Involvement Puts Us Ahead of the Pack
Jessica and Carmen are full time florists, love what they do and hope it shows. Their nationwide involvement in the flower industry shows their passion for flowers.
Cosentino’s is a full service flower shop. We’ve been a family business since Nov of 1933 with very modern and up to date floral techniques. Most of all we pride ourselves in the fact that we live by our logo, SIMPLY SAID: Our flowers last longer.
Our Mission Statement reads “Our goal is to exceed the expectations of each person who calls on us to express their words and their feelings with flowers.”
We are very active in industry affairs. Carmen and Jessica have served on various committees at FTD. Both have been guest designers and speakers at many industry design schools across the country. Carmen’s recent and current activities include, serving on the Board of Director’s of the Seeley Conference, an annual think tank that takes place each June at Cornell, serving as a trustee of the Kenneth Post Foundation for Floricultural Research at Cornell and as a Trustee of the Professional Floral Commentators Institute, an international association of floral educators and commentators. He is a member of the American Floral Services Education Team and the AFS Presidential Services Team, both headquartered in Oklahoma City.
Carmen and Jessica have been honored with membership in the American Academy of Florists and Carmen is a past chair and member emeritus of the Professional Floral Communicators International. These days, Carmen divides his time between Cosentino’s and a consulting business that gives management and care and handling of flower seminars across the U.S. and Canada. These days Carmen is still involved in the management of Cosentino’s and does some consulting with retail florists and wholesalers. He still writes for floral trade magazines and is in his 7th year of writing a weekly gardening column for his local paper, the Citizen. In September of 2013, at the SAF Convention in Phoenix Jessica was inducted into the American Academy of Florists, the organization within SAF that recognizes industry people for their service to community and industry and for their business morals. Jessica serves on the SAF Convention Committee and has just finished her term as treasurer of the Upstate Teleflora Unit. She is locally active with Ignite, the Chamber and Zonta Club. In September of 2013, at the SAF Convention in Phoenix Jessica was inducted into the American Academy of Florists, the organization within SAF that recognizes industry people for their service to community and industry and for their business morals. She currently serves on the Retailer’s Council and the Government Affairs Committee of the Society of American Florists. She is the president of the New York Upstate Unit of Teleflora. In 2014 she took and completed the 10 month the SBA course, Emerging Leaders and in the spring of 2015 was named the Terry Bridenbecker Person of the year, for successful business person under 40. She is active with the Chamber of Commerce and the Zonta Club.
Carmen’s Awards:
1992 Monterey, CA. “Best Friend of the American and Canadian Rose Grower” Roses. Inc
1995 E. Lansing, MI “First Among Your Peers” Michigan State Florists Association
1998 Tuscon, AZ “Hall of Fame” Society of American Florists
2008 Palm Beach, FL “Tommy Bright Award “ Professional Floral Communicators, International”
2016 Maui, HI “The Tom Butler Award Teleflora
2016 Maui, HI “Teleflora Florist of the Year” to Carmen and Jessica
Carmen has visited flower markets and growing areas in China, Italy, Holland, France, the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Canada.
Says Carmen, “being active in the industry allows us to travel across the nation, indeed even to many foreign lands, to see what is happening in this industry. It is a rare day that we visit a flower shop or talk with a florist, that we don’t bring home a new idea that we can use in our own shop. Our customer benefits, because by being on the cutting edge of the flower business, we get the new ideas and new techniques first.”
