NYC Floral enthusiasts rejoice! The beloved daffodil is back in season. Here at Starbright, we’re prepping the stems and getting ready for Spring!
Daffodil Notes /
Daffodils are often considered to be some of the sunniest flowers around; they are among the first wild flowers to appear in Spring and are the official flower of the month of March. They are most commonly found in yellow or white, though orange and pink varieties exist as well. The unique shape of the bloom, with its six petal-like tepals surrounding a trumpet-shaped corona is easy to identify though it is called by many names including: narcissus, jonquil, and daffadowndilly.
Daffodils are native to the Mediterranean. They were initially brought to England by the ancient Romans who believed the blooms had medicinal properties…which is not at all true. The flowers have toxic crystals that can irritate the skin, repel garden pests, and even wilt other flowers in the same vase unless treated properly.
Inside Info /
Daffodils are some of the first flowers to bloom; they can actually grow straight through the snow
Bring a bundle of daffodils to a friend, but never a single bloom. One daffodil on it’s own predicts misfortune!
Daffodils are a symbol of hope and friendship today.
Looking for flowers in New York City? Visit our Event Gallery for inspiration. Or see our daily selection at Starbrightnyc.com.
White cymbidium orchid with silver sprayed curly willow
Planning a wedding reception on a budget can be disheartening. But it doesn’t have to be! There are a host of options for couples with refined taste and a restricted budget. One area of the budget that can grow quickly is the tabletop centerpiece. These pieces come in all shapes and varieties and are generally placed at the center of each dinning table. The best centerpieces are designed to coordinate with the rest of the events décor; appropriate centerpieces will help your event’s theme suffuse the space and fill your guests with festive feelings. Many floral centerpieces are selected for their color, texture, or the time of year. They sometimes include decorative items like colored wire, glass beads, or river stones. The size and shape is also variable and sometimes an event may include a number of sizes to represent the guest’s status; the wedding party and family tables are pretty much always identifiable based on the size of the centerpiece.
Starbright Floral Design suggests following a few simple steps to create a stunning tabletop without breaking the budget.
Consider the size of your container
Think about Goldilocks when selecting the size of the floral container. Too small and the flowers may feel insignificant, too big and the flowers will just get in the way. Not sure what size you need? Ask you florist! Starbright’s design consultants and client satisfaction representatives will help guide you to success. Many styles and concepts can be scaled easily to just the size you’re looking for. One such arrangement from Starbright is Give Me Tomorrow. This arrangement features roses cut to fit and fill a square container.
Cut roses look good in any size container!
Consider the flowers
Centerpieces should mimic the overall floral direction. A great way to maximize the consistency is to select one standout bloom from the arrangements that captures the color and feel of the rest of the floral styling. Some of our favorite blooms for this purpose include cymbidium orchids, calla lilies, and amaryllis.
Green cymbidium orchid in small glass cube.
Or, for the adventurous and openminded, consider the unexpectedness of carnations. For outside weddings with a lot of green, one of our favorite potential centerpieces is this guy:
Green Trick makes for an unexpected twist on the classic centerpiece
Consider the style
Another way to keep your centerpieces elegant, on-theme, and within a budget is to consider modern styles; modern arrangements often have a clean look and fewer blooms than traditionally lush arrangements. These pieces can be soft and romantic…
Clean looking callas arranged to fit a small round container.
If you’re planning an event or wedding and thinking about centerpieces, give us a call today! Looking for flowers in New York City? Visit our Event Gallery for inspiration. Or see our daily selection at Starbrightnyc.com.
Millions of people around the world gathered to celebrate the start of the Lunar New Year this week. Here in New York, the party is just getting started! Celebrate the holiday in style this weekend with these helpful floral hints.
Flowers and Fruits For Chinese New Year
Narcissus
These cheerful yellow flowers, also known as daffodils, are a sign of good fortune and prosperity. They are one of the most auspicious flowers to include in New Year celebrations.
