February 14 — Valentine's Day in Brooklyn

February 14 — Valentine's Day in Brooklyn: cut roses months before June

Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Cranford Rose Garden holds more than 5,000 bushes of over 1,000 varieties, and it peaks in June. So a rose for February 14 — Valentine's Day in Brooklyn is a cut one, flown in months before the garden is anywhere near bloom. In the US, nearly four fifths of cut flowers sold are imported, which is why the useful choice here is not the season but the colour, the number of stems and where the bouquet gets handed over.

Two in three are red: the colour of a Brooklyn Valentine's rose

In the US, in 2022, 83% of the flowers bought for Valentine's Day were roses, and 65% of those roses were red.

Victorian flower dictionaries read red as passion and white as purity, though the books never agreed. Red suits a bouquet meant to say so, plainly; white suits an address where red would say more than intended, a colleague, a new friend, a first date. In Brooklyn the two sit side by side as 11 Red French Roses and 11 White French Roses.

"French" here is not a variety of rose, it's a florist's technique. The outer petals are opened back by hand, so the bud looks further along than it actually is and reads as fuller than a tight one.

A rose order starts with a number, not just a colour. Before the stems are tied, the florist lines them up on the worktop and counts them out, so the count is settled before the bouquet ever takes shape.

For some recipients, an odd number of stems matters as much as the colour does; that custom, and what Brooklyn's dry winter air does to cut flowers indoors, are both covered on the main flowers page.

In Brooklyn, roses also come worked into a mixed bouquet with lisianthus, hydrangea or Misty; lilies are in the catalogue too.

Hydrangea drinks more than the other flowers around it. If it droops, the whole flower head goes into cool water for an hour or two and usually comes back.

Lilies are worth a pause if there's a cat in the flat. Every part of the plant is toxic to cats, including the pollen and the water left in the vase, so the safer order is roses without lilies.

A rose lasts about a week in water, sometimes closer to ten days. Cut the stem at an angle, change the water every day or two and keep the vase away from a radiator.

Timed for dessert: roses at a Brooklyn restaurant or a vase-less flat

A restaurant table needs timing, not just a bouquet. The timing is agreed with the restaurant's manager, and the flowers arrive with dessert or the toast, rather than sitting on the table through the starter.

A flat without a vase is no problem if the flowers stand on their own. A box or a basket is built around soaked floral foam, and it needs a thin stream of water over the foam every day to keep the flowers drinking; a potted plant simply stands.

A card goes with every order at no extra cost, and a balloon, sweets or a cake can be added in the cart. A foil balloon holds its lift for several days. A cream cake holds for no more than two hours at room temperature, so the cake is worth timing to arrive shortly before it is eaten. Balloons, chocolate and cake sit among the gifts to go with the bouquet.

Valentine's flower delivery in Brooklyn gets busiest on the day itself: orders run far above an ordinary day, delivery slots widen and nobody promises an exact minute, so booking a few days ahead pays off. A date and a time slot can be booked for any zone, and the florist sends a photo of the finished bouquet before the courier leaves, time enough to ask for a change. See delivery terms for the rest.

Start with roses if the bouquet is to be roses alone, chosen by colour and by how many stems go in. Pick a mixed bouquet if roses read better with other flowers around them, or a box or a basket if there's no vase waiting at the other end.