Posted by Liz Toussaint on May 28, 2013 0 Comments
Mothers Day is the big event for May for the florist industry. Beautiful disbuds have been available, with our grower producing a lovely range of large polaris style chryssie - a perfect flower for mother's day with the size of a disbud but a stronger bloom less likely to shatter. Our chryssie grower timed the mother's day crop to perfection with his crop numbers just tapering off in the last week of May. Will probably have to consider imports from the first week of June.
Roses have been beautiful, with a lovely range of colours and flower head size improving with the cooler weather. There has been a only a few of David Austin roses - both imports and locals. Our Victorian supplier has picked a few of his exciting new colour range - large headed fragrant flowers. The beautiful Amy Lou is pictured below (light pink) and Tenderness (white), both with lovely David Austin style blooms, large heads and lovely fragrance.
Although there are not many growers of lisianthus, our supplier continues to grow them and the colour range continues to be good, but numbers and colours are tapering off now at the end of the month.
Dahlias have finished, but tulips, iris and hyacinths are now readily available. It's nice to feel the weather cooling off and seeing these bulb lines really makes it feel like a change in season. We have also been getting freesias, but no ranunculus yet.
Only imported callas are available in a limited colour range. Hydrangeas have finished. Snaps are still available. Dephinium has been thin on the ground, but blue butterfly delphinium has started again in the last week of May. The stock has started in full swing, and we have been getting a lovely colour range and with a beautiful fragrance. Carnations, including green trick, have been available.
The range of natives is slowly improving, and I managed to get sea holly, repens and proteas. Banksia and leaucadendron have been available in a limited colour range. Also managed to find straw flowers this month. Kale started in earnest in the last week of the month, with the cooler temperatures bringing out lovely colouration.
We received our first poppies and daffodils in the last week of May.
Orchids, lilies and gerberas are readily available. Birds have also been readily available.
Privot berries started this month (black) and we have received a little bit of andromeda at the end of the month.
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Posted by Liz Toussaint on March 19, 2013 0 Comments
After the big day (Valentine's day), I had forgotten how hard to was to get nice roses, as all the growers have cut back their crops hard to extract maximum blooms for V. Day. However, by the middle of March the roses are back in full swing and in fact, by the last week growers are offering good deals of beautiful roses as they get their second flush.
David Austin roses have been adversely affected by the weather and although they have been readily available at the beginning of the month, careful buying is needed as there is some botrytis on the blooms, and they need some cleaning up to remove the spotty petals. They have proved hard to get by mid to late March. The imports have started mid month, and there is now an even broader range of imported Davids on the market floor. The local growers have only a few by the end of the month.
The lisianthus is still around, but tapering off a little. The colour range is still good but the quantities on the market seem lower
Dahlias continue to be lovely. There is a good range of pinks, burgundies and whites with a great range in head size, from the small pom poms styles to the beautiful large ones. I did not see a great number in the orange and yellow range.
Tulips, iris and hyacinths are now readily available. It's nice to feel the weather cooling off and seeing these bulb lines really makes it feel like a change in season.
Local callas are finished but there are a few imports in a limited colour range (needed to beg and plead to get enough white for weddings this month). Hydrangeas are now scarce. I managed to find a couple of bunches of white hydrangea for a wedding but it proved hard to come by.
Snaps are still available. The delphinium has been lovely - mainly whites and purples. Had trouble finding blue butterfly although got a few bunches at the beginning of the month.
I had a few stock at the beginning of the month but none mid to late March. I managed to get some stephanotis for a wedding but it has been badly weather affected. Carnations, including green trick, have been available.
The range of natives is slowly improving, and I managed to get sea holly. Banksias, leaucadendron is available. Proteas are a little thin on the ground, as are repens.
Orchids, lilies and gerberas are readily available.
Berries are limited to bruneii. Peris has not been available, and I have had to use snow berry as a substitute. I nearly gave up on getting lavender but managed to source some at the last minute. Lotus pods are just starting to show some beautiful brown tones, and are still available.
Had a pomegranite wedding this month, and it turns out that the US pomegranites finish in late February and the locally grown pomegranites are not yet ready. I managed to find the last box in Canberra!
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Posted by Liz Toussaint on March 19, 2013 0 Comments
With Valentine's day and many, many weddings in February this year, my blogging is a little delayed. I can say that flower availability in February is dominated by one flower - the red rose! Valentine’s Day eclipses everything and availability of flowers reflects not just supply but also demand.