Oranges
A symbol of the sun, these fruits are a sign of abundant happiness. If you’ll be attending a Chinese New Years party at a friend’s or family member’s home, consider taking a basket of these cheerful fruits. To make a tasty treat basket more traditional, add some candied nuts – peanuts are a favorite and symbolize a long life.
Orchids
These delicate blooms are symbolic of abundance, refinement, and luxury. Whether you prefer the large Cymbidiums, smaller Mokaras, or living Phalaenopsis – orchids are a highly desirable gift during this season. Check out some of our favorite arrangements featuring orchids here and here.
Peonies
These lovely blooms are often associated with riches and honor. This blooms are also a popular symbol of feminine beauty and affection. For Chinese New Year celebrations burgundy peonies are considered particularly auspicious.
Colors For Chinese New Year
While selecting your blooms this weekend, focus on warm colors. Red is by far the most popular color as it traditionally is associated with good fortune and joy. It is also a good idea to avoid white flowers as this color can represent mourning.
Want to join the fun? Check out the Chinese New Year parade this Sunday at 1pm, February 22nd 2015. See you all there!
Roses and Valentine’s Day are basically synonymous. Starbright Floral Design has a ton of rose varieties to make your offering unique. We talked to some floral veterans in the shop to find out which rose varieties still take their breath away.
Can you match these popular rose varieties to the correct picture?
Green Tea – Campanella Peach – Black Magic – Vendela – Circus Rose – Deep Purple – Hot Lady – Sweet Unique – Cherry Brandy
Can you guess the name of our favorite rose varieties?
Scroll to the bottom for answers!
What’s Color Got Do With It?
Roses each have a unique meaning associated with their color. Here’s a quick helpful guide to selecting the right rose color for your Valentine!
RED
Love, beauty, courage, respect, and most importantly – romance!
WHITE
Purity, Innocence, Secrecy, Reverence, Humility, Youthfulness, “I am worthy of you”
Joy, Friendship, Promise of a new beginning, Welcome Back, Remember Me, Jealousy, “I care”
ORANGE
Desire, Enthusiasm
PEACH
Appreciation, “Let’s get together”, Sincerity, Gratitude
LAVENDER
Love at first sight
BLUE
The unattainable. No blue roses are available in nature!
No matter the color, or arrangement style, all Valentine’s Day flowers from Starbright Floral Design are sent with love!
Looking for flowers in New York City? Visit our Event Gallery for inspiration. Or see our daily selection at Starbrightnyc.com.
1. Deep Purple 2. Hot Lady 3. Vendala 4. Black Magic 5. Cherry Brandy 6. Circus Rose 7. Sweet Unique 8. Gotcha? It’s a Succulent! 9. Hot Lady 10. Green Tea 11. Campanella Peach
There’s no shortage of Romance in NYC this week! With Valentine’s Day 2015 just around the corner, New York City is abuzz with a Valentine’s Day glow that can just give you goose-bumps. The romance is so heavy in the air it’s practically steaming, just like the vapors of the Nuts’4’Nuts cart. Strolling through New York City you can almost hear St.Valentine himself, banging on the lid of a taxi as he crosses 6th avenue, yelling “I’m walking here!” as he scopes out another love-lorn hopeful with his old buddy Cupid. Whether you’ve got a special someone, several special someones, or several special cats there’s only good things about February 14th. There’s no end of things to do in the city – you can take in a Broadway show, go eat a romantically-lit dinner from anywhere in the world or see some hot jazz in a cool club.
If you’re in the mood to cheer on another couple’s real life love-story head over to Times Square. Nine happy couples will be getting married there this Saturday in front of the Times Square Valentine Heart Design winner, “Heartbeat,” by Brooklyn-based outfit Stereotank. This interactive beating-heart drum reacts to sound and movement and it’s pretty impressive (check it out on Bustler here).
