There is always something happening at Tiger Lily! The Post and Courier called our General Manager Lauren Seaborn on Monday, wanting to know how the excruciating fuel prices are affecting our business. Yesterday they sent a photographer out to take some shots. It helps being 3 blocks down the street from the newspaper!

Robin was loading up for her weekly flower install of the Sanctuary Resort on Kiawah Island. We're at the Sanctuary everyday checking and refreshing our flowers, meeting with clients, producing events and more, but Wednesday is the day we replace everything. Between the lobbies, country clubs, restuarants, spas and all it's a van full of stuff! Robin does an incredible job of making it all look great. The photographer, Grace, had her choice of which business featured in the article she could shoot and she chose Tiger Lily. Turns out her father had a florist for 30+ years. We had a fun discussion about the floral industry then vs. now.

Grace took about 50 shots, and I like the one she chose for the cover. Note how the van is clean, all the arrangements are organized, it makes a business owner proud! Clara is in Hungary attending her grandmother's funeral, I'll have to make sure I save a copy for when she returns.

Gas prices are making it tough for all businesses (except the gas biz!). We did raise our delivery fees $1 this year, and it really bothered us. More importantly, we changed a lot of our delivery logistics. We're trying to be smart first, and not just make the knee jerk reaction of raising prices.

Some of our changes include only going off the peninsula just once a day. We still deliver to all of the same areas as before, but only once. We gather orders in the morning, and after noon head to West Ahsley, James Island, North Charleston, and East Cooper areas. In this way we can still offer same-day delivery all over the Charleston area; just call us before noon. In addition to saving money for us and our customers, it's just a "Greener way to go". If we are going to change our oil consumption as a country, we're going to have to change individually.

I've thought a lot about it, and feel the fuel pinch more than most folks. I spend over $1,500 a month on fuel! Two years ago it was half that! Environmentally, we just need to get off the "Juice". I tell my kids all the time, "I don't know what you'll be driving your children around in, but it won't be one of these gas guzzling dinosaurs! You'll be telling them stories of how Grandpa (me!) had a car with 4 wheels, was noisy, polluted the air we breathed, had to fill it up weekly with oil from the earth..." They roll their eyes but they think about it too.

I would love to change from our cargo vans, and I think most florists should. Carrying one or two arrangements all over town in a large van just doesn't make sense. Almost any compact hatchback car would do, just rip out the back seat and you're good to go. We do so many events, hotels and large orders that are vans stay pretty full. Still, I'm brainstorming ideas. Maybe a compact car for individual far reaching orders. Since we're downtown, most of our deliveries are just a mile or two away. This morning on the way to work I saw a motorcycle with a luggage trailer towed behind it. Maybe I can buy a used motorcycle, nothing fancy, and make a trailer just for flowers. We could probably do it for less than $2,000. We'll call it the "Tiger Lily Green Machine". Don't laugh, actually please laugh. Most of our great ideas were laughed at by other folks. For us that's like a vote of confidence!

Yes, it's all becoming clear to me now. Look around the streets of Charleston soon for "The Green Machine". Where can I buy green chaps?

Five years ago, Clara and I purchased an 0ld service station on the west side of peninsula Charleston. Our goal was to move Tiger Lily from our rented space on Meeting Street to a cool, large space that we owned. The site was abondoned, delapitated and contaminated, but had a great location and promise.

We went through a lot of challenges, but also had a lot of support. One of the highlights of my professional career was a short Tuesday evening meeting with Mayor Riley. It was just me and him for about 15 minutes. We reviewed the blueprints and discussed a few challenges we had with permitting. He said "This is one of the best examples or urban infill I've ever seen. We need to make this happen" With his support the pieces fell into place. To make a long story short, everything worked out beyond our expectations. In fact, the entire neighborhood is undergoing an incredible renovation without gentrification. Nobody appreciates this renovation more than the fine foks who have called our Elliottboro/Cannonboro neighborhood home for generations and for generations to come.

Just goes to show, dream big because it CAN happen!

So Charleston Magazine featured the Cannonboro/Elliottboro neighborhoods in their current May 2008 issue. They featured Tiger Lily along with our neighbors Hominy Grill, Lana's Cafe and more. It was cool to be considered one of the "hipsters" of Charleston. We look forward to being part of this awesome area for many, many years.