Especially for Halloween, it seems like decorations are bigger and bolder this year. Traditional costume parties are being cancelled, and families are concocting socially distanced candy dispensing. With so much being taken away, it’s all about decorating your yard! Walk into any party, craft, or pop-up Halloween store, and the options are endless. There are low-budget items that will easily fill a yard like packs of tombstones , giant spider webs, and home-made ghosts. There are also high-ticket items like animatronic dragons that will have you unsheathing your Valyrian Steel sword.

For Thanksgiving, or if you just want a classic fall look, mums and pumpkins are great options. Lidl has great prices on mums, pumpkins, and flameless candles. Local farms are getting creative this year like the self-driven hayride at Cox Farms. While you’re there, pick up some mums and pumpkins and gourds. Choose a corner next to your front door or the base of your front steps and arrange your bounty wrapped in seasonal ribbons.  My college friend had limited time and budget but came up with this cheery display!

However your family is celebrating this fall, we hope it continues to be full of love and laughter…and lots of fall decorations!

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When the pandemic first started, the number of sympathy arrangement orders we were getting was fairly normal. Usually we are not aware of the cause of someone’s passing. The first order I took for a COVID-19 related death pulled me up short. The virus was real, and it was here.

I remember talking to a friend that night and said, “So tomorrow we should get a ‘new baby’ order because that’s just how things go.” Sure enough, the next day I took an order for a white and pink arrangement going to new parents of a precious baby girl. The circle of life.

The last couple of weeks have been different though. I finally ran a report comparing the number of sympathy arrangements last year to this year. The numbers started doubling this year at the beginning of June. By the beginning of August, the numbers started tripling over last year’s numbers. Of course my first thought was that the increase must be COVID-19 related. I remembered a segment I had seen on the Today Show about staying happy and healthy during the pandemic.

The segment was an interview with “The Blue Zones,” author, Dan Buettner. He has met and studied the oldest, healthiest, and happiest people around the world. According to Buettner, “”We know that loneliness is as bad for you as smoking so if you’re chronically lonely, which is to say you don’t have at least two friends you can count on a bad day, it shaves about eight years off of your life expectancy.” Do you know the busiest time of year for sympathy arrangements? Between Thanksgiving and New Years. If our business is any indication, it would appear that loneliness certainly does impact life longevity. The pandemic is having an effect. And probably in more ways than one.

That just means we need to reach out more and love more fiercely to counteract the isolation all of us are experiencing!

After feeling emotionally overwhelmed by the number of sympathy orders I had taken, I made the last delivery of the day on Saturday. It was a bright and sunny green and yellow arrangement. Trevor had taken the order so I didn’t know what it was for. As I drove up to the house, I passed a handwritten sign that said, “Baby Bump Ahead.” It made me smile. The circle of life. Yes, there had been quite a few deaths last week, but life and love were in full bloom. That provides the balance.

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I am resilient, born to be brilliant

You’ll see me grow right through the cracks, yeah

‘Cause you’re gonna watch this flower grow right through the cracks

We’ve all seen those photos of ugly canvases of grey concrete and asphalt with that one brightly colored flower somehow growing out of a crack from the middle of nothingness. I think this is one of the reasons flowers always brighten someone’s day. Among a flower’s many wonderful qualities, they are so resilient that flowers grow right through the cracks!

Mint growing under our shop’s front door

Another testament to flower resiliency is in my pollinator garden at home. A couple of springs ago I sprinkled a package of wildflower seeds over part of the garden. Because I had no idea what seeds were in the mix, I downloaded an app for my phone called Picture This. The app identifies a plant using a photo of a leaf or flower. Using the app, I was able to distinguish flower seedlings from weed seedlings.

My pollinator garden is well-established now so I know what flowers will re-emerge each year. When weeds do come up, I quickly pull them. A couple of weeks ago, a plant started to come up that didn’t look like a weed so I took a photo of it. Picture This identified the random plant as a Peruvian Zinnia. As part of that initial sprinkling of wildflowers, the zinnias came up the first year. I haven’t seen any since until this year and not until the summer was almost over! Talk about resilient!

2020, especially, is a year that we all need an extra dose of good vibes. Flowers are the perfect way to deliver joy and resiliency to family and friends. Not only do they epitomize resiliency themselves, according to studies, flowers bring positivity and productivity to both men and women. So don’t forget the men in your lives! As Katy Perry sings, ” Won’t let the concrete hold me back, oh no…’cause you’re gonna watch this flower grow right through the cracks.”

