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.