Mass Hort BLOOMS!

MASS HORT BLOOMS!

"The goal of BLOOMS! is to inspire the public to become Mass Hort members, supporters, and volunteers, while we dazzle them the beauty of nature and the creativity of the designers, and welcome Spring!

BLOOMS! is the answer to the public outcry of “We have to have a Flower Show!” In the tradition of celebrating the arrival of Spring in Boston, Mass Hort sought partners with the building management of 125 High Street, One International Place and InterContinental Boston, South Station as well as Simon Malls at Copley Place, The Mall at Chestnut Hill and Atrium Mall, who have graciously offered Mass Hort their spaces. Exhibitors have offered their beautiful displays to Mass Hort.

2009 has been a year of unwelcome surprises: in 2008, Mass Hort discovered internal mismanagement and cash shortfalls, requiring restructuring and lay offs. Attempting to create cash by selling some unused but rare books, Mass Hort was disappointed with the results of the Sotheby’s Auction. With high energy costs, and a down economy, Mass Hort canceled the NE Spring Flower Show 2009. The dire economic climate which affects many, has exacerbated the Mass Hort situation.

BLOOMS! is an exhibit based on volunteers and in-kind donations.
The goal is to bring Mass Hort and horticulture to the public; and to have the public support Mass Hort!

“BLOOMS!” will be open to the public in Boston March 13th-15th in the marble lobbies of International Place, 125 High Street and The InterContinental Boston, and South Station abutting The Massachusetts Horticultural Society Greenway Gardens.
Simon Malls at Copley Place, The Mall at Chestnut Hill and Atrium Mall, will host landscape displays from March 12-22, 2009.
Free and Open to the Public."

Fresh Flowers - Luxury Item?

The fine blog, shelterrific, queried its readers in a recent post whether fresh flowers were a luxury in these belt-tightening times, or a must-have regardless.

Their readers responded that mostly they try to have some kind of flowers around the house, even if it's just a stem of something small in the bathroom. Encouraging words for a florist to hear in these gloomy economic times!

But - they by far seemed to make these small purchases at chain grocery stores and not at a locally owned flower shop. Sigh...from encouraging words, to discouraging words. A few reader comments are not a complete marketing survey, but I have to wonder why people choose to get flowers from a food store? The price point? The convenience of not making another stop? The Society of American Florists graph above shows how few flowers were purchased at flower shops this past Valentine's Day.

No, we don't carry tulips for $6 a bunch like they do at the grocery store, but neither am I buying them by the pallet for 40 stores. I, instead, hand choose the bunches of tulips I carry from the flower market, looking for larger sizes, novelty types with fringes or lily shaped petals, and the newest trendy colors. Generally I can't even buy a bunch of tulips wholesale for $6, never mind sell it at that price.

Are florists perceived as being too expensive to get "just a little something"? Or that we can't be bothered with someone who just wants one stem? I hope not! I'd love to sell just one stem, to lots and lots of people! This week we have these amazing mini cymbidium orchids stems (see photo) - only $7.50 each, 8-12 blooms on each, lovely spring colors, and they will easily last you two weeks. Surely a great value that I don't think you can get in a grocery store.

How does the retail flower industry get the consumer back in the shop? Over all flower sales are up, yet the retail florist piece of the pie continues to shrink. Some day there may just be floral studios who do event and wedding work and all other flowers will be purchased at mass market retailers - grocery and big box discounters. Would you miss flower shops if they were gone? Because that's how it looks like things are going in this industry.

Plants - Succulents

We got a few really nice succulent plants this week - the stuff that looks like green peas are String of Pearls plants. An old fashioned plant that has found its way back in style with its clean, modern looks!

And some echeveria varieties potted up with some birch bark in glass cylinders - rustic modern. Echeverias are succulents which require direct sun, small pots, and sandy soil which drains well and dries out quickly. They are easily propagated by cuttings or removing the offsets (new plants that shoot out from the main plant). Let cuttings dry out for a week before placing on cactus type soil to prevent them from rotting.

