The Curse of a Dozen Roses

It was my intention to have this post all ready for release yesterday but wouldn't you know it -- Valentine's Day is a pretty busy day for florists!

In honor of Valentine's Day I have decided to discuss "the curse of a dozen roses".

Right now you're probably thinking to yourself "what in the wide wide world of sports is the curse of the dozen roses"?!  Well my friends, it's something that even I was unaware of until a customer brought it to my attention.

I have always been of the opinion that a pretty vase of roses is a lovely way to express feelings of love, gratitude, appreciation, etc. and by and large it is.  But what I never took into account is that an arrangement of a dozen roses is a pretty standard design; and thus it is treated as such.  Most florists are inclined to see an order for a dozen roses and toss together a vase of leather leaf fern, baby's breath, and 12 long stemmed beauties...therein lies the problem.  These florists use standard accent material and boring vases when working with roses and it drags the whole design in a downward spiral.

A few years ago I designed a dozen red roses around Christmas time.  I included in the arrangement sprigs of balsam fir, white pine, red pine, incense cedar, magnolia leaves, and a wonderful little accent flower called genistra.  It was lovely.  The design itself was fairly straight-forward, but I incorporated many different textural elements to kick the interest level up.  The customer who received the flowers commented, "only you could take the curse off of a dozen roses" (as an aside, no, I don't think by any stretch that I am the only designer that can take a standard request and spin it to look fab -- but it was a nice compliment) which caught me a bit off-guard.  I had never really thought about a dozen vased roses being cursed.  Was I to expect five years bad luck for choosing to embark on such a mission as putting a dozen roses in a vase?  What is this curse?  It got me thinking. 

My conclusion is this:

The curse of a dozen roses is the monotonous approach in which the order is handled.  Yes, I suppose most florists produce a standard product when met with a standard request, but why?  For me that gets boring after awhile.  I certainly didn't enter this business to put myself on auto-pilot and schlog through the basics one day at a time.  I've always wanted to produce arrangements that were something a little different, something a little less expected.  It seems only natural that when someone requests a dozen roses I would be inclined to design something exceptional, even if the order is a simple one.

The photo below is my favorite dozen of the holiday.  It's not artistically styled; the design itself is actually quite ordinary.  The difference with this dozen roses versus most you'd see is the "supporting cast of characters" if you will.  I started with a nice red glass vase and used leather leaf fern (yes, very common but it provides a grid for the other foliages), salal leaves, milky way aspidistra, robellini palm, grevelia, seeded eucalyptus, bear grass, curly willow, wax flower, and red "freedom" roses.  The combination of elements does a great job of removing "the curse".  I also composed more stylized dozens that were quite unique from a design standpoint but my camera skills are seriously lacking and I'm not comfortable with posting the crummy shots I took (more on this in future posts).
 

If you'd like your local florist to create something similar for your sweetheart ask for a dozen roses with mixed unique foliages and an accent flower other than baby's breath.  Doing so should alert them to the fact that you're looking for something a little bit nicer than the norm.  It might cost you a bit more, but it's definitely worth it.

If you're looking for something less cliche than a dozen roses that's still certain to get rave reviews, order a mixed bouquet of the designer's choice.  Ordering "designer's choice" is a great way to give creative license to the person making your order.  My favorite arrangement from this Valentine's Day is pictured below.  The sender gave me the opportunity to design whatever I thought appropriate and this is what I produced.  I love this bouquet for all its texture and color and uniqueness; and pink roses and pink vase still infuse hints of a more traditional Valentine's Day composition.  The flowers and foliages included in this piece are "Pink Ice" protea, "Sweet Unique" roses, brunia, grevelia, "Madam Widow" tulips, pink hyacinth, acacia, myrtle, gerbera daisies, and leucodendron.