Category: Random Stories & Tidbits

If you receive fresh cut flowers, here are some tips on making them last and look fabulous:  
[This may be common knowledge or common sense, but I might as well share what I learned.]  

If you’ve gotten a bouquet without a container, you’ll want to remove any leaves (or buds or flowers) on the stems that will be under water once you fill the vase. Otherwise, any submerged foliage will rot, smell like sewage, and become a breeding ground for bacteria that will kill your flowers.  

If you get an arrangement in a shallow tray with the flowers stuck into a block of foam, you need to water the foam. Otherwise, it will quickly dry out (like a kitchen sponge) and the flowers will die.  

Use cool water for longer-lasting blooms. Warm water makes flowers open faster.  

Keep flowers away from heat sources. It dries them out and hastens their life cycle- and therefore, their demise.  

Keep flowers away from direct sunlight. To be dramatic, imagine a hair dryer pointed at your bouquet. If direct sunlight hits the vase, imagine your flowers bathing in a vaseful of boiling water.  

Every two to three days, change the water in your vase. Clean out the container. If you received a packet of flower food, add it to the fresh water.  

Whenever you change the water, re-cut the flower stems. Cut at an angle (for more surface area to suck up water, and to allow the stems access to water (so a horizontal cut doesn’t sit directly against a flat vase bottom)), removing at least a half an inch (and cut at least a half inch above any rotted sections). Now that the stems are shorter, remove any leaves that are now under water.  

You know the phrase ‘One bad apple spoils the bunch’? Well, they can spoil your flowers, too. Keep flowers away from fruit. Ripening fruit gives off ethylene gas, which accelerates the life cycle (and death) of flowers.  

Remove wilting, decaying, and spent flowers, leaves, and stems from the arrangement. They also give off ethylene (and look ugly). I’ve seen people toss out arrangements when a few of the flowers first start dying. If you pull out only the individual flowers that are going bad, you can keep the rest of the flowers around longer- sometimes another week (or more).  

The orange pollen from lilies stains, so be careful of brushing up against them. You probably don’t want to place a white tablecloth underneath the arrangement, either. To avoid dealing with the pollen, you can gently pick off the anther (the red part) from the filament (the little ‘stem’ that the red part sits on) when the flower first starts to open (before it has set out any pollen). If pollen does happen to get on any fabric, DON’T TOUCH IT! Cut a piece of tape and carefully stick the tape to the fabric (don’t press down) and then remove it. Keep doing this with a fresh length of tape for as long as the tape still picks up color. You might not get all the pollen off, but you’ll get most of it. If you were to touch it, the pollen would only smear, get smashed into the fibers, and create an even bigger mess than you started out with. 

A number of myths swarm around the care of cut flowers, such as placing a penny in the vase (does nothing) and pouring 7Up into the water (sugar breeds bacteria). The best treatment is simply fresh water.  

Most of all, no matter how long they last, no matter how well you do or don’t take care of them, enjoy your flowers!  

Over ten years ago, I worked in a flower shop. Maybe because Valentine’s Day is coming up, I found myself thinking about my time there, and I started listing suggestions, tidbits, and warnings that I’d give somebody who wanted to order flowers. It surprised me, how many I thought of, after all this time. Hopefully these insider tips will be of use to someone: 

Placing an Order 

I’m sure this makes me sound like an old fuddy-duddy, but, if possible, call from a land line. The reception is so much better. This comes from years of customer service experience. It’s much more pleasant doing business when both of you can understand what the other person is saying.  

Don’t order from wire services like FTD, 1-800-FLOWERS, or Teleflora. You may see their ads in magazines or online. What they do is take a cut of the money and then send the order to a flower shop for fulfillment. You’d be better off calling a flower shop directly- one that’s located in the area where you want the flowers delivered. Another reason ordering from wire services is a ripoff is that they send the local shop enough money to cover the cost of the arrangement, but not delivery. They tell shops to use all the money on flowers, but it’s common practice for shops to subtract the delivery charge, so don’t be surprised if the arrangement that arrives looks skimpier than the one in the picture. The only reason to order from a wire service is if you or another recipient collects the container that the arrangement comes in. (Some containers are designed by artists such as Thomas Kinkade, or feature popular cartoon characters. They cost roughly three times as much as a plain container, too.) You’d have to really like the container for it to be worth the price. Even then, for a better deal, you could call shops directly to see if they offer the specific Teleflora design you’re interested in.

