Favorite Christmas memories- December 2004

Just Roses (Spokane WA) "I have a customer who every year orders 6 dozen roses in water tubes for his Christmas tree. He pokes them into the branches and it is beautiful! I tried it myself one year and its a marvelous effect."

Petal Pusher (Hermiston OR) "I love the creative work of Christmas centerpieces. They are all different and I can add candles and other decorations. Other times of the year its more formula work and the centerpieces allow me to be ... creative!"

Roses N Rye (Chelan WA) "I have a 5 foot harp that I rented out for $250 to a resort for Christmas. I added candles, artificial flowers and lights. It was beautiful, and profitable since I got it all back."

Kopacz Nursery & Florist (Hermiston OR) "My favorite memory is the time off! As a florist who works long hours every holiday I look forward to any time off I can get and this year, with Christmas on a Saturday, I actually will get 2 days off in a row"

Warren Habluetzel of Adolph's Flowers (Portland, OR) is retiring after January 1^st. Congratulations!

Warren was almost an uncle of mine though I don’t know if he knows that story. From the way I heard it, Adolph (Warrens father), was sweet on my Aunt Alice back in the 40's and just about married her. Would have made quite a combination as my grandfather was the first (and only at the time) wholesale florist in the area and Adolph was a leading retail florist.

San Roque Florist (Fresno CA) Ione used to work in Santa Barbara decorating homes for the "more affluent" customers. "That was fun with the large budgets to work with. One Christmas we delivered to the Presidents wife- a wire order for Nancy Reagan. We had to leave it at security, they would not allow us all the way in."

John Hungerford has a favorite Christmas memory, or at least a strong one. In the 80's I shipped truckloads of Christmas greens to wholesale florists across the country. One year we put out 13 entire semi trucks full of beautiful material in a 4 week period. Talk about long days and short nights! 20,000 pounds of Noble Fir cut in deep snow, Incense cedar from 50 feet up in the tree where it likes to bloom, 12,000 wreaths and garland and more Holly than I care to remember. Our biggest wreath was 8 ½ feet across and weighed 350 pounds.

Lady Bug (Redmond OR) "The worst Christmas memory I have is from the time I had strep throat and my husband had to open all my presents for me because I was so weak I could not even unwrap them. My best memories are of watching my children open their presents."

Flower Boutique (Boise ID) "When I was a girl it snowed about 4' in McCall right on Christmas day. My daddy had a funny old army surplus jeep painted bright red with a snow plow on the front and he plowed out all the neighborhood. He didn't get home till late that night and as a child I was anxiously waiting for him to get home since we had to wait on "Christmas" till he got there."

Corrines Flowers (Medford OR) "One year it was so cold here that the poinsettias were freezing before we could get them delivered. It normally is not really cold here so we were not prepared for this and even inside the delivery vans they froze and turned black. It was awful!"

Bentleys (Klamath Falls OR) "My most memorable Christmas is easy to recall. It was just a few years ago; my husband had died earlier in the year and on December 1st my mother collapsed with a brain aneurism. The doctors told us there was only a 25% chance of her living a month but she was home in time for Christmas. Things have been getting better and better each year for me since then."

Blaine Bouquets (Blaine WA)"Right at Christmas a few years ago we got hit with a very large last minute order for 100 identical centerpieces to go out for all the employees of a local company. We had the flowers on hand but only about 1/2 as many of the special bowls we would need. We didn't know what to do as our usual supplier was out of stock and we didn't know anyone else who had these unusual items. While we discussed the problem, a customer buying flowers in our shop overheard us and interrupted to explain that he was a wholesale florist in a different city and he had those very bowls in stock and could have them to us the next day! The Lord does provide"

Celestial Flowers & Dreams (Yreka CA) "Kerry says last year was the most memorable Christmas she has had as a florist because her dad died just before Christmas so she had time off. It was hard because of the death but TIME OFF at a holiday is so scarce that she remembers it as a very special time"

Enchanted Florist (Beaverton OR) "All we can remember from the blur of Christmas past is the sap on our hands and the Holly pricking us, the long and late hours and the broken leg of a designer who kept right on working anyway."