Here at Starbright Floral Design, we’re pretty obsessed with Valentine’s Day too. It’s a great time in the shop; the floral coolers are full, most of the staff is smiling on-site and energy levels are high. To kick off the season right, the Starbright designers each created custom heart-shaped arrangements for our V-Day 2015 Heart Collection. These unique arrangements all represent the personalized style of our design team and pack a whole bunch of extra love. We’re also excited to be creating arrangements from the “helpfully” romantic Valentine’s Day Flowers Collection.
Every Valentine’s day serves up it’s own set of unique challenges. Last year, despite a foot of snow, Starbright was able to send out over 2,000 orders for Valentine’s Day. So how did we manage?
Getting Ready For Valentine’s Day
It all starts in the back. After unpacking, washing and shelving A LOT of vases, the guys begin adding greens for storage.
Greening Vases
Vases aren’t the only thing getting prepared. Antonio works on planting orchids for clients looking for something that will looking for a lasting gift. Orchids are great for brightening up apartments or office spaces and they are pretty easy to take care of – here’s some tips for taking care of an orchid plant.
Antonio preps an orchid for planting.
We have a couple first-timers at Starbright this Valentine’s Day. Emilia, one of Starbright’s designers, is excited for the days ahead.
Nothing to worry about here – Emilia is ready for the big day!
Byron checks some details in Starbright’s large catalogue of styles.
Byron checks an order at the front desk
Did we mention that Byron made the arrangements for the front table?
Pretty, huh?
To make sure you get the most from your Valentine’s Day flowers, check out this post for taking care of cut flowers.
Happy Valentine’s Day everybody!
Looking for flowers in New York City? Visit our Event Gallery for inspiration. Or see our daily selection at Starbrightnyc.com.
Lemon trees are a vibrant addition for any NYC home that has a bit of extra room. These small evergreens grow to be about three to five feet tall and will keep their color year-round. A number of popular indoor varieties will bear fruit with some regularity after they have matured (lemon trees take three or more years to mature when grown from a seed!). Starbright Floral likes to recommend the Eureka variety because it regularly produces flowers and fruit year-round. Meyer lemons are another popular variety, though they are actually a cross between a lemon and either an orange or a mandarin. Meyer lemons bear a slightly sweeter lemon-alternative primarily in fall and winter. If fully grown, these fruit factories can produce up to six hundred pounds of lemons a year! To thrive, lemon tree need lots of light and a draft-free life. They’re worth the effort. Some studies show that the smell of lemon helps enhance mood. Read more about plants and feng shui here or how smell can effect a mood here, or even this about how the color green can help revitalize your energy.
Lemon Tree History/
Lemon Trees are thought to have first grown in Assam, Burma, and China and may actually be a cross between a bitter orange and a citron. By 900CE, lemon trees had spread throughout most of the known world. Used for medicine, cleaning, cooking, and decorating, lemon was an important crop for the Mediterranean. For early sailors, including Christopher Columbus, lemon was crucial to preventing scurvy. When the early european ships sailed to the New World, lemon seeds went along for the ride.
Lemon Tree Inside Info /
Bright yellow lemons are ripe and ready to be eaten, while lemons with a little bit of green may continue to ripen on the tree or be picked and stored until they are a uniform yellow.
Lemons are toxic to cats and dogs; it will upset their stomachs and moods.
The heaviest lemon ever grown was recorded in Kefar Zeitim, Israel. It weighed 5.265 kg (11 lb 9.7 oz), had a circumference of 74 cm (29 in) and was 35 cm (13.7 in) high. Guinness World Records 2013.
Looking for flowers in New York City? Visit our Event Gallery for inspiration. Or see our daily selection at Starbrightnyc.com.
Valentine’s Day is coming up – it’s already February 4th, so there’s only ten days to go. If you’re still looking for a special flower arrangement for the man in your life (or men!) you might do well going with a plant or floral arrangement from Starbright Floral Design.
This week we brought in a different kind of expert. We’re going to turn it over to Theo, a genuine Male New Yorker, to give you the straight skinny on floral gifts for men.
