to market, to market

I’m often asked where I get my flowers from... The wholesale flower auction is one of those places. On those mornings my day starts off pretty early (usually around 4am and for anyone who’s wondering – no, I’m not a morning person and yes, waking up to the moonlight is as painful as it sounds). By the time I’m up, dressed, caffeinated and out to market it’s usually about 5:15am, just enough time for my favourite part - to peruse all the flowers we want to buy before the auction starts. So many beautiful choices! I always need to restrain myself and keep from buying one of everything! By 6am everyone is in the gallery and the bidding starts.

The auction itself is pretty cool, all the flowers come out on trolleys and are paraded through the gallery as everyone bids. Everything is done electronically (and for a newbie the bidding is FAST!) The auction can last anywhere from 2.5 to a daunting 5 hours before big holidays (Valentine’s Day is a red and pink madhouse).

After all the flowers have been purchased, they get sent to a massive warehouse where they are sorted for the vendors, then loaded into vans and shipped off to the stores. It’s actually an amazing journey for a flower – a rose growing on a bush in Colombia on Monday could be on your table by Tuesday night… it’s incredible really.