Your Local Florist in Winchester & Beacon Hill Boston

Same Day Delivery throughout Boston & Beyond. Your Neighborhood Florist since 1981.

What is Rouvalis up to?

Sean MurphyComment

Now that the Holidays are over Rouvalis is in full swing creating the 2020 Valentine’s Day Collection. Each January we get together with our team of designers to create a beautiful collection for Valentine’s Day, many things need to be taking into consideration during this process.

The Process:

  • Create a color scheme: Each year new and exciting trends are set outside of the floral industry are created. We call it the trickle down effect, fashion is a major contributor, styles and colors always seem to find their way into the floral industry. We need to be on the forefront of knowing what is trending to better serve our clientele.

  • Next step is contact our trusted network of farms located around the world, to ensure certain flowers and colors will be available to us. Due to the volume we need to guarantee what we have advertised we will be able to deliver, this literally starts at the ground level.

  • We then will receive large deliveries of flowers, greens and vases for our designers to start the creative process. Once the floral from the delivery is processed we will turn our attention to floral we may be unfamiliar with, certain flowers in one color may last longer than others, certain roses may open faster than other, some flowers tend to grow taller. This way we know what to expect of the flowers.

  • The Designing is the next step, we go through numerous iterations of arrangement styles, colors, vase until we feel we have produced a beautiful, lush, long lasting arrangement. Once we have a collection designed we then will photograph the arrangements for our website, social media and marketing.

Scientists discover what is thought to be world's largest flower in Indonesia!

Sean MurphyComment

Scientists have discovered what is thought to be the world's largest flower in Indonesia.

It comes as a rafflesia plant measuring nearly four feet in diameter has flowered in a West Sumatran forest.

According to the Natural Resources and Conservation Center in West Sumatra this makes it the largest flower ever recorded.

The massive flower is four inches wider than the largest ever rafflesia flower which was discovered in the same region in 2017, CNN Indonesia reports.

The rafflesia plant is parasitic, sapping water and nutrients from a host plant to survive.

Its flower is only open for one week before it rots and dies.

Tips For Long Lasting Flower Bouquets!

Sean MurphyComment

Choose the Longest Lasting Flower Varieties

When it comes to life in the vase, not all flower types were created equal. The issue gets more confusing as some flowers that have a long blooming time in the garden are not necessarily good candidates for a long vase life. Among popular cut flowers, some of the longest lasting include alstroemerias, carnations, chrysanthemums, orchids, and zinnias. Some cut flower favorites with a shorter shelf life include dahlias, gladiolus, and sunflowers. When choosing flowers with a shorter vase life, get the most days possible by growing and cutting your own blooms, or by choosing a florist that sources local blooms whenever possible.

Remove Foliage

Stripping leaves seems like a laborious step in the bouquet preparation. After all, who will notice a few leaves tucked away in a vase? However, once these leaves are submerged underwater, they will act as a Petri dish for all the nasty microbes you want to keep out of your flower arrangement. If you favor roses harvested from the garden, invest in a thorn and leaf stripper to prevent painful pricks.

Condition Flowers

Proper flower conditioning will ensure that your stems fill up with water, not air, prolonging the life and fresh appearance of the blooms. The most important aspect of conditioning is to cut the stems underwater. This prevents air from entering the new cut. Use warm water to facilitate hydration. Now you can quickly transfer your flowers to the prepared vase.

Change Water

Even with the use of floral preservatives, the water in a flower arrangement can get slimy after a few days. Keep the fungi count down by changing the water in the vase every other day. While you’re at it, remove any faded flowers that are decreasing the water quality. Don’t forget to add your floral preservative to the fresh water.

Beware Flower Combinations

The sap of some flowers can cause a reaction in other flowers that will lead to a shorter vase life, spoiling your arrangement. If you purchase conditioned flowers from the florist you don’t need to worry about this, as the sap flow will have ceased, but fresh flowers from the garden can be a problem for the first several hours after harvest. In particular, the sap of daffodils can damage other flowers in the vase. After conditioning, keep your daffodils separate from other flowers overnight to ensure that the fresh sap won’t affect your arrangement.

Avoid Ethylene

A rotten apple will spoil the bunch, as they say, but the ethylene gas emitted by ripening fruits can also harm your fresh cut flowers. This hormone acts on flowers by triggering aging in plant tissues, which you will see as wilting and browning of your blooms, as well as the shedding of petals. Even if your flowers are in an office, far from fresh produce, there are other sources of ethylene in the environment, including cigarette smoke and car exhaust. Another great reason to stop smoking!

Respect Gravity

You picked up your bouquet before the dinner party, and placed it in the refrigerator for safekeeping while you run errands. Now it’s time for the guests to arrive, and you prepare to arrange your flowers, only to discover that the flowers are bent curiously upward on their stems, as if straining toward the heavens. You place the flowers in the vase, where they remain cocked sideways until the party is half over. What happened? Some flowers, like snapdragons and gladioli, are geotropic, meaning they always attempt to grow upward. Prevent this by keeping your flowers in an upright position.

Consider the Light

Your bouquet would look lovely in the kitchen window, if you were a bird admiring the arrangement from the outside. The flowers always seem to be straining toward the window, away from your view. This tendency to bend toward the light is called phototropism, and tulips and sunflowers are the most common cut flowers that exhibit this behavior. Keep arrangements with these flowers away from strong sources of light to maintain the uniform lines of the bouquet.

We're Back With A Post Holiday Collection!

Sean MurphyComment

After a short two days off we’re back to normal hours until New Years Eve & New Years Day.

The post holiday collection is now live on our website and we seem to already have a best seller in the short amount of time it has been live.

Glacier:

This swoon-worthy ensemble is inspired by a coastal color palette. Blue hydrangea, white calla lilies, green amaryllis, and seasonal berries are swept up in a sea of green hydrangea, blue thistle, and ornithogalum.