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Hitting Home

A long-time childhood friend of my sons is supposed to get married in September. I received a message from his bride letting us know that they are trying to figure out whether, how, or when to move forward with their wedding. I could hear the crushing disappointment as well as the angst of trying to make the perfect decision in her voice.

While I have watched customers wrestle with these hard decisions, hearing this young lady’s voice put a lump in my throat. Not only are we providing the flowers for her wedding, we’re also attending the wedding, and my sons are in the wedding party. This one really hits home because the decisions she’s facing are ones she’s trying to make on behalf of families that she loves, including my own.

So this letter is to her and to all the 2020 Brides out there.

Dear 2020 Bride,

Breathe… you are loved and cherished and appreciated.

Whatever you decide will be just perfect! This is your day, and the start of your new life together as a married couple. It’s the beginning of your family. What is right for some families might not be right for your family, and vice versa, and that’s OK!

While this pandemic affects everyone, the way it affects everyone is different. Some need to be totally isolated, others are comfortable venturing out with masks and social distancing. You won’t be able to accommodate everyone’s needs, but everyone will understand. Take that pressure off and just focus on what brings both of you the most peace and joy. Whatever brings you peace and joy will also bless everyone else that you love.

Love is what brought you to this moment. Love is what will get you through this moment–love for each other, love for family and friends, love from family and friends. As you look back on this day from some vantage point in the future, memories of being a 2020 Bride will be truly special ones.

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It’s been a bit since I’ve written. I guess I haven’t had an ideas tugging at my sleeve lately. Today a gentleman walked in. Even with his mask on, I could see he was smiling broadly! “I need birthday flowers!” he announced animatedly. People like this just make my day. On top of that, it’s Friday! TGIF!

We have a lot to be thankful for, besides the fact that it’s Friday!

Since the lockdown, our doors have remained opened. Adjustments needed to be made, but the shop has never closed.

Customers are starting to walk back in. After having so many weeks of just Trevor and I in the shop, walk-ins are a breath of fresh air! We don’t carry what we call cooler arrangements right now–arrangements that are pre-made and sit in the cooler for people to choose from. There were no walk-ins to buy cooler arrangements. Customers understand and are willing to wait or come back. It’s a win/win situation! Customers get exactly what they want in the price range they prefer, and we don’t have to throw away arrangements.

Weddings are coming back. One of our favorite things is working with happy couples as they plan one of the most special days of their lives. We’ve missed that! About two months ago we got our first of many orders for just a bouquet and boutonniere for the bride and groom getting married in their living room. Then the orders were for a bouquet, boutonniere, and small arrangements for tables as home weddings grew in size. Next weekend we’ll be providing the full array of flowers for our first off-site wedding since the pandemic started. Definitely something to be thankful for!

Our long-time customers continue to support us. I love catching up on birthdays and anniversaries! During the last several months, we’ve met so many new customers that have became regular customers. The lockdown brought them to us because they couldn’t celebrate Mother’s Day of Grandma’s birthday in person, but now that they’ve found us, they plan on coming back. Our Fantasy Floral family continues to grow, and that is definitely something to be thankful for!

So TGIF, and we hope you and your family have lots to be thankful for as well!

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Turn the TV Off

It’s not that I really need to know when stimulus checks will be deposited, it’s just that it’s all over the news! That has been my biggest take-away from this lockdown. It is time to turn the TV off. We are glued to the news, and that is not a healthy thing. 24 hour cable news has to find something to fill its airwaves with. We get bombarded with a lot of opinions because there are not enough actual news stories to fill a 24 hour period.

Plant a Garden

That brings me to my garden. Since I won’t be watching much TV, I will actually have time to plant and take care of my garden! I’m excited about that. I had a great time browsing an online seed catalog last week. My go-to seed source has been the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, but it seems everyone else must have had the same idea I did. They are so swamped with orders, they aren’t accepting any new ones until they get caught up, but that’s a good thing! It means there will be lots of gardens this year using sustainable heritage seeds. It also means Southern Exposure is thriving during the lockdown. For me, it meant I got to meet another cool sustainable seed company called Truelove Seeds. My seeds arrived on Saturday with a handwritten note from Owen. “Thank you Margie! Seeds and Solidarity, Owen.”

If you have never bought seeds from a seed exchange, you should! One of the seeds I bought are for Pippin’s Golden Honey Pepper. Why Pippin’s? “Horace Pippin, the now-famed painter, shared this variety (and many others) with H. Ralph Weaver in the early 1940s in exchange for bee-sting therapy. Weaver’s grandson (William Woys Weaver) found the seeds in a baby food jar in his grandmother’s deep freezer a couple decades later, many years after his grandfather’s death, and was able to reintroduce via Seed Savers Exchange.” With a backstory like that, I can’t wait to plant them and be part of this history. Yup! I’m in love with Truelove!

