Anaheim CA Flowers by Avante Gardens Florist
09 April 2007

Florists, Flowers, Moms & Memes

The A-list bloggers are participating in a cool meme around the theme of 'Why do you blog?" (It's a fascinating group of posts/relationships and you can follow the paths here.) 

Kinda goes without saying that we florists are a bit off the beaten path and unlikely to get tagged (except for maybe Rich Dudley, who straddles both the tech and florist worlds. :-) )

As far as why most florists blog, I can sum my own reasons up in two points:

1) Local florists have done a fairly weak job of defining what we do and differentiating ourselves from national wire services/order brokers. We really are different - and we can speak first hand about both the technical and emotional sides of the flower business.

2) Somebody needed to counter-balance all those flower/florist splogs on blogspot. ;)

I'm starting a meme among the florist/flowers bloggers and ask "What are your three favorite Mother's Day flowers and how did/does your Mom inspire you in the flower business?"

My answers:

Favorite Mother's Day Flowers:
1. Peonies - for their color and fragrance
2. Orchids - for their exotic nature and long-lasting qualities
3. Tulips - for their amazing textures, colors and nearly uncontrollable character

My Mom instilled a respect and love for flowers in her five children and showed us how much she cared for flowers by saving and drying many floral gifts over the years. She even had her bridal bouquet, from 1956, store in a hat box in the attic. Though not a commercial florist, she grew and dried many varieties from her garden and shared her talent for the design crafts with friends and family. From Mom, I truly learned about the power of flowers.

Now it's some other florists' turns to talk about their favorite Mother's Day flowers and their Moms so I'm tagging:

Rich and Kathy - The Bloomery
Eric - Everyday Flowers
Heather - Felicity Flowers 
Richard & Scott - The Flower Place
Kenji - Flowers Insolita

There isn't a big pool of florist bloggers but let's hope we can get to everyone by the time Mother's Day rolls around.

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# Felicity Flowers & Gifts » Mothers Day Flowers…A few of my favorite things! said:

PingBack from http://felicityflowers.com/blog/2007/04/10/mothers-day-flowersa-few-of-my-favorite-things/

10 April 07 at 8:38 AM
# Heather said:

Hey Cathy!!

Thank you for the sweet comment and the swift kick to get me back on track with my blog.  Ah, gotta love being the only employee at the flower shop...maybe I will get to sleep one of these days, maybe?!?!  Anyway, thanks again!!

:) Heather

10 April 07 at 7:20 PM
# Cheryl said:

hey Cathy;

You started an interesting memory train.

My three favorite flowers are:  Roses, Carnations and Lilacs..

All three of my favorites go way, way back to things that happened to me in my childhood.  My Grandmother Craig was a wonderful farm woman, who could grow just about anything with a wet ball of mud and a glass jar!  She would place a small stick of a piece of a rose in a mudball, and place int in the ground, and the jar over top of it.  My job, as a child, was to check the jars each day and report back to her the progress of her lastest rose trials.  She had many, many successes.  Her roses were always wonderful, and very sweet smelling.

Lilacs were and still are my Mother's favorite.  We had a large lilac bush (actually more like a tree) outside the kitchen window of our small country house.  When the lilacs started blooming,  the fragrence drifted into the house thru the open kitchen window and surrounded us as we slept at night.  Um.......Wonderful!

The carnation goes back to a very early tradition in my little Lutheran country church.  Every year, on Mother's Day,  we always recognized  a number of Mothers who came to church that day.... such as:  the oldest Mom, the Newest Mom, the Mother with the most children in church, and so on.  Each Mother who got special recognition had the honour of hearing the Sunday School kids sing a song, or receite a poem dealing with motherhood.  All mothers that day received a carnation -- red or pink if your mother was still living;  white if your mother had passed away.   All of the Moms that day just beamed!

For me, more than any other day this year, Mothers Day will be very special.  My Mom, for the first time in my life, will be many many miles away from me.  I won't be able to hug her or spoil her in person.  I will, however, send to her  or three favorite flowers -- roses, carnations and lilacs!

Thanks for allowing me to get sentimental on you!

Cheryl

11 April 07 at 4:46 PM
# avantegardens said:

Cheryl -

Carnations! Love it! They're such a wonderful, misunderstood blossom and I hate that they've been over-used and abused to the point they're considered the riff-raff of flowers. I too remember the tradition of carnation colors in honor or memory of Moms. I'm sorry you can't be with your Mom this year but she'll surely enjoy the flowers. (Cheryl's link is throwing an error for me - here's her wonderful flower shop in Pittsburgh, PA  - http://www.parkwayflorist-pgh.com/ ))  

Heather -

Isn't 'Multitasking' a florist's middle name? ;) You may be busy, but like I said on your blog, if every professional florist was as knowledgeable, passionate and articulate as you, this industry would be much better for it.

11 April 07 at 8:06 PM
# Flowers insolita Blog » Florists, Flowers, and Moms said:

PingBack from http://flowers-insolita.com/blog/2007/04/29/florists-flowers-and-moms/

28 April 07 at 9:36 PM
# Gina Maschek said:

Hi Catherine,

Thank you for this wonderful topic! I picked it up on my blog at www.beyondblossoms.com. Check it out some time. I'd love to get more involved in the florist blogger community. In fact, I didn't know there was one!

Looking forward to new postings!

Best,

Gina

10 May 07 at 7:52 PM

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