Alexandria, VA Florists

Alexandria Flower Shop News

Local florists open in DC and doing deliveries - PoPville

Allan woods flower in Woodley park just reopened for delivery only.”, “I just came across @uncloudystudio”, volanni.com, “Helen Olivia in Alexandria is open on week days, but I think there are some delivery restrictions like not to hospitals or nursing homes and only contactless delivery. Their flowers arrangements are lovely.”, @LittleFlowersDC, @UrbanStems, “I had lovely flowers delivered to me (contactless) the other day from She Loves Me, with a portion of the sales donated to We Are Family DC”, “Caruso https://carusoflorist.net”, “Yes, @_greenhydrangea is local and does contactless delivery — their arrangements are gorgeous!”, “Sustainable and in-season @LittleAcreDC delivered today! (see photo above), “She loves me in Petworth is doing deliveries twice a week. The flowers are beautiful every time!”, “@HelenOlivia is in Alexandria (not DC, but close enough)! The owner is lovely and I absolutely love their flowers!”, “I used @LeesFlowerShop last week”, “Check Rewild! They’re great!!”, “Blue Ribbon Floral”, “Roots and Blooms!”, “flowers on 14th”, “@LeesFlowersDCis doing pickup/delivery if you want to support one of the oldest Black-owned businesses on U Street”, “@LittleAcreDC Local florist & local flowers. Beautiful bouquets”... https://www.popville.com/2020/04/are-any-local-florists-open-in-dc-and-doing-deliveries/

Lush Peonies Can Add Beauty and Fragrance to Bellingham's Early Summer Gardens - Bellingham Bulletin

Nemours, Celebrity and Red Supreme. Close out the peony season with the large, raspberry-red blossoms of the classic French double peony Felix Crousse, and other time-tested favorites such as Lady Alexandria Duff and the beloved Sarah Bernhardt. Peonies are known for their extravagant flowers, but the plants themselves are almost as impressive. Leaves emerge in spring with a tinge of red and reach a height of 3 feet within less than a month. By the time the flower buds appear, the plants are the size of a small shrub. After the flowers fade, the peony’s lush, deep green leaves remain all season, providing a nice backdrop for nearby blooms. As temperatures cool in fall, the foliage often displays a nice reddish fall color.  Bare root peonies may be planted in spring or fall. After planting, they will take some time to settle in. Young plants need 3 years or more to reach full size, but after that, they will flower every year for decades to come.Melinda Myers has written numerous books, including Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” DVD series and the nationally-syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment TV & radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine and was commissioned by Longfield Gardens for her expertise to write this article. Her web site is www.MelindaMyers.com. http://www.bellinghambulletin.com/2020/04/15/306701/lush-peonies-can-add-beauty-and-fragrance-to-bellinghams-early-summer-gardens

The Gardeners Who Planted for US Presidents - Prescott eNews

Known for his hothouse grapes, he also raised off-season Caledonian cucumbers for President Grant. Like the gardeners before him, he resigned from the White House to open a garden center in Alexandria, Virginia.George Field (Served 1875–1877, under Ulysses Grant.) The first English gardener at the White House, Field's floral fame came after he left the White House. He opened a garden center on Georgia Avenue NW with his brother Thomas. Field was responsible for naming and promoting the 'American Beauty' rose, originally selected on historian George Bancroft's estate as 'La Madame Ferdinande Jamin.' Field supplied the cattleya orchids for Alice Roosevelt Longworth's bridal bouquet in 1906. The Washington Post described him as an orchid specialist. He was an active member of the Florist Club of Washington. In 1916, he sold his stock of orchid plants for $15,000.Henry Pfister (Served 1877–1902, under Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt.) A native of Zurich, Switzerland, Pfister trained in the conservatories of a Swiss banker and at the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. He made his way to Cincinnati and then to Washington, where he was hired under Hayes. Pfister managed the greenhouses, designed and planted the ornamental beds around the White House lawns, and provided all indoor floral and plant decorations, including the wedding of Grover Cleveland and Frances Folsom. He later opened his own florist and landscape design business on Connecticut Avenue.George Hay Brown (Served 1902–1909, under Theodore Roosevelt.) The son of a landscape gardener in Perthshire, Scotland, where he learned the family trade. In 1850, the family immigrated to the United States. In 1858, Brown took a job in Washington D.C. at the government experimental gardens. During the Civil War, he served with the Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans. By 1890 he was back in Washington D.C. as a public gardener with the War Department. Brown worked on the Capitol grounds, city parks, and the government propagating gardens and greenhouses near the Washington Monument, as well as the White House. He taught Theodore Roosevelt's children how to propagate plants in his greenhouses.Charles Henlock (Served 1909–1931, under William Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover.) A Yorkshireman, and proud of his horticultural training, having worked for Lord Mowbray in Yorkshire, Lord Denbigh in Warwickshire, and Lord Harrington in Derbyshire before spending five years with the Royal Horticultural Society. Henlock arrived in Washington D.C. just before President Cleveland's wedding in 1886 and was hired as a foreman gardener at the White House, and grew to the propagating gardens and city parks. Henlock was the White House head gardener in 1909, where he was responsible for the first shipment of cherry trees sent from Japan as well as the successful plantings around the Tidal Basin.William Saunders Reeves (Served 1931–1945, under Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt. William Saunders Reeves was the first American-born White House head gardener.) His grandfather, William Saunders, was the chief of experimental gardens for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and founder of the National Grange but is perhaps best remembered for introducing the navel orange. Reeves worked under both Roosevelt's, starting as a groundskeeper at the White House during the Theodore Roosevelt administration in 1903. Through World War I, he was gardener-shepherd to Wilson's flock of sheep. Reeves became the head gardener and chief floral designer while Hoover was in office.Robert M. Redmond (Served 1945–1962, under Harry Truman, Dw... https://www.prescottenews.com/index.php/features/columnists/mountain-gardener/item/34856-the-gardeners-who-planted-for-u-s-presidents

