Buying flowers in season is the surest way to get better flowers. They have travelled less, they open properly, and they hold up longer. In a city with winters like ours, knowing what is actually at its best in a given month is worth more than knowing what is fashionable.
Here is the florist's calendar as we live it on Boulevard Saint-Laurent. Every collection below follows it, so whatever you order in a given week is what is best that week.
Spring, from the thaw to the end of May
The first real season after five months of white. Spring flowers are abundant and short-lived, and that is part of their appeal.
What we work with: tulips above all, ranunculus when we can get good ones, and the first spray roses in soft colours.
What to know: spring flowers are the shortest-lived of the year. Tulips give you a few days and keep growing in the vase. That is normal, not a defect. Give them cold water and a cool room.
Send them for: Easter, Mother's Day, Passover, or simply the first week it is warm enough to open a window.
See our spring collection.
Summer, June through August
The most generous season, and the only one where local Quebec growers supply us directly.
What we work with: peonies in June, hydrangeas, garden roses and spray roses, lisianthus, blue eryngium for texture, veronica for height, and craspedia for those small yellow accents that hold a bouquet together.
What to know: the local peony window is short, roughly three weeks in June, and it is the one moment in the year when the best flower in the shop grew an hour away. Hydrangeas are magnificent and thirsty, so keep the vase full.
Send them for: weddings, birthdays, graduations, and anything that should feel abundant.
See our summer collection.
The three weeks we wait for
There is a particular excitement in the shop when the first local peonies arrive in early June. One customer waited to propose until peony season, because it was her favourite flower and he wanted it to be a Quebec one. That is the kind of thing seasonality makes possible.
Autumn, September to November
The most underrated season, and the one that surprises people most.
What we work with: chrysanthemums, and not the ones you are picturing. The varieties we buy have layered, rounded heads much closer to a dahlia than to a supermarket mum. Alongside them, roses that deepen in colour as the nights cool, lisianthus, and foliage at its best: salal, Italian ruscus, eucalyptus and pistacia.
What to know: autumn flowers are the steadiest of the year. If someone tells you they never buy flowers because they die too fast, autumn is the season that changes their mind.
Send them for: Thanksgiving, housewarmings, Rosh Hashanah, and the long grey stretch before the snow.
See our autumn collection.
Winter, December to March
Everything is imported, so quality depends entirely on the buyer. This is the season where the difference between a florist and a supermarket is most visible.
What we work with: roses at their most dramatic, amaryllis through the year-end holidays, tulips arriving early from Dutch greenhouses, white calla lilies, and orchid plants.
What to know: the cold is the enemy, not the season. Flowers are destroyed in minutes below minus twenty, so never leave a bouquet in the car. Indoors, dry heated air is the second enemy. Keep bouquets away from radiators and vents.
Send them for: Christmas, New Year, Valentine's Day, and February, when a bouquet does more work than at any other time of year.
See our winter collection.
What to expect in the vase
| Autumn, chrysanthemums and lisianthus | around 10 days |
| Winter, roses and calla lilies | 7 to 10 days |
| Summer, hydrangeas and garden roses | 5 to 8 days |
| Spring, tulips and peonies | 4 to 6 days |
These are indications rather than guarantees. Vase life varies with the season, the variety, the temperature of the room and the care given.
Whatever the season, the care matters more than the flower. Our guide to cut flower care covers the ten minutes that decide everything.
Let the season choose for you
Our florist's choice bouquets are built from whatever came in that morning, which is the simplest way to get the best of the week without deciding anything. Write a colour or a favourite flower in the order notes and we work around it.
Discover our current bouquets and our flower subscription, which follows the seasons all year, each arranged by hand in our workshop on the day it is delivered, in Montreal, Laval and on the South Shore.
