Archive for June, 2009
Posted on June 29, 2009 with No Comments
Michael Jackson
29.08.1959 – 25.06.2009
On Friday the 26th of June, Britain woke up to the tragic news of Michael Jackson’s death. Millions of people nationwide were in shock and headlines were reporting everything from a pharmaceutical drugs overdose to the accusing ‘London gigs killed Michael Jackson’.
We now know that he died of cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead in the UCLA Medical Centre in Los Angeles at 10:26pm GMT. His death was most likely related to the combination of pharmaceutical drugs and stress.
The news hit London by storm – as everyone knows, Jackson was scheduled for 50 gigs at the o2 arena which started in July, and only 5 days before his death tickets had been reopened to o2 customers. While fans in LA gathered by the UCLA Medical Centre and fans in New York gathered by Harlem’s Apollo Theatre, London had no specific place to mourn the loss of the pop legend that most of us have grown up listening to.
Hearing that fans had begin to lay flowers by the Lyric Theatre in Soho, I went down later in the day to lay a bouquet. Whilst buzzing with people, it wasn’t as busy as I thought it would be and soon realised crowds were gathered in Trafalgar Square and Liverpool Street Station. The atmosphere in Trafalgar Square was electric – there must have been at least 2000 people singing ‘Beat It’ in unison, dancing and shouting ‘Michael, Michael, Michael!’ well on until very late Friday night.
It’s been four days now since the King of Pop’s death, but it will be an eternity before he and his music are forgotten.
Posted on June 27, 2009 with No Comments
Often it just takes a small change in your daily life to bring forth big changes in you general mood. Flowers can be very helpful in this process.
Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan is the author of a book and website called “Apartment Therapy,” where she offers twelve steps to making your home more pleasant. Putting a new batch of fresh flowers on display in your home is one of these steps.
Summer is the best season for doing this – flowers grow in the garden, and they are readily available at flower farms. Of course, doing this makes your home more beautiful and it also gives you an activity to look forward to each week.
Flowers offer a constant beauty, no matter how bad your days are. However, it is important to remember to care for them correctly, they need fresh and clean water each day, giving them a longer life. The more well-cared your flowers are, the more of a therapeutic nature they have.
[Via: examiner.com]
Posted on June 26, 2009 with No Comments
Manhattan’s Flower District is famous for its variety of flowers, from the simplest to the most extravagant. The recession has had a fairly big impact on sales. Though the streets are packed in this area, the stores are full of flowers but not many buy them.
Paradise Plant owner Sees Kumar says, “It’s a very, very hard time right now. Very tough time.”
Kumar’s been in business for 25 years, and at this point he has a lot of inventory and not much business. It seems that regardless of his efforts people just do not have the money to be spending it on flowers.
Absolutely Wild owner Peter Cunningham says, “We’re still doing a lot of charity work, but as far as the corporate side has gone, it has completely disappeared as of last year and that has affected 50 percent of our business.”
John Grafenecker, a floral designer, says about customers, “They don’t want to hear about lilies and orchids and beautiful centerpieces. People are retreating, they’ve got to do good at their daughter’s wedding but not as luxuriously as it would have been.”
But flower merchants are optimistic, they are just seeing this as tough times and are hopeful that things will get better. Most are saying they will weather the economic storm regardless of some of the economic losses they have experienced.
[Via: ny1.com]
Posted on June 25, 2009 with No Comments
As a part of the plan to reduce costs in Worcester, a decision was made to stop moving the grass. Though most would see this as a horrible decision, it has had some positive results.
The cutting of grass has not been stopped altogether, it has just been reduced, and the result of this is that roadsides are blooming with wildflowers.
Loads of spring flowers are blooming all over the city and ecologist Phil Williams says he has seen the common spotted orchid growing on one verge.
Warwick Neale, council park officer says, “On a local scale letting the grass grow from March to June has given the opportunity for spring flowers to bloom. We have spotted ragged robin, campion, common buttercup, creeping buttercup, ox-eyed daisy, orange hawkbit, bird’s foot trefoil, cow parsley and the cuckoo flower which have grown from seed left dormant in the soil.”
Though some residents have complained about the long grass and possible dog mess, other residents like Mr Williams, who was involved in ecological surveys of the past, are pleased.
“In previous years, with the grass being regularly mown, there hasn’t been an opportunity for them to flower.” Mr Williams went on to say that some orchids can take up to 15 years to flower.
[Via: berrowsjournal.co.uk]
Posted on June 24, 2009 with No Comments
People flock to Edith Williamson’s farm in Fauquier County during June and July to pick flowers. Some of the most fragrant flowers are found here, often drying them out to use in baking or to add beauty to their homes.
Lavender is mainly grown at this farm, and the long purple stalks of “Croxton’s Wild” have already started growing.
William says, “we like Croxton better than Provence for cooking because it’s sweeter.”
Her daughter Deborah Williamson lives in the neighboring house and she also has a hand in the business along with her husband and son. So lavender has become business for the whole family.
Edith says laughing, “A lot of people will come and say, ‘where are the fields of lavender? This is it. We didn’t have a market for more. Now that Debbie has gotten our lavender into Whole Foods, we plan to expand.”
