Sometimes people like to write things about floristâs shops. Â Here are two things you need to know, the most egregiously wrong things.
1. It makes no fucking sense to sketch out a bouquet before you make it. Â Every individual flower is different in a way that cannot really be adjusted the way other building materials can be adjusted, and each individual bouquet is unique. Â Just put the fucking flowers together.
2. No one â in months and months of working at the flower shop â has ever cared what the flower/color of the flower means. Â No oneâs ever asked. Â Itâs just not something people tend to care about outside of fiction and itâs certainly not something most florists know. Â You know what florists know? Â What looks good and is thematically appropriate.
Hereâs an actual list of the symbology of flowers, as professionals use it:
Yellow â for friends, hospitals
Pink â girls, girlfriends, babies, bridesmaids
Red â love
Purple â queens
White â marriage and death (DO NOT SEND TO HOSPITALS)
Pink and purple â ur mum
Red, orange, and yellow â ur mum if sheâs stylish
Red, yellow, blue â dudes and small children
Blue and white â rare, probably a wedding
Red and white â love for fancy bitches
Here are what the flowers actually mean to a florist:
Carnations â fuck u these are meaningless filler-flowers, not even your administrative assistant likes them, show some creativity
Alstroemeria â by and large very similar to carnations but I like them better
Tea roses â cute and lil and come several to a stalk, a classy filler flower
Moluccella laevis â filler flower but CHOICE
Delphinium â not as interesting as moluccella but purple so okay I guess
Blue thistle â FUCK YEAH, some fucking textural variety at last! Â youâre getting this for a dude, arenât you?
Chrysanthemums â barely better than carnations but better is still better
Gladiolus â ooh, risky business, someone understands the use of the Y-axis, very good
Long-stem roses â yeah whatever
Lilies â LBD, looks good with everything, get used as often as possible
Hydrangeas â thirsty fuckers, divas of the flower world and rightly so, treat them right and they make you look good
Gerbera daisies â the roseâs hippie cousin, hotter but no one admits it
Peonies â CHA-CHING, everybodyâs absolute favorite but you need guap
Orchids â if this isnât for a wedding youâre probably trying too hard but theyâre expensive so keep ordering them
You know what matters? Â THE CUSTOMERâS BUDGET. Â THATâS TELLING.
-$20 â if youâre not under 12, fuck off, get your sugar something else
$30 â good for bouquets but an arrangement will be lame
$40 â getting there, thereâs something that can be done with that. Â you can get some gerbs or roses with that and not have them look stupidly solo.
$50 to $70 â tolerable
$80 â FINALLY. Â It sounds elitist but this really is the basic amount of money you should expect to spend on an arrangement that matters. Â Thatâs your Motherâs Day arrangement. Â Youâre probably not going to spend $80 on a bouquet.
$90 to $130 â THE GOOD SHIT, youâre likely to get some orchids
$130+ Â â Weddings and death. Â This amount of money gets you a memorial arrangement or a handmade bridal bouquet. Â Donât spend this on a Motherâs Day or a Babe I Love You arrangement, buy whosits a massage or something.
Everything needs greening and if you donât think that youâre an idiot.Â
As a new employee, when you start making arrangements, you canât see the mistakes youâre making because youâre brand new and youâre learning an art form from the ground up.
With a few exceptions customers donât have a clear plan in mind. Â They want you to develop the bouquet for them. Â They want something that will delight their little sweetbread but youâre lucky if they know that personâs favorite color, let alone flower.
Flower shops donât typically have every kind of flower in every kind of color. Â Customers generally arenât assed about that. Â Most people donât care about the precise shade of the rose or having daffodils in July, because theyâre not boning up on flower language before they buy. Â That would imply that theyâve got a clear bouquet in mind and, again, they donât.
Being a florist is essentially a lot like what I imagine being a mortician is about. Â Youâre basically keeping dead things looking good for as long as possible. Â You keep the product in the fridge so it doesnât rot and look horrible by the time the family gets a whack at it, and in the meanwhile you put it in a nice container.