Alaric Flower Design

Same-Sex Flower Tips?

2011-08-11T07:08:00.000-07:00

Now that we are celebrating same-sex marriage in New York, here are a few bits of folklore surrounding a some flowers that may or may not pertain to gay marriage! Very interesting...

#1: Violets
- Flower symbolized and used to celebrate same-sex love (though primarily exchanged between lesbians in the 1920s-1940s) Origins of the violet can be traced back to Sappho and her poem about wearing garlands of violets with her lovers.

- In the 16th century, men and women planning to marry would wear violets

#2: Ladslove
- 19th and 20th century English poets used ladslove to symbolize homosexuality and exchange of same-sex love in their works

#3: Calamus
- Egyptians believed the plant was a powerful aphrodisiac

- Walt Whitman used this plant as the centerpiece to his forty-five poems dedicated to homoerotic love

#4: Poppies
- The flower was exchanged between soldiers as a sign of love and romance prior to WWI

- Flower later became known as the flower of the eternal sleep (and used often for those who have died during times of war as a soldier)

- The Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz is the only other character who falls asleep in the Poppy Field with Dorothy (representing possibly both the Queer and the ‘eternal sleep’)

(Source)

And remember - we are offering 10% off to the first 10 couples who use our services for their LGBT wedding! There are a few spots left!

Spotted!

2011-08-09T06:35:00.000-07:00

Lady Gaga was spotted in NYC last night carrying sunflowers. Very interesting... here are some fun sunflower facts! In addition to being good at absorbing radiation and brightening up a person's day or home:

The sunflower is the state flower of the US state of Kansas, and one of the city flowers of Kitakyūshū, Japan.
The sunflower is often used as a symbol of green ideology, much as the red rose is a symbol of socialism or social democracy. The sunflower is also the symbol of the Vegan Society.
During the late 19th century, the flower was used as the symbol of the Aesthetic Movement.
Subject of Van Gogh's most famous still life, Sunflowers
The sunflower is the national flower of Peru, Russia, and Ukraine.
The sunflower was chosen as the symbol of the Spiritualist Church for many reasons, but mostly because it turns toward the sun as "Spiritualism turns toward the light of truth". Modern Spiritualists always have art or jewelry with sunflower designs.

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Press Release

2011-08-02T10:51:00.000-07:00

Last week, the mayor's office tweeted that there had to be a lottery to choose who got to be married first on Sunday: "To serve people fairly, we're holding a lottery for the chance to get married on Sunday, 1st day of marriage equality." Over 650 couples were married! While some may not have been in the first round, we suspect that many will be following suit.

We at Alaric Flower Design are thrilled for our gay and lesbian friends in New York. So thrilled, that we are offering a 10% discount for the first 10 couples to use our services for their wedding. While we have been doing gay weddings for quite some time, we are anticipating a boom come Sunday and couldn't be more excited.

Located in Midtown Manhattan, Alaric Flower Design is a full-service flower design studio that caters to a plethora of businesses and people. The convenient studio location provides added inspiration for creating unique floral designs and a pleasant space for one-on-one consultations for weddings, corporate, or social event planning. Alaric's combination of knowledge, creativity, professionalism, and a deep passion for flowers and floral arrangements makes for a growing list of prestigious and satisfied clientele.

For more information, call Alaric Flower Design at 212.308.3974 or visit www.alaricflowers.com.

Shark Week!

2011-08-01T08:47:00.000-07:00

Who is into Shark Week? Anyone? We don't quite get the hype or why it's "a thing" but we do love that The Discovery Channel used Lady Gaga's "Show Me Your Teeth" in the commercial. Hilarious and right on point!

In honor of shark week, if you order anything predominantly red this week, you'll get a free upgrade!

SYTYCD Update!

2011-07-29T07:48:00.000-07:00

Now, we usually blog about flowers and things pertaining to florists here, but it's time to spread our wings, or in this case: stretch our legs. This season of So You Think You Can dance is incredible and below is our favorite dance of the season so far. It features Sasha and Melanie (by far, the most talented girls) dancing a routine choreographed by Sonya Tayeh. It's about strength, and these two pull it off better than anyone!

The dubstep song choice made it even stronger. We were pleased, and America was too... as they voted them to the top.

Uses of Roses

2011-06-17T07:22:00.000-07:00

"A rose by any other name wouldn't be as sweet."

How about a rose by any other use? Besides being beautiful and smelling sweet, roses actually have quite a few other uses!

