The Holiday Countdown

     Here we are, one week from Thanksgiving again.  I hope you have your menu ready and are on your diet now so that when the big day is here you can eat a lot!  We are getting ready this week for a busy next week.  Usually this time of year people are sending their loved ones something festive for the holiday such as a cornucopia or a beautiful centerpiece for the table.  This is a cornucopia on the left that I  made using artificial fruit with fresh flowers.  It really brightens up a room with the Thanksgiving theme.

 
     If you receive an arrangement for the holidays you will need a few helpful tips to help keep it beautiful as long as possible.  Most importantly, water.  Fresh flowers will not last without water.  Make sure and water your arrangement at least once a day. At home, I add one cap full of bleach to a gallon of water.  The bleach keeps the bacteria from growing, but will not harm the flowers.  Be very careful though and use the bleach sparingly.  Depending on how warm your environment is, you might need to water twice a day.  Find a spot for your arrangement and leave it there, if possible. The less it gets moved around the better.  Fresh stems are fragile when they are bumped and jostled around.  Make sure there are no heat vents blowing directly on your flowers.  The warmer the air, the faster your flowers will age.
     As the arrangement begins to age you can pull out the old flowers and rearrange the remaining flowers to manage the bouquet.  This will give your arrangement the effect that it is not aging as fast.  Fresh flowers are easy to move inside the bouquet.  Simply, pull out the stem clip it then put the stem back in the oasis or green foam.
     Hopefully these tips will help you keep your flowers beautiful.  I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and that you will consider adding some fresh flowers to your home to welcome your guests.
Sherry
   

   

A Florist's Point of View

     I have been thinking a lot lately about Black Friday.  When did this happen?  When did consumers decide this was a great idea?   I am sure the employees of the giant corporations do not receive any benefit from being at their appointed station at some crazy hour of the night.  I have not even mentioned the battle for the on-line shopper.  On my Amazon account they have been advertising for weeks. Trust me, those random on-line businesses have no interest in you or if what you bought is what you wanted.  My thought is what if all those shoppers shopped locally in the East Texas area.  Think back to 1975, the choices were limited as to where you would buy your gifts.  The Flower Box and The Flower Market were both flourishing businesses then.  

     One of the things I try to tell people about my job is the relationships we have with our customers go beyond the surface.  We have all been working here for years and years.  We have sent baby door bows to the hospital and we have made wedding bouquets for that same baby years later.  When you shop locally your community benefits from the bond of friendship.  A florist is not the only store that could tell this story.  Think of a baker that made the wedding cake, the baby shower cake, and then the wedding cake for the baby.  Our customers are more like family, they have known us since we were all young. Haha.  

     These are pictures of both shops in the mid 1970's.  This brings back a lot of memories for me.  Who would have ever thought all these years later I would be working here all my adult life.  

     I know as a consumer in today's world it might be hard to believe, but we enjoy seeing our customers. When they call or come by the shop there are always the obvious questions of "how have you been?" etc.  We love to celebrate with them, we also mourn with them.  Some of our customers have been coming to The Flower Box since they were in high school and going to their senior prom in 1950.  I guess what I am trying to convey to you is not all purchases can be made on a random internet site.  Yes, I have a website and I receive a lot of orders through it.  But, at the same time I have many many customers call from my website to discuss what they want to purchase.  You see, a floral purchase is special.  It is different than just ordering a blouse off of a website somewhere.  When you purchase flowers, the designer is going to convey your feelings into a special bouquet.  This cannot be bought off a website after someone in a foreign country has handled or mishandled your order.  The foundation of my job is to take your words, your thoughts, feelings, ideas and emotion and put that into a physical form for the world to see.  Whether you purchase roses, plants, tapestries, angels, a cross or something you imagined and we created, it is special to you.          When you purchase from a local florist, bakery, pharmacy etc you know you are in good hands because you have a relationship with them.  

     A picture on a random website does not always mean your local florist can create what a computer generated.  This generation of flower buyers have been tricked.  A computer can produce an amazing picture.  Our real life flowers have flaws, spots, in other words they are not perfect.  Please take this into consideration when you receive a bouquet that I created after you ordered from tim buck two.   I try my best, but I am no comparison to computer perfection.

     This holiday season as you are gathering your presents please consider shopping local.  There are a multitude of shopping adventures withing a 100 mile radius of Tyler.  You would have the most unique gifts under your tree.  We could create the most beautiful centerpiece for your table.  The main thing is you would create a relationship with people in your community you would have never met through a computer screen or on a black Friday mad rush.  You will stimulate the East Texas economy, you will help local families provide jobs for the community.  There are numerous reasons to shop local.  My favorite one is so we can meet you and celebrate all the upcoming events in your life.  Consider shopping local this coming year as much as you can.  We do not need to send our $$ to foreign countries so they can pay their phone operators a meager portion and then the corporation keeps the rest.  I hope if you read this you can understand a little more about our mission here.  If you can imagine it, we can create it.

Sherry

Remembrance Day Poppy (Nov. 11)

     Remembrance day, also known as Armistice day is celebrated November 11 of each year.  Originally this day was set aside to honor the soldiers who died in WWI in the European campaigns.  The poem "In Flanders Fields"  describes some of the worst fighting in Europe.  The end of WWI hostilities came on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month when the Treaty of Versailles was signed.  In America we honor living veterans on Veterans Day which coincides on November 11th.  Congress changed from Armistice Day to Veterans Day in 1954.  A WWII veteran petitioned Congress to have a day to honor all Veterans.  His name was Raymond Weeks.  He hosted the first Veterans day celebration and continued to hold an annual celebration until he passed in 1985.




     This poem made the pinning of the poppies a tradition for years.  The bright red poppies that grew wild in the fields where the hardest fighting had taken place bloomed every year.  For four consecutive years the flowers were so trampled by the fighting that they could not bloom.  When they were able to return to blooming we are told that there were more blooms than anyone had ever seen.  They were first used by the American Legion and then the tradition spread across the world.  The poppy symbolized the soldiers memory of war and the blood covered fields.

  

http://www.americanmeadows.com/the-red-poppy

     This link will take you to an online store that you can buy poppy seeds.  It also explains the difference in different kinds of poppies.  They are native to Europe and North Africa, but I'm sure you could get some started here.
     I can remember as a child different organizations selling felt or paper poppies to wear on your lapel. These ladies would be outside of the grocery store with their table selling all the paper and felt flowers they had made.  We would always purchase some and proudly wear them on Veterans Day.  Wouldn't it be to get this tradition started again.  On Tuesday November 11 we could all wear our poppies.

This is a picture of a felt red poppy.  If you look on Google or Pinterest I'm sure there are numerous tips on how to make these.

     This year on Veterans Day let us all take a moment to honor these men and women who fought for our freedom. Shake someone's hand and tell them Thank You.  Also, take a few minutes to learn about the meaning behind this day.
Sherry