You don’t need to know what kind of flowers to get! The safest thing to ask for is a “mixed bouquet,” “seasonal arrangement,” or “designer’s choice.” Leave it to the experts.  

You can also make general requests, like “bright and cheery” or “a sympathy bouquet,” to let the designer know what general mood to strive for and what colors to use. If you let the shop know that “her favorite color is purple,” or “her favorite flowers are daisies,” they can incorporate that into the arrangement.  

The shop may ask what kind of container you want the arrangement made in. If you don’t know or don’t care, get a vase. In my opinion, they are more reliably elegant and classic. A “table arrangement” is traditionally made by setting wet flower foam into a tray and sticking stems into the foam. It’s not my first choice because a.) this foam material is not eco-friendly, and b.) traditional trays are made of plastic and can look cheap. For a country look, you might opt for a wicker basket. These arrangements are normally constructed using flower foam.

Let the shop know if your recipient has allergies or is sensitive to strong scents. The shop will tailor a hypoallergenic arrangement.  

Besides cut flowers, many shops sell potted plants. My favorite item to put together was an English Garden, a mix of potted plants inside a basket. These ranged from two-inch indoor plants to gallon-sized bedding plants, in appropriately sized baskets. Spanish moss covered the dirt and hid the pots. Talk to your local shop about their selections. 

You can request gift shop items be added to an arrangement, such as a fake butterfly or dragonfly on a stick, a ceramic figurine, a small stuffed animal, balloons, and chocolates. A floral arrangement can also be made directly inside of a mug or other container. 

When I worked there, prices for arrangements started at $25. The minimum price for a large, impressive arrangement was $75. With grander flowers, or for a fuller arrangement, it would cost more like $100, $125 +. If you wanted the arrangement delivered [you had the choice of picking it up yourself], delivery would cost a minimum of an additional $7. (The price varied depending on the distance from the shop.) Pricing depends on the location and practices of the actual shop. In big cities, costs are higher. In the suburbs, my shop charged $60 for a dozen roses, but downtown Chicago might have been $75 or $90. (It’s insane.) Some tiny, rural towns didn’t charge extra for delivery.  

A typical arrangement will automatically include greens (usually at least leatherleaf fern) and filler flowers. Filler flowers tend to be airy, muIti-branched stems covered with tiny blooms. As their name suggests, they fill in space, bulking up the bouquet. Pricing for a dozen roses, for example, includes a vase, greens, and fillers– not just the roses.

Know how to spell the name of the person you’re sending flowers to. This is more to save you from embarrassment than anything else. One guy was ordering flowers for his mom for Mother’s Day. Nice. I asked him to spell his mom’s name [with so many unique spellings nowadays, I always double check], and HE DIDN’T KNOW HOW TO SPELL HIS MOM’S NAME. Her name was Debbie. [On a side note, the most confounding example of not knowing how to spell a name happened at the community college I worked at. When it was time for students to graduate, they had to fill out a form and print their name exactly as they wanted it to appear on their diploma, and lots of people included their middle names. One student didn’t even know how to spell HIS OWN MIDDLE NAME. He told me that his mom gave him some weird middle name from another country, and he had to call her to check on the spelling. I don’t care how foreign the word sounds- it’s YOUR OWN NAME! I still can’t believe it.]  

Know the address and phone number for where you want the flowers delivered, including addresses for businesses. Some companies have separate retail, corporate, and warehouse locations.  

If you’re ordering for a funeral, know the name of the person who died. Funeral homes may hold services for more than one person a day, and “Mary Brown’s mother-in-law” or “my co-worker’s grandma” probably isn’t specific enough for the flower shop or the funeral home to figure out which party the flowers are meant for.  

Similarly, if you’re sending flowers to a church, know the exact name of the church. You may know it as “St. Mary’s,” but there may be twelve churches in the area that could go by that nickname. Is it St. Mary Great Mother of God Catholic Church, Saint Mary Parish, or St. Mary Our Lady of the Lake? When asked where the funeral is being held, answering “It’s in the paper” is kind of a jerk move. They’re floral designers, not detectives. 

Think about what you want the card to say. A note will be included with your arrangement. The flower shop staff can offer generic suggestions if you’re at a loss for words. But if you want to send a more personal message, you might want to think about it before you’re put on the spot. Once, a woman was ordering sympathy flowers for a coworker. When it came time for the card, she kept sighing and going, “What do you say? I mean, what do you even say?” I offered, “Sorry for your loss?” “We’re not that close,” she snapped. Sometimes, you’re on your own.  

