Sending Smiles ~

Posting a bit late but HAPPY HOLIDAYS! The shop has been very busy since the beginning of December and we are so grateful for all our customers who allow us to make a living doing what we love to do. As always we've been helping folks express their feelings and with this Winter season still comes birthday's, get well's and unfortunately sympathy's along with the festive occasions of Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. It's always fun to see the holiday trends and this year traditional centerpieces were the best sellers such as this design created by our lead designer. We also had many folks choosing festive basket designs such as this Berries and Spices which included cinnamon sticks.  We even had some fun with Succulent plants by using fun Merry Christmas boxes as pots.  Although not as popular as previous years, we still made a fair amount of Boxwood trees. This one will be brightening someone's day when it's delivered on Christmas...

I can not take credit in any way for this stunning bouquet. Customer Care Coordinator Alexis assisted Bride Stephanie's Sister, who was in charge of ordering her flowers. Together they chose the color theme of peach, cream and light corals with accents of silver. Three shades of roses ~ Ivory Vendela, Peach Versillia and Coral Amsterdam roses were accented with white bouvardia, peach berreis and silvery dusty miller and cut succulent plants. The bride's maids and flower girls carried similar bouquet but smaller.  For the men we create boutonnieres using similar flowers with the groom having an ivory rose to make him stand out among the men. Roses, berries bouvardia and cut min succulent plants wrapped with twine and a touch of dusty miller foliage along the back. Designer Jeneen creating all the boutonnieres while Lead Designer Alanna created all the bridal boqueuts. Organic but elegant, wouldn't you agree? 

We haven't had too many floral design classes on Sundays but yesterday's class was a big success. Creating Succulent Plant Gardens was the topic and as you can see we had some very talented students!  Of course, we can't let our students design on an empty stomach so we provided some light snacks and wine. We feel the wine always helps the students and relax and let their inner floral designer shine through. Well, that might be stretching it but we stand by our wine and food choices!  Cynthia and her friend Silvana each pose with their masterpieces! Each student would choose an upgraded glass container like these above or below for an additional cost.   Or they could use these awesome moss and wicker baskets, which were included in the class fee.   Each student was provided with soil, different styles of moss and river stones in 3 different colors to choose from. I think they all did a great job, don't you?  Lori is very proud of what she cre...

Succulent Plants ~ what are they and how do you care for them by Alanna  Drzyzga Summer is approaching which makes me think about succulent plants. When they became popular last year we even held a terrarium making class featuring these easy to care for plants!  The plants that seem to be growing in popularity around the shop seem to be succulents; mostly because they are unique and virtually indestructible. We've blogged about them before and I’ll do it again. Hopefully this time with a little more insight. Succulents are categorized as any plant with a unique water storage organ. They store ingest water through their leaves, stems and roots. No matter what variety of succulents you are growing, including cacti, the general rules remain the same. Light : Succulents do enjoy the sun and being outdoors, especially this time of year. The leaves will tell you what you need to know about the amount of light the plant is getting. If the plant is getting too much sun, it...