We Want to Win!

Each year, The Austin Chronicle (Austin's free, weekly newspaper: The Austin Chronicle) reveals its "Best of [enter year here]" results as voted by readers, consumers, locals, and crazies alike. In 2008, we won Best Florist in Austin. It was unexpected and great. It meant  a lot to us being voted as a fan favorite even though we weren't trying for it. This year, we are trying. Begging, if you will. We want to win again.

Why should you care if we win Best Florist? What does this mean for you? Just think about it. Think about how cool it would be to shop in your favorite local flower shop that has been recognized by fellow Austinites as being the best in Austin. Cool, huh? Yes. Absolutely freaking awesome! Plus, we can add another banner to the outside of our shop so everyone who drives by will see our winning trophy of accomplishment.

Voting is so simple, you'll want to do it again and again, (but you can't, since they only allow one vote per person). Just go here: click me to vote! and under "Services" find "Florist" and vote for us! Please and thank you. If you enjoy voting for your favorite florist, then you might find it fun to continue voting for other things, such as favorite bathroom, movie theater, weatherpeson, scandal, and much more! It's so much fun filing in the blanks, I almost voted for Jim Spencer twice (my favorite weatherperson)! Have fun voting, and know that we truly do appreciate it.

Hail the Conquering Dutch! Part 2: In Love with the Modern World

While the Dutch East and West India Companies may no longer be around, the reign of the Dutch in the flower market still persists. Currently, Holland is still the titan of tulip production with an annual worth of one billion dollars (Stewart 109). Geographically, Holland is located barely above sea level. In order to allow more room for growing tulips, the Dutch drained lakes and built construction canals, expanding the acreage of agricultural land to more than 50,000 acres. The bulb fields bring in more than 1.5 million tourists a year and Holland occupies more than 65% of the world market in the production of tulip bulbs.

Gerbera daisies are also a very popular flower among florists and growers alike. Native to Africa, Asia, and South America, it is the fourth most popular flower sold at the Dutch market and Americans alone buy over 200 million stems a year. Gerbera daisies established themselves in the floral business during the 1980s when bright colors and clean, modern shapes were fashionable and they still continue to be very popular. Terra Nigra, a company based in the Netherlands, has been breeding gerberas and roses for over 40 years (Terra Nigra). With the variety of color options available, it's no wonder why many people, consumers, florists, and growers alike, fall in love with the happy gerbera.

Not only do tulips and gerberas account for much of what is sold on the Dutch market, but roses also have a hefty stake in the flower market. Roses alone account for over $700 million worth of trade, double the amount that is spent on the number two bestseller, chrysanthemums. The U.S. alone makes up about half of the worldwide demand for roses by buying about 1.5 millions stems a year. Native to China, northern Europe, and the United States, a true wild rose has five petals and grows only in shades of red or pink. However, a florist rose (one that has been bred) appears to have many petals in a wide variety of colors. In reality, it too has just five true petals with the rest of the petals being modified stamens (though one couldn't tell the difference of petals by looking). The hybridizing of roses began in 18th century Europe and eventually, floral designers were given an engineered rose with a higher petal count and a longer vase life, as opposed to a fragrant smelling, five-petaled wildflower that one probably wouldn't even recognize as a true rose.

For centuries, it [the rose] was something beautiful and romantic and wild. Eventually, in our own crude way, we started to cultivate it, selecting for the brightest color and the most elegant shape, figuring out how to grow it indoors and make it bloom in winter. But now, just in this last century, roses have become science experiments, lab rats. Now the perfect rose is one that can live in a factory and be fed by a machine. It is built to suit the needs of the grower, not the lover. Does that change anything...Does it kill romance? (Stewart 133).

Stewart, Amy. Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 2007.

Hail the Conquering Dutch! Part 1: Tulipmania

It seems only natural that when one thinks of flowers, ultimately, one must consider the Dutch. The Dutch East (and West) India Company dominated the world trade business in spices, fur, sugar, and coffee during the 17th and 18th centuries. Reaching out into the continent of Asia for colonization purposes, the company also extended themselves into the world of flowers, creating a market for flowers where one did not exist (at least in Europe). Most would consider the tulip the most well-known bulb that the Dutch have cultivated. It is widly believed that in 1593, a botanist by the name of Carolus Clusius arrived in Holland with bulbs of an unknown wildflower from Turkey and Persia: the tulip (Stewart 106).

Clusius began cataloguing tulips by color, bloom, size, and quickly tulips became all the rage in Holland, the most desired flower among gardeners and growers alike. Not only were they much desired, tulips would sometimes "break," (resulting from a virus which was not realized until the 19th century), which meant they might form stripes or produce feather tips. Because no one had anyway of knowing which bulbs would break, they were purchased for extremely high prices, escalating phenomenly in the 17th century, creating the frenzy we know today as tulipmania. At auction, tulip merchants would continually outbid one another, knowing they could simply sell their bulbs the next day for a higher price. A single-priced tulip bulb could sell at auction for the price of a Dutch canal house. In 1637, the tulip market crashed at the Dutch auction, with tulips becoming worth less than 5% of their original price, culminating in widespread bankruptcies for anyone who had invested (Stewart 109). After tulipmania, the price of one bulb decreased from about 1,250 gilders to a much more reasonable 1 gilder, allowing the Dutch to continue dominating the flower market with their tulips.

*Field tulips from Holland are available late January- early-May of each year.

Stewart, Amy. Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 2007.

Summertime Texas Flowers: Buy Local!

As a a small independent business located in Austin, TX, we understand that our customers enjoy buying locally. Not only do they enjoy the thrill of a local blossom, but they will specifically look for what's local, which means finding certain stores that carry their locally-wanted product. It's always nice to know where your products come from, so in the spirit of this new earth-movement of grow local; buy local, I would like to tell you where our locally-grown flowers are born. (Keep in mind, not all of our flowers are grown locally, but from March-Novemeber each year, we carry a wide variety of Texas blooms).

Texas Specialty Cuts: Arnosky Family Farm

Located in Blanco, TX, this wonderful family farm has been operating since 1990 in the Texas Hill Country. Not only do they grow a wide variety of beautiful flowers, they also grow vegetables, heirloom and specialty vegetable plants, hardy Texas annual and perennial plants, and they even make artisan cheese. Owned by Pamela and Frank Arnosky, the farm is located on 130 acres with a field season in operation from March-November and greenhouse production all winter long. Their flowers range from natural Texas flowers such as coreopsis and black-eyed susans, to elegant flowers such as oriental lilies and calla lilies.

Concerned with organic growing practices and sustainable farming, the Arnoskys use organic compost, a complex, living soil that improves plant growth, retains soil moisture, improves soil structure, and helps prevent topsoil erosion. They also allow their uncultivated areas to grow naturally, allowing it to be a habitat for beneficial plants, insects, and animals. It is important to know who grows your food, plants, or anything for that matter, and small family farms are an integral part of local sustainable farming. Buying from a locally-owned family farm helps Ben White Florist further cultivate and participate in local sustainability.

During this time of year (early summer), when you come by the shop, expect to see beautiful sunflowers, asiatic lilies, snapdragons, delphinium, zinnias, coreospsis, rudbeckia, yarrow, queen anne's lace, gerbera daisies, mini gerbera daisies, and much more!

Texas Specialty Cuts: http://www.texascolor.com/index.html