Flower of the month: ranunculus

I've decided to start a new series on this blog: each month, I will highlight one of my favorite flowers of the season.  

For the month of March, it's the beautiful ranunculus, a predominantly spring flower. I absolutely love ranunculus. They resemble small garden roses and peonies with petals like tissues and a mild scent. They come in a variety of colors except for blue and black. They have delicate and hollow stems, which are unfortunately prone to breaking. It's also prone to rotting, so the water level in the vase needs to be kept low. Water should also be changed often. If cared for properly, their vase life is 7 to 10 days. They're high-maintenance flowers but so pretty and definitely worth it! 

 at the flower mart

boutonniere 

an arrangement with stock and dusty miller

I love this video!

Just sharing a really beautiful, well-done flower video I found on the internet!


The Life of flowers (Жизнь цветов) from VOROBYOFF PRODUCTION on Vimeo.

Orchids at the Chicago Botanic Garden

I recently attended the Orchid Show at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Orchids are one of my favorite flowers, and the botanic garden did such a wonderful job celebrating one of the planet's largest and most diverse flowering plant families. The Orchid Show is month-long exhibition ending on March 16. What a great way to chase the winter blues away!

Los Angeles Flower District

Last October, I had the chance to visit Los Angeles to see a friend I haven't seen in a long time. I made sure to visit the city's famous flower district while there. The Los Angeles Flower District is the largest market in the country (six blocks long! 200 wholesalers!). Any flower you can think of, they have it there! I opted to take a tour with Flower Duet, which is a floral design studio owned and operated by two sisters that offers tours once a month. They've been in business for about 15 years so they obviously know their stuff. The tour was two-hours long, and I learned a ton about purchasing flowers (like their favorite vendors, how to tell if the flowers are as fresh as can be, etc). Plus, it was so great to finally see flowers that I have only seen in magazines and blogs in real life!

While there, I made sure to take pics of my favorite flowers. I took so many. Here are just a few of those pics:

stock (i love their sweet scent)

dahlias (the favorite of many 'cause for obvious reasons)

green trick dianthus, so quirky and fun! 

ranunculus, so dainty and pretty 

succulents!

Marché aux Fleurs (Flower Market)

There are many things to love about Paris--fantastic food, rich history, beautiful architecture, etc. But for the floral enthusiast, its daily flower market is guaranteed to be a source of joy. It’s located in Île de la Cité (specifically, on Place Louis-Lepine between the Conciergerie and city hall), and it rocks. It has been around since 1808 and besides delivering floral eye candy, it is a peaceful refuge from the thousands of tourists visiting the nearby Notre Dame.