February 13, 2017

Flowers for Valentine’s Day

My friend, Andrea is one of the most talented people I know. She started as a floral designer and while she’s moved on to other ventures, she still takes on a few events for private clients. When a friend asked her to do the flowers for an important dinner later this week, Andrea said yes, and off to the flower wholesalers we went!IMG_5427

I’d never been to a place like this before, so it was a wonderful adventure! Of course, I couldn’t resist snapping tons of images. The warehouse is huge! There are several huge walk-in cold-boxes and this time of year, they’re filled with thousands of roses.
IMG_5403 IMG_5404

The roses ran the full spectrum, from the deepest reds to the most gorgeous pale pink David Austin-style ones. IMG_5429

But the warehouse had a lot of other flowers as well like these yummy yellow Ranunculus,IMG_5396

stunning purple orchids,IMG_5413

chrysanthemums which look like something from Dr. Seuss,IMG_5399

hundreds of branches of about-to-bloom forsythia,IMG_5402

and the teeniest, tiniest “pineapples”.IMG_5436

It was so hard to focus on finding a special treat for myself because there was so much to choose from – and this was just one room!IMG_5435

But in the end, I picked out some of my favourite freesias with their peppery sweet fragrance. IMG_5439

Thanks so much to Robin and Potomac Floral Wholesale for patiently answering all of my questions!

9 comments:

  1. Where is this? Do you need to have an account to go there? Absolute paradise. Made my day. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ms. Festa, there's a link at the bottom! And they also have a FB page.

      Delete
  2. I adore the smell of freesias, my mother's favorite flower. Next time you visit San Francisco, I'd enjoy showing you around the SF Flower Market which is open to the public, but beware, you might just want to move right in. It's my second home.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The first time I ever smelled them, I was at a wedding in England, and someone gave me a spray to pin to my wedding outfit. Loved them ever since!

      Delete
  3. Sadly, if the cut flowers are grown outside the United States - as the majority of them are - there is a terrible human toll.

    "The Human Cost of Your Mother's Day Flowers"

    https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/the-human-cost-of-your-mothers-day-flowers

    ReplyDelete
  4. flowers and now the shocking truth behind the true cost of best of breed dogs Peta has an opinion of the West Sinister dog shop.

    ReplyDelete
  5. WOW - what a great trip - thanks for sharing!! Bear and I had a "smellathon" for V-Day. I'd ordered a crapload of essential oils (to make beard care stuff for him) and we sat at the table, mixing and matching scents for a few hours (after going out to our favorite local Korean restaurant for dinner). It was fun, romantic, and wacky!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for reading and commenting on Pigtown*Design. I read each and every comment and try to reply if I have your e-mail address.