Halloween is one of the most celebrated holidays in New England.  Bright orange pumpkins and jac o' lanterns adorn every doorstep. Hayrides carry  laughing children along eerie trails. Homes fill their bowls  with  candy corn, Snickers and M & M's.  Halloween casts a spell over Boston, enchanting its residents  to not only participate in the spooky fun but to decorate  with spider webs, creepy ghouls  and scary music.   

Halloween is also a popular wedding date for the mysterious and  enchanted. Halloween wedding centerpieces  feature burnt oranges, burgundies, purples along with spirited accessories.  With a few easy tricks and treats, anyone can change a common table floral arrangment  into an eye catching and haunted floral presentation.

Purple, orange, cream and black are the most traditional colors for Halloween flowers.  These colors work well as a monochromatic design and complement each other as well. If you cannot find the right color balance, include a few stems of lime green hydrangea or celosia pop the colors  in your wedding centerpiece.  This palette of color has some store bought limitations, but florists like Exotic Flowers in Boston can provide all the flowers you need.

 Deep purples and violets  are readily available in ornamental kale or lisianthus. Pumpkin oranges include mango callas, spray roses and gerbera daisies.  For wedding like creams, ecuadorean roses and kale are great choices.  Black flowers will give you your spooky sensation, Schwartzwalder mini calla lillies, bat flowers and Twilight Black Roses are some the favorites of the Exotic Flowers in Boston design staff.

Here are a few tips to enhance the  spirit of Halloween in your floral arrangements.  Add a few wisps of store bought cobwebs to the tops or to the sides of the bouquet to give you that Addams family look. Invest  in a few plastic spiders found in any local party (Iparty in West Roxbury) or craft store (AC Moore in Dedham,).  Place the spiders  in one or two spots, making them appear that they are hiding within the flower arrangement.  For an added value with minimum investments, lightly sprinkle candy corn in a circular shape around the bottom of your vase. 

Happy Halloween!

Suzie Canale

follow me at twitter.com/SuzieCanale

October 2011 - Boston

Exotic Flowers Announces its Horror Hall of Fame

Like The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, Exotic Flowers in Boston has its own Hall of Fame. Founded in 2011, Exotic Flowers will announce an induction class to its Horror Hall of Fame every Halloween. The inaugural class mirrors the likes of Cobb, Ruth and Matthewson; the Exotic Flowers in Boston Horror Hall of Fame presents the Wolfman, Frankenstein, Dracula, Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhes and Michael Myers.

The Exotic Flowers Boston Horror Hall of Fame will be a virtual homage to Horror Movies. 

for seventy years.

an obsession with all things Vampire including the popular Twilight black roses.
* Frankenstein - Mary Shelley may not have known what type of monster she really created when bringing

this legend to life.

became the main character in many nightmares.

can create the character.

Halloween from Boston to Salem and Beyond by Jonathan Bornstein (one of Exotic Flowers in Boston's top clients).

It’s October, and if the sight since late August of shelves stuffed with blinking plastic skulls, fake cobwebs and creaking miniature coffins didn’t clue you in, then allow me to spoil it for ya – Halloween is here ! A fan favorite for those who love a good holiday, Hallow’s Eve is a delight for your sweet tooth as well as a paradise for your inner dress up doll.  It’s also vastly underrated for one other thing – community. 

 Halloween is perhaps the only time of year when my family gets to spend a few moments reconnecting with all of our neighbors in Newton. Busy lives lead us to run around with blinders on, and amazingly, it takes an event where everyone dresses up like fiends and fairies to create a scenario where, we can reconnect and exchange a pleasantry or two before extending some goodwill to tide us all over til next year.

 

That’s not to say that our more colorful and somewhat less altruistic sides don’t get aired out as well. I’m not referring to that kid or two well past the accepted trick or treat age that shows up on your front doorstep around 9pm with no costume and a brown paper grocery bag to claim the last of your bulk bought candy. I’m actually conjuring up the cherished memory of my late father who loved to negotiate the terms this time of year for taking my sister and I out to trick or treat. The number of houses and streets we got to visit each year was directly tethered to the percentage of candy we had to surrender to Dad’s considerable sweet tooth. Fortunately for me and lil’ sis, he loved the stuff that we were just as happy to throw out, like Bit O’ Honeys, Mary Janes, and Good n Plenty’s.

 I now bemusedly put forth the same deal each year to my kids, and fortunately for them, the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree. My sweet tooth hangs out in a completely different area code than theirs. They love sugary pixie sticks, Nerds and “sucker style” ring pops. So what then, might you ask, are my top five trick or treats? Can’t narrow it down to five, but I can do seven -

 

1)   Milk Duds – love the gooey sticky taste of caramel that blends with the chocolate coating after just a couple of chews.

2)   Charleston Chew – seeing a pattern here? Sweet vanilla taffy blending with a chocolate coating – even better when put in the freezer first!

3)   Snow Caps – the rich, sweet flavor of dark chocolate mixed with the sugary crunch and texture of the tiny white pellet coating? Just the right amount of crunch, and sublimely delicious.

4)   Anything Reese’s – you put your chocolate in my peanut butter, indeed!

5)   Mike and Ike’s – love the chewy, fruity sweet nature of these guys, and that includes their lesser known cousins, “Hot Tamales”.

 

6)   Junior Mints – creamy, chewy mint covered in pure chocolate? Done and done. Extra credit for their Seinfeldian cred.

7)   Dots! – LOOOOOVE Dots. Sweet, chewy, and always a surprise which flavor comes out of the box. Especially when the yellow ones emerge, cause I don’t like ’em, and they are promptly returned to their cardboard home to await new ownership.