1. Skin care. This blog has the recipe for rose water, which is the base for toner and a delicious sounding mud mask!

2. Cooking. You can add some types of rose petals to foods to increase flavor or as a garnish for desserts. The damascena and apothecary roses are most used for culinary endeavors. You can also make jam (or buy it...) our of rose hips.

3. Secret meetings. Yes, secret meetings! In ancient Greece, they decorated the ceiling of a room to indicate a secret meeting was taking place. Not sure how secret that was since everyone knew, but ok!

4. Medicine. Roses actually contain many essential vitamins! They have Vitamin C, pectic, malic and citric acids. Rose hip or rose petal tea removes toxins from the body, can cure colds, is a great remedy for stomach problems, and even irregular periods or infertility, according to this website.

There you have it. The many uses of the wonderful rose. Anybody have any other interesting uses or remedies? Share them in the comments!

Rainbow Roses for June

2011-06-02T09:10:00.000-07:00

The month of June is very busy when it comes to events in NYC. Not only is the month's birth flower the rose, which is very popular among our clients, it's Pride month!

What better a way to celebrate June than to combine the two?

Don't know what we're talking about? Well how about a visual:

That's right! Rainbow roses! "HOW DO THEY DO IT?" you may be wondering... well, it's complicated and takes time to perfect, but is very doable. You start with a white rose. You clip the end of the stem into several sections. And you dip the ends into different dyes! The dye makes its way up through the stem into the petals and viola! We have the rainbow rose.

For more information, check out the Wikipedia!

Smell Flowers, Not Smoke!

2011-05-25T11:22:00.000-07:00

This has been an ongoing battle in NYC and the government finally sided with the flowers, so to speak.

As of May 23rd, smoking is now banned in all public parks. With the heath risks and prices of cigarettes so high, we're surprised smokers still exist in New York anyway! Below is a picture of the sign that has gone up. The use of flowers is a clever marketing tactic used to incite a sentimentality that may not necessarily be related to the issue at hand, but works! What are your thoughts on the matter?

#freedeliveryfriday

2011-05-19T13:40:00.000-07:00

We are doing something new around here. To celebrate the coming of the Spring and to help alleviate some of the aggravation our NYC clients have from April and May rain, we are announcing: FREE DELIVERY FRIDAY!

Every third Friday of the month, we will waive delivery charges for orders of $75 or more. So mosey on over to our website where you can browse through our established classics or call in a custom order: 212.308.3794.

Happy Friday! Spread the word on Twitter with our #freedeliveryfriday hash-tag!

Pretty Peonies

2011-05-12T10:47:00.000-07:00

Lately, we've been getting a lot of requests for peonies. Of course, we can see why -- they're beautiful Spring flowers. As one of our Twitter friends put it, they are "feminine and gorgeous, classic yet contemporary!" We couldn't have put it better ourselves.

There is a lot of myth and folklore surrounding the peony, too! Records that date back thousands of years give us a few different stories. One legend has it that the peony is named after Paeon, a physician to the gods, who received the flower on Mount Olympus from the mother of Apollo. And another tells the story of that same physician who was “saved” from the fate of dying as other mortals by being turned into the flower we know today as the peony.

Whether your believe one story or the other, you can believe this: these gorgeous flowers are versatile and look lovely both pre-bloom and in bloom:

Wedding Pompadours!

2011-05-06T08:51:00.001-07:00

So, who saw Grey's Anatomy last night? It was a great episode! We're so excited for Callie and Arizona (minus Callie's horrible mother.)

But we were most excited about... of course... the flowers! Oh, they were so perfect and elegant! Our favorite part? The pompadours! Last night, we speculated on Twitter that they were made of hydrangea, but on closer inspection they are garden roses!

Unfortunately, that's the only shot that's up online right now, but hopefully they will release a full "wedding album!"

Speaking of May Flowers...

2011-05-05T11:23:00.000-07:00

Today on Style.com, there is a poll asking readers to cast a vote for the best floral fashion moment. One big problem! We aren't in the poll! Sure, we're just a little flower shop, but we've done big things. In February, as some of you may know, we participated in NY Couture Fashion Week. We presented three gorgeous dresses made all out of flowers:

And as biased as we may be, ours were way better looking and natural than the tacky 80's floral patterns that the industry is trying to bring back. Plus, our dresses are the most couture of them all; after a day or two, they die. Could real flowers ever be the next fashion trend? We like to think so. Flowers, after all, are as ephemeral as fashion itself.