Perfect storm for florists: Valentine's Day amid big snowfall lead to bouquet bust - Washington Post

National Retail Federation survey. It’s one of the industry’s three biggest sales periods, along with Mother’s Day and the December holidays, according to the Society of American Florists in Alexandria.Flower shops are always humming around Valentine’s Day — except when they aren’t: On Thursday, two-thirds of Bethesda Florist’s employees were at home. The delivery fleet was grounded. The phones were ringing only sporadically.“The snow is probably gonna lop off about 15 percent of our sales,” said Callahan, whose dad opened the shop on St. Elmo Avenue in 1959. “Commerce is just dead. People are digging out or watching the news. They’re not thinking about calling us. They don’t even think we can make a delivery.”Boxes of flowers were stored in a makeshift cold room — an enclosed space with minimal insulation. There were dozens of dozens, with many more en route. Eventually.A local distributor had called to say that a big order of flowers, vases and other supplies might not make it on Thursday, as originally scheduled.Callahan shrugged. The snow had muddled his own delivery network, which was shut down Thursday because of road conditions. “We may only get half of our deliveries made tomorrow,” he said. About 300 orders went out Wednesday, many of them moved up a day by the store’s staff, which predicted Thursday would be a bust for deliveries. An additional 800 or so bouquets and orchids and other orders are still on deck, Callahan said. Deliveries probably won’t be done until Sunday. “We’re now calling it Valentine’s Day Weekend.”The phone rang. Callahan answered before it could ring again. “Experience the beauty of Bethesda Florist, this is Tracy,” he said, in suddenly dulcet tones.The man on the line wanted to know if he could get some flowers delivered on Valentine’s Day.“I can’t guarantee it,” Callahan said. “It may go Saturday, and it may even go Sunday. It all depends on the remoteness of the address, and the roads.”“Is it better if I just come in?” the man asked.“You can definitely come in,” Callahan said. It was a familiar refrain and scene at flower shops all over the Washington area. ... https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/perfect-storm-for-florists-valentines-day-amid-big-snowfall-lead-to-bouquet-bust/2014/02/13/ac70a220-94f1-11e3-83b9-1f024193bb84_story.html

Flowers are a great last-minute gift — but be sure to send the right message - Seattle Times

