Yellow Daisy

If orchids are the debutantes of the flower shop, daisies are the Eliza Doolittles. They make look small and plain, but many arrangements would be nothing without them. Daisies are the workhorse of the shop. They can be used as the main flower of an arrangement. Many people insist on them because of their long-lasting quality, but they are also just a fun flower that makes you smile when you see it. They can also be the backup to other flowers, used to fill in the blanks in many arrangements. The nice thing about daisies by the stem is that you usually get at least four or five nice flowers per stem and many times they are very nicely staggered on that stem.

I am reminded as I am getting ready to leave the flower shop at the end of summer yet again, and getting ready to go back to school, how sometimes we take the things around us for granted. Daisies are like that. We don't spend a lot of time really thinking about them, yet they are always there for us, ready to make us smile. We use the word "daisy" to refer to young girl scouts before they even get to be "brownies", because they are so fresh of face and cute. The meaning behind the daisy is one of innocence. That fits the daisy perfectly. It makes it a great flower to give to anyone and it is perfect for all occasions. So send someone some daisies, just because!

Yellow Snapdragon

As a young girl, my mother used to send me to stay with her mother from time to time when my grandfather would go to visit his relatives. She always had a few things for me to play with: a small chalkboard to write on and a hula hoop that I loved since we didn't have one at home. I would stand in her backyard and play with that thing twirling and twirling first around my waist, then my legs and arms and if I was adventurous maybe around my neck. When I tired of that, I would take the hula hoop and use it like a big round jump rope and roam around the backyard. I loved my grandmother's backyard. She grew vegetables and flowers in it. One of my favorite flowers that she grew every year were snapdragons. We didn't have anything like it growing in our yard, and I absolutely loved to pick off an individual bloom and make it look like a roaring lion! Each flower has a throat that looks just like a mouth with a tongue and the way the flower blooms the rest of it looks like a lion's mane. Every time I went to her house I would while a way time playing out fantasies with those flower lions.

Snapdragons are used at the flower shop, but mainly in funeral arrangements. Their long tall stalks are perfect for giving height to any arrangement and they are a great substitution for people who don't like gladiolas. Working with people who come in to make arrangements for funerals is a tough position to be in on a daily basis. There are people who call in who are crying and it is hard to know what to say to them sometimes. I just tell them to take their time. You commiserate with them, but you get off them phone just a little down. It's even harder when they come in person to the shop. I like it when they tell you about the person who died. It makes it just a little more personal when you are making the flowers for them. The hidden meaning behind snapdragons is not a very nice one. They can mean deception or concealment, but they also have another meaning, one of graciousness. I will always be grateful for the time I had with my grandmother, and the time I spent in her garden.

Fabulous Freesia

Saturday's post on stephonotis got me to thinking about other sweet-smelling flowers. It's funny how different flower smells affect different people. There are some people who order flower arrangements based on how long the flowers will last: carnations, daisies, anthurium. They feel they get more for their money with flowers that hang around for a while. There are also those who order a flower arrangement and specifically ask that certain flowers are not put in because of their smell, lilies are probably the most noted flower. I am among these people. I can't abide the smell of lilies. And then, there are the people who order an arrangement with flowers specifically for their smell: roses, lavender, stock, and freesia come to mind. Freesia is one of those flowers that not many people really ask for, but those who know, freesia with it delicate purple flowers and perfumy smell are always a great addition to an arrangement. The symbolic meaning of freesia is one of sweetness, friendship and trust which makes it appropriate for many occasions.

We had an arrangement the other day for a woman who was turning 109 years old! It is incredible to me to even think about living that long. I don't know if she has lived her entire life in this area, but if she has I find it amazing at all of the changes that have taken place in her lifetime. All of the changes in technology, television, and cars! She has lived longer than the flower shop has been in existence as we are celebrating only 70 years this year. In that time, the shop has moved three times, but we have stayed on the same street! We have seen the tire companies come and go and with them many people. But we have learned to change with the times, redirecting our focus and finding new customers. It makes me wonder what the shop will be like if it makes it to 109! I hope I am still around to find out!

