Roses in Brooklyn

Roses in Brooklyn: a June garden, and cut stems for the rest of the year

In June, Cranford Rose Garden at Brooklyn Botanic Garden holds more than 5,000 bushes of over 1,000 varieties in bloom, the same weeks Brooklyn's wedding season is in full swing and the school year closes. Roses in Brooklyn fill vases long after that: the garden flowers for a few weeks, but a rose bouquet is ordered for a wedding, a last day of school or any date on the calendar. Choosing one comes down to the occasion, the colour and where it needs to travel.

Cranford in June, cut stems all year: where Brooklyn's roses grow

Cranford Rose Garden holds its collection of historic and modern varieties for walking through, not for cutting: nothing in bloom there ever reaches a Brooklyn bouquet. The stems that do come from much further away. Almost nine in ten of the roses imported into the United States clear customs through Miami, most of them grown in Colombia and Ecuador. Brooklyn's selection names the country on the label: Ecuadorian and Dutch roses sit alongside French ones. Ecuadorian stems run the longest, often from seventy centimetres to a metre, which is why they fill out their own height range rather than the shorter ones.

A white rose for a June wedding guest, a small wrap for a teacher

Wedding season in the United States runs from May to October, and roughly three weddings in four happen inside that stretch, putting most Brooklyn weddings right into the garden's peak month. New York's school year finishes in late June too, so gifts for teachers land in the same few weeks. White and white-and-pink roses make a safe, neutral choice when the wedding isn't your own. A teacher is better served by something compact and already wrapped, easy to carry home on the last day before summer: White Roses in Designer Wrapping or 15 White Roses with Coffee Wrapping both travel well in a bag or on a bus. For other occasions, start with the flowers in Brooklyn calendar.

Roses mixed with lisianthus or hydrangea for a fuller bouquet

Brooklyn keeps a separate section for roses mixed with other flowers, and lisianthus, hydrangea, hyacinth and Misty roses all sit near the rose stems in the wider assortment. When a bouquet needs more volume than a higher stem count would give it, lisianthus or hydrangea fills it out without changing the colour much. Peony Roses Bubbles No. 3 is one way to get a peony's look without waiting for its short spring season. Anyone set on a fuller, rounder bouquet rather than a tighter bunch of stems is better off starting from the mixed section.

Rose delivery in Brooklyn to a door without a vase

If the recipient may not have a vase, choose a box rather than a hand-tied bunch. Flowers in boxes arrive closed and tied with ribbon, and stand on a shelf or a desk exactly as they are, needing nothing but a flat surface. A bouquet in kraft or designer paper suits a home where a vase is already waiting, since those stems go straight into water on arrival. Roses in Brooklyn travel either way through the same routine: the bouquet is made to order, the florist photographs it before the courier leaves, and that photo is the last chance to ask for a change. Delivery is free in the central zones; everywhere else runs on a fixed rate set out on the delivery page, and the time for any given bouquet shows on its own page. An office desk or a hotel room gets the same handover either way.

Start with roses by colour when the occasion sets the shade, lean on mixed rose bouquets for something fuller than a straight bunch of stems, and look at roses by height for the long Ecuadorian stems.