Fresh From the Flower Market

Pink ginger this week...

...and golden yellow oncidium orchids.

In addition, we also have:

hydrangea - light blue, white, and purple
bells of Ireland
flowering quince
campanula - pink and purple
dendrobium orchids - purple
monte casino asters
waxflower - purple
eriostemon - lovely fresh green piney smell
freesia - white
iris - blue, yellow
stock - magenta, cream
ginger - red as well
'Ivanhoe' grevillea - California
scented geranium foliage
calendula - bright orange
lysimachia
anemone - New York
tulips - novelty, parrot, and fringed from Holland, as well as extra tall ones form New Jersey
'Supernova' eryngium thistle
green trachellium
novelty daffodils/narcissus
gerbera - orange tow tone and magenta, Canada
pin cushion protea
dianthus
leucodendron - yellow
psiticorum
sunflower
fatsia
rainbow asters
bird of paradise
hypericum - green and burgundy
kangaroo paw - yellow
ornithogalum arabicum
phlox - white
snapdragon - pink, yellow, New England
yarrow
monstera foliage
song of India

Daffy Down Dilly

From the children's nursery rhyme -

Daffy Down Dilly
Has come to town

In a yellow petticoat
And a green gown.

Great Minds Thinking Alike!

Spotted this on Design*Sponge the other day -

Remind you of anything??!

Fresh From the Flower Market

A couple of nifty things this week kids! The above is a baby heliconia, just like those jumbo ones we used at the museum a couple weeks ago, but small and slender, only about 15" tall (as opposed to the monster ones at 5 feet!). Really cute!

And something I've never seen before called Fabiana from Holland. Not too tall, about 10-12" or so, with these strange club-like flowers that bear a strong resemblance to branch coral. I've done some searching on line to tell you more about it, but unfortunately can't find anything about it out there. I'm thinking the name they gave it is wrong. The only fabiana I can find is Fabiana imbricata, which is a mock heath, i.e. looks a lot like heather. This does not look like heather!

Please leave a comment if anyone out there knows what it's really called. I'll enjoy it regardless. ;-)

Anyhow, in addition, we also have this week:

forsythia
mokara orchids
james storeii orchids
flowering quince
sunflowers
psiticorum
novelty daffodils
double lisianthus - purple with white
orange oncidium orchids
tiger oncidium orchids
gerbera - Canada, magenta and orange
ornithogalum arabicum - I still have never heard this referred to by any common name, but while searching on the web, I found this article that refers to it as "Arab Eyes". Probably not a very PC name, but some really beautiful macro pictures of all the arabicum cultivars! Check them out!
pincushion protea
aralia
umbrella fern - Australia
tulips
ginger - Costa Rica
alstroemeria
rainbow asters
campanula
volkerfrieden delphinium
dendrobium orchids
hypericum berries
kangaroo paw - yellow and pink
liatris
"Circus" rose
snapdragon - local
'Jade' trachellium
bells of Ireland
bird of paradise
asiatic lily - California, orange
light green spiders
tri-color flax - New Zealand
blue hydrangea - New Zealand
waxflower - California, white
camelia foliage
holly fern
hyacinth
freesia - California, white and yellow
anemone - California
plum branches - California

Flora in Winter Demonstration

Just a few quick notes on my Flora in Winter demonstration from last week!

Thought you might enjoy this picture of Jason and Francoise doing some of the prep work for the talk. Sometimes a florist's tool kit includes power tools!

No pictures during the demo, since I was doing the talking for a change. ;-) But here's a quick look at my audience, taken at the end of the program - thank you all so much for coming! It was a thrill to have such an attentive crowd.

And here is my fabulous assistant, Francoise, "modeling" the bridal bouquet finale piece. The raffia armature was pre-made before the show, as I didn't think folks would want to watch me wrap raffia around wire for an hour. The bouquet features 'Finesse' roses and umbrella fern from Australia.