Sweet Stephonotis

In one of my earlier posts, I talked about a young bride stopping by the flower shop to pick up her bouquet wearing her veil. We came to find out later that her wedding was to take place at one of our local wooded parks. We are lucky to live in area that has a fabulous park system with miles of wooded trails and picturesque meadows, streams, and fields. A week after the "wedding" their was story in the local paper about her wedding. Apparently, the judge who was supposed to marry them never showed up. They had a relative step in so they could go through with the ceremony, and they said that they had a good time but that it really put a damper on the whole day. No kidding! The judge apparently left for Europe the following day and could not be reached. I haven't seen a resolution to this story, but if I do, I will certainly let you know!

We had another bride who came in with some pictures of the bouquet she wanted as well as the corsages and boutonnières. My brother was not in that day so we told her to call back the next day for a price on her bouquet. It was a pretty picture. The bouquet was made up of stephonotis and baby's breath with ribbon throughout. So, she called back the next day to get the price, I answered the phone. I asked my brother for the quote and he told me to tell her $175.00. I think she about hit the floor. She was definitely not expecting it to cost that much, and you know what, neither did I. Stephonotis is also known as Madagascar jasmine. It is extremely popular for wedding bouquets because it is a delicate flower that has a sweet, delicate fragrance. It is also an expensive flower, and each one has to be wired individually to be put into a bouquet which is very time consuming to the designer. So, she said she wanted to call and check other florists' prices and to hold onto the order. I really expected her to call in a few days to cancel, but instead she called back yesterday to say that she got some money to pay for it. My guess is that some nice relative offered to pay for it which is really nice for her! You could hear the excitement in her voice though. Since, the meaning of stephonotis is marital happiness, I guess it really is a nice way to start off her marriage. She was really happy to be able to have the bouquet of her dreams and it made me happy that we are going to be able to do that for her!

Red Anthurium

The tropicals came in yesterday afternoon which got me thinking about anthurium. We have tropical flowers shipped by Fedex every couple of weeks. There are all kinds of pretty things that come in one big box: orchids, birds of paradise, ginger, different types of greens, other assorted bits that I am not sure of and the anthurium. They are packed in wet shredded newspaper that I have to carefully sort through to get them all out. Anthurium is the type of flower that people either love or hate. I know because I have been on both sides. When I was younger, I thought they were the ugliest thing in the flower shop. I really couldn't understand why anyone ever wanted in their arrangements, but that has really changed as I have gotten older. It's like a lot of things in your life that change as time goes by, tastes change, preferences change. The meaning behind anthurium is ardent passion which understandably from its shape is easy to understand! The wonderful thing about these tropicals is that they are one of the longest lasting flower I have ever seen.

There is an older gentleman who works for the flower shop. He used to own his own shop and this is actually his second time around working for us. His main job is to make many of the funeral baskets, vases, and standing sprays. I think that he is truly amazing. He is the first one to work in the morning, and I absolutely love listening to his stories. He was telling us a story today about how he missed his entire eighth grade year due to being on bedrest because of rheumatic fever. He wasn't allowed out of bed for six months! He was telling us how he would hear his friends out playing ball so he would stick his hand out the window and his friends would throw it to him until they hit the side of the house which would make his mother come look to see what the commotion was. I really find it interesting listening to the stories of his life.

So, as I said, it's his job to make many of the funeral arrangements. Two weeks ago, he made this beautiful driftwood arrangement with anthurium and some greens. It was so elegant in its simplicity. Every so often, there is an arrangement like that. One that you can't stop looking at. It's almost like looking at a painting and just thoroughly enjoying just because. Even the other designers remarked on this particular piece and that's not something that they do very often. I don't know if it's because they are so used to looking at arrangements that they become desensitized to them, but I have a hard time not remarking on the beauty of their arrangements!

White Cattleya Orchid

I have lived almost my entire life in this midwest city. The flower shop has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. As a very young child I can remember my father taking me and my siblings to school on his way to the shop. When he was ready to go he would stand at the door and yell, "All aboard"! That was his way of telling us to pile into the van which actually was the delivery van for the shop. There were no seats in it. We all sat on the floor amid the sandbags that were used to hold the arrangements into place and keep them from tipping over while in transit. There would always be a fight over how many sandbags each of us got to sit on, the more the better although if you piled up more than three invariably as my father rounded a corner you would lose your balance and topple over.

