Chicago - January 04, 2006

Petal Pushers

Flora Flower Shop

Run ye mighty Mercury with your winged feet and generic FTD bouquet in hand.

Run ye far, far away from here, in fact. For we have found another deity to deliver high-quality flowers and foliage at lightning speed.

Behold: Flora, the goddess of flowers and the latest botanical boutique to blossom in Lakeview. The lime green and mocha store is filled with a fragrant combination of exotic flowers (from orchids to pincushion protea), lush houseplants, decorative topiaries, and home accents like hand-painted ceramic vases and candles.

In the spacious workroom, they do custom arrangements for projects big and small — weddings to window boxes — and hold classes in flower arranging. Web-savvy green thumbs will love Flora’s website, where you can pre-order bouquets online or join the Flora Favorites database, which keeps track of your preferred buds and reminds you via e-mail when you need to send flowers.

Which should put an end to that Mercury-goes-retrograde forgetfulness of yours once and for all.

Flora, 2835 North Southport Avenue (773-929-2835 or florachicago.com).