Improving the Earth’s Environment with Everlasting ‘Lasting Flowers’ [Ark net Co., Ltd.]

Originally a florist, we provide a full range of gift flowers for weddings and funerals, but we are particularly focused on creating ‘flowers that don’t wilt.’ Normally flowers wilt and are eventually thrown away, but we wanted to specialize in the demand for ‘keeping flowers in a non-wilting state forever,’ so we processed them to maintain their fresh-like state. We have a project called ‘Your Flower Preservation Project’ where we take care of flowers received from important people.

Yes, that’s correct. Previously, we used the term ‘preserved flowers,’ but when we showed the finished product, people said it was different from preserved flowers. Indeed, they are almost a different thing.

First, the touch is different. Preserved flowers are only made in a few types by large manufacturers. It’s difficult to process various kinds of flowers because they are produced in large quantities on a planned production basis.

Preserved flowers have an industrial aspect, with a unified design. While there are many color variations, like carnations for example, if you have ten preserved flowers, they all look similar. On the other hand, Lasting Flowers can preserve different states, such as partially bloomed or fully bloomed, so ten Lasting Flowers will all look different. We can now make major flowers into Lasting Flowers. It took many experiments to get here. We’ve spent six years constantly searching for the optimal balance of special liquid mixtures to soak the flowers in, which varies for each flower.

In these experiments, we’ve destroyed many fresh flowers. We’ve been looking for textures that are close to natural fresh flowers. It’s something that can be done because of our experience, and it’s not easy to imitate just because there’s a special liquid available.

When I first thought about starting Lasting Flowers, we were doing pressed flowers at the school I run. At that time, preserving bouquets with pressed flowers was popular. One of my students wanted to preserve her wedding bouquet, so I suggested making it into a pressed flower, but she didn’t like that idea. She wanted to preserve it in its three-dimensional form. At that time, the only way to preserve flowers three-dimensionally was as dried flowers.

However, dried flowers crumble easily and don’t last long; their color changes too. So, I researched various sources on how to preserve them better. It was around that time, about twenty years ago, that preserved flowers started to appear in the market.

However, the preserved flower research company I found couldn’t keep white flowers perfectly white, which is a serious issue, especially when trying to preserve a bridal bouquet. How to keep it perfectly white was a big challenge.

Actually, there is another person who is a co-founder of the Lasting Flower. He helped by looking at various documents, and through this, we met a professor at Utsunomiya University. We realized what we wanted to do was possible, but it still took a long time to establish the method. We went through many failures…

We checked everything: the composition of the liquid, temperature, humidity, and looked for conditions that would make the flower closest to a fresh one. However, I’m not the type to enjoy such tasks, so I left that to him.
I believe it’s important not only to provide the goodness of flowers but also to deliver new value. I was led by my feelings, and the technology followed. Above all, it was the desire to preserve that bouquet beautifully that led us to experiment with how it could be done.

Yes, it’s all about the sentiment!!
It’s not about whether it can be done or not, but about trying to do it.

Yes, that’s right. There’s another story. A teenage boy on a soccer team died in a traffic accident. His teammates made a soccer ball out of flowers and placed it beside his portrait. His mother saw it and insisted, ‘I absolutely want to keep this!’ So, she took the bouquet to various flower-related businesses in Tochigi Prefecture. She came to our company after visiting 20 places. Her determination was truly amazing!

Ultimately, the flowers wilted. But she brought us a photo of the flowers. From the photo, we could tell what kind of flowers they were, so we quickly found the same flowers through the market and processed them into Lasting Flowers. When we delivered them, she was moved to tears, saying, ‘What is this!! They look just like the original!’ We were moved to tears as well.

I believe there are many people who feel the same way, so I want to spread the technique of Lasting Flowers more. Otherwise, we miss the chance to preserve the flowers in their current state. That’s why I want to increase the sales channels for Lasting Flowers and talk about them in various places.

There was also a customer who desperately wanted to preserve a red rose thrown by a Takarazuka performer. It was half decayed, but they wanted us to ‘stop time’ even in that state. We managed to do it, and the customer was satisfied with the Lasting Flower in its half-decayed state (laughs). There will be more people who wish to preserve flowers, and we need to be able to fulfill their requests.

