Bouquets in Los Angeles

Bouquets in Los Angeles, from the Wall Street flower markets to the door

Bouquets in Los Angeles trace back to a single address on Wall Street, where two historic markets stand opposite each other in the Flower District. One, the Southern California Flower Market, was founded by Japanese-American farmers and registered in 1912. The other, the Original Los Angeles Flower Market, grew out of European immigrant growers. A bouquet here is chosen first by flower or by colour, then by the format that fits the address it is going to.

Two markets on Wall Street and the stems in a Los Angeles bouquet

The Flower District sits inside the Fashion District, between San Pedro Street and Maple Street, from 7th to 9th. Close to two hundred wholesalers trade there, making it the largest wholesale flower district in the country. The two markets on Wall Street have faced each other across the street for over a century.

California grows more than three-quarters of all the cut flowers raised in the United States, which sounds like most of a Los Angeles bouquet should be local. Imports still fill almost four-fifths of what the American market actually sells, because demand runs far ahead of domestic supply. LAX brings in stems from Ecuador, Colombia, the Netherlands, Thailand and Australia, so a single bouquet can carry flowers from several continents at once.

That mix shows in what the local catalogue builds from: French and Ecuadorian roses, lisianthus, lilies, gerberas, hydrangea, Misty, and peonies. Which of these a florist reaches for depends on the stem, not the border it crossed, and the simplest way through the choice is choosing by flower.

By colour or by flower: settling the palette first

Colour is its own starting point when the flower itself matters less than the mood. Shades that sit next to each other on the colour wheel, purple, lavender and pink among them, read as one family rather than three, with a single tone leading the rest.

A flower out of stock does not have to mean a different look. The florist substitutes a stem close in shade and price, and the swap shows up in the photo sent before the courier leaves, so the sender sees exactly what is going out. The colour holds even when one flower in it changes.

White deserves a second thought before it goes to certain recipients: in Korean and Chinese families it is tied to mourning, and Koreatown has a Korean community large enough to make that worth knowing. Stem count carries no fixed rule in American custom, but a Russian-speaking recipient may still read an even number as a funeral gesture, so an odd count is the safer default.

Bouquet delivery in Los Angeles to a Downtown desk or a family door

An office bouquet needs the company name and the floor rather than a street address, and where the building runs a pass system, reception takes it in instead of the florist going up. Administrative Professionals Day, in late April, is the one date on the city's flower calendar built around sending flowers to a desk.

A big gesture calls for scale rather than a card, and that is the territory of a giant bouquet, built to be seen across a room. Paper and wrap work well for carrying a bouquet by hand, home is where the paper comes off and the stems get a fresh cut before water. For a house or flat that might not have a vase ready, a bouquet set in its own planter solves that problem before it arrives.

Every bouquet is put together to order once the payment clears, and a photo goes out before the courier leaves, so any correction can be made before delivery rather than after. The card is free to add. Most orders reach the recipient the same day they are placed, and the exact timing shows on the bouquet's own page. Delivery to the centre is free; every other zone has a fixed price shown before payment, set out on the delivery terms page.

Two places to start are bouquets by colour, for anyone unsure of the recipient's favourite flower, and business bouquets, built with a Downtown desk in mind.