As every rose grower tries to time the rose crop to coincide with February 14th, the weather plays a great part in what’s around. This year, growers on the whole seemed to time their rose flush perfectly, which means at the beginning of the month, red roses were thin on the ground, but by mid month they were plentiful but expensive. After the 14th, where growers had picked their crops hard, the blooms were not quite so abundant. Roses in other colours were readily available but with price increases leading up to the big day. David Austins were available for most of February, but heavy rains spoilt the crops late in the month.
Lisianthus were beautiful and abundant, but again were off a bit late in February due to the weather. The dahlias were lovely. I also found beautiful hydrangea at the beginning of the month, but more difficult to find at the end of February.
I did have trouble getting blue flowers this month - there was very little blue delphinium around, although the purples and white were readily available. Tulips were available but it is still a little early for them.
Callas were available at the beginning of February, but very few available by the end. There were some imports around.
Proteas, banksias and leucadendrons were available, although the colour ranges were a little limited. The diversity of natives, however, seemed a little limited.
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Posted by Liz Toussaint on February 05, 2013 0 Comments
One fine evening a young princess put on her hoodie and headphones, and went out to take a walk by herself in the bush. When she came to a cool spring of water with bullrushes in the middle, she sat herself down to rest a while. Now she had a golden iphone in her hand, which was her favourite thing in the whole world - she was forever texting and emailing, photographing and playing angry birds. This is what she did as she rested.
After a time she got so excited because she finally went up a level on angry birds, and before she could tweet her success, in all the excitement she lost her grip on the iphone and it fell down onto the dirt and tumbled straight into the bullrushes on the edge of the waterhole. The princess looked into the bullrushes after her iphone, but she couldn’t see where it had gone. She began to cry, and said, 'Alas! if I could only get my golden iphone again, I would give all my fine clothes and jewels, and everything that I have in the world. I wish that I had synced it before I came here.'
Whilst she was speaking, a frog put its head out of the water, and said, 'Princess, why do you weep so bitterly?'
'Alas!' said she, 'what can you do for me, you nasty frog? My golden iphone has fallen into the bullrushes.'
The frog said, 'I do not want your pearls, and jewels, and fine clothes; but if you will love me, and let me live with you and eat from off your golden plate, and sleep on your bed, I will bring you your iphone again.'
'What nonsense,' thought the princess, 'this silly frog is talking! He can never even get out of the waterhole to visit me, though he may be able to get my iphone for me, and therefore I will tell him he shall have what he asks.'
So she said to the frog, 'Well, if you will bring me my iphone, I will do all you ask.'
Then the frog put his head down, and weaved his way through the bullrushes, straight to where her golden iphone perched delicately on the bullrushes just inches from the water. With the golden iphone in his mouth, the frog came to the edge of the waterhole and threw it on dirt at the water’s edge.
As soon as the young princess saw her iphone was safe, she ran to pick it up; and she was so overjoyed to have it in her hand again, that she never thought of the frog, but ran home with it as fast as she could.
The frog called after her, 'Stay, princess, and take me with you as you said,'
But she did not stop to hear a word.
The next day, just as the princess had sat down to dinner, she heard a strange noise - tap, tap - plash, plash - as if something was coming up the marble staircase, and soon afterwards there was a gentle knock at the door, and a little voice cried out and said:
'Open the door, my princess dear,
Open the door to thy true love here!
And mind the promise that you made,
By the water cool, in the gum tree shade.'
Then the princess ran to the door and opened it, and there she saw the frog, whom she had quite forgotten. At this sight she was sadly frightened, and shutting the door as fast as she could came back to her seat.
The king, her father, seeing that something had frightened her, asked her what was the matter.
'There is a nasty frog at the door,' said she, 'He rescued my iphone from falling in the water this morning. I told him that he could live with me here, thinking that he could never get out of the spring; but there he is at the door, and he wants to come in.'
While she was speaking the frog knocked again at the door, and said:
'Open the door, my princess dear,
Open the door to thy true love here!
And mind the promise that you made,
By the water cool, in the gum tree shade.'
Then the king said to the young princess, 'As you have given your word you must keep it; so go and let him in.'
She did so, and the frog hopped into the room, and then straight on - tap, tap - plash, plash - from the bottom of the room to the top, till he came up close to the table where the princess sat.
'Pray lift me upon chair,' said he to the princess, 'and let me sit next to you.'
As soon as she had done this, the frog said, 'Put your plate nearer to me, that I may eat out of it.'
This she did, and when he had eaten as much as he could, he said, 'Now I am tired; carry me upstairs, and put me into your bed.' And the princess, though very unwilling, took him up in her hand, and put him upon the pillow of her own bed, where he slept all night long.
