Roses for Less Money

My Mother was a florist. Yes, in some ways, she was a cruel woman to name me Holly Berry. But, it taught me patience, forbearance, and how to take a joke. I also learned how to arrange flowers, make corsages, and how to keep potted plants looking healthy. Just the basics of the above, not the complicated designs Mother knew how to do, but enough to help out in the shop on weekends and school holidays.

Back in the day, when the Earth's crust was still cooling and dinosaurs still roamed the earth, flowers were a LOT cheaper. I don't even go to florists anymore, unless I want to order something that's out of season or send funeral flowers. For instance, she sold one of those long white boxes (remember those?) lined with the flimsy green paper (gettin' nostalgic yet?), full of stems leather leaf fern for a bed, and a dozen roses of your choice of color, de-thorned, and artfully arranged in the box with six at one end and six at the other end. They would be staggered so that the blossoms did not lie on top of one another, but were cushioned on the stems by the fern and baby's breath [the stems with the tiny white buds on the ends]. In the middle of the box we would place more baby's breath to camouflage the naked stems. The box would be tied with ribbon to match the color of the roses and the free card could be either tucked into the roses, the crossing of the ribbons on the top of the box, or we could pin it to the ribbons.

Now, this labor intensive artful display of your affection would set you back a whopping $12.50. But that included free delivery. Of course this was 40 years ago, and a good Middle Class monthly wage was $900 - $1000/month.

If you were gauche enough to attempt to order an arrangement of roses for your love on Valentine's Day, Mother would diplomatically explain that usually LADIES preferred to receive cut flowers. "That way they can arrange them to suit their own tastes. After all, a LADY always has vases." I NEVER saw a man contradict that little etiquette lesson.