Amy Merrick says in her new book, “On Flowers: Lessons From an Accidental Florist.” (Tif Hunter) Ashley Greer, owner of Atelier Ashley Flowers in Alexandria, Virginia, said clients tend to get stressed about their flower choices. “Some people are very self-conscious when it comes to flowers and their impressions,” Greer says. “People think that the flowers they use at an event or that they send are a direct reflection on them. And they want to be careful that their arrangement reflects their taste, their style and the occasion.”AdvertisingCondolence flowers may be what people most obsess about. “When you are sending something for a funeral you want to be sensitive,” Greer says. “Sometimes people say they don’t want to send anything that looks fun. They prefer something white and green.”Dowling, whose studio is in Alexandria, says condolence flowers “don’t have to be all white. Having flowers that are soft and comforting and focus on texture is a good way to go. Make them personal, and possibly reflecting a certain flower the person loved. Then they can really evoke the sense of a warm hug.”New York flower designer and illustrator Cathy Graham says her go-to sympathy flowers include a paperwhite plant and a white or blue hydrangea plant that could bloom for a few weeks. “You don’t have to do all white, but I would not use bright, festive colors.”Don’t overlook household pets when you are creating a bouquet or arrangement to send to someone, says Graham. “Lilies and other flowers are bad for cats,” says Graham, who worries about that with her own two ginger cats, Reggie and Cheddar. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals publishes a list of plants that are poisonous to pets. img data-ratio="1.50037" data-caption="Included in this Atelier Ashley Flowers design for a baby shower are ranunculus, which mean radiant charm. It never hurts to let a woman who is about to give birth know that she is radiant, owner Ashley Greer says. (SKC Photography)" class alt="Included in this Atelier Ashley Flowers design for a baby shower are ranunculus, which mean radiant charm. It never hurts to let a woman who is about to give birth know that she is radiant, owner Ashley Greer says. (SKC Photography)" src="https://static.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/design-flowers-ba15b5bc-00a9-11ea-8501-2a7123a38c58-780x520.jpg" srcset="https://static.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/design-flowers-ba15b5bc-00a9-11ea-8501-2a7123a38c58-300x200.jpg 300w, https://static.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/design-flowers-ba15b5bc-00a9-11ea-8501-2a7123a38c58-768x512.jpg 768w, https://static.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/design-flowers-ba15b5bc-00a9-11ea-8501-2a7123a38c58-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://static.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/design-flowers-ba15b5bc-00a9-11ea-8501-2a7123a38c58-780x520.jpg 780w, https://static.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/design-flowers-ba15b5bc-00a9-11ea-8501-2a7123a38c58-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://static.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/design-flowers-ba15b5bc-00a9-11ea-8501-2a7123a38c58-1560x1040.jpg 1... https://www.seattletimes.com/explore/shop-northwest/flowers-are-a-great-last-minute-gift-but-be-sure-to-send-the-right-message/

‘Master florist’ Haruko Adkins, 90, had a passion for flower arrangements and tennis - The Washington Post

She would say that some were “too edgy compared with her formal training,” Morhart said. [Those we have lost to the coronavirus in Virginia, Maryland and D.C.]He said Adkins’s arrangements were unique because she “understood the idea of negative space.”“Others fill up all the space” in a vase, he said, whereas Adkins “understood that you didn’t have to crowd things in. She was an artist. She was definitely talented.”Morhart recalled Adkins as “totally sharp,” saying, “You would guess she was 80.” She was an avid tennis and ping-pong player and played both games well into her 80s, her friends said. When she and a friend visited the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I., Morhart said, the trip was a “thrill for her.” Born in Nagoya, Japan, Adkins studied the art of floral arrangement and earned a four-year degree as a “master florist,” her friends said. She married Earl A. Adkins, a criminal investigator in the U.S. Army Military Police Corps. With his work, the couple traveled and lived in several places, including San Francisco and Germany, before settling in Arlington. He died in 1999.Adkins had a large group of friends and was known for helping others. If someone else wanted flowers she planned to use in an arrangement, she would happily give them away, Morhart said.“She was very, very generous,” Morhart said. “She was always willing to say: ‘Help yourself. Take that if you need it.’ She had a very sharing nature.”Adkins also did volunteer projects, including making sweaters and bags to carry food for those in need. She was once named Volunteer of the Year at Goodwin House.Valerie Burke, the chief philanthropy officer at Goodwin House, said Adkins also enjoyed working at a thrift shop on the property as a volunteer and was good at making displays.“She loved getting to know people and helping them find just the right trinket,” Burke said. In... https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/haruko-adkins-coronavirus/2020/08/18/58bc3c7a-e13e-11ea-b69b-64f7b0477ed4_story.html

Business at local flower grower Three Little Buds is blooming - My Buckhannon

Three Little Buds owner Joanna Webb, who is a chemistry professor at West Virginia Wesleyan College, talked to My Buckhannon from her beautiful gardens, located around her home in downtown Buckhannon.Webb said this is her fourth official growing season, but she has been growing flowers for a long, long time. She said her husband jokingly told her she could not grow any more flowers until she took part of her bounty to a local florist to see if they would be interesting in purchasing some of her blossoms.A market-style bouquet of flowers grown and arranged by local flower grower Joanna Webb. / Photo courtesy Joanna Webb“I had always kicked around the idea of selling flowers to local florists,” Webb said. “So, I took some of my dahlias to Anita’s Flowers of Buckhannon, and they told me they would love to buy local flowers.”She said she learned on the fly about growing flowers and started growing ones she found most beautiful.“I like the market bouquet-style of flowers,” Webb said. “With COVID coming in when most of the flowers were blooming, most of the florists were closed, and I had all of these flowers, so I offe... https://www.mybuckhannon.com/business-at-local-flower-grower-three-little-buds-is-blooming/