As soon as it was light the frog jumped up, hopped downstairs, and went out of the house.
'Now, then,' thought the princess, 'at last he is gone, and I shall be troubled with him no more.'
But she was mistaken; for when night came again she heard the same tapping at the door; and the frog came once more, and said:
'Open the door, my princess dear,
Open the door to thy true love here!
And mind the promise that you made,
By the water cool, in the gum tree shade.'
And when the princess opened the door the frog came in, and slept upon her pillow as before, till the morning broke. And the third night he did the same. But when the princess awoke on the following morning she was astonished to see, instead of the frog, a handsome prince, gazing on her with the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen and standing at the head of her bed.
He told her that he had been enchanted by a spiteful fairy, who had changed him into a frog; and that he had been fated so to abide till some princess should take him out of the spring, and let him eat from her plate, and sleep upon her bed for three nights.
'You,' said the prince, 'have broken his cruel charm, and now I have nothing to wish for but that you should go with me into my father's kingdom, where I will marry you, and love you as long as you live.'
The young princess, you may be sure, was stunned and surprised. She said “Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. If you want to marry me I expect 12 long stemmed premium roses with a box of chocolates and a beautiful big bear. If you do this for me, I will truly know you are worthy of my love and will marry you.
The next morning the prince pulled up in front of her castle in his Ford GT 2006 model. His faithful servant Henrich, who had bewailed the misfortunes of his dear master during his enchantment so long and so bitterly, that his heart had well-nigh burst, had googled the best florist for the best roses money could buy, chocolates from Belgium and a 1.2m bear was strapped into the front passenger seat.
By the time the handome prince had unstrapped his golden seatbelt, the princess had said “I do” and they took leave of the king, and got into the Ford GT, and all set out, full of joy and merriment, for the prince's kingdom, which they reached safely; and there they lived happily a great many years.
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Posted by Liz Toussaint on January 15, 2013 0 Comments
Welcome to 2013 and the hot start to January have sizzled a few crops. The Christmas/New Year period always makes for a difficult start with a lot of growers time out, and many lines not available for a couple of weeks.
A good flower for the heat of January is the lisianthus. Comes in a lovely colour range and our awesome grower has been giving us perfect blooms, and his strict post-harvest treatment routine has resulted in lovely upright blooms, perfect flower, good clean foliage and flowers that last well despite the heat. We have used these a lot in weddings this month.
David Austin’s are still beautiful, and producing a lovely range. Our standard “hothouse” roses have also been superb, and the quality is just getting better and better. He says he has a secret new ingredient - if he told me what it was he'd have to kill me. All the red roses (and some of the coloured) have been cut back for Valentine’s Day leaving red roses thin on the ground. I had to pull in a few favours to get enough for one vineyard wedding last weekend. It’s something to keep in mind for anyone wanting red roses in January, as growers try and time the rose flush for mid February. Our coloured rose range this month has been limited somewhat by one of our suppliers changing over nearly all his bushes. The good news is a new and better colour range when all these plants come online, but in the meantime we mourn the loss of some of our favourite colours grown by noone else.
Lilies (oriental, asiatics) have been plentiful at market. The size of many orientals has suffered in the heat. We are not recommending oriental lilies for any days likely to be over 30 degrees as they don’t like it much. Asiatics are a bit better in the heat, although still not the best choice - lisianthus or orchids are a safer bet for a hot day.
Callas are beautiful this month. The locally grown ones are so superior to the imports they are almost a different flower. Callas really don’t take well to boxing, as the blooms tend to crush and flatten during transport, so while we can get these locally grown beauties we can marvel at their lovely form and vase life. Because there are so few local grower of the calla, the colour range is limited. We have had to rely on imports for the whites and the head size has been a bit disappointing. No more arums this January, marshmallow or otherwise.
Dahlias have been lovely. As have the hydrangea. Sunflowers too have been nice.
Gardenias have come on, and what these blooms lack in vase life they make up for in fragrance. The gloriosa lily has also been available and beautiful. Although there has been plenty of hybrid delphinium, blue butterfly has been scarce making finding a true blue flower difficult over this time. Peonies are definately out.
Orchids are available, with a reduced number of import shipments between Christmas and New Year. They are a wise choice for a hot time of year.
We are getting misty emile and babies breath is making a comeback from the eighties in a new fashion of babies breath balls, bouquets and bunches.
The kangaroo paw has been lovely and we are still getting king proteas. Red flowering gum has been magnificent, if expensive.
Late addition - the constant hot weather has limited the availability of many field grown flowers - in particular, I have had trouble getting natives and lavender
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