head on the tools first. Felco wins on parts and left-hand fit. ARS wins on edge retention for soft stems. On foam, OASIS wins on range and FloraCraft on price per brick.

Chrysal and Floralife use comparable chemistry; Floralife is stocked by most US wholesalers, so reordering is easier. Details Flowers wins on recipes and proposals. Floranext wins when delivery routing is the bottleneck.

Run the same table for foam, care products and software. A brand wins on the attribute your shop actually loses money on.

The worked example

A shop cutting 400 stems a day replaces pruner blades roughly every three to four weeks. With a Felco or ARS, that is a parts order. With a sealed big-box pruner, it is a new tool each time.

At typical Felco blade prices of $10 to $14, that is roughly $130 to $240 per designer per year. A sealed pruner at $25, replaced on the same schedule, runs $325 to $425. Multiply by the designers on the bench, and the cheap tool costs more by spring.

Where the money and the rules sit

Tool cost per designer per year is (blade price x replacements) plus (tool price x replacements). Substitute your own figures; nobody publishes a universal number. A starter bench kit of one Felco 2 and one ARS snips typically lands between $75 and $100.

For the outdoor side, review OSHA safety management before you put a seasonal hire on a trimmer. The BLS floral designer profile describes the job as ordering, processing, arranging and pricing, which is a useful check on whether a hire needs bench tools or grounds tools.

Keep purchase and repair records as the IRS records guidance describes. For the full setup sequence, see the florist equipment and setup guide.

Common questions

Are expensive pruners worth it for a small shop?

Yes, if you cut daily. The cost sits in the blade, not the handle. At that volume, blades last three to four weeks, so the parts line beats a new tool every month.

Do I need Husqvarna or John Deere equipment?

Only if you cut your own branches or run field rows. A retail shop with a cooler and a bench does not.

Which brand should I buy first?

One Felco 2 and one ARS snips. Run both for a month, then buy the rest of the bench in whichever your designers reach for. Pick Felco first if the bench has a left-handed designer.

OASIS or FloraCraft for foam?

OASIS for heavy arrangements and standard cages, where firm foam holds stems. FloraCraft when price per brick matters more and the piece is light.