Shops will try and accommodate general delivery guidelines you specify, such as “before 10 a.m.” or “after 2 p.m.” If you call in the morning, or even early afternoon (say, by 2), you can generally get a same-day delivery. But if you call an hour before the store closes, don’t expect your order to be delivered that day. Delivery timing depends on how the specific store operates, how busy the place is, whether or not the drivers have already left for the day, and other factors. Talk to your local shop for more details.  

Flower Shop Info 

Usually, a shop displays pre-made bouquets and arrangements in a cooler. This is for your convenience, to pick an already-made bouquet and take it with you. Some customers would ask for a vase of flowers to be made just like the one in the cooler, but with “fresh” flowers. I can only speak for the one shop I worked in, but the flowers sitting in a vase in the front cooler came from the same batch as the flowers sitting in a bucket in our back workroom cooler. Thinking you’re getting a better product because you see it come directly out of the workroom is psychological. 

Depending on how busy the shop is, you may be able to walk in, order an arrangement, and wait while they make it (it might take 15 minutes or so). 

DIY crafters, you can buy floral supplies from flower shops. For higher quality supplies than what you’d find in a craft or discount store, talk to your local flower shop to see if they’ll sell you floral foam, floral tape, Davee tape, stem wire, boutonniere pins, wristlets, dried moss, etc. Another plus is that you may be able to buy exactly the amount you need (for example, five bout pins, as opposed to a 144-count box). 

Specific Flowers 

When one customer ordered roses, I asked what color he wanted, and he replied that he didn’t know roses came in anything besides red. Roses come in hundreds- if not thousands- of colors and color combinations [click here to see a small selection]. You don’t have to order just one color, either; you can ask for a mix. Another option is to say “Surprise me” (if you don’t care).

In the general public, people (or women, at least) seem to have a vague knowledge of the Victorian Language of Flowers when it comes to the colors of roses. If you look up what each color symbolizes, you might get different answers from different resources, but the bottom line is that yellow represents friendship, and red symbolizes passion and love. So, if someone reveals that they’re in love with you, and you decide to send them roses as a romantic gesture, you might want to specify “not yellow.” Otherwise, the recipient may interpret your gift to mean “We’re just friends.” (To avoid the complication and mixed messages, you could send something other than roses.)  

If you’re looking for a change from the classic red roses and baby’s breath, here are some of my favorite rose combos: 
-Yellow roses and sky blue asters  
-Peach roses and purple waxflowers (the “purple” is actually magenta) 
-Hot pink roses and lime green hypericum berries 
-Coral roses and dark purple stock  
-Ivory roses and an assortment of greens as filler 
[Carnations can be substituted for roses for a similar look.] 

Carnations have a reputation as an old-fashioned flower, maybe because they do not look like modern art, the way that lotus pods or fiddlehead fern curls do. But I’m a fan. Here’s what carnations have going for them:  
-They’re hardy. A designer accidentally left a carnation on the work table one night, and when I came in the next morning, the flower looked the same. Roses, on the other hand, wilt very quickly out of water.  
-They’re long-lasting (often last around two weeks in a vase) 
-They’re available in tons of colors and bicolors (check out this webpage for a sampling)  
-They smell good (faintly of cloves) 
-They’re affordable (a lot less expensive than roses)

For sympathy flowers, I recommend a potted peace lily. They are handsome, long-lived, and the plant produces graceful white flowers. An orchid plant is another refined option.  

African violet plants seem to blend a calm vibe with a whimsical vibe, making them appropriate for all kinds of occasions: Birthday, Mother’s Day, Thank You, Get Well, Housewarming, Thinking of You, and on and on.  

Arrangements comprised of only one type of flower can look very sophisticated, especially if they’re monochromatic. Try it with tulips, delphiniums, Oriental lilies, orchids, or calla lilies. Even country style flowers like daisies, sunflowers, and even baby’s breath (normally used as a filler flower) can look more upscale when spotlighted. 

Common long-lasting flowers found in the average flower shop include:  
-Alstroemeria (blooms look like tiny lilies)  
-Carnations 
-Orchids 
-Daisies (actually chrysanthemums in most cut flower shops)  
-Poms (also chrysanthemums, this time more button-shaped) 
-Statice (Usually used as a filler flower, it makes an exceptional dried flower- the stem will rot in the vase before the flower will fall off.) 
I’ve seen all of these routinely last two weeks. It’s not unusual for orchids to last a month in a vase. [You can also request that an arrangement be made with all long-lasting flowers.]  