Even if there’s a need, if people don’t know where to get it done, they can only watch the flowers wilt in a few days. I think we need to increase something like dealerships to spread Lasting Flowers. Currently, we are running a business where we take customers’ memorable fresh flowers and process them into Lasting Flowers through the ‘Your Flower Preservation Project.’ In addition to this, we also create gifts with Lasting Flowers. I might get scolded by orchid producers for saying this… but do you know how difficult it is to dispose of orchids? When you throw away an orchid, you need to break it down into four parts. This way, you need to separate and dispose of the four parts. It’s fine if it’s just one, but if you have dozens of pots, it’s a lot of work. That’s why disposing of orchids is really difficult. I think Lasting Flowers could be a substitute. With Lasting Flowers, you don’t need to water them, and they stay as they were when sent. They can be kept pure white or made colorful. I hope they can replace current orchids. It’s great not to have to throw them away. It’s environmentally friendly.

It was adopted six years ago.

We were selected for a national manufacturing project. The aim is to launch new services in society and create employment through promoting the Lasting Flower business. We had an obligation to compile documents and report how it went for five years. Although that phase is over, we are now carrying out the Lasting Flower business while considering how to broadly communicate the system.

Absolutely!!!

The industry hit hardest by COVID is the food and beverage sector, which is directly linked to the floral industry. When restaurants couldn’t operate, naturally, the demand for flowers also decreased. However, only the food and beverage industry was receiving subsidies from the government, including compensation for closure, but initially, there was nothing for the floral industry. There was no guarantee or request for closure from the local government.

Parties were canceled, weddings were canceled. It was a disaster. If I said I wanted to quit the Lasting Flower business, they would say I have to return the funds used to set up the factory. There was nothing I could do if they told me to return it. I couldn’t return it if I quit. In the end, I couldn’t quit.

I just kept going, often in tears. It was tough opening the shop, and some staff had been with us for nearly 20 years. It was a necessary decision to keep the company going. There was no revenue, but we still had to pay rent every month. We couldn’t borrow money, and the government wouldn’t take care of us… I had to dip into my savings for retirement. It was a struggle between ‘deciding to quit’ and ‘having to figure something out.’ I couldn’t help but cry.

Many in the flower industry across the country have quit, and even those who haven’t are struggling and crying. That’s still true today. Now, imported flowers are not coming in as they used to due to the war and the weak yen. That means we have to use Japanese flowers, but the age group of the growers is getting older, and they are retiring from flower production. Then, the supply of flowers decreases, so the price goes up. Now it’s about twice what it used to be. For Mother’s Day, it went up to about 4.5 times…

Customers can’t easily pay the increased prices. If someone who used to buy flowers for 3,000 yen orders the same again, and the purchase price has doubled, the volume will be halved. Will the customers be satisfied with that? So, in the end, we have to offer it as a service. Flower shops are all still crying.

There is a desire to meet customers’ requests and for the sake of future dreams. I think of Lasting Flowers as ‘flowers for the space age.’ Growing flowers in a space station seems quite difficult, doesn’t it? Instead, I think it’s cheaper to take these nearly alive Lasting Flowers from Earth.

Lasting Flowers could be used for promotions inside a space station or for farewell parties when returning to Earth. Maybe even for weddings. If that happens, they’ll definitely use flowers. I believe Lasting Flowers can meet such needs.

Also, I want to help people in the flower industry who are crying due to the effects of COVID. If flowers aren’t sold, they end up in the garbage bag, and we have to pay waste disposal companies to take them away. Using Lasting Flowers could reduce this to some extent. Combining Lasting Flowers with fresh ones is also good. It doesn’t have to be 100% fresh flowers. If even 20% or 10% were replaced by Lasting Flowers, I think the profit margin would go up, and the disposal rate would go down. I want to spread this knowledge across Japan, make it popular. This is my future dream.

To do this, I believe it’s necessary to work together with other industries, not just the flower industry. I’m working hard to talk to company presidents of various businesses, asking, ‘Would you like to join in this sustainable, wilt-free flower business, the Lasting Flower?’

I was approached by the president of a company that runs support facilities for employment in the welfare industry. The work in such facilities is not very clean, and they wanted to provide more beautiful work for their employees.

There are also companies that are completely different from our business but are looking to contribute to society. I want to spread more in that direction.

I’m willing to teach the technology of Lasting Flowers developed by our company exactly as it is. I don’t want to spread it by our company alone; I want to expand it with those who want to work on SDGs in the flower business.

Of course, I’ll teach everything. I’ll give lessons to make sure it can be done. I’ll talk about all the precautions and get them to the point where they can make it.