Though most of the lavender farms found in the United States are in Washington, California and Texas, there are very few on the East Coast, but Virginia holds its place with the competition as it has very good growing conditions.
“The winter in Pennsylvania are too cold, and the summers in North Carolina are too hot,” says Edith, “We’re perfect but we can’t compete without west.”
Growing lavender not only brings beauty into the lives of others and their own, and it also brings this mother and daughter closer together.
[Via: fredericksburg.com]
Posted on June 24, 2009 with No Comments
Whilst thinking about what I would write about today, I decided I would highlight what I believe to be one of our most overlooked items. It’s my personal favourite – a combination of the East with hints of East Asia sneaking out, running parallel to our beautiful European pink roses.
The juxtaposition of the two together is extraordinary. To me, it represents globalisation: the changes in the world we have and will be seeing in the future. The synergy between the two is explosive. Each stem, a representative of a different continent who work side by side every day. It gives me endless amazement to see just how much beauty and belonging can be conveyed in a flower display, which is why I love working in a florist!
East Meets West is only available for London delivery, but if you would like a similar item in a bouquet form, we can create one to be sent nation wide – call us for more information on +44 (0)20 7738 4049. It’s the perfect present for a graduating student who may be from East Asia or someone who has originally come from there.
Posted on June 23, 2009 with No Comments
Daisies remind of the freshness of spring and summer, their white petals can remind us only of this.
They are a favourite among perennials, Shasta daisies are at their blooming peak at this time of year. They were created in 1890 by Luther Burbank, who gave them their name after Mount Shasta, found them close to his home.
Daisies are in fact a type of chrysanthemum. The name of this flower comes from Old English, “day’s eye,” which refers to the way these flowers open and close with sunshine.
These are some of the easiest flowers to grow and they offer plenty of blooms. A bit of deadheading is needed to bring out their maximum during the growing season. Daisies are good for bouquets containing only this type of flower, and they have been known to make other types of flower wilt.
[Via: examiner.com]
Posted on June 22, 2009 with No Comments
If you want more excitement and colour in your garden, butterflies are the key to achieving this. But in order to get them to come you have to choose native plants, and luckily in the United States there are nearly 400 native flowers to choose from.
These flowers provide both nectar and shelter for butterflies. Large butterflies like the Monarch like flowers that have flat tops like daisies, coneflowers, and zinnias — these flowers offer them a place to have a seat and a sip of nectar. Butterflies generally enjoy flowers with spikes of closely spaced small flowers like the liatris or the yarrow’s round topped flowers, and every single butterfly loves the colour purple.
The scented blooms of the echinacea coneflower is a favourite of the Black Swallowtail. “Blue Fortune” hyssop has long tubular flower, which will attract Monarchs in flocks during the summer. Butterfly weed this flower from June through August, and this is also the place where Monarch likes to lay its larvae. Swallowtails also love Black-eyed Susans, which grow abundantly and are great as cut flowers.
[Via: Chicago Sun-Times]
Posted on June 22, 2009 with No Comments
Last Friday, we delivered flowers to Amélie Mauresmo at Wimbledon. And it took us over three hours to locate the correct location to drop the gift! Our driver was sent back and forth within the compound, driving from the first gate to the second, back to the first and around again. The security guards had no clue where anything was to be sent and consequently we lost a driver for three hours on a busy day!
Understandably, Friday was a busy day as well at the All England Club: preparation taking place, organisor’s busy organising, events people setting up. But have they managed to sort everything out for today’s opening?
Today, the 132nd annual Wimbledon Championships begin. 10% fewer strawberries have been sourced (and rightly so- the sale of strawberries in Britain in the last 12 months has dropped by an alarming 9.2%!) and the price has been frozen from last years to ease the hit on credit crunched fans. Organisers still expect to sell 2000kg of strawberries and 7,000 litres of fresh cream, alongside 12,000kg of fresh and poached salmon, 17,000 bottles of champagne, 100,000 pints of beer, 30,000 plates of fish and chips, 135,000 ice creams and a whopping 300,000 cups of tea and coffee.
So while all the front end organisation seems to be doing well and surviving the credit crunch, have they cut back on the staff that are the backbone to such a highly anticipated event? Only time will tell!
Posted on June 20, 2009 with No Comments
The “Urban Native” exhibit, designed by Doyle Scapes from Dublin won gold at the Bloom Festival this year.
This landscape design company had a humble start in Dublin working only in the area, but with this win they have extended their services to all of Ireland, France, Poland and the Czech Republic.
Qualified architect Colm Doyle from Doyle Scapes described some of the work the company is doing. A design office has been set up in Poland so that they are better able to cater to the eastern and central European market, for developers in particular. Landscaping services are also provided in Ireland, for residential projects both on large and small scales.
Colm went on to explain why it took so long for them to achieve success. The first year of the show they provided flowers for most of the competition so Doyle found it unethical to compete, but he added, “We didn’t want to step on the toes of our customers as such… last year we said we would have a go at it and this year we went one better and got the gold.”
This company plans to expand their range of projects further, and they already have a few things on the go, with hopes to enter bigger competitions next year.
[Via: The Epoch Times]