I was so worried about having enough material prepared to fill up two hours, that it came as a complete surprise when the time had passed and I still had a couple items I didn't get to do!

Will have to save those for next year???

Belated Valentine

Belated Valentine's wishes to you all!

XOXO

Sprout

The Florist's Lament or Why It Doesn't Pay to Wait till the Last Minute

So this is what's left in my shop as of last night. Good for me to have sold everything, not so good for you if you think you'll be able to stroll in on Valentine's Day today and find a good selection of things to choose from.

See, in my shop, I really take a lot of pride in the quality and selection of flowers we carry. This means I like to hand pick out as many of the flowers as possible, preferably in the Boston Flower Exchange where I can get the most interesting stuff. This entails getting up at 4:00am and driving to Boston, picking out product amid their glorious display, and scurrying back to Worcester, hopefully to open the shop on time.

Every week, I make an educated guess on how many flowers to buy. Some weeks, most weeks really, I get it pretty right, and we have enough flowers for all, with not too many leftovers at the end of the week. If I buy too much, it's not like I can freeze them, and I prefer not to sell old flowers the following week because I want our customers to get the maximum life possible out of them.

When it comes to a holiday, the guessing game on how much to buy gets harder. I want to have enough flowers to sell to make everyone happy, but I don't want to over buy and get stuck with flowers that I paid holiday high prices for.

So when folks wait till say, February 13, to order Valentine's Day flowers, and my purchases for the week are already made, I may or may not have flowers left. I bought conservatively this week based on crappy Christmas sales, the poor economy, and that Valentine's Day falls on a Saturday, a notoriously bad day of the week for it to fall on for florists. I would guess that only about 20% of my total orders were placed before I went to buy flowers. Not encouraging.

As you can see, I guessed wrong. Today we're going to have last minute folks come in, look around, and leave because I don't have enough flowers. I don't have to time or the physical energy to run to Boston for more flowers, and besides, by the last day all that's left to buy are the dregs, the things no one wants. Even if I go there, I'm sure there won't be much that's fresh and new, certainly not tropicals, which don't come in again till next week.

So lesson to be learned for the consumer here - please order early! We want to be able to help you and get you the beautiful, fresh flowers you want!

Valentine's Day Prep

The mountain of cardboard, flowers crammed into every nook and cranny...

Jason wrangling the gerbera...

...it always looks worse before it gets better! Well, OK, it looks pretty bad at the end too, but in between cutting flowers and selling all the flowers, it looks rather pretty. :-)

Fresh From the Flower Market

It's looking Valentine-y at the shop, thanks in part to these luscious pink hydrangeas!

More hydrangeas, pink ginger...

...red ginger too, and leucodendron.

In addition, we also have:

OK, doing this from memory, as I left the invoices at work, so don't think of this list as comprehensive!

roses, not a lot of roses, in fact the reds are mostly sold out, but we have few colors left
dendrobium orchids - lavender, purple, white
red orchids whose name I forget!
forsythia
pincushion protea
sunflowers
yellow kangaroo paws
gerbera
waxflower
limonium
black iris
tulips
hyacinth
spray roses - peach, pink, red
daffodils - novelty types
lipstick pink anthurium
matsumoto asters - two shades of pink and red
more hydrangeas than you can shake a stick at! - light blue, white, baby green, hot pink, light pink, bright blue, lavender
hypericum
'Athos' poms
green spiders
'Jade' trachellium
yellow leucodendron
oncidium orchids
lilies - grown in Hadley MA - 'Starfighter", plus pink, white
psiticorum
stock - pink, magenta, white
campanula - lavender, purple
helleborus

More Flora in Winter!

The Virgin and Child, Bartolomeo Montagna, Sarah Ribeiro designer. Lovely semi-diagonal movement in the arrangement complementing that of the painting.

