Fear not! Or, Orchid Care, demystified.

A living, breathing plant can add so much life to a room.  The energy of any space is instantly changed by the simple addition of a green or flowering plant.

One of my favorite plants to have in a room is a phalaenopsis orchid plant.  They are so beautiful and elegant, and the way we dress them at the shop is contemporary and warm.  Time and time again, however, I have discussions with clients who love the look of orchid plants, but are completely intimidated by them.  They're not so hard.  With just a bit of attention to details, you can have orchid plants that last for quite some time.

One thing you should keep in mind about orchids is where they are found in nature.  That will help you realize the kind of growing conditions in which they should be kept.  They grow in rainforests, attached to the side of trees via moss, bark, or other plant material.  Not in soil.  Under the canopy of the rainforest.

So what does that tell us?  1.  That the light they flourish with is diffused, bright light.  Not direct light.  Indirect, bright light, like a Northern exposure.  2.  They like to be kept moist, but not wet.  The rainforest is constantly moist.  But plants attached to trees will never have a very full water source.  In fact, they get moldy if they are too wet.  3.  They like a fairly constant temperature.

So find a spot in your home or office with bright, indirect light, out of a draft.  Water the orchid no more than 1/2 cup once a week.  Fertilize them with orchid fertilizer once a month.  The blooms should last several weeks to a couple of months.  Once the blooms are spent, cut off the flower stalk just above the first or second 'node' (a knuckle on the stem, just above the foliage), and you will probably get another batch of blooms.  Otherwise, they will bloom once every 9-12 months.

A lot of people think that the plant is dead once the flowers die.  Not true.  As long as the foliage is firm, dark green and glossy, you have a vital plant.  Keep fertilizing it.  That's it.

Not so complicated, is it?  Give it a try.  They're a stunning addition to your botanical interior design.

Marking Milestones

It's funny what thoughts go through your mind when you approach one of life's milestones.  Thoughts that vary, depending on the age of the thinker.  When you approach your 10th birthday, you think "Yeah!  I finally made it to double digits!".  Something that seems hysterical when you hit 30.

Or "Wow!  Now what?" upon graduation from high school/college/grad school.  That's pretty profound, when you're contemplating what to do with the rest of your life.  You hope you make the right decision, and don't really yet realize that you can always change your mind.  And probably will.  The average person changes careers at least 3 times in their life.  (I fall right into the average.  Floristry is #3 for me.)

On the eve of your wedding, you again contemplate the importance of your decision.  Then, in the joy of the next day, you just jump in feet first and swim.  And realize, "I love this pool I'm in."  Same thing on the eve of the birth of a child.  Anxiety, followed by acceptance, followed by wonderfulness in abundance.

We like to mark these occasions.  These milestones.  These beginnings and endings.  We mark them in our mind, in the memory books, in photographs.  We mark them with gifts, with flowers, with song and dance.  So we will remember and can reflect, in later years, that we survived the event.  That we made a good decision.  Or, if not, to look at the milestone as our starting place and reflect on growth since then.  That's what happens to these landmarks as we get older.  We reflect, because the milestones are a bit further apart.  The anxiety lessens and the abundance endures.  Enjoy it.

Mothering your inner florist...

As a working Mom, I am constantly striving to find the balance between family, work, and healthy self time.  Case in point - in order to help with the family/work time since I live very near to my boutique, I pick up my 8 year old daughter each day at the bus stop and bring her back to work with me for the remainder of her day.  She does her homework, we talk about her day, and sometimes she helps out.  I hope it is a time in her life that she remembers fondly.  Hanging out, learning a thing or two about floristry, having fun with it.  I know it's a great part of my day.  A special 'Mom and me' memory. 

On my way to pick her up the other day, I started to think about where my love of flowers began.  I was very young.  I remember helping my grandmother ('Mimi') plant marigolds and pansies in my yard.  I loved the colors, the smell of the flowers and the earth.  I loved to dig and touch.  It was one of my favorite things to do.

Mimi helped me develop a lifelong respect for nature and the beauty that it offers.  Whether it was digging in the garden or taking nature walks to collect wildflowers, I found a warmth and love that fills me up and soothes me each time I cut a stem or pick up a trowel.  As we approach Mother's Day, I think of her and how I'd like to thank her for that gift.

I hope that I am passing that gift on to my children.  It's one that cannot be taken away, that is easily accessible, that should be revered and respected.  Children around the world receive it from mothers, grandmothers, sisters (and fathers, but we'll save that for Father's Day) wherever there is green grass and blue sky.

Do you have a memory relating to flowers, or nature in general that you associate with your Mom or Grandmother?  Do tell!

Don't be SOO eager for Spring. (I know, I know...)

Ah, March in New Jersey.  It's a tenuous time - we are so eager for this winter to be over, yet Mother Nature doesn't always want to cooperate.  Case in point:  Last Friday, the mercury hit 77 degrees here in Maplewood.  Children were flinging off jackets and donning shorts faster than you could hang up your snow shovel.  It gave us a glorious taste of things to come.  Hope you all soaked it in.

And then there was Tuesday.  The temperature plummeted down to freezing again.  Rain mixed with snow.  Which went into Wednesday.  We all woke up to a solid 2 inches of snow, less than a week after that taste of summertime.  Roads were treacherous.  Mittens were dug out.  The first lacrosse game, so eagerly awaited, was canceled due to field conditions.  Oy.

