Cotton Candy Hydrangea

These cotton candy - no, hydrangeas arrived at Queensberry on Tuesday and became instantly popular with our customers. They are as big as my head (!) and have a lovely name, "Limelight". Unlike some of the hydrangeas, these limelight hydrangeas are strong and vibrant. It is beautiful by itself, or as a part of the arrangements. I later found out that Limelights are the award winning hydrangeas! (winner of the 2008 Royal Horticulture Society Award of Garden Merit, and the PHS Gold Medal Award etc.).

But at Queensberry, they will be fondly remembered as that-huge-cotton-candy hydrangea!

Hydrangeas Everywhere!

Today was such a nice day for a bike ride, so I got on my bike and biked around my old hood, The West End. And I just happened to bike by this gorgeous hydrangea shrub. Look at the gradation of the color!! The beautiful shades of purple and pink! This is perfection. I stood there for a while and dreamed about what a beautiful bouquet I could make with these hydrangeas. I could pull a "cut and run" perhaps, but it's not my nature to do such thing, and plus, these hydrangeas were full of energy and life... they were soaking up the sun, breathing the fresh summer air, and were just happy to be there, I could tell.

When I was a child living in a suburb of Tokyo, I often stopped at a big shrub of hydrangeas on my way back from elementary school and collected poor little snails that were often found on the leaves. Hydrangeas, just like its name suggests, like water very much, and they signify the arrival of the rainy season in Japan. We believed that hydrangeas changed their color gradually from the beginning to end, but later I found out that it's actually the level of aluminum in the soil that controls the color of hydrangeas. So if they are transplanted, they change their color to match the soil's condition. Whenever I look at hydrangeas, they remind me of my childhood in warm and rainy Tokyo ...

They can be seen everywhere right now, so enjoy their beautiful blossoms while you can.

Gerbera Daisies & a Baby Shower

The march of Gerbera Daisy Cubes! They marched into someone's baby shower. In many cases at Queensberry, it's our customers who have much better ideas. Please keep them coming!

Birthday

Well, I had my birthday about two weeks ago and I was surprised by the nice gift our lovely staff at Queensberry prepared for me for the occasion; a piece of birthday cake. But not just any cake, it was a cake made entirely of flowers! It even had a little candle in the middle... how sweet! So on my birthday, I had my cake and... kept it for a whole week!

Japan Trip: Sakura and Starbucks

Some of you already know, but I was fortunate enough to go back to Tokyo in early March for a much needed injection of Japanese food and culture (and to spend time with my friends and family, of course). Well, I was also hoping to catch the early blossoming of Sakura (Cherry blossoms in Japanese). Sakura holds a special place in every Japanese person's heart. Japanese people find true beauty in what Sakura symbolizes - the transient nature of life. After much anticipation throughout the cold winter, the city becomes filled with the breathtaking views of cherry blossoms. But the flowers only last for at most two weeks and in many cases will end quicker due to strong winds or rain. It is that fleeting moment of beauty that reminds us of how brief but beautiful life is.

So like any smart business in Japan does, Starbucks Japan decided to take advantage of Japanese people's emotional ties to Sakura. And I have to admit, I was completely and utterly happy to be taken advantage of. The Starbucks Sakura Steamer (Sakura flavored sweet steamed milk) accompanied by heavenly Sakura Macarons that were sweet and creamy was everything I could have asked for in a macaron.

Unfortunately, I just missed the actual blooming of Cherry blossoms by a few weeks, but while in Japan I was reminded of how wonderful it is to celebrate the change of the seasons. And more importantly, how wonderful it is for me to be in a position where I can witness the change of the seasons so closely. Maybe that's why I wanted to become a florist.

Egg cups and glittery eggs

This Easter weekend was a lot of fun at Queensberry. Thank you to our loyal customers who choose us for your Easter flower treats! We filled our stand with Easter-colored mini berries and glass vase arrangements. We even did something new - mini Easter Egg Cups! Hope everyone enjoyed the cute line-up of the egg cups!

What we like to do at Queensberry is to have fun with flowers. Never mind the flower arrangement rules or traditional way of displaying flowers. Really, if you think about it, all flowers need is something that holds water... hence the egg cups... and empty wine bottles, jam jars, cocktail glasses etc. etc. Use your instincts, try a few different things and do what feels (or looks) right to you. You will start noticing more original and interesting ways to incorporate flowers in your daily lives. Happy Easter!

Cactus with an Attitude

I love cacti.

There is something about their cute look and their deadly spikes. They make me want to touch them, it's almost impossible to look at them and suppress the urge to touch them. I know it's not just me who feels this way. I brought these little ones to Queensberry this Saturday and there have been numerous people staring at them and they all eventually touch them and go "ouch!". Yes, I am people watching at my shop and it's quite interesting.

Despite their simple appearance, cacti are very sophisticated creatures with many features that enable them to survive in a dry environment. According to wikipedia, the reason why they are shaped like a sphere or cylinder is because they achieve the optimal shape - a combination of the highest possible volume and lowest possible surface area - so that they reduce the surface area through which water can be lost by transpiration. Very impressive, indeed.

They are also flowering plants. I remember my mom's cacti. She started off with one cactus she got from her mom, my Grandma. And it started to grow and reproduce at a really rapid pace. So fast that five years later, her sun room is full of baby cacti. One day, we noticed that there were tube-like things growing out of these cacti. A few days later, these tubes became beautiful purple flowers. Their color was so vivid and striking, it was hard to believe that they came from the rather boring looking green domes of cacti. To be honest, I don't know what these little cacti will grow up to be... what color are their flowers? How big are they going to be? It's a secret only their new owners will get to experience...