The Flower Resources Issue

Hap­py Red, White and Blue! Blue Del­phini­um look great with Nigel­la and Glad­i­o­lus! Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

This month, Casey and I will share our favorite flower resources. In this newslet­ter, we list:

• Online flower libraries we reference
• Favorite flower suppliers
• Whole­sale flo­ral suppliers
• Flo­ral design books
• Flo­ral magazines

So read on to see all our favorite places to research, shop and gain new insights into our flo­ral industry.

Happy July 4th Flowers!

Blue and white Hydrangeas work well with creamy Vendela ros­es and red Free­dom ros­es with umbrel­la ferns shoot­ing out like fire­works! Flow­ers by Flower Duet.

Hooray for the Red, White & Blue!

We had a busy June full of brides and grooms and look for­ward to cel­e­brat­ing the 4th of July with our fam­i­lies. We wish you all a hap­py Inde­pen­dence Day! Need more inspi­ra­tion for Red, White and Blue Flow­ers? Head over to #Amer­i­can­Flow­er­sWeek to see a lot of won­der­ful ideas to dec­o­rate your fourth!

Our arrange­ment for the 50 States of Amer­i­can Flow­ers for #Amer­i­can­Flow­er­sWeek — June 28 — July 4, 2016. Flow­ers by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Kit Wertz

Summer Yellow Flower Inspiration

We cre­at­ed some love­ly flo­rals for a pri­vate din­ner at The Ter­ranea Resort in June. Here are a few arrange­ments from that evening. Mut­ed yel­lows were paired with light pinks and vibrant greens to cre­ate a mod­ern gar­den look for the Catali­na Ter­race and Lanai. The accent col­or was Turquoise which took its cues from the Pacif­ic Ocean hori­zon view.

Yel­low gar­den ros­es work with mock orange blos­soms, figs, blue­ber­ries, rasp­ber­ries, spray ros­es, gre­vil­lea, calla lilies, hyper­icum berries, rose­mary and Limo­ni­um. Flow­ers by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Blush­ing Bride Pro­tea and white hyper­icum berries add a tex­tur­al com­ple­ment to fluffy yel­low gar­den ros­es and mock orange blos­soms. Flow­ers by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

We cus­tom dec­o­rat­ed these Ital­ian ter­ra­cot­ta pots with gold paint and dis­tressed them to make to look like gold leaf. Rasp­ber­ry branch­es add to the “farm-to-table” look for the evening. Flow­ers by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Bridal Bouquet from a Recent Wedding

Here are a two snap­shots of a love­ly wed­ding at Way­far­er’s Chapel in Ran­cho Palos Verdes, Cal­i­for­nia tak­en by PhotographyByPaulina.com. We designed the per­son­al flow­ers and all of the flow­ers for the recep­tion which was held at Los Verdes Golf Club.

Pho­to Cred­it: PhotographyByPaulina.com. Bridal Bou­quet by Flower Duet.

White hydrangea makes up the focal flower for this bou­quet along with medal­lion euca­lyp­tus. Pho­to Cred­it: PhotographyByPaulina.com. Bridal Bou­quet by Flower Duet.

Our Favorite Online Flower Libraries for Reference

By Kit Wertz

Blush­ing Bride Pro­tea is a unique look­ing flower that is read­i­ly avail­able in mid sum­mer here in Los Ange­les. Some­times it is more white than pink; how­ev­er, in this pho­to it’s very pink.

Last week, I taught three dif­fer­ent flower work­shops and answered many ques­tions about where we research dif­fer­ent types of flow­ers, where we pur­chase the flow­ers and how to find the right vas­es or con­tain­ers for the vari­ety of flo­ral events we pro­duce. As I start­ed to list them, I real­ized that this would be a good list for every­one on our newslet­ter to have and so, here they are.

While you may not live near Los Ange­les, many of the flower lists here will help you find a new flower to look for in your local mar­ket. When we start­ed our busi­ness in 1999, there were many vari­eties of ros­es and seed­pods rarely seen at our local marts, but now, many grow­ers in our own back­yard are pro­duc­ing a wide vari­ety of won­der­ful flo­ral products.

