Since I remembered

To take photos of yesterday's work, I thought I'd share before the Memorial Day haitus .

And a few rabbit pics -

sleeping ZuZu

and Violet "La Goulue"

Memorial Day is movie day.  "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" or "Bridesmaids".  How's that for an incongruous mix?  Maybe we'll see both.

Score!

So, running around wild eyed gathering armloads of white and red peonies for Harvard Graduation today and out of the corner of my eye"

And I thought it was over!  Where are these in October?

Farewell to Daisy Grace

I've been holding off on this post for a few days.  This is supposed to be "a daily record of life in a small flower shop", but the record is connected to my other life as well. 

Here she is again for a last encore.  Goodbye My Girl. We'll always love you.

Roses and Roses for all!

Sunday's class was small and intimate with two women who are good friends.  I had decided to go ahead with a basket class even though working with oasis can be a challenge to the uninitiated.  These girls rocked it.  Our roses had arrived from Rose Story Farm the day before and I left them out all night to open.  We also had a small bunch of hothouse grown David Austin roses I tossed into the mix.  These were much 'cleaner' than the roses grown outdoors, but I love the little flaws and even the little bruises here and there.    The roses at Giverny and La Bagatelle are like that... blown and slightly rain ravaged.

So, C.A and Emily, here are your triumphs!!!

 

Two different personalities: two different styles.  I love the closely arranged basket, the tucked in ivy
 and tumbling roses.   The larger design is admirably bold for a beginner.  How pretty!

Flowers on the wane

Sunday morning with antsy dogs, but I'm holding firm on the couch with my post. My class starts at three: garden roses designed in baskets.
The sun came out yesterday, but I missed the shot of the light on my pink wisteria. The clouds are thinning though this morning; I might get a chance before I leave today. I did, however catch the last petals in my tree peonies. Not officially 'flowers in the house' week, and wish I was Irving Penn...still...something pagoda-ish about these.

My mystery peonies

Here's a little puzzle that many of you gardeners may be able to solve.  Look closely to the left of my open tree peony flowers:

These are herbaceous peony buds. They're growing out of my Tree peony and appeared the second year after I planted it.  They're beautiful pale pink single petals with yellow centers.  What's up?

Everything happens in May

I was writing a check at the market today and noticed the date. May 18th. Twenty-one years ago I arrived from California at Logan Airport with my dog Pickles to begin our lives as New Englanders. I'd been to Martha's Vineyard the previous summer where I'd met Joe. Nine months later Joe, Pickles and I settled into an apt in Providence, Rhode Island.

Eight years ago, I signed the final papers to purchase Bow Street Flowers where I'd been a designer for five years. May 18th. An auspicious date I think.

Best layed plans...

So big plans to photograph my garden were scrapped and ARE presently scrapped as the rain pours down, and it's cold to top it off.  Our world is a little crabbier for it;  the dogs are soggy and the house is damp.

I did, however save my opening tree peonies from the deluge on Sunday and photographed them in various states.  I'm praying for sun this weekend so they can open and show off in my scruffy garden.

When the sun comes out I'll try again.  My special plants are like movie stars stranded on an abandoned Hollywood back- lot.  Lots of cropping will be done!

Miss Figgy

Our fig tree had filled out nicely and continued to outgrow the window, so we put her outside on the porch to get air and sunshine.  Last week the Utility company tore up the sidewalk in front of the shop and some hideous toxic dust burned many of her leaves.

We brought her in for First Aid and bedrest and now she's back on the porch "dancing" in the wind!

Tomorrow:  photos of the Stars of my ruined garden.

houdini blog

My blog from Wednesday disappeared into.... somewhere.  Unable to post yesterday's blog from home, so posting here at work today.

My birthday was yesterday.  Chocolate cake and a gift certificate from my sweet and remarkable staff.

Mary Catherine and Deborah own the most beautiful restaurant in Cambridge.  The Soiree room looks like a Gustav Klimt painting... so amazing.  Such a good Birthday present. THANK YOU Gillian, Kristina and Ryan.

We're gearing up for Tuesday's Event at the Longfellow House.  I haven't designed a really big urn in a while so it should be fun.  Can't wait to take pictures.