Which brings me to my point.  I know many of you were eager to pop into the garden.  Eager to rush out to the nursery and start plucking seedlings off the shelves.  But fight the urge.  The unpredictability of spring is a big tease - you need to laugh at it.  There's no sense in complaining about the weather.  It will be what it will be, regardless of your opinion.   But if you rush out and start planting, just because the ground has momentarily thawed and the weather turned nice, you will wind up heartbroken and frustrated.

Please be patient and wait until the last frost has passed.  That means weather that stays consistently above 40 degrees, even at night.  You will ultimately wind up with frozen foliage and will have wasted all your hard work.  Clean up the garden, by all means.  Make the beds ready to receive your luscious tomatoes or peonies.  But wait.  Few things are certain in life. But spring is one of them.  I promise, it will get here.

The last wedding of 2010

Kristen and Michael got married in August, in England in a small, private ceremony for their immediate family in a beautiful location at Oxford.  Congratulations!

When they returned to the States for good, however, they wanted to have a big celebration in which the rest of their family and friends could participate.  What better night for a party than New Year's Eve?   Everyone wants to ring in the new year with their loved ones.  It was a natural tie-in.

The big night would be at the Rock Spring Country Club.  Kristen wanted it to become a winter wonderland...with a touch of spring.  And the planning begins!.

Flowering branches fit the bill for the spring. Choosing white gave them a wintery feel.  Add some sparkly willow branches, dangling, crystal branches and dendrobium orchids, and we were off to a grand start. Tall pilsner vases overflowed with branches and blooms on some tables, while snowy mounds of glittery hydrangea graced others.

There would be candles everywhere.  Silver and white were the order of the day, with a touch of snow on tables throughout the venue, and 'ice' in every vase.  (Mother Nature would add the real stuff in a big way during the week - making for a nail-biting setup week!)

When the lights were dimmed, the room glowed with warmth and sparkled like the crystal clear winter night outside. 

What a beautiful way to end the year.  Or start the year.  Or start a married life.

Fish meets world.

OK.  We've un-burrowed from the snow.  We're back to functioning in the white, sometimes fluffy winter landscape that is winter in New Jersey.  And we find a way to make it bearable, spending so much more time indoors. 

Obviously, plants and flowers are a way to bring springtime indoors during these dreary months.  But what does a florist, who spends her life surrounded by flora and fauna, do to add some warmth and fun to the cold?  She creates an ecosystem, of course! 

There are certain houseplants that can be grown hydroponically.  Hydroponics is the science of growing plants without soil.  One of those plants is the spathiphyllum, or peace lily.  If you place an established peace lily in a vase of water, it will grow every bit as well as it would were it in soil.  You can watch the root structure change and grow; it's a great science lesson and it's beautiful, to boot. 

Now, if you add another living organism, say, a certain breed of fish, to the water in which the spathiphyllum lives, it becomes an ecosystem.  In a vase.  You still need to feed the fish, but the plant gets nutrients from the fish waste, and the fish gets some nutrients from the plant.  And you have a friendly little guy to have on your kitchen table or desk. 

Meet Fish.  Fish-Who-Must-Be-Named.  He is a red, male betta fish.  He now lives at Lotus Petals.  He keeps us company, adds a different energy to the store, and is generally a good listener.  But he needs a name.  Give us a hand in coming up with a name for this new mascot, won't you?  The person whose name idea we choose will win a $25 gift certificate!  Let's see how creative you can get. 

You have until the 31st of January. Until then, we'll just call him Fish.  Boring, isn't it?

Soul Food...

Last night, as I turned off the lights in my little girl's room and lay snuggling with her before she fell asleep, I thought again about how important it is to have soul food on a daily basis.  Not ribs and collards.  At least not today.  Not that kind of soul food. 

Nope.  Feeding your soul is so much more than filling your belly.  And it happens in so many ways, if you pay attention.  Like last night.  With the lights out in my daughter's room, quieting down before bed, it feels like the whole world is just that room.  Nothing else matters.  We cuddle, we giggle, we just 'are'.  And although she needs to have a sense of independence, of being able to fall asleep alone, I am loathe to leave the room.  It is more often than not my favorite part of the day.  I will sorely miss it when she is too old to want me there.

And, just like that, my soul is fed. 

There are so many facets of us that need to be sated, daily.  The hunger is there, even if we aren't aware of it.  Beauty, love, art, music, community, nature.  They are all soul food. 

I am fortunate enough to be able to fill the part of me that needs nature and beauty on a daily basis.  My work with flowers is about so much more than the perishable product that sits in my cooler.  The colors, the textures, the fragrance all touch me in different ways.  They fill all of my senses; they inspire me; they drive me to create beauty with beauty. 

And in creating beauty with beauty, I am able to feed the part of me that needs art.  Sharing that art with clients feeds my sense of community, which brings love in so many ways.  Love of what I do, love with the happiness that my work brings others. 

And, just like that, my soul is fed. 

This is the cycle of subtle and not-so subtle ways that we sustain ourselves internally. It is continual, cyclical, ever present.  And you can never over eat.