On a base level, giving flowers says “I want your world to be more beautiful.” Take it from a man – we like beauty, too. Sticking a nose in a bouquet of flowers, unwrapping those flowers and then putting them somewhere to look at is something everyone enjoys, regardless of gender. Ditto for succulent gardens – they can live forever with a just a little water and sunlight, and they’re basically ancient plants. Having a succulent on your desk is basically like a having a dinosaur on your desk, only without the risk of getting eaten.
This is a great example of the archetypal “floral gift for men.” “This looks nothing like his grandmother’s rose garden,” says Theo. “Instead, we’ve got an eye-catching color paired with a strong, angular arrangement. This would look great in the home, NYC apartment or office. With green orchids, green grass and naturally-polished river rocks this is sure to be a pleaser.”
If you think the man in your life would enjoy tending to a tiny garden one of our Succulent Gardens is definitely the right choice. “New York City can feel like a concrete jungle sometimes – why not bring in some of the real jungle? This is the gift that keeps on giving, too – succulents last for a very long time, and even if he doesn’t have the greenest of thumbs these are pretty hard to kill.”
What about an arrangement for the man with an eye for a bit more color? “”Falling for you” is a great choice, with a structure reminiscent of the Brooklyn Bridge’s radiating support wires and arcing buttresses. Roses have been given to men since the days of Ancient Rome – this tradition fits into modern New York just fine.”
So there you have it! Men like flowers, plain and simple (and, in fact, it seems like they like their flowers plain and simple.) If you have any questions for us or Theo drop them in the comments below, or just call us up at the shop!
Looking for flowers in New York City? Visit our Event Gallery for inspiration. Or see our daily selection at Starbrightnyc.com.
NYC flower shops love this unique bloom. The designer’s at Starbright are no exception. To see an example of a NYC Flower arrangement containing Ornithogalum see herein. These readily available blooms are a favored addition to Starbright’s weekly flowers in NYC program for their extra long vase-life. There are four common varieties of of ornithogalum that tend to show up in cut flower arrangements. The difference between these blooms is primarily in the shape of the flowering head. Conical and drooping or round like a button, most ornithogalum blooms have delicate white petals and a striking black center; the exception is ornithogalum dubium whose petals range from yellow to bright orange. Ornithogalum is native to Africa and Eurasia, but it’s long bloom-time and sweet smell have made it a garden favorite worldwide. However, with the help of pollinating bees, some of these garden varieties have crossed their fences and become invasive species.
Ornithogalum Flower Meaning/
Ornithogalum arabicum is often referred to as star of Bethlehem or Arabian star flower. Because of this biblical association, many people prefer this blossom for it’s symbolic representation of purity, hope, and happiness. Ideal for a romantic bouquet, ornithogalum is favorite of old-time romantics.
Ornithogalum Inside Info /
Some varieties of ornithogalum can be toxic if ingested and others may cause skin irritation if handled for prolonged periods of time. Be careful of this lovely bloom around children and animals.
Popular names for ornithogalum include Star of Bethlehem, Nap at Noon, Snowdrop, Arabian Star Flower, Eleven-o’clock Lady, Sleepydick, Arabian Star Flowers.
Looking for flowers in New York City? Visit our Event Gallery for inspiration. Or see our daily selection at Starbrightnyc.com.
Planning Florals for a Valentine’s Day Wedding in NYC
Roses and Valentine’s Day are like Peanut Butter and Jelly
Is there anything more romantic than a Valentine’s Day wedding in NYC?
The story of St. Valentine is one of hopeful love. During the time that he lived, soldiers weren’t allowed to marry under Roman law. That wasn’t acceptable for ol’ Val who (as we like to think) believed that if any two people wanted to get married, they should have the right to do so. He married many soldiers despite the harsh laws and harsher punishment – it was the right thing to do – but ultimately, for this practice, he was executed.
