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Roses in Boston: the market across the Tobin Bridge and how to choose them
For roses in Boston, the wholesale trade has run from Chelsea, across the Tobin Bridge, since 1 March 2017, a move made by a cooperative founded in 1909. Inside the section, bouquets are sorted by count, colour, type and height, and each one is put together only once an order has been paid for.
From the South End to Chelsea: where Boston's flower wholesalers trade
The Boston Flower Exchange started life as a cooperative in 1909, and for 45 years its traders worked out of the South End. The market closed there on 28 February and reopened the very next day across the Tobin Bridge in Chelsea, trading since then as the New England Flower Exchange, with ten vendors inside a building of 65,000 square feet.
The move had been pushed back by a month so it would not land in the middle of the Valentine's season, the busiest stretch of the year for roses. Most stems reaching a Boston flower shop have already passed through Miami, where the bulk of cut flowers entering the country clear customs before moving on to wholesalers further north. JFLOO's roses are bought to order, after payment, rather than held in stock for display.
Count, colour, type or height: where to begin with roses in Boston
The Boston rose section is organised by colour, type, height and stem count, with the largest arrangements kept apart as giant bouquets. The simplest way in is to start with whatever you already know about the person you are sending them to. A favourite colour settles the choice at once, while wanting the gesture itself, more than a particular shade, points you towards the stem count instead.
Type separates Ecuadorian roses from Dutch ones, as in 19 White Ecuadorian Roses or 25 Dutch White Roses. A French rose is not a different flower so much as a finishing touch: the florist bends back the outer petals by hand to open each bloom wider, the technique behind 11 Red French Roses.
Height is its own decision, kept apart from colour or type, and the tallest stems have a shelf of their own among the giant rose bouquets.
Roses with chamomile, a set shape or designer wrapping
Mixed rose bouquets suit cases where a single-flower bouquet feels too plain, pairing roses with another flower such as chamomile, while white and pink roses are also sold together as a two-tone bouquet on their own. Bouquet shape helps when the outline matters more than the exact stem count. Wrapping is named through the bouquet itself: 15 White Roses with Coffee Wrapping stands alongside roses finished in designer wrapping, where the paper carries the look rather than the stems.
Before the courier leaves, the florist photographs the finished bouquet, and a change can still be made from that photo; a missing variety is swapped for one close in shade and price, and the swap shows up in the same picture. Most orders are handed over the day they are placed, delivery to the centre costs nothing, and rose delivery in Boston beyond it is set out on the delivery page.
At home, cut the stems at an angle before they go into the vase. Getting roses through a Boston winter takes a little more care, covered on the flowers hub page.
Start with roses by colour or roses by type if you already know the recipient. Choose by the number of stems when the gesture itself is the point. Look at mixed rose bouquets when a single bloom on its own isn't quite enough.