Honorable mention goes to Milky Ways and Three Musketeers, because the experience gets enhanced when they're placed in the freezer, and I love the word “nougat”.

So now that you know what I sneak out of my kids plastic pumpkins, tell me, what treats don’t make it back to your kitchen for sorting?

- Jon Bornstein

photo credits: Jon Bornstein

follow me: twitter.com/zucrow

Last week I traveled to Manhattan on behalf of Suzie Canale's visit to Pajama Program Headquarters to read her children's books. While Suzie was sharing her Beantown Tales, I visited the historic New York flower district in search of my colleague Nic Faitos of Starbright Floral Design. Nic and I have exchanged ideas and orders since getting to know each other via social media in 2010. The George W. Bush administration preached 'face time is indispensable,'. In this case, our in person meeting was long over due.

Having braved treacherous highways and driving rain, I arrived in New York City hoping to catch up with Nic at Starbucks for coffee. Thanks to the rainstorm, Nic was delayed. Like all florists, Nic had to check in with his operation and staff to make sure the day would exceed his clients' expectations.

I have the utmost admiration for Nic and Starbright and asked to see the guts of Starbright Floral Design. Between a myriad of texts and finally a phone call, he gave my directions to his shop in the heart of the floral district. What a treat ! I passed by windows and sidewalks filled with six foot bundles of ilex and magnolia, thousands of orchid plants, topiaries, azaleas and the largest lobster claw heliconia I have seen. 

But Starbright Floral Design does not have a flower shop. They are on the second floor of a warehouse/office building. Upon walking in the shop, it felt like I was back in Boston. Floral designers were crafting gorgeous arrangements of roses, calla lillies and orchids; some flower arrangements featuring anthurium and pineapples for parties that day (even at the famous Copacabana) and others with roses and vanda orchids for a wedding that weekend. Telephones rang, flower processors and delivery personnel hustled throughout. I announced my presence and a towering man with glasses and ponytail leaped from his chair with a hug and a welcome. After exchanging pleasantries, Nic welcomed me 'to his kitchen,.' Just like Exotic Flowers in Boston, there was action and a bit of a mess, just like the 'kitchen' at Exotic Flowers. We grabbed a Starbucks and went straight to exchanging ideas. 

Nic and I then held our first of many future meetings. This New York florist can teach this Boston florist a great deal and vice versa. We exchanged ideas all in the name of growing our businesses. At the same time, we cemented our gentleman's agreement; we will treat any New York to Boston order as a VIP and the staff at Starbright Floral Design will do the same for any flower order from Boston to New York City.

Don't worry, I am not becoming a Yankees fan and I am not pulling a 'David Ortiz.' Exotic Flowers of Boston's relationship with Starbright Floral Design of New York City is all about building our business and cementing our relationship. Our business will grow and prosper because of our clients, our staff and our partnerships.

Images one and three of this blog are both designed by Starbright Floral Design of New York City.

At Exotic Flowers in Boston, we often work on our feet. Lunch is usually eaten at a work station and the end result is often fast food. Unfortunately, you might say we are fast food critics. On our Boston flower design benches, you might find a beef lo mein from Seven Star Street Bistro, or a Chipotle Burrito. Pizza has become a staple for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Some are good. Some are great. Here are our five favorites.

• In West Roxbury, Tony's Pizza is an institution. Elio has been hand making one of the best Chicken Parmigiana subs and some of the tastiest area pizza for more than twenty years.
• Also in West Roxbury is Comella's; Comella's is a family owned chain which is know for its Italian Mess (a delight of mixed pastas, sauce and cheese) but its pizza $5 large cheese pizzas keep me as regular. This is the best $5 you can spend in Boston.
• A traditional favorite remains local icon Papa Gino's. For chain pizza, Papa Gino's nails it with its rustic pizza. This thin stretched crust cut into mini squares and odd shapes is as close to authentic as a chain can get.

In the past couple of weeks, you may have noticed the latest Direct Mail postcard from Exotic Flowers. About every two to three months, a colorful postcard goes to all our Boston and nationwide flower buyers. This month's postcard touts Exotic Flowers' expertise in sending fresh flowers.

Having been in the floral industry for over seventy five years, Exotic Flowers is schooled in the fundamentals of flower care.

Cut flower processing is required as a staff member at Exotic Flowers. The flower processing team at Exotic Flowers has more than one hundred years experience in fresh flower care. We do it fresh is not just an act, it is the backbone of our success.

Our floral arrangements are designed to last 5-10 days. Every one of our flower arrangements in the Boston area is delivered in the Exotic Flowers' floral preservative. This preservative is designed to promote longevity and maximum blooming show. The floral preservative has both a bacteria fighter and food to help our flowers flourish. Our arrangements also arrive with a care tag explaining that fresh water should be added daily to ensure maximum vase life.

Our flower buckets also have floral preservative; different than the solution in your arrangement. Our Roslindale refrigerators hold flowers at 40 degrees and the floral solution in the buckets is designed to hold and hydrate the flowers until they are ready to grace the tables and offices of Dorchester, Cambridge, Boston and West Roxbury.

Unfortunately, some other florists in Boston do not see the importance of flower care. These dead roses to my left are only 4 days old. The same roses at Exotic Flowers in Boston flourish for seven days.

Exotic Flowers fresh flower care tips:

• as soon as you receive your flower arrangement from Exotic Flowers, immediately check the water level. Check container daily to insure it is always filled.
• Do Not Change the water. Exotic Flowers in Boston has already added a floral preservative which not only fights bacteria, but also nourishes your flowers to promote longevity.
• Display your arrangement in a cool location, out of direct sunlight.