Write a Novel

I recently watched a TED Talk about trying something new for 30 days–The 30 Day Challenge. It was inspiring! The author, Matt Cutts, “went from desk-dwelling computer nerd to the kind of guy who bikes to work…for fun!” When I was a little girl, I dreamed of becoming a novelist who lived in Australia on a big ranch with lots of animals. I got the animal part! Cutts mentions that one of his 30 day challenges was to write a novel. I’ve never written a novel, but the extra free time that this lockdown is providing is the perfect time to become the novelist I’ve always wanted to be. Who cares if it’s a good novel or even a published novel? I can accomplish one of my dreams.

Save the World…or at least a pangolin

A good college friend of mine, Maria Diekmann, started an animal sanctuary in Namibia many years ago called Rare and Endangered Species Trust (REST). Someone brought her a mama and baby pangolin that were rescued from poachers. Mama was too traumatized from the abuse of traffickers and fled, but she had protected her baby so well that Honey Bun survived and thrived under Maria’s care. That was when I first learned about pangolins, how highly trafficked they are, and thus how endangered they are. They are often described as the most trafficked animal you’ve never heard of. That has all changed thanks to the coronavirus. Pangolins and bats have been linked to this coronavirus’ origin.

Many are hoping this will lead to crackdowns on the sale of pangolins at wet markets and hopefully bring them back from the edge of extinction. When will stimulus checks be deposited? I’m not sure. If you are looking for something to do with it though, there are lots of organizations like Maria’s that would grateful for the help!

What’s Next?

I know I’m not the only one that has been forced to reassess life and priorities. We all want to get to the other side of this as soon as possible. In the meantime, we have learned to slow down. Spend time with our children. Zoom and Facetime with our parents and grandparents. We have time to plant gardens and go for walks and write novels. My hope is that we take the lessons we are learning with us to that other side.

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Game Day Basket

Even though it’s not football season, you can’t go wrong with chili and cornbread! This gift basket comes with onions, red bell pepper, carrots, celery, and garlic. Chop and saute the fresh ingredients to make a yummy version of sofrito. Add the included canned tomatoes and beans as well as water (or your own broth if you prefer) and simmer for 30 minutes. While the chili is simmering, mix up the included box of cornbread and pop it in the oven. We love to top our chili with onions and avocado so we’ve included both for you. You can also add your own shredded cheese or tortilla chips. Dinner will be on the table in no time, and you didn’t even have to put your shoes on!

(The printed recipe for this vegetarian chili from Cookie + Kate is included)

Bollywood Basket

We love Indian food in our family so of course we had to include this vegetarian version of Tikka Masala with Basmati rice. Start by making a pot of the included Basmati rice. The gift basket comes with onions, tomatoes, garlic, and fresh ginger root as well as a jar of garam masala to create that unique masala flavor. You’ll also get a head of cauliflower to chop and roast with your own oil and the garam masala. Add the included chickpeas, canned tomatoes, and coconut milk, and let it simmer.

(The printed recipe for this vegetarian Tikka Masala from The Wanderlust Kitchen is included. The recipe can easily be made vegan by substituting your own coconut oil.)

Family Game Night Nachos Basket

When my boys were growing up, they loved to play Monopoly. Our Monopoly games lasted for hours, sometimes days, so snacks were a must! This gift basket comes with all the ingredients you need for a delicious spread of vegetarian nachos. You’ll get fresh tomatoes, onions, jalapeno, and lime, to make a pico de gallo. Layer with the included tortilla chips, black beans, corn, sliced black olives, avocado, and queso cheese dip, and you’re ready to become a real estate tycoon!

(The printed recipe for the pico de gallo and serving suggestions is included)

Netflix Popcorn Basket

What is better than movies while you’re stuck at home? Movie and popcorn! We have just what you need in this fun gift basket. You’ll get pre-packaged microwave popcorn and the ingredients for 4 kinds of popcorn: taco, ranch, everything bagel, and pumpkin pie for something sweet. Just add your own butter and grab your remote!

(The printed recipes for each flavored popcorn are included)

Leave the shopping to us! Order a gift basket delivery for yourself or a loved one. We offer no contact delivery as well as curbside pickup. #InThisTogether

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Dried Flower Projects

Drying the Flowers

There are three ways you can dry your flowers, depending on how you want to use them. The easiest way is to hang them upside-down in a well ventilated area. You can hang a single stem or several stems held together by twine or rubber bands.