Some common scented flowers available in flower shops are: 
-Stock (spicy sweet smell. One of my favorites. However, my dad mentioned that it reminds of funerals. What an unfortunate association for a lovely plant.) 
-Oriental lilies [Note: not the same as Asiatic lilies, which are unscented] (perfumey smell) 
-Roses (To me, they smell like raspberries. Be aware that many roses are bred for their color and shipping quality nowadays, leaving some varieties with hardly any scent.) 
-Freesia (A lot of people seem to like this scent. Some people describe it as fruity. I think it smells like the paste we used in kindergarten.)  
-Gardenias (smooth, slightly powdery smell. Good floating in a clear bowl for weddings or other special occasions.) 
-Peonies, hyacinths, daffodils, and lilacs (spring flowers, available seasonally. Peonies and hyacinths have rich, perfumey smells. Daffodils vary from sweet to perfumey. Lilacs have somewhat of a baby powder smell.)
-Waxflower (used as a filler, but I’m going to mention that they smell like pine trees) 

If you’re in the market for a wrist corsage, I’d recommend ordering one made with mini carnations instead of roses. When I worked in the shop, rose corsages, far and away the most popular type, started at $22.50. Lots of girls wanted special ribbons, glitter spray paint on their flowers, extra filler flowers, crystals, and other embellishments, and prices got pretty outlandish (50-something dollars). For a bracelet that lasts a few hours! I don’t know about you, but I can think of a lot of things I’d rather buy with 50-something dollars. As mentioned earlier, carnations last longer than roses out of water, they’re lighter weight (it’s going to be on your wrist all night), not as clunky-looking, and prices started at $9. If you love heady, perfumey scents, another option (not a budget option, though) is to go retro and special order a gardenia corsage.

Ordering Special Flowers 

The shop ordered flowers from our suppliers once a week, and sometimes added a smaller order mid-week if we got a big project or lots of special orders. To ensure specific flower types or specific colors, place your order at least 10 days in advance. As long as the shop’s supplier has it or can get it, ordering early guarantees that you’ll get what you want. Otherwise, you may call the day before your sister’s birthday to order a bouquet in orange, her favorite color, and be told that the shop doesn’t have anything orange in stock, and they won’t be getting another shipment for three days.  

Placing a generic order is a good idea, even if you know your flowers. Here’s one problem with getting too specific: for better or for worse, you’ll get what you ordered. If you ask for butter yellow roses, the bunch that comes (special ordered) from the supplier might have slightly wrinkly petals, browned outer petals, leaves with powdery mildew, or other issues. The shop will remove the disgusting parts, but the point is that while the flowers might be sellable, they’re not super healthy or as pretty as other flowers in the cooler. But since you asked for butter yellow roses, you’re getting butter yellow roses.  

Special message to control freaks: Please, let the designers do their jobs. Some customers would call and ask what we had in the cooler and then want to pick out the exact flowers for us to use in an arrangement. We can see the colors and styles of flowers available, and over the phone, you can’t. It is excruciating to try and describe the nuances of six different shades of pink while you try and design an arrangement in your head based on your interpretation of my descriptions. Never once did any of these people ask, “Which one do you think looks best with the dark purple larkspur?” They acted like they were Matisse and we were morons. Designers have a knack for art, color, and design- that’s how they got hired. Trust that they’ll put together something beautiful. [Note: If you’re near the flower shop, you can go in and look at the flowers in person. Be aware that this can be just as annoying to florists, though, to pull out every bucket in the cooler while you hem and haw over all the choices.] 

Flowers from Other Sources 

I’m sure this is blasphemous, but honestly, I didn’t notice an overall difference in the quality or longevity of flowers bought from the grocery store versus the flower shop. I never did a scientific study, but from observation, the quality from the flower shop was, at different times, better, comparable, and inferior to grocery store flowers. It differed depending on each specific bunch. 

If you buy from a discount store like Walmart or Sam’s Club, buy flowers as soon as they’re put out on the sales floor. Discount stores don’t usually hire a dedicated floral staff, so the flowers don’t get taken care of (water changed regularly, stems recut, buckets cleaned, dead flowers removed, etc.), so they wilt, turn brown, get moldy, and die faster, sometimes right there on display. Ask your local store when new shipments are available for customers, and get ahold of them as close to fresh as you can.  

