Sending Smiles ~

One of the best parts of my job is securing flowers to sell at the shop. Whether they are for a special event such as a wedding or just for our everyday offerings, I try to buy American Grown Flowers whenever possible. Truthfully, there aren't many florist grade flowers being grown in PA or New Jersey these days so we look to states such as California for the "locally grown" American product we crave.  Did you know that 80% of the flowers used in America are imported from outside of the US? That's crazy but true! I've personally visited farms in Holland and California and it's fascinating how they grow these amazing beauties. Take for example, the photo below of our tour of the Stock Flower Fields at Ocean View Farms in Lompoc, California We have been known to secure NJ flowers through both our wholesaler and on our own, like these Sunflowers from a past summer! Our designers had fun making little smiley faces on them!  Do you know where the ...

Last weekends wedding for Lorrie had us using lots of fresh, natural flowers such as astilbe, fever fews and tons and tons of baby's breath. One of the flowers used in the table centerpieces and Lorrie's pretty bouquet was Queen Anne's lace grown in California. Ever wonder where those beautiful flowers we use in our everyday and wedding designs come from? For us, we love buying from Cali because of the quality, selection and the fact that they are USA Grown. Not many flowers are with most cut flowers sold in the USA coming from outside our country. Any opportunity I get to "Buy Local" US flowers, I jump at the chance. As you can see from the photo to the left, Lorries' flowers came out amazing and it's even more gratifying for me to have seen some of the amazing farm land that grow these amazing varieties. We may be located in New Jersey but we get in the most amazing flowers from all over the world and this picture proves it!   To see this and mor...

Have you ever wondered how they grow those amazingly huge gerbera daisies that you get from our shop? Well, this week we were lucky enough to visit one of the farms that grows them for us - Ever-Bloom Farms in California. Ever-Bloom has over 14 acres of these amazing flowers - all under the protection of very sophisticated green houses.  According to Sue, the Director of Sales at Ever-Bloom, they grow over 120 varieties of gerbera and gerbera mini's in all shades from white, red, pink, orange and even one that is almost purple. Sue says that hot pink is the color in highest demand. The amazing plants are putting out flowers each and ever day, requiring they be harvested 6 days a week. Sue says the workers walk through each row picking them by hand and sorting them right out in the green house where they are added to these very cool carts by variety.  Minutes after being harvested, they are cut and placed into a special water solution to allow them to continuing ...