A second way to dry flowers is to press them between absorbent paper using old books or an actual flower press. There are lots of instructional videos online showing how to do this, including this one from the University of Illinois. The best flowers for this kind of drying method are ones that don’t have a lot of bulk to them and will flatten easily. Daisies, snap dragons, black-eyed Susans, gladiolas, will all press nicely. Flowers like roses or carnations that have a bulky base do not press well.

A third way to dry flowers is using silica gel. This is a great method if you want the dried flowers to essentially look the same as the fresh flower version. You can get silica gel at any local craft store or through Amazon. Again, there are a lot of instructional videos online, including this one from MonkeySee.

Projects Using Dried Flowers

Epoxy Resin

A.K. Art & Creations

One of my good friends is a jewelry maker and just started experimenting with resin. Epoxy resin can be purchased at any local craft store or through Amazon. She has come up with gorgeous pieces from pendants to earrings. She has also created some beautiful serving trays and bowls. The resin allows her to embed different objects such as metallics, shells, and flowers.

A.K. Art & Creations

What to do when stuck at home with your children? Take a walk around the neighborhood and collect wildflowers. There are a lot of apps you can download to your phone that will identify the flower for you. Wildflowers are intrinsic to our pollinators so it’s a great opportunity to help children understand the roll pollinators play. Some wildflowers are a source of energy for hummingbirds, some food for caterpillars, and some, like milkweed, are the sole provider of shelter and a place to lay eggs for the monarch butterfly. It’s amazing what flowers you will see once you start looking for them to collect.

Preserving Bride’s Bouquets and Corsages

A lot of brides want to preserve their wedding bouquets. The two best methods for this are the hang and dry method for a vintage look or the silica gel method if you want the bouquet to look similar to the way it did on your wedding day. The stems of a bouquet are wrapped very tightly. While air and silica gel will be able to circulate between the greens and flowers on the outer-most edges of the bouquet. Air and silica gel will not be able to get between the wrapped stems. Over time, moisture at the base of the bouquet and between the stems will cause mold and deterioration.

With both methods, you will need to take the bouquet apart, dry the individual stems, and reconstruct the bouquet. While there are several local companies that preserve bouquets, it’s a fun project to do, especially when stuck at home. Just make sure to take a photo of the bouquet before you take it apart and at various points during deconstruction. These photos will help you put the bouquet back together again once the stems have dried.

You can do the same thing with your corsages from Prom or Homecoming or Daddy-Daughter Dances. If you have purchased your corsage from us, the stems are already individually wrapped with floral tape and should dry well without deconstruction. I still have my corsage from my high school Prom. I hung it upside down from my mirror the night I got home. It’s a bit brittle now so I have it in the original clam shell, but I love the vintage pink color…and of course the memories!

Memories

Another project you do with your children is more long-term. I have several copies of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I loved exploring nature and “adventuring” as a little girl so this was a well-loved book. One of my copies is a big heavy large print book that became my flower press when I was a little girl. I chose it because it was the heaviest book I had that wasn’t a Bible. Now the choice seems so poetic–wildflowers from my adventuring pressed into a book about adventuring. I included little notes with the flowers indicating where and when I collected them. Now I can flip through the pages of Huck Finn and relive my own adventures.

One of the first arrangements I made at Fantasy Floral included peonies. I wanted to save the peonies as a memory and because they were so full and gorgeous. I just wrapped kitchen twine around the end of the stems and hung them from the curtain rod at our sliding glass door. As the peonies dried, they did lose some color, but that’s what I like about them–the vintage color look. It gives the room a cottage feeling.

Once you have dried your flowers, the projects are endless! You are only limited by your imagination in what to do when stuck at home!

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DIY Bouquets

Price

If you are local, Fantasy Floral sells DIY bouquets starting at $20. These bouquets are being offered at wholesale prices much like you’d get at a grocery store but of higher quality and longevity. Let us know if there are certain colors or flowers you’d like included. We’ll put together a wrap of flowers in a wonderful array of colors, textures, and height, along with greens. Vases are an additional $5 if you need one.

What You’ll Learn

If you have children and are wondering what to do when stuck at home, get a different bouquet for each of them! It’s a great way to learn about flowers. You can look up where they come from and how they are grown. Many flowers are significant in indigenous cultures for herbal remedies and spiritual properties. You get art, agriculture, history, geography, and anthropology lessons all in one!