Actually, that’s good advice in general. Whether you buy from a grocery store, flower shop, street vendor, or discount store, ask when fresh shipments are available for purchase and shop accordingly.  

For freshness, look for firm blooms. To test roses, gently pinch the bottom, bulbous part of the flower head. Ideally, it should feel like you’re pinching a golf ball. The more resistance, the better. If you pinch it and both sides squeeze together and the whole thing feels soft, I wouldn’t even bother buying it. (Or, just realize that it won’t last long.) 

Open blooms look impressive, but opt for more buds than blooms. This will give the recipient a longer time to enjoy the flowers.  

Whether they’re bought from a shop, grown in your yard, or sprung in a crack in the sidewalk, flowers are food for the soul. Share the feast!  

In southern Arizona, I passed a series of signs on the freeway alerting drivers about dust storms. Some instructed us on actions to take if a dust storm suddenly blew in. Some signs cautioned that “Dust Storms May Exist Next 10 Miles” or “Gusty Winds May Exist.” It made me think about what else may exist over the next 10-mile stretch of landscape: UFOs riding unicorns, a busload of hitchhiking clowns, a field of glow-in-the-dark cacti, ice skating dinosaurs, a stampede of breakfast cereals, a snake charmer convention, jump roping balloon animals…  

Other signs warned “Zero Visibility Possible.” Of course, that made me think about what else is possible: becoming a professional basketball player, taking a clear photo of Bigfoot, breaking the world record for scarfing down hot dogs, uncovering a buried treasure, opening a barber shop, making a scientific discovery, finding a long-lost relative, moving to Denmark, developing telekinetic powers, tightrope walking in the circus, traveling in space, swimming with dolphins, climbing to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl… 

Every now and then, I like to let my imagination dangle from the monkey bars, and I make a list of outlandish goals. Then the crux is to pick one of those activities to actually do. That’s how I eventually ended up on the road.

I thought Niagara Falls would be at least three times as tall. That’s the problem with hype: it’s never as good as my imagination. My reaction to the Maid of the Mist, the famous boat tour to the waterfall, was that it was like paying twenty dollars to stand in a rainstorm. I was grateful for the excited reactions of people around me, yelling above the roar of the falls, “That’s So Cool!!” and “You can really feel the power of the falls from here!!” I had to acknowledge that the strength of the falls was pretty impressive. The other people’s elation made me start to appreciate the waterfall more.  

In Arizona, I visited Meteor Crater. The attraction was basically a big hole in the ground. It started raining right after I arrived, while the temperature hovered just above freezing. Standing there, cold and wet, staring at a hole in the ground, I thought about how this time, I actually did pay twenty dollars to stand in the rain.  

I met a woman there, Sylvia, who thought the crater was amazing. Eventually, her enthusiasm started to rub off on me. She was on a road trip with a friend, going on 61 days. Her husband of 40 years recently passed away. The friend she was with recently lost his mom. So they decided to take a grieving trip together. When passing through different states to explore natural wonders, they visited nearby family and friends, some Sylvia hadn’t seen in decades. 

What a great idea! If you’ve just gone through a huge life-changing event and you’re emotionally shaken, why not take some time away from your routine, let the wind inflate your sails? Especially if you can share the odyssey with someone who experienced a similar circumstance. See if your grieving journey develops into a healing journey.

In first grade, my teacher, Mr. Carpenter, let one of the girls in our class play a Madonna tape she’d brought in. A little later, he left the room to make copies. In his absence, all the girls in the class started choreographing a dance to “Lucky Star,” the song that happened to be playing. We incorporated our little blue plastic chairs as props. The big move at the end of the song involved standing on the seats of our chairs, then jumping over the backs of them.  

The best part of the story was our teacher’s reaction. Imagine Mr. C coming back with his copies and finding a dance session in progress. He stood in the doorway for a minute, observing, his hand over his mouth, as if he were stifling a laugh. Since he didn’t seem angry or tell us to stop, we kept working on our moves. Mr. C left excitedly, returning with another teacher. They both watched from the doorway, whispering to each other. Then he went off to get the principal.  

I think about how easily another teacher might have snuffed out our behavior. We weren’t following directions; we weren’t working on an academic task; it was inappropriate behavior for school. I can imagine some teachers barking orders and doling out punishments. As it happened, my class performed the dance routine for our parents at one of the school’s talent shows.  

What would the world be like if we all reacted this way to each other’s natural creativity? Even back then, I felt lucky to have not only witnessed this, but to have experienced this kind of trust. Thank you, Rich Carpenter!