Ham Lake couple trust God as they grow family flower farm business - The Catholic Spirit

When they began researching farming, they planned to grow organic food. They were inspired by the writings of Joel Salatin, a Christian farmer in Virginia who has become the godfather of a movement favoring small-scale, sustainable, family-based farming. The Carlstroms were thinking produce and chickens when, in the winter of 2019, Kristen came across a book titled “The Cut Flower Garden” by Erin Benzakein, a florist farmer in Washington.“Basically, I just fell in love with it,” Kristen said. “It was kind of out of the blue for me.”She had always kept a small flower garden with sunflowers and zinnias, but nothing large-scale. But once she began to think about flowers, she became convinced that was the direction she wanted to move.“I knew we were going to take on something really big,” she said. “It was really important for me to be really passionate about it. And so, this was something that just really took a hold of me. And I had so much energy with thinking of doing really hard stuff to make it happen.”She and Jonah took Benzakein’s online course on flower farming, and dove into researching what would grow well in Minnesota’s climate. “Before we knew it, we’re like, we’re really doing it,” she said.Jonah gives Kristen all the credit for the flower focus. “I never thought I would be a flower farmer — I don’t think many men do think of that,” Jonah said, sitting near the field. He agreed to the online course, “and I was just sort of open with the Lord; ‘Wherever you lead us.’”“Ever since leaving school, I wanted to do something in nature. I love working outside. I’ve been praying along the way” for God’s guidance, he said. “Basically, I want to come home and I want to work from home.”The Carlstroms don’t know any other young farmers, but they’re not alone among Catholic millennials. Jim Ennis, executive director of St. Paul-based Catholic Rural Life, said there are like-minded young Catholics across the United States who are exploring and adopting a rural lifestyle, including small-scale farming. Many are drawn to a slower, family-focused pace of life away from the demands of city living and corporate work.Like the Carlstroms, many don’t have farming backgrounds, Ennis said, and it’s hard work without the guarantee of financial sustainability. But it’s rewarding, he said. Farming is creative work, where people can work in nature, with their hands, alongside family members, for the benefit of their own tables and their community. And even young children can see, understand and participate in their parents’ work, he said.“There’s something very innate in many people’s DNA to connect with God’s creation in a closer way,” he said, “and I think that’s very Catholic and very Christian.”Kristen admits that sometimes she’s thought the idea of turning stay-at-home mom to cut-flower florist is “crazy.” But, “there was a lot of discouragement that came whenever I tried to let it (the idea) go, and a lot of joy that was there when we kept pursuing it,” she said, so they forged ahead.The field is easily accessible from the Carlstroms’ house through a path in the woods. Kristen spends patches of time throughout the day tending its 20, 100-foot rows as she learns to orchestrate timing their harvesting with flowers’ longevity onc... https://thecatholicspirit.com/news/local-news/ham-lake-couple-trust-god-as-they-grow-family-flower-farm-business/

Tulip Fest had to be canceled, but Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm finds new life for flowers - OregonLive

Family members set up a farm stand, sold a few flowers, and figured they’d be forced to let the rest rot.The family then received an email from a West Virginia nursery owner who had an idea and wanted to pass it along to nurseries across the country. The idea: Take flowers in the fields to assisted living centers where residents were living in isolation.Emily Iverson, 21, a family member and Wooden Shoe’s social media coordinator, teamed up with Lexie Criscola, 22, the tulip farm’s marketing coordinator, to make it happen.They created a ticket order on the farm’s web page where, for $15, people could pay for a pot of tulips to be delivered anonymously to an assisted living center.So far, the farm has delivered 6,000 pots of tulips to assisted living centers in Mount Angel, Molalla, Canby, Albany and Eugene.“The farm will never see back the lost revenue from the festival,” said Iverson. “The $15 covers just a bit of the costs it takes to do this delivery. But this is not about money, this is about goodwill.”Criscola said a person can request tulips be delivered to a specific assisted living center or let farm officials figure out where the tulips would bring a bit of joy.“We reach out to a center and figure out the protocol for a delivery,” she said. “We make sure everyone in the center gets a pot. We deliver them to the front door, and then step back.”Iverson estimates all the tulips will be given away within the next couple weeks.“It makes us feel like we are doing something for the community,” she said.[embedded content]-- Tom Hall... https://www.oregonlive.com/hg/2020/03/tulip-fest-had-to-be-canceled-but-wooden-shoe-tulip-farm-finds-new-life-for-flowers.html