Tulips For Valentine’s Day!

By Irene Donnelly

Valentine's Day is a day of constant motion and excitement in the floral industry.  We happily assist droves of semi-panicked lovers trying to piece together last minute gifts… all in the name romance.  As floral designers we are eager to help everyone find the perfect gesture of love for their Valentine.  For me, I tend to like helping the inexperienced, the procrastinator and the perplexed with their orders the best.  These giddy, mostly new lovers tend to be adorably refreshing and thoughtful.

Of course, not everyone is last minute and inexperienced.  There happens to be a minority of wise, generally older, married individuals who pre-order flowers for pick up or delivery a week or so in advance.  These people seem to realize the significance of the sentiment and have learned the tricks of the trade. Many have burned by long lines, florists running out of flowers and the overall mayhem of V-day shopping.  That being said, I don't want to scare anyone away from facing a floral shop on Valentine's Day, it's really not that bad but it does help to be prepared.

The panic that sets in seems to revolve around not knowing what to buy.  Take my advice. Think about your Valentine.  Are they classic? Earthy? Modern?  Trendy?  Etc.  A good floral designer will be able to execute any adjective into flowers.  Trust the designers and if you're really smart preorder! (order here).

When in doubt…locally grown tulips are sure to please. 

A short history on Tulips:  Second behind roses as the most popular V-day bouquet, tulips are clean, fresh and classy.  They originated as a wild flower in Turkey and were often adorned in Turkish turbans, hence their name. (not because they looked like "Two Lips." )

The bulbs made their way to the Netherlands over four hundred years ago, where they became such a commodity they ended up being an extremely profitable investment opportunity and everyone wanted in.  "Tulip Mania," as it was called, had many of the Dutch buying bulbs in hopes of finding a desirable genetic mutation coupled with a big cash pay out. It was a gamble to grow tulips that had a new trait unique from existing tulips.  If a Dutchman did happen to spring up the next big thing, well…they got sticking rich.  But as we know, playing the stinking rich game doesn't pay off in the long run and usually crashes an economy. It eventually did. 

At Local Color Flowers we will have tulips from Van Dyke Brothers Farm in New Jersey.  While they are the farthest farm from the shop that we buy flowers from, they are still comparatively local when you think about the greater scheme of valentine's day flowers.   (114 miles) In addition to tulips, we'll have the usual hyper local magic we normally have this time of year including snapdragons, paperwhites, flowering branches and locally grown evergreens.

We will have bouquets of tulips (and other local goodness) ready to "grab and go" at three locations on Valentine’s Day :

The Quintessential Gentlemen located downtown at 31 South Calvert Street from 11am-2pm

Chesapeake Wine Company at the Can Company in Canton from 11 until …the sell out!

Our  shop in Charles Village all day until 7pm. We’re located at 3100 Brentwood Ave. PLEASE call before you come by to make sure we can accommodate your request!

Wondering what the most remarkable and distinguishing fact about the Tulip is? It continues to grow once it's been cut from the bulb.  

That means long after you give your tulips as a gift, your lover will be able to watch these flowers grow taller and taller and higher still.  Other flowers may open and change but no others will grow as dramatically tall.  Isn't that a nice symbolic sentiment to give to your Valentine?  That your love grows?

What Locally Grown Foliage Looks Like in the Winter

Yesterday, Carling made this beautiful arrangement for a dinner party and posted it on Facebook. We received a comment/question  from a woman who has taken a few of our design classes and is enthusiastic about improving her design skills.

“I was just wondering today if I could mix winter greens with spring flowers? This picture answers the question.”

It was a great comment, and one that deserves some attention. Local Color Flowers is proud to use locally grown flowers in all of our arrangements. What you may not know, is that we also you 100% locally grown foliage as well. In the winter, most of the foliage we can get from the local farms is evergreens including boxwood, magnolia, fir, pine, cedar and camellia along with lots of “sticks” including pussy willow, curly willow, fantail willow, flowering branches and more. On a rare occasion, we can get our hands on dusty miller and eucalyptus.

Our designs are unique because we are designing with what is available locally-flowers, foliage and branches. Using evergreens gives the arrangement a “winter’ feel. Combined with tulips and iris, the arrangement perfectly reflects the season, as we think it should…cold, crisp, green, brown…with the promise of spring ahead.

Buy Local This Valentine’s Day!

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching! Be sure to pass by those grocery store roses and choose a beautiful  floral arrangement filled with locally grown flowers that your Valentine will love!

Choose from a $40 or a $70 arrangement filled with locally grown tulips, foliage and pussy willows. Each of these arrangements can be made in a mason jar, milk glass vase, garden vase or birch vase.

Maybe you want to give you sweetheart a little more local love this year. Choose our All Local Gift Basket for $100 which includes our $40 floral arrangement together with some of our favorite local treats!

Finally, for the gift that keeps on giving, you can choose a Local Color Flowers flower subscription which will provide a seasonal, monthly or weekly arrangement to your Valentine. This is a great way to experience the best our region has to offer throughout the year. Contact us for more information.

We’ll be delivering on Valentine’s Day in the Baltimore City area or you can pick up your arrangement at our studio in Charles Village between 11am and 6pm.

To place an order (earlier is better!) use our online order form or call (410-262-1494) or email (ellen@locoflo.com) us!

A Beginning and An Ending in Buffalo

I grew up in Buffalo. South Buffalo to be exact. When I was 5 or 6 my family moved from a small apartment into my Gram’s house and she moved into our apartment. It was like we traded. When my gram lived in our house, she planted these tulips out front. They were sent to her from my Uncle Terry, when he was in stationed in Turkey.

I was amazed that they came back every year. I loved getting down on my knees and looking inside of them and seeing their weird, black, spikey innards. I remember picking them (and getting  in trouble). You might think they’re not much to look at now, but they were the first flowers I fell in love with.

I’ve lived in cities my whole life. Buffalo, San Jose, San Francisco and now Baltimore. It wasn’t until I moved to Baltimore and had a little rowhouse garden that I started thinking about flowers. It must have been serendipitous. My favorite wedding gift was a big bag of tulips bulbs from Eric’s great aunt Mary Dell. We planted them immediately in our little patch of backyard soil.

My mom is selling our house in Buffalo. The house I lived in for 21 years. The house she grew up in as well. Everyone keeps asking me if I’m sad. I’m not sad. I still have friends and family in Buffalo. I have great memories of our house on McKinley. And I have this picture of my gram’s tulips.. I can’t help but think that this little plot of urban beauty is part of what  inspired me to choose the path I’m on. Funny how much flowers (and mother’s and grandmother’s) can make a difference in your life. I realize that now and I’m grateful.