Support Your Local Florist

Amy Stewart, author of Flower Confidential (highly recommended reading by the way), wrote an Op-Ed piece in the NYT on Valentines Day, describing the challenges and the necessity of florists. You can read it here, but it’ll cost you $4.95.

So I’ll borrow heavily from it and you can get the gist.

“If a city is an ecosystem, the flower shop is perhaps its most vital and endangered habitat. In the last 15 years, the number of florists in the United States declined 17 percent. In 1992, there was a florist for every 9,300 Americans; now florists must serve, on average, more than 12,000 people each – if they serve them at all. Half of cut flower purchases are made at supermarkets now, and less than a third of American households buy flowers in a year. It’s now wonder that third-generation florists are closing their doors. But what if flower shops go extinct, what have we lost?”

Indeed. If there is artistry in floristry (and I can assure you there is), then that’s like saying what if Painting should go extinct. Something intangible would be lost as well. Flowers evoke emotion, much like music. This month Lily of the Valley is readily available, it’s really touching when women of a certain age come in, discover it and are transported back in time when they’re five years old again, running through fields of Lily of the Valley, you can see it their eyes. That gets me choked up just writing it.

Che Bella is a green sanctuary in a forest of concrete. It is not only flowers, or exquisite artistry, it is a vibe, and an experience. To come inside is to forget what’s outside the gates and celebrate the beauty of nature. More from Ms. Stewart:

“…flower shops have been the green spots of nature in the city. They mark the change of the season, even in the age of global commerce when roses come from Ecuador and orchid from Thailand and peonies from New Zealand. Gnarled branches of cherry blossoms emerge in shop windows in March, followed by a show of lilac so short that it will make even the most harried city dweller’s heart ache for the brevity of spring.”

This is particularly true in seasonally challenged San Diego.

Florists’ express the feelings you want to convey, and many times listen to the troubles of the forlorn. It’s kind of like being a bartender; we hear and see it all. Husbands who’ve been caught cheating trying to get back in good favor with their wives, grief stricken relatives trying to express they’re loss, gawky teenage boys furtively selecting a flower for a corsage for their prom date (it’s pretty comical, it’s almost like buying your first condom), Bridezilla, Bridezilla’s Mom, all handled with grace and aplomb.

“Florists don’t just celebrate nature; they celebrate us as well. New York City alone sees 169 marriages a day, 340 births and 157 deaths. Florists understand what it is that we cannot quite we cannot say at theses moments; they wrap up a few dozen delicate, ephemeral blossoms and rush them across town to do the job for us.”

It’s a great job; I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. That said, it’s not an easy job, just ask any florist. We’ve had more than a few come and go in the shop who thinking that it would be fun to work in a flower shop soon discover just what back breaking work it can be. Always cold and wet, lugging buckets of water, eternally cleaning and washing vases and buckets. Processing huge amounts of flowers (you didn’t think that what you purchased looked that way when it came in did you?), deadlines, deliveries…

Still it has its advantages. A word to the young single guys out there, if you want to meet girls work in a flower shop…

Just take my word for it.

One last comment from Amy:

“I once sat in a florist’s workroom on Valentine’s Day and I listened as desperate husbands and lovesick suitors called seeking the calm, good-natured help of a stranger who understood what was at stake. You can place your heart into the hands of a florist. Flower shops remind us who we are – fragile, transitory creatures, not nearly as tough as our suits and our briefcases make us look. They call our attention to the passing of spring, and to the fullness of love. Every city needs that.”

Amen to that!