Some arrangements deteriorate over the span of the 4 day event (although I have to say that the committee does an amazing job of maintaining the flowers early every morning!), and some arrangements develop. This is a good example of flowers developing. Notice how the lilies are just starting to open in the first of these photos which was taken Thursday evening, and in the second photo which was taken Sunday afternoon, they have opened fully.

Another thing to appreciate here is how the designer's container pairs so well with the artwork. Well, this is no accident, as the Sarah used her pottery skills to create the container as well as the flowers! Brava!

Flowers all aglow by the Plant Bazaar!

One of a pair of pieces at the Salisbury Street entrance done by us, Sprout.

Outer Robe for an Akahime (Red Princess ) Role in a Japanese Kabuki Theater Performance, Japanese, Kae Collins designer.

Amazing work here by Kae! I love this artwork, it was my second choice (I got my first choice - insert smiley face!) and I'm so glad she got to do the interpretation. Love, love, love all the great textures, especially the Australian curly pine - mmmmm....!

The back of Kae's head - you gotta match your piece!

Child's Mummy Case, Egyptian, Kathy Michie designer. We all decided that this was a really strong solution to a difficult piece. Another designer might have focused on the flatness of the surface, but Kathie saw not only the strong horizontal form, but the amazing amount of detail and color on the mummy case.

This is my piece - Nude, Marguerite Zorach, Cathy Walsh designer. I've always loved this piece at the museum, I see my hips in hers! I'm all about the zaftig here, ripe, voluptuous. I didn't want to do an arrangement where flower #1 is her head, flower #2 is her arm, and so on. I just wanted to convey a feminine, voluptuous, sexy quality. Events like Flora are often where we get to show off our fancy techniques and tricks, but this painting is so straight forward, so nothing tricky here. Uncontrived, naked, flowers!

Another challenging painting! Storm at Sea, William van de Velde the Younger, Mary Fletcher designer. Not much in the way of color here to work with, but Mary really captured the mood of the piece with her restrained use of materials. Love how the curly willow echos the jagged highlights on the clouds and don't get me going about the fabulous xanadu leaf under the water!

Chess Players, James Northcote, Sally Jablonski designer. Loved this whimsical piece by Sally! The graphic black and white blooms punctuated by shots of green. And while it doesn't show up well in my photos, the eggplant tones totally pick up the plum colored jacket on the chess player to the left.

How fun is this?! And it's not until you get up close that you can see the delightful detail of the the white gerbera having black centers. :-)

I wish I could have gotten photos of every piece up on the blog, but I'm not the greatest photographer and some photos just didn't come out, and with the crowds it was nigh impossible to get a good shot of some of the arrangements.

All in all, it was a very good show all around. It's really gratifying to see everyone's work improve from year to year and of course show off our fabulous Worcester Art Museum!

You've got to have art! And flowers!

Flora in Winter - Floral Interpretations of Art

Sorry to be so slow in posting these, especially as the event is ending, but it was quite the busy and flower filled week for me, as I'm sure you can imagine! So here we go with Flora in Winter at the Worcester Art Museum:

First up, from the Pre-Columbian Gallery, Urn with Figure with Bow-knot Headdress, Mexico, Nancy A. Roberts designer. As you'll see, some of the artworks picked by the museum for interpretation were really difficult, but Nancy nailed this challenging one!

Untitled, Ilya Bolotowsky, Deborah Coleman/Ruth Gorman/Jackie Potenzone designers.

I need Husband to take up welding, so I can do work like this!

Arrangement in Black and Brown: The Fur Jacket, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Kim Cutler designer. OK, we have this giant painting of a woman, and it's mostly black with a hint of brown - are you up for the challenge?

Not all of the flowers in the museum were interpretations of artworks; the public spaces were also filled with flowers. We absolutely loved this "under the sea" piece by Virginia Orlando!

Electra Receiving the Ashes of her Brother, Orestes, Jean-Baptiste Joseph Wicar, Brandy Scheibner designer.

Really thoughtful interpretation of this painting - love the grid of leaves and poms and the gestures of the flowers are so expressive.