April Showers...

2011-04-28T09:43:00.000-07:00

April showers bring May flowers. But in some places, the flowers are suffering from too much rain. With the changing of the weather, as it becomes more extreme because of (the world ending in 2012, global warming, childhood obesity, whatever), we are seeing more Spring rain than ever. In Portland, it rained 29 out of the 30 days in March -- delaying the annual tulip festival.

Just yesterday, a record tornado pulverized Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, and other surrounding towns in Alabama. Rain and destruction is abundant around the areas.

And here in New York? It's rained more than we'd like to think about this month. (It's more difficult than you think to get around in the rain in a walking-city!) In fact, the sky just opened up and began to pour. Again.

So what do we have to look forward to here? Being able to run through a field of tulips isn't exactly the outcome, but we are trying to keep things bright at the flower shop.

And since May is around the corner... MAYbe the rain will cease and give us some flowers. Some sunshine would be nice, too.

Size matters

2010-04-05T18:11:00.000-07:00

Our block - 56 between 5 and 6 is New Yorkishly funny. Here you can find the most bizzare collection of businesses. We have fancy steakhouses (2), hotel, trendy offices (of Etro, Testoni and other designers), crappy delis, dirty dry cleaners, 3 florists, chinese restaurants (2), korean, sushi (2), salons (seems like 20, for all budgets), Argentinian Consulate, subway, and others (such as wedding dresses, contractors, pr agency etc).. and of course the huge line to Abercrombie and Fitch ... that takes a third of a northern part of a block.

A couple of months ago, before Valentine's Day I had an idea to put something outside on both side of our entrance door to attract clients - like 2 pots with spruces or whatever. I did not really care much as long as it's nice and catchy...
So we put 2 red pots with spruces. 2 weeks later another florist put a big pot with collection of flowers, another week later korean restaurant put a palm tree next to their door. Today our neighboring steakhouse put 2 enormous planters with elaborate topiary.

Probably soon we all will be broke, by putting more and more money into outside objects, trying to outperform each other... hope not.... but we have a very decorative block so far....

Oh, did I mention that each consecutive business put their plant/pot/tree twice bigger than the previous one.... and of course today we went even bigger... we put 10 feet tall curly willow with tulips.... and i think.... not big enough, and now searching for something more presentable.... and of course bigger.....

Easter Hat Parade

2010-04-04T19:07:00.000-07:00

Today was an Easter Hat Parade. People had all sorts of hats, but i did not see any which i thought was amazing or at least interesting, or had some work put into....
At most there were random eggs and rabbits attached to the edges...
But you can do so much with it..... You can do tutty -frutty hat by Christ Sake... Oh, Carmen Miranda (for a log time i thought she was a transvestite... to be honest i still do)...
but back to flowers and hats.... i'll do something for next year for sure.... hat of thorns or hat with lily of the valley (very Scandinavian forest folk tale-ish...), or just luscious burgundy peonies (well they won't look all that luscious after 20 min, but rather like an old lady pretending to be a young sex bomb, sad and withered), or red and orange gerbera like a new jersey lady ( don't know why i have such an association..)

in any case till next year....

Phalaenopsis

2010-04-03T19:45:00.000-07:00

Phalaenopsis orchid. Everybody loves them. Everybody buys them. Everybody sells them.
From unique delicate luxury flowers they transformed to a "rolex" - it became a status symbol (the first expensive watch to show that certain income level is achieved :).
If you want to show that you have a fancy office, expensive store, luxury boutique, or just a "classy" taste you buy a white phaelonopsis or better few in a nice pot.

They are gorgeous, it's undisputable - just became a bit too common....

I've seen them small, big, with more flowers on a stem, less... but few days ago I changed a supplier and now we have GORGEOUS orchids... and i am a bit sick of them....

They are huge and strong and each stem has few branches and it's all with flowers... so one orchid plant will have probably 20-25 flowers when blooming.... it's unbelievable!!! I was delivering one today, people were turning their head, pointing fingers, asking me where i get such an orchid... it was like a mini tree....

I guess you can't really get sick of something sooo beautiful!!!!

2010-04-02T20:00:00.000-07:00

thank you...

2010-04-02T19:41:00.000-07:00

I love what i do!! Sometimes I get so scared that i won't make it and will have to do something else.... sit a cubicle, go back to the bank or some other organization and count hours when i can go home....

