Flowers In The CityYvette

WOW WOW WOW!!

Flowers in the City…and by ‘City’ I mean the one and only Big Apple – New York City. Whenever I travel I am always drawn to check out the local flower industry – in particular seeing the difference between regions and how they trade. When I visited New York City in 2014/15 it was no exception to this.

One of the glaring differences between how we trade here in Australia as compared to New York, is the very convenient way that all the wholesale flower suppliers are in one area. So much so that the block is actually known as ‘The Flower District’. Most of the flowers available are imported from The Netherlands and are of impeccable quality, and there is a huge variety to be found. Not only are all the suppliers within one area, the streets are also amass with flowers, plant material and potted plants.  As my trip coincided with Christmas and New Year, fresh Holly with stunning red berries and spruce were available on mass along with many other Northern hemisphere goodies that we can only dream about down here in Australia!

What I found most interesting is that after 9am the wholesalers are open to the public. The Florists have been in from around 4am onwards, and have snapped up all they need (at wholesale prices). They then take it to their studios or (less commonly in Manhattan) stores. I found that the majority of florist studios are within the flower district and are not open to the public.

Florists are aware that what they do best is to arrange flowers and that this is where their money is to be made. I met florists with contracts for many hotels and restaurants. In fact – one floristry business (with a team of florists) services just one restaurant each week. They have so many arrangements in this particular restaurant that it takes 7 florists to fill it each week! I was in awe of their work, with one section of the restaurant ceiling being covered in hanging pomanders of all sizes. While another area had hall stands covered in arrangements, and walls had wreaths with the diameter of 2 metres. It was just spectacular!
The few Floristry stores that are in Manhattan are pure treasures. One of my favourites was in a book store that leads into Club Monaco clothing store. It is small by our standards, but very sweet.  They sell mostly pre arranged flowers rather than cut bunches.

I did come across one very clever lady with the most sustainable business (which I love) called ‘Petals on Pedals’. The owner travels out to the farms each week and only sources locally grown flowers and materials, then the arrangements are delivered by push bike around Manhattan. This would be a great idea (and very possible) for an enterprising florist back here in Australia (in either Melbourne and Adelaide in particular).

So – if you are thinking about a trip to NYC my recommendation is that you DO NOT MISS the Flower District.