One of the earliest jobs that I got at the flower shop was making corsages for Mother's Day and Easter. Back in the day, corsages were a huge money maker for those holidays. Families would order corsages for each female in the house to wear to church at Easter and no self-respecting mother was without one for Mother's Day. I used to sit with several older women who had probably also been making corsages since they were young girls in the basement of the shop and make corsage after corsage. Many times, carnations were used, but the better corsages were made from orchids. Many people favored the smaller cymbidium orchid but the largest and most expensive corsages were made with the softball-size cattleya orchids. Now, these holidays come and go with few women receiving corsages to wear. I think it's kind of sad that corsages have been relegated to weddings and high school dances only.

These days the emphasis on corsages is small and dainty. No one wants to wear the mammoth cattleyas anymore. It takes a self-assured woman to pull one of the fantasy flowers off. We had a family friend who passed away recently. She was a nurse who had been sick for several years. She had a nurses cap in the casket with her and pinned to side of it was a beautiful white cattleya. The flower meaning behind orchids is delicate beauty. Orchids should not be only for special occasions. They should be given to celebrate the delicate beauty that we see in each other. Given the chance, we should show our friends and loved ones just how much they mean to us. Flowers are a perfect way to do that. Don't wait until it is too late.

Hot Pink Peony

One of the most dramatic flowers seen in gardens and in flower shops is the peony. I know that many people consider the peony to be an old-fashioned kind of flower, but they really are quite a show-stopper. I have a neighbor who has a whole hedge made out of peonies and when the bloom her whole side yard is transformed by these enormous flowers. Peonies used to be a typical flower for weddings but I don't think that they are used as much as they once were, but they are symbolic of riches and good luck which make them quite appropriate for any wedding bouquet. Because they are so large it sometimes is harder to use them in a regular flower arrangement.

Our flower shop has an order every year for a particularly large wreath for a gathering of people in our town. This is a major event that is attended every year by thousands of people from all over the world. My brother always makes this particular wreath and I think that he outdid himself this year. He used three large groupings of different types of flowers on different sections of the wreath. There was one grouping of white with large lilies and stock serving as the major flowers for that section. There was also a grouping of blue with delphinium and iris for the main flowers. At the top of the wreath was a large grouping of the most beautiful hot pink peonies. Some of the flowers were as big as a babies head! It was one of the best things that I have seen come out of our shop. I was so proud because I got to help deliver it and listen to the wonderful comments of all of the people who saw it. I really love and appreciate days like that!

orange calla lily

While summer is generally a slow time at the flower shop, it is not a slow time for weddings. When my father owned the shop, he hated dealing with weddings, in particular with mothers of the brides. He never wanted to be the one to actually service the wedding, that is to take the flowers there and make sure that the right person gets the right flowers pinned on them or in there hand. He used to send me from time to time. I always thought it was very fun until the day the mother of the bride thought that the roses in the brides bouquet were not peach but pink and she let me have it until I was on the verge of tears. It was the bride herself that came to my rescue and calmed her mother down. I can't tell you how fast I hightailed it out of there! I never serviced another wedding again.

Nowadays, we have a lovely British lady who does most of our wedding flowers. She doesn't actually work at our shop. She has her own little place behind her house, but she does come in to meet with the brides at our place if they want, otherwise we send them over to her. We make sure however that she gets the flowers she needs. It's a great arrangement because she makes the most beautiful bouquets and we get credit for sending our brides to her!

The only wedding flowers that we actually make at the shop are if it is just a small wedding say the bridal bouquet a few boutonnières, and a few corsages. What I love about the today's bridal bouquets are the fabulous colors that brides are going for. Back in the day, the bridal bouquets were usually white and the attendants bouquets had all the color. Now, the brides have taken back the color for themselves, and they are using more than the usual roses to do it. Orange calla lilies are a perfect example of this. They are small, delicate flowers that are also graceful. They have beautiful curves and they always make people stop and take a second look. The big white calla lilies used to be relegated as funeral flowers, but the small colorful callas have given this exquisite flower a new lease on life, a new beginning just like a wedding!