I like to have my small flower shop ( yes of course, i would like to be bigger and much more profitable, and be "the best florist in New York", but day to day stuff makes me so happy ). Everyday I have someone who is very happy and grateful for our flowers. It's so good to make someone happy even for a minute, to put a smile on somebody face....

Phone rings.
- Hi, may be you remember, i am the lady who came a month ago and bought few twigs from you for my friend who never gets out of the house anymore. (Of course I remember. She was that tiny older lady, who was getting quince for her sick friend)
- I'm just calling to say thank you, you made my friend very happy. she is looking forward to every new flower blossoming on those twigs....( great, i am glad that we made somebody happy)

then she called few minutes later:
- I keep thinking of you..

and then she proposes to contact Carnegie Hall and tell the name of the contact person.

I would love to work for Carnegie Hall!!! Would love to!
I want to make flowers for the stage which actually will look different from the funeral flowers. (Stage and coffin flowers are identical, ironically).

Nice tall vases with a prelude, fugue, sonata of flowers - white, yellow, green, red.... Build a structure of flowers - hanging crystals with orchids, standing shape of some sort or.....

and yes i want chair cover for the wedding salon :))

Wedding Salon

2010-04-01T20:30:00.001-07:00

There is an event which takes place I think in many big cities, including New York of course, where wedding professionals (sounds kind of corny, but anyway) create a lavish event and supposedly many brides attend it.
It's called Wedding Salon. Actually for a bride I think it makes total sense - instead of running around and looking for florists, photographers etc - she just pays 50 bucks for entering and can meet all of the "wedding makers".

But do the brides come?

That's what stops me from just screaming "yes! i want to do, and who cares about crazy entering price" ( we pay almost a hundred times more). But from the other side - may the brides actually will come and may be i get more than few, to make it worthwhile.... Business vs. creativity ... not always together....

Still I am contemplating to participate in it. Just can't figure out what shall i do for it. From one side there is nothing better then lush white peonies, but from the other it's going to be inside, electric light, so i think everything will look yellow in the end. and I am not sure what kind of yellow - warm and sexy or dirty and old-ladyish...

Or shall i go with multi-colored extravaganza? Any advice?

just attaching peonies (not mine) and multi-coloredness....

2010-03-31T19:27:00.000-07:00

every day I promise myself that i will write about my Alaric, and i never do. Things do happen and sometimes crazy, sometimes funny, sometimes plain beautiful.. and i never write, but may be now i will start :)

but for now:

we did an event in JFK for the Palm steakhouse... there were few palms as well.. and those flowers - i was terrified that the client is going to hate them ( i had no clue how to combine orange orchid with white color in a "modern way" )... but everybody was happy :)

2010-03-05T10:24:00.000-08:00

We are very excited about the new year and the new opportunities. Despite the tough economic times and the fact that it fell on Sunday this year, Valentines Day was a success. We had deliveries on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and even Monday! It is good to know that people still love each other, despite the economy going down the drain.
Today we provided flowers for a corporate event at JFK, hopefully this will start a new and mutually beneficial relationship for us.
Please keep us in mind for your personal and business related flower needs ;)

2010-03-03T04:02:00.001-08:00

We survived Valentine and now welcome spring!

Thanksgiving special! | TweetPhoto

2009-11-17T13:23:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving special! TweetPhoto

2008-08-05T14:24:00.000-07:00

Now we have some changes in staff, and are very pleased to welcome a new designer on board. He is wonderful, fun and in addition has 14 years of experience in major flower design shops and studios.

2008-03-24T10:11:00.001-07:00

just greens, no roses, tulips or anything flushy......

today

2008-03-10T17:38:00.000-07:00

Hi, I would like to get a quote for flowers for the wedding. It's my third wedding, so no point of getting crazy, i would need only 22 table arrangements, 16 bouquets, 16 bouttonniers etc....

i would not mind doing any of your weddings, if this is not crazy, than what is?

Cindy Adams

2008-03-10T17:33:00.000-07:00

I love my clients , and people who call for flowers....

Few days ago:

- Hi, my boss would like to send some flowers to Cindy Adams, do you know what flowers does she prefer?

- Excuse me....

- My boss would like to send some flowers to Cindy Adams, do you know which flowers does she prefer?

- Who is Cindy Adams?

- The gossip columnist to New York Post..... Do you know what she likes?

