Bouquets in Toronto

Bouquets in Toronto: Ontario-grown on Saturdays, made to order all year

Only six Saturdays a year, May to October, the Toronto Flower Market at Queen Street West and Shaw Street sells nothing but flowers grown in Ontario, and it was the city's first street flower market when it opened. The rest of the year, bouquets in Toronto come together at a florist's bench, often from stems flown in from further afield. Before choosing a shape, it helps to know what the bouquet is made of and what month it leaves the shop.

Delivery runs by delivery zones, and other city topics, such as hotel and office drop-offs or orders placed from abroad, sit in our guide to flowers in Toronto.

Queen West's Saturday market and the stems a Toronto florist uses

The market sets up at TD Commons, 1001 Queen St W, at the corner of Queen Street West and Shaw Street. Every stem sold there is grown in Ontario, which makes it the exception rather than the rule for a Toronto bouquet.

Ontario accounts for roughly half of Canada's cut flower and greenhouse sales by value, but most of that growing space in the Niagara region goes to potted plants; cut stems take up only a small share of it. A Toronto florist fills the gap with flowers flown in, roses above all, and Colombia and Ecuador supply most of Canada's imported roses.

A Toronto bouquet typically draws on Ecuadorian and French roses, lilies, gerberas, hyacinths, hydrangea and lisianthus. "French" describes a finishing touch rather than a country: the florist turns back the outer petals of an ordinary rose by hand, opening it into a fuller shape.

Ontario's outdoor months, and flowers that keep no season

The market's season runs from Mother's Day to Thanksgiving, the stretch when Ontario flowers grow outdoors rather than under glass; dates for both fall under the city's own calendar in our guide to flowers in Toronto. Outside that window, local outdoor stems are simply not for sale, market or no market.

Lilies, gerberas, lisianthus, chrysanthemums, carnations and alstroemeria are greenhouse flowers, grown year-round regardless of what Ontario's fields are doing. A bouquet built on these can be ordered for any month without worrying about what is or is not in season.

For a bouquet timed to the calendar rather than to one flower, seasonal bouquets follow what is currently easiest to source well. If a particular bloom runs short, the florist swaps it for one close in colour and price, and that substitution shows up on the photo taken before the courier leaves.

A compliment, a kraft-paper bouquet or a giant for a Bay Street desk

A small gesture calls for a small bouquet: compliment and mini sizes work as an add-on rather than the main event, something handed over alongside a card.

Stems wrapped in bouquets in kraft paper are built to be carried and handed over directly, paper and all. Bags and planters cover other ways of presenting a bouquet, each suited to its own kind of handover.

Large and giant bouquets make the bigger gesture, the kind meant to fill a room rather than sit on a side table. For the towers around Bay Street in the Financial District, business bouquets are sized and shaped for a desk.

Every bouquet is put together after the order comes in, not pulled ready-made off a shelf. A photo goes out before the courier leaves, and anything that needs fixing can still be changed at that point. The recipient is not called ahead unless the sender asks for it, and a phone number is enough to send a bouquet delivery in Toronto without an address on hand. Most orders are handed over the same day they are placed, and the exact timing shows on each bouquet's own page.

A kraft-paper bouquet suits something handed over in person, a seasonal bouquet suits a date already on the calendar, and roses are the safest start when neither applies.