Pink Dahlia

It's always an interesting parade of people that come in to the flower shop. Of course there are the customers who will always provide some excitement due to the occasion they are ordering for or some sadness when they come in to order flowers for a funeral. But there are also those people who come in on a weekly or even daily basis that are not customers. I am talking of course about the wholesale flower sellers. We have a daily stream coming in and sometimes returning more than once a day depending on our needs. We also have the small independent growers and yes there still are one or two out there who also make the rounds. We have one older man, M. who comes into the shop a couple of times a week during the summer months. The flowers that he grows come straight out of his garden, there is no greenhouse. His specialty is the dahlia, and they are breathtaking. You would never guess that these are straight out of a yard flowers.

I think that M. uses his flower busines to supplement his retirement. He is a small older man who looks like he has known some hard work in his life and he is not afraid of it, but he is also quite soft-spoken too. It is always a treat when he comes. He is usually at the flower shop first thing in the morning. He has a small SUV and in the back the flowers are waiting, tied in bundles, and sitting in water buckets. The flowers that M. brings run the gamut in size from smaller than a daisy to as big as a sunflower and the colors are spectacular. His flowers are as long-lasting as any that we get from any of the regular wholesale shops and the sprays are always a little different in an extra-special sort of way! I think it's because the dahlia is not a first choice type of flower for most people, but they make for a beautiful show in any arrangement.

Jade Rose

If you read my red rose rant, you know that red roses are not my favorite flower. That does not mean that I am totally against all roses. I prefer colored roses: lavender, hot pink, even white. There is nothing like showing someone a colored rose when they have come into the shop thinking that red roses are the way to go. I like watching their face light up when they realize the other fabulous possibilities. Such was the case yesterday when I had an elderly gentleman come into the shop to buy flowers for his wife's 90th birthday! When I asked him what his wife's favorite color was he said green, and then he quickly added that he knew that limited the possibilities for flowers. "Not so", I said, and I went to the cooler! Luckily, we had a nice assortment of "green" flowers: green hydrangeas, green-tinted spider mums and little button daisies as well as some jade roses. His face lit up when he saw those light green roses! He talked about how unusual they are and how his wife would absolutely love them! I love it when I am able to have those serendipitous moments at the shop, and quite frankly who knows how many more birthdays that woman will have, so hopefully they will make quite an impression for her.

One of my favorite books is Voltaire's "Candide". At the conclusion of the book Candide meets a man who seems very happy. Candide asks him the secret to leading a happy life. The man tells him that he lives a very simple life and spends his time cultivating his garden. This in turn makes his family happy. I couldn't help but think of the old man buying flowers for his wife. It's a simple thing really, and yet it will make her very happy. Flowers have that power. They don't always have to be the most elaborate thing, and yet they can make a person smile. They can make a lasting memory. So, take the time to cultivate your garden and in the process make someone happy!

Sweet Sunflower

Several years ago, I spent some time in the south of France. They grow a tremendous amount of flowers there for the perfume business as well as the flower trade. There were acres and acres of farms with bushes of sweet-smelling lavender glowing violet in the noonday sun. But, it was the miles and miles of blossoming sunflowers that really caught my attention. Sunflowers have a sort of primeval look to them.Standing over five and six feet tall, these mammoth flowers that follow the sun through the day have such a fragile look to them. I never imagined that there was such a need for these fantastic flowers. The meaning behind the sunflower is loyalty and constancy. The sun motif is so appropriate for summer flower arrangements. They always make an arrangement look larger than life! Not everyone is happy having the sunflower in their arrangement though. They are one of those flowers that some people relegate to the garden. They don't think that they are fancy enough for an arrangement. The nice thing about the the sunflower is that they do come in several sizes which make them appropriate for almost any occasion.

One of my big jobs at the flower shop is waiting on customers. There is nothing that I like better than to help someone pick out an arrangement especially for the young men that come into the shop. I say that because usually they have no idea what they want. They might come in wanting roses because that is all they know, but if I can get them past that, then I know that it is time to open the flower cooler and let them see all of the fabulous choices. It is always such an eye-opening experience for them and usually a good one! I always think that an arrangement with many different flower types is better than an arrangement of just one flower type. And I feel that I have done my job well when I can get a young man excited about flowers!