It’s been an exciting few years, but just because we all can get married in many states doesn’t mean everyone can get married everywhere yet. This Valentine’s Day, we’ll be looking to St. Valentine as an inspiration because we know there’s nothing more inspiring than watching two individuals embark on a lifelong journey of love and partnership.
So, flowers. Here’s the thing about Valentines Day and flowers – flower shops are pretty-much going to be jam-packed with roses – and sometimes, very little else. If you’re having an an event on Valentine’s Day and you don’t want roses, you need to let your florist know a few weeks in advance. Valentines Day is a bit of a stress on the gears that keep the industry moving – for about 96 hours, all anybody is going to want when they call up the shop is a dozen (or more) roses. All these roses get the shelf space that usually goes to the rest of the inventory – while other flowers are around, they’re in a bit of a short supply compared to the rest of the year. Flower biz is like any other biz – if you let your vendors know what you want with as much “time to go” as possible, you’ll get the flowers you want without any stress.
But, this is Valentine’s Day – you probably totally do want roses. They’re a great choice – your grandma and aunt will think they’re lovely, they’ll smell nice but not too strong, and when the event is done you’ll have a whooooooole bunch of rose petals to strew about everywhere. When you’re designing your rose centerpiece, keep in mind that roses come in lots of lengths, some on very long stems – this is great for creating arrangements with with a lot of height variance. Roses also come in many, many colors – it doesn’t have to be all red and white! You’ll find oranges, pinks, purples and yellows – again, just make sure to mention this to your florist a few weeks before Valentine’s, so they can order what they’ll need and schedule your event into their busiest time.
Composite Rose bouquet by Sokratis
One of Starbright Floral’s amazing designers, put together this composite bouquet to match the latest floral trends walking down the runways. This is a carefully crafted piece made by wiring individual rose petals and arranging them into one giant rose. It’s high on impact, but deceptively low on fuss (in actuality, this takes a long, long time!). While this would make an amazing centerpiece, the time it takes may be prohibitive to the budget. For an alternative rose centerpiece, these pave styles are flawlessly refined.
Pave roses sparkle as a centerpiece
Whatever is in your centerpiece should also be in your boutonniere (you can read all about boutonnieres here). If you’ve got a wedding party, make sure the folk getting wedded are in a different boutonniere from the folk standing up with the couple.
Looking for flowers in New York City? Visit our Event Gallery for inspiration. Or see our daily selection at Starbrightnyc.com.
NYC flower shops adore the delphinium for its vibrant blue hue. The designer’s at Starbright are no exception. They are a long lasting flower and are ideal to be incorporated in Starbright’s weekly flowers in NYC program. This popular bloom is commonly known as larkspur, but in the shop we call it Delphinium. Delphinium is a large genus of about 300 species of flowering plants that are all categorized in the family Ranunculaceae. Yes, that’s right, despite appearances, the Delphinium is actually a member of the buttercup family (as is the ranunculus, anemone and a bunch of other favorites flowers around the shop). There is a lot of variety amongst the Delphinium genus. Depending on the variety, a delphiniums bloom stalk can be as short as 4 inches to as tall as 2 meters. There are also a variety of colors available, though the classic blue is one of Starbright Floral Design’s favorites, Delphinium varietals can also be available in purple, pink, yellow, and white.
Delphinium Flower History/
Delphinium recieved it’s names from the ancient Greeks who thought that the shape of the nectary looked like that of a leaping dolphin. Many years later, in England, the Delphinium received a new nickname – larskpur – because the shape of the nectary resembled a larks claw. Their popularity increased from there and many hybrids were bred from Delphiums sourced from all over the world. Today’s common delphinium is a product of much cultivation. It is a common flower in gardening shows and is often featured in displays or specialized competitions.
Delphinium Inside Info /
Parts of delphinium plants have been used to create blue dyes and inks.
Delphinium is highly toxic to people and animals
Looking for flowers in New York City? Visit our Event Gallery for inspiration. Or see our daily selection at Starbrightnyc.com.
Blooming Thoughts 