Longfellow, my sixth grade crush

I met two very dear clients at the Longfellow House in Cambridge today. We were planning flowers for a garden tea there next week. It was a rainy day, but the gardens were lovely. I caught some squirrels on the porch where lemonade and cookies will be served. Just down the street "The Village Blacksmith" building serves sandwiches now and upstairs live drawing classes are held each Saturday. Do you know "The Song of Hiawatha"?

Testing testing

I stopped at Apple this morning to pick up a photo connection kit for my iPad so I could blog from it instead of lugging home my laptop at night. Had to download a mobile blogging app and with Gillian's help, I think I've got it going. Going to try putting in a photo from Mother's Day.

Mother's Day

In 1988, I was an unhappy graduate student in Comparative Literature at the University of California. On Mother's Day, a friend and I went down to Bloomers in La Jolla which, at the time, operated outside of Saks beneath an overhang on beautiful beige and rose flagstone. I was buying flowers for a neighbor and the flagstone was covered with buckets filled with flowers I had never seen before. The scene there was so achingly lovely that I decided right then to leave graduate school and begin my life in flowers: and I did. The next week, I was sitting on a plastic bucket in a Supermarket Parking lot cleaning mums. The smell of them still reminds me of that first week at My Flower Shop, a kiosk on a busy street in San Diego. It's one reason why I love Mother's Day. And how I love the month of May!!

Mother's Day winding down

Suddenly we're sitting down chatting about summer plans.  Is IT over?  Went to Market this morning and bought armloads of peonies which are almost gone now.  Drivers have a few arrangements left to deliver, but other than that, I think we're done. 

Our 'bright' offering.

Lilac, peonies and garden roses ruled the day.

ZuZu and Georgette are out eating Dusty Miller and Sweet Pea stems. This keeps them out of the bathroom. 

Happy Mother's Day to all who qualify biologically or in spirit.

Our Rose Story

The roses from Rose Story Farm in California came in today.  This place smells like a Perfumerie!
I love that they wrap them in brown paper and pack their little stems in wet moss for the trip to Boston.

And we've been starting with Mother's Day.  This from our favorite filmaker:

And these:

And from the other day, a Canadian Goose with an interesting pedigree.

My Wildebeast

Every morning I've gone to the Market during the last eight years, I see this guy on the fringe of the Franklin Park Zoo.  I finally stopped and snapped a few pics.  The 'girls' are in one pen and my guy stands by himself on the other side of the fence.  The girls run as a herd passed him and he runs with them. It's Spring, and there's a lot of that going on.  Here they are.

Seems a bit tortuous, hmm?

Ending one crazy week, beginning another one!!

Lots of good things happening.  We had a nice mention in the Boston Globe magazine last week: 13 Fab Florists.  Nice to be included with all the other florists I admire.  Also, a great short article in the Improper Bostonian with nice photos by Katie Noble and some nice writing about us by Liz Bromze. Thanks to them and to Marni Elyse Katz for plugging pink for us!

Our trip to Maine was slightly fruitful:  a pretty square terra cotta planter from England:

and another little English treasure: a cement hedgehog!

And here, I confess my weakness for old, loved, then abandoned stuffed animals.  This one is seventy years old and was well taken care of:  it's stuffed with excelsior:

It will probably come home with me. 

Mother's Day is accompanied by Proms, Performances and Teacher Appreciation.  I was supposed to take it slow today in preparation for the big day, but was up early to take the dogs out while I worked at a weedy flower bed.  Gardening is like reading a good book.  The more one reads it, the more one wants to read. The best part of gardening:  there is no end.  I weeded, and bordered a bed with bricks that Joe had piled into it so he could mow the border. (Bad Joe).  This has a Queen Elizabeth rose that I've pruned hard this year.  All my roses will need to be sprayed with an organic pest spray if I'm going to have blooms in June.  I'm planting Crane's Bill around it after Mother's Day.

Flowers are ordered for this week.  Bought some vases with a Mother's Day feel... new ones in turqoise, an old blown glass with an uneven flounce, little bud vases.