White Stock

A symbol of a happy life and contented existence, stock is one of those flowers that people always ask about. The purpose of stock in any flower arrangement is to fill out the arrangement and give it a beautiful smell. It is not a flower that most people would ever ask for by name, although a couple of summers ago, there was a woman who came into the shop every week to buy a few stalks of stock. That's all she wanted, no fern, no filler of any kind, just two stalks of stock. She said she kept a small vase on her table just for that. Stock has a delicate yet heady scent, but I don't think that most people really consider them to be a a gorgeous flower, they always looked a little rumpled, but oh that smell! So many flowers these days have been bred for their looks and along the way have lost a lot of their scent. Red roses are a great example of that. Yes, they do still have some rose scent left, but it has been degraded to a secondary status in favor of look and a longer-lasting flower.

Yesterday, I wrote about cleaning flowers. That is the closest that I ever get to the actual flowers. My job is selling. I answer the phones, and wait on customers. Sure, I get to hand the flowers off to customers, but I never get to actually make any of the arrangements. That is until this week. I had a customer come in to order his wife an arrangement for their anniversary. He said she told him that she likes wildflowers, and that he wanted to play a trick on her. He picked out a beautiful arrangement with sunflowers. I knew I liked him right away because he didn't go for the typical anniversary rose arrangement. Anyway, he said he wanted to bring in a vase filled with some weeds to have us deliver first to his wife and then come back and present her with the real arrangement. He wrote out a card with something to the effect of, "you said you liked wildflowers...!" for the weedy arrangement, and then a "gotcha" card for the real arrangement. So he came back the day before the delivery, but instead of having made the arrangement himself, he brought in a huge bunch in one hand and the vase in the other. Needless to say no self-respecting designer wanted to touch that one so I was allowed to put the joke arrangement together. Now I have spent the last five summers working at the shop, and I have watched our designers put together countless arrangements, so I think that I have a decent idea of how to kind of put together an arrangement. I don't. Not that I had quality flowers to work with, the best flower in the bunch was some Queen Anne's Lace, but still you would think that I could half-ass it. It was pretty bad, and I could hear the designers chuckling as they watched me sweat over this thing. I did give it my best shot, but now I know for sure that I need to leave the arranging to the professionals! The driver delivered the flowers and they had the affect that the guy wanted. He said that when he came back in to give the woman the real arrangement that their were five or six ladies standing around her talking about how horrible and possibly dead my arrangement was! I never heard back from her husband. I hope they have a happy life and contented existence!

Blue Delphinium

So, today is Friday, but a florist's work is never done. The shop is open on Saturday, and even on Sunday there is funeral work to be finished, and then delivered. During the summer, you can never tell what working at the flower shop will be like. One day the phone hardly rings at all and the next day can be like a holiday with the phone ringing off the hook and people coming in left and right. The last two days have been busy ones after a week of near silence. We had an order for a small wedding today, just one bridal bouquet and one boutonnière. The bouquet was made up of exquisite white roses and blue delphinium with a smattering of green hydrangea. One of my favorite summer flowers is the blue delphinium or larkspur. It is a tall flower with many blossoms that convey an open heart and light spirit. They are the flower of July births. People who like wildflower arrangements really like these light flowers.

I was thinking all day about what a dirty job it is in the florist business. It is not always just about pretty flower arranging. Sometimes to get to that place, there are flowers to be cleaned, and today was a day for cleaning flowers. I stripped leaves off of five buckets of carnations, and then it was on to the roses. There were seven or eight bunches of roses to be cleaned. Thorns and most of the leaves need to be stripped of using a large tweezer-like device known as the "rose stripper". I left that shop today feeling so sweaty and cruddy with bits of debris on my shirt and arms. As I was leaving I saw the bride pulling up to pick up her pretty bouquet. She had her hair done and her veil on, and all I could think about what was how different her day must have been from mine! I silently wished her luck on her special day, and headed off.

