Passover falls at the very start of the Montreal spring, often before the city looks like it. Flowers on the Seder table are a way of insisting that the season has turned, and they have one thing to do: look beautiful for a long evening and the days that follow.
We have been preparing flowers for Montreal Seders since 1993. Here is what we have learned about what works on that table.
A table dressed in advance
A Seder table is usually set the day before, and it stays set. That is a pleasant constraint rather than a difficult one, but it should decide the arrangement more than the colour or the size does.
What you want is flowers that keep their form on their own, in a vase that arrives full.
| Choose | Why it suits a table set ahead |
|---|---|
| Lisianthus, alstromerias, chrysanthemums | Modest drinkers and the steadiest flowers we carry. They hold their shape for days at a time. |
| Roses and spray roses, in bud | Write “in bud” in the order notes and we keep them fairly closed. They open across the week rather than peaking on the first evening. |
| Ranunculus and stock | The spring flowers with the steadiest hold, and the softness the season calls for. |
| An arrangement rather than a wrapped bouquet | It arrives ready to set down on the table, with nothing to unwrap, trim or fill. |
| Avoid | Why |
|---|---|
| Hydrangeas | The thirstiest flower we work with. A hydrangea can empty a vase overnight. |
| Heavy fragrance | Scent and a long meal share a table badly. Write “for the table” in the order notes and we build it clean. |
| Anything fully open | A bouquet at its peak on the first evening has nowhere to go but down. |
| Height | The Seder is told across the table, not around it. Keep centrepieces under about twenty-five centimetres. |
Send it in a vase, and send it early
A hand-tied bouquet wrapped in paper puts the work on the person receiving it: unwrap, trim, find a vase, fill it. On the afternoon before a Seder, that person is cooking for eighteen.
Choose a delivery date a day or two before the first evening, and choose an arrangement that arrives already in water. Your host should be able to set it down and go back to the kitchen.
One we remember
A family came to us wanting a centrepiece that felt like a beginning rather than a decoration. We built it low, in white tulips with a few stems of soft yellow ranunculus. They told us afterwards that the table looked like spring had arrived indoors, several weeks before it arrived outside.
Colour
White and green is the safe and beautiful answer. It reads as renewal, it sits quietly beside the Seder plate, and it never competes with what is already on the table.
Spring pastels work just as well: soft yellow, blush, pale lavender. Touches of blue are a quiet way of naming the season without saying it.
Passover and Easter often fall in the same week
In Montreal the two frequently land within days of each other, and plenty of families mark both. Our guide to Easter flowers covers that side of the week, and our guide to cut flower care covers the first ten minutes, which matter more than everything after.
The card
Short is right. Chag Pesach sameach is a happy Passover, and chag sameach on its own works for any festival. In English, wishing someone a beautiful holiday carries the same warmth.
Every order includes a printed card at no charge. Type your message in the card field at checkout and we print it here.
Chag Pesach sameach
It all happens in the order: choose the arrangement, pick a delivery date before the first evening, and write “for the table” in the notes. We build it low, unscented, in a vase and filled, ready to be set down.
Discover our Passover collection, our spring flowers and our low centrepieces, each arranged by hand in our workshop on the day it is delivered, in Montreal, Laval and on the South Shore.