- I can tell you what Rudi Giuliani likes, as we sent flowers to him recently, but i've never heard of Cindy Adams.....

Wedding flowers vs. corporate flowers

2008-03-05T08:38:00.000-08:00

It's no surprise that flowers for a wedding cost tons of money..... especially comparing to any corporate events. I would say the price for wedding centerpiece is twice as much ..... because wedding people ( read wedding planners and brides ) piss florists off, while corporate event planners don't.....

Out of 10 appointments ( after 6:00 p.m. - which makes me, a flower studio owner, sit and wait for the bride, meanwhile cancelling or rescheduling all other personal plans i might have had earlier, in order for business to work ) 9 people do not show up, or even call or send email that they will not come.

Corporate - hi, need xx arrangements at yy price, at zz time and location - thank you

Wedding - hi, i would like to meet with you (90% chance they will not come), and even if they will ( 50% chance) they will not work with you, and even if they will, they 'll call many times , increasing the order, meanwhile trying to reduce the price....

i am sure it's the same with catering, djs etc....

... seriously.... i have nothing against brides, and some are very lovely.... but, people, please call if you want to cancell, so your and other people's after you prices will be reasonable and not insane, that you'll have to sell your kidneys to have the wedding...

2008-02-26T12:08:00.001-08:00

The Valentine Day.....

is over.... people got their flowers, delivery guys got their blisters, and our phones got their portion of heat......

what's next? baby showers? corporate events? ....

every day i think the same thing - it is hard, but i would not want to go back to banking ..... despite all the fancy and intellectual stimulation..... now i come home and in the evening i can actually read Nietzsche and enjoy it ( and not being a dead eggplant, tired and motionless), because during the day my head is full of absolutely different problems - did the couple got their anniversary flowers on time, where are the 500 red tulips, why are the pink and not red? the customer ordered "classy" again - what the hell is "classy"? it is so different for everyone....

my team is cool - eventually they are getting along and people are working and not just reading myspace all day, somehow creating horrible mess, without even leaving the chair....

it's great to work with young people - fun, creative, and simply pleasant...... but probably tomorrow something will go wrong again, but that's tomorrow, and for now it's good..... and tomorrow we'll fix it all and make customers happy......
we get at least one email/call a week - with thank you for the great service..... while back in a bank ( may be we never gave them great service.....)......

2008-01-22T18:35:00.000-08:00

The wedding we have done a month ago - traditional russian style... white roses, candles.....

Fruits maded with flowers

2008-01-22T11:28:00.000-08:00

Today we decided to do something really creative. We bought small flowers called pompoms to replicate apples, bananas and strawberries. We also used oasis to make the shapes of the fruits we were using. Then using a square container we placed some other flowers around the actual arrangement. Giving the illusion of a fruit basket. Using red pompoms to bring out the brighter colors, and using dark green pompoms to represent shadows.

Here is an image of another arrangement we completed today.

2008-01-18T10:32:00.000-08:00

It's slow in January for us... so we are doing time consuming arrangements for our clients... fruits out of flowers, pave etc....

2008-01-15T07:19:00.000-08:00

We have a new person who joined our small enterprise.... Hopefully it will work out.... and for now.... just the quickies roses, pink cymbidium and euc.....

2008-01-10T09:49:00.000-08:00

On Sunday we are doing a wedding - a small one, in New Jersey - bouquets (for brides and bridesmaids), boutonnieres, corsages and church decorations.... church pews will be covered with orchids..... hopefully the pictures will come out nice and we'll post them....

2008-01-06T21:10:00.000-08:00

Effect for the sake of being red.....

2008-01-05T09:40:00.001-08:00

Today we are creating cotton field for Hard Rock Cafe in the Times Square .... Cotton sticks, more cotton sticks.... and earth.....

we like projects like that - different and interesting .... and the gentleman who ordered t from us is very nice and it is always a plus.....

2008-01-03T07:20:00.001-08:00

The New Year started!

Orchids, roses, thistle, dusty miller, geranium, geranium and hyacinth..... for any occasion, for everyone... good arrangement for the ones looking forward to spring in this cold New York day...

2007-12-28T10:11:00.000-08:00

Getting ready for the New Year..... fruits and flowers....

2007-12-27T10:35:00.001-08:00

Alaric Flower design is a full-service design studio. We offer a unique blend of traditional elegance and modern chic, using the finest flowers from all around the globe.

We offer radiant color combinations and texture in unusual vessels.