Sier­ra Flower Find­er — This is a won­der­ful all around resource to find flow­ers by name, col­or, sea­son­al avail­abil­i­ty and variety.

Cal­i­for­nia Cut Flower Com­mis­sion  — Find flow­ers and green­ery grown in Cal­i­for­nia for the eco-con­scious choice.

Mayesh Flower Library - One of our local go to whole­sale ven­dors with dis­tri­b­u­tion cool­ers around the coun­try offers a very com­pre­hen­sive library of Amer­i­can grown flow­ers and import­ed flow­ers. This web­site also has a great library of how-to videos.

Sun Val­ley Group - Sun Val­ley is a large grow­er in Cal­i­for­nia. Many grow­ers offer a great library of the flow­ers and greens they pro­duce which is a won­der­ful ref­er­ence, too.

Resendiz Broth­ers — A large Pro­tea grow­er in San Diego coun­ty, their web­site offers a won­der­ful pho­to library of the huge options for Pro­tea, Leu­ca­den­dron and more! They grow over 33 types of Pin­cush­ion Pro­tea and the web­site shows when each type is in season.

Florabun­dance — This is a large flower whole­saler in Car­pen­te­ria with a won­der­ful flo­ral library that we use a lot to see what is in sea­son and available.

Wholesale Flower Suppliers

Los Ange­les Flo­ral Dis­trict Tours by Flower Duet.

There are so many places to buy whole­sale flow­ers in South­ern Cal­i­for­nia. Here are many of the ven­dors we fre­quent. Some only sell to resellers but the Los Ange­les Flower Dis­trict is open to the pub­lic. We offer tours of the marts on Sat­ur­days. See our Tours page for more infor­ma­tion on our next tour.

• South­ern Cal­i­for­nia Flower Market
• Orig­i­nal Los Ange­les Flower Market
• Orange Coun­ty Whole­sale Flowers
• Slow Flow­ers Directory
• Mayesh, Inc.
• Mel­lano & Company
• Florabun­dance
• Dramm & Echter
• Resendiz Broth­ers

Floral Supplies: Wholesale, Online & Retail Sources

Gold “Elsa” Vas­es from Save On Crafts

There are many places you can find a great vase or con­tain­er includ­ing The Dol­lar Tree, thrift stores and flea mar­kets. But, if you need a lot of one type of con­tain­er, it’s best to head to a whole­sale flo­ral sup­pli­er where you’ll be sure to find just what you desire.

Here are our local favorites, plus some online retail­ers we use and some retail chains that have sim­ple and afford­able chic con­tain­er designs.

NOTE: When you need flo­ral tools like shears, flo­ral tape and spray paint for flow­ers — stick to the whole­sale flo­ral sup­pli­ers. They are your best resource for spe­cial­ty sup­plies for florists.

• San Diego Flo­ral Supply
• Flo­ral Sup­ply Syndicate
• GM Flo­ral Supply
• Michaels & Moskatels
• Save-On Crafts
• IKEA
• Cost Plus World Market
• Pot­tery Man­u­fac­tur­ing & Distribution

Magazines For Flower Inspiration: Trade and Consumer Facing

Kit wrote the first per­son cov­er sto­ry for this mon­th’s Bloomin’ News mag­a­zine — the trade pub­li­ca­tion for The Orig­i­nal Los Ange­les Flower District.

For month­ly inspi­ra­tion, sub­scribe to a mag­a­zine! Whether you are an enthu­si­as­tic flo­ral arranger, pro­fes­sion­al florist or just like to look at flow­ers along with a few good recipes, there is a mag­a­zine for you! Here are the ones we read and con­tribute con­tent to on occasion.

• Bloomin’ News
• Flower Mag­a­zine
• Gar­den Design
• Florists’ Review
• Flow­ers &
• Wed­ding Flowers
• Sun­set Magazine
• Bet­ter Homes & Gardens