Tips and Tricks

Believe it or not, making a gorgeous arrangement that will last isn’t quite as easy as just throwing stems in a vase. You’ll have a blast learning though… and a greater appreciation for the talent of floral designers! We are working on a video that will walk you through the basic steps of flower arranging. Here are some tips in the meantime.

Greening

Start with “greening” your vase. We usually use bakers fern, also known as leather leaf fern, and then add the fancier greenery such as eucalyptus or salal at the end for texture. The foundation of greens is not intended to be a focal point. It provides the framework that hold the flowers in place. This is accomplished by placing the bakers fern in the vase at all different angles. The planes of the face of the leaves provide the grids that hold the flower stems.

Cutting

As you insert each flower stem, you’ll want to cut the end of the stem. Cut the bottom of the stem at a sharp angle. This does two things. It provides more surface area for the stem to absorb water It also keeps the stem from sitting flat on the bottom of the vase which prevents it from absorbing water. As you are beginning, we recommend cutting the stem a bit longer than you think you’ll need. It’s easier to make the stem shorter, but you can’t make it longer!

Arranging

Start with focal flowers, then filler flowers, then specialty greens. Use long thin flowers such as snapdragons to create height and visual interest. Many designers like to work in groups of odd numbers. Perhaps do a triangle of three tall flowers towards the top of the arrangement and a pentagon of five flowers towards the base of the arrangement.

Making the Flowers Last

Bacteria growing in the vase water is a flower’s greatest enemy so make sure to start with fresh cold water. Once you’ve finished your arrangement, there will probably be debris in the water so you’ll want to replace the water. There are two ways to do this. Grab the arrangement tightly in one hand to keep the design intact, empty the vase, refill it with fresh water, and replace the arrangement back in the vase. Or you can place the arrangement under a faucet and let water run into it until the old water is replaced with the fresh water. Do this at least every other day, and your flowers will last much longer!

Have fun!

Stayed tuned for tomorrow’s What to Do When Stuck at Home (part 2)!

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A customer called this morning asking if we were open and delivering flowers today. We are, and we are! We intend to stay open unless/until it is no longer safe for us or for our customers. I did want to give you an update on the impact coronavirus has on flower shops, and Fantasy Floral in particular.

Flower Supplies

Did you know that 80% of the cut flowers distributed in the United States come from another country? Because of this, we might not have the exact flowers you are looking for as flights, and therefore cargo space, are starting to be restricted. Right now, the effect on supply and price is minimal, but this will change the longer the travel restrictions are in place.

We order flowers from wholesalers all over the Mid-Atlantic, but most of them are located in Maryland. Maryland Governor, Larry Hogan, has ordered all non-essential businesses to close by 5pm, Monday, March 23, 2020. This means our greatest source, but not the only source, of flowers has been curtailed.

Impact

Weddings and events are being cancelled as local governments ban large gatherings. This really affects florists, including us. While we love the everyday deliveries for birthdays, anniversaries, and just ‘cuz, large events are a huge source of income for florists. Events require specialty flowers that are ordered just for that event. Flower orders are placed long in advance, and our wholesalers usually need 7-10 days to cancel specialty orders. The immediate impact coronavirus has on flowers shops are abrupt event cancellations where flower orders can’t be cancelled. The long term impact will be the cancellation of events which affects the whole floral industry.

Coming Together

The floral community and our local community are coming together to try to minimize the impact of the coronavirus. Where we can use the specialty flowers we have ordered, we are trying to. Where wholesalers are able to sell the specialty flowers we have ordered to other florists, they are trying to. Our desire is that all parties–customers, florists, and wholesalers–are still financially viable when the danger of the coronavirus is over!

What We Are Doing

As a business, we are following CDC hygiene guidance including washing our hands and making sure all vases are sanitized before being delivered. In addition, we are wearing masks and nitrile powder-free gloves during our no-contact deliveries and offering curbside pick-up. As with other small businesses, we are finding the balance of meeting our customers’ needs, using wisdom to keep all safe, and financial survivability. Our shop hours are modified right now so check Facebook, Google, or Yelp for our most updated hours. We check email after hours so if you need a more immediate response, just email us!

For our family, humor is an important part of getting through tough times. In that spirit, we present a limited time arrangement* that we are calling, #LetsWipeThisOut (pictured at the top of this post). The arrangement comes in two sizes. The small has nine rolls, and the large has twelve rolls. If you know of someone who needs a laugh…or toilet paper…give us a call!

*No hoarding was done in the production of this arrangement. We are buying the toilet paper based on orders received.

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