AIFD - FLORAL DESIGN SHOW JUNE 14 - ORANGE COUNTY

I'll be manning a trade show booth at this popular AIFD floral design show, for The Bloomin' News, so if you're there, be sure to stop by. I'll also have the Sending Flowers to America book along, but mostly, I'll be on the lookout for story material for upcoming issues of The Bloomin' News.

Phil Rulloda, AAF, AIFD, PFCI, and Susan Butler, AIFD, are the two featured floral designers presenting at this show for the American Institute of Floral Designers’ Southwest Region, on Sunday, June 14, 2009, at Mayesh Wholesale Flowers, 3241 Halladay Street, Santa Ana, California 92705 (call 714 668-2120). Need directions or map? See http://www.mayesh.com/locations.php

We Are Bloomin' Now

Have transformed this blog into a Bloomin' News blog, as the So Cal Flower History news is now being covered at http://flowermarkethistory.com/blog ; no need for two on same topic.

So readers of The Bloomin' News, the bi-monthly newsmagazine of the Los Angeles Flower Market, should feel free to submit comments and articles here. In future posts, I'll try to include the fun potpourri type material that makes the printed version of The Bloomin' News so popular: people, places, happenings, news of special or unusual interest, you get it. Keep it light, make it fun. Looking forward to your comments.

New Location for Sending Flowers Blog

Please visit us at our main website: http://flowermarkethistory.com/blog

Great Walk of the Flower Markets

Met some fascinating characters and interesting people while walking the Los Angeles Flower District Wednesday morning. "Polo" at Floral Prop Rental (need arches, pedestals?) hammed it up for the camera. Company celebrating 40 years this year. Sensation Flowers, Milagra (corner of 8th and Wall), Moskatel's, Floral Supply Syndicate, Natural Floral - saw them all. And shot the photo at left - glorious golden mini-calla lilies.

Great to see the new Flower Market Restaurant and Cafe at 765 S. Wall Street. It shines with a somewhat spartan decor in green and white (appropriate for March) and tasty breakfast and lunch dishes.

I'll add a little history of the area, along with facts and trivia, for the May/June issue of The Bloomin' News - http://www.bloominnews.com/ .

Walking the Flower District

My walk of the Flower District was cancelled by pouring rain last Wednesday morning, so I'll do it early Wednesday, March 11. I mean the original Flower District - WALL STREET from SEVENTH to EIGHTH streets. I'll interview storefront owners who are paying members of the real Flower District (largest wholesale flower district in the US), for my upcoming cover story for The Bloomin' News (see http://bloominnews.com/).

The "LA Flower Market" that started in the 1920s is still going strong. The shops on surrounding Eighth and San Pedro streets attract the public now, unfortunately, keeping customers from the real Flower District merchants, who are for the most part, hidden from view in the neighborhood of merchants that has sprung up around it. Check out the rich history of this District at http://laflowerdistrict.com/ . Public hours ($2 admission) are 8 to 10 a.m. -- Buy flowers on Wall Street and help your original Flower District survive. Wish for no rain for me on the 11th.

Featured Flower: Ginger

Thought you might enjoy a visual treat. Today's photo from the Los Angeles Flower Market is Ginger.

The Thurnhers of San Marino

A delightful email today from Oskar Thurnher, who with his brothers Bertram and William, were sons of the admired and respected San Marino florist Erna Thurnher and her husband, nurseryman Armin Thurnher, both now deceased.

I'd asked Oskar if he knew of the "Thurnher House" in his hometown of San Marino, a Los Angeles suburb near Pasadena, to which he replied that the family had lived there "all during our childhood." The Mediterranean style house, built in 1929, was later designated an historical building and named after the boys' father, who "built Lacy Park." Since 2004, it has served as home to the San Marino Historical Society. Naturally, this was the centering place for our darling florist Erna Thurnher, who bought her flowers downtown at the Los Angeles Flower Market like hundreds of others.

There's more information about the house and the Society at http://www.smnet.org/comm_group/historical/ - and I'll include some of this local color in my July 12 slideshow at San Marino's Crowell Public Library (see https://www.flowermarkethistory.com/asp/presentations.asp ).