365 Days of Floral Education - Days 151 - 155

As part of our 125^th Anniversary celebration at Stein Your Florist Co. we are sharing a year of floral education, November 1, 2012 thru October 31, 2013. Each day we will post something new on our Facebook page to share our knowledge of our favorite things, flowers and plants and we'll be updating our blog every 5 days or so. No need for pencils and notebooks, just sharing some simple lessons in floristry.

Day 151 - A mark of purity and grace throughout the ages, the regal white lily is a fitting symbol of the greater meaning of Easter. Gracing millions of homes and churches, the flowers embody joy, hope and life. Whether given as a gift or enjoyed in your own home, the Easter Lily, along with other Easter blooms, serves as a beautiful reminder that Easter is a time for rejoicing and celebrating.

Day 152 - Today begins the month long Cherry Blossom Festival in Philadelphia, a celebration of the beautiful blooms and Japanese culture. Our cherry blossoms are just beginning to open, but will soon bear a bevy of beautiful pink petals. Sakura, the Japanese name for cherry blossoms, serve as a metaphor for the ephemeral nature of life.

Day 153 - Although different tulip colors carry distinct meanings - yellow tulips symbolizing cheerful thoughts, white conveying forgiveness and purple representing royalty - a Turkish legend may be responsible for the red tulip's symbolism. The story goes that a prince named Farhad was love struck by a maiden named Shirin. When Farhad learned that Shirin had been killed, he was so overcome with grief that he killed himself - riding his horse over the edge of a cliff. It's said that a scarlet tulip sprang up from each droplet of his blood, giving the red tulip the meaning "perfect love."

Day 154 - Roses have colorful names such as Be My Baby, Tooth Fairy and Deja Blue. The ones pictured here are called Mount Everest. They have even been named honoring famous people from John F. Kennedy to Queen Victoria, and Ronald Reagan to Dolly Parton. To make the name of a rose official, it must go pass stringent testing by the American Rose Society, the governing organization in the United States for authenticating and registering the names of new rose cultivars. A new hybrid rose breed is a cultivar. In order to have the cultivar officially sanctioned and the name registered with the ARS, the cultivar goes through lengthy examinations conducted by the ARS testing how the rose performs in a variety of garden settings and conditions. The cultivar breeder applies to a governing body, such as the ARS, the Royal Horticulture Society of London or the International Rose Cultivar Registration Authority. The registering organization requires detailed information about the rose's lineage and characteristics. There are extensive guidelines regarding the name. The IRCA requires the cultivar name have no more than 10 syllables and no more than 30 letters or characters. The trial and name registration process with any accredited organization can take 2 years or longer for an application to be approved or denied.

Day 155 - The 11th wedding anniversary flower, it's said that the tulip's velvety black center represents a lover's heart, darkened by the heat of passion. With the power to rival roses in their red variety and the sweet charm to express simple joy when yellow, it's no wonder that in addition to all its other symbolism, in the language of flowers, a tulip bouquet represents elegance and grace.

Spring is Upon Us

By Jessi Rose - Stein Your Florist Co.

One of my favorite times of the year is finally here, Spring! I love Spring, for it brings us tons of beautiful flowers and gorgeous weather to enjoy them. With a warm breeze caressing the air and the sun in the sky, we can all spend more time outside in nature, before Summer’s hot temperatures drive us back indoors to our air conditioning. It is time to start forgetting the cold days of winter, and start warming up for Spring-time fun!

My most beloved Spring-time holiday is Easter, for all of the fun flowers that come with it. Lilies, daisies, azaleas, daffodils, chrysanthemums, tulips, and hyacinths… the list goes on and on. Though many of these flowers can be found at your local florist year round, they wait until the vernal days are upon us to being to show themselves in our backyards and public gardens. Their popularity peaks for Easter celebrations and we gather them from nature, bringing them into our homes. Centerpieces grace family dinner tables for holiday feasts and we decorate our houses with our favorites of these delicate blossoms to enhance Spring-time gatherings with loved ones. 

To extend the temporary beauty of Spring blooms I recommend starting a garden. While a cut flower’s life may be all too short, live plants growing and thriving will share their beauty much longer. Though this will require a bit more work than picking up a bunch of blooms from your local flower shop, the results will be lovely. One of my absolute favorite parts of Spring is seeing my garden come to life with white azaleas, red cosmos, pink begonia, yellow daffodils, purple hyacinths, orange gerbera daisies - a rainbow of blooms. There are endless possibilities when it comes to your personal garden, because you choose what flowers are grown. You can have an endless amount of flowers all through the season, and even through Summer. Take time to plan your garden well and you will be treated to lush blooms until the first frost.

Spring is a wonderful season when it comes to the beauty of the great outdoors. We watch Winter’s dreary trees transform into luscious verdant vegetation. Through the environment’s annual metamorphosis we are able to observe nature’s beauty as plants grow and blossom into the flowers we know and love. Before the, all too brief, days of Spring are taken over by the heat of Summer use this time to enjoy the floral bounty and the warm weather. Get outside as the sun glows longer, and the flowers grow bigger, and most of all just remember... to have a happy Spring!