Red Rose

My regular day job is not at the flower shop. I am a school teacher for most of the year, and the flower shop is my summer job. Contrary to what most people believe, I cannot afford to take several months off and do nothing, but I am lucky enough to love my summer job as much as I love teaching. Working at the flower shop is always filled with unexpected surprises. It can be a day filled with sadness when people come in to choose funeral flowers or it can be a day filled with happiness when there is a new birth or an anniversary. Yesterday was a happy day filled with red roses for five or six anniversary arrangements. Red roses everyone knows stand for love. They set the standard for other flowers. People will compare how expensive other flowers are by the red rose when in fact there are other flowers that cost much more: orchids or calla lilies for example.

When Valentine's Day falls on a weekend, I do come to the flower shop to help out. Why is it that men are so willing to pay such high prices to make their women happy. They come into the shop in an almost trance-like state. They don't blink an eye at the cost of a dozen red roses. They will ask for chocolates and stuffed animals, the bigger the better, and will walk out of the shop happy in knowing that for a little while they will have made their partner's life mean more. People tend to wax so eloquently about Valentine's Day, but for the florist it is a day of work and little rest. A couple of years ago, we had a huge blizzard here on Valentine's Day. Snow drifted up to two and three feet in the streets. It didn't matter. The flowers had to go out. The drivers had an extra body in each truck. One person to drive in the storm and one to get out to deliver the flowers. We somehow managed to get every order delivered. It was a Valentine's Day miracle!

Red roses are not my favorite flower. At the flower shop we have red roses everyday. For me, they represent more like the story of the movie, "American Beauty". They look so perfect and beautiful on the outside. Yes, they make a beautiful show, but really, they are perfectly ordinary. They are such a common flower. Give me other colored roses before the red. I will take orange or a vibrant pink, lavender, or even white before I would be happy with the red rose. To me colored roses should set the standard. They are far more rare in the shop than the red. So next time, think about what you are giving. Don't be a lemming and run with the crowd. Dare to step out and ask for something that has a hidden meaning. Something special that has significance to you and your loved one. Let the glory of the other colors shine on your lives!

Gladiolus

So, here goes. First of all, I guess you should know a little about me. My blog is called a Life in Flowers because of the flower shop. Not that I own one, but this particular flower shop has always been a part of my life. I live in a average town in Ohio and right now my brother owns the flower shop. Before that it belonged to my dad and before him it belonged to my grandfather. Some of my earliest memories are of the shop. The smell of carnations, roses, and eucalyptus immediately stop me in my tracks. I am intrigued by the Oasis floral foam and water pics. There is no feeling like walking into the cold flower cooler on a hot day, and being surrounded by the Monet color effect of all the buckets filled with flowers.

Unfortunately, I was not given the gift of being a flower designer. I have always been in awe of the people in my life who have such talents. They can take flowers, beautiful in and of themselves and put them together to create beautiful masterpieces every single day. Flowers are delicate and fickle things. They can wilt when you don't think think they will, but at the same time they can be forced to open when they don't want to. Designers intinctively know what to do to make lovely pieces that in the end will only leave a memory, or a smell. They aren't meant to last, but they are there for all of the important steps in our lives: births, birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, funerals. Designers choices can make or break how someone remembers thoses important days. I would like to have that kind of impact on people's lives, but that is not my case. I am more of a bystander at the flower shop, but I would like to think that I play a small, yet important role, so that is what this blog is for: to give insight into the lives and importance that florists play in the life of everyone.

"Say it with Flowers" really does encompass the credo that many florists believe in. I was recently talking to an elderly gentleman who came into the shop. He had a book with him about the meaning of flowers. There are not too many people who really know or care about the meaning behind flowers anymore. Everyone knows that red roses mean love, but other than that people don't care or they just want something pretty which is fine. I know that in Victorian society they made an artform of sending flower arrangements filled with meaning. I hope to bring some of that back through this blog and so I will start today with my favorite flower, the gladiola. Most older people only see them as flowers for a funeral, but take a closer look at this fabulous flower. They are tall and striking in a variety of colors. They work well in the garden as well as any table arrangement. The secret meaning of the gladiola is "love at first sight". I think that is most appropriate since that is how I will always feel about the flower shop!