New York - August 24, 2001

DailyCandy Floral Guide

Guide to the best florists

The mise-en-scene

Young Stylish Thang sits at office desk, twirling hair around index finger, wistfully gazing at ceiling. Receptionist rings. “Young Stylish Thang, you have some flowers here.” Young Stylish Thang leaps to her kitten-heeled feet. No, she does not trip; her $420 peasant blouse does not get caught in her Knoll chair; these mishaps do not befall the Young Stylish Thang. Other “mishaps” do. Like having a boyfriend who sends flowers that she is less than pleased with.

(Note: This is a true story, all Young Stylish Thangs’ names have been changed, as have names of significant others.) For your convenience, vendors’ names have been kept intact.

Anyway, back to our story. Needless to say, YST shrieks when spies what she calls the “tacky” bouquet. YST runs back to desk, calls b-friend, gives him an earful. B-friend places call to florist, and—we kid you not—florist calls Young Stylish Thang back. “I hear you don’t like my flowers,” she snaps, and insists on picking them up.

Sigh. Such “mishaps” can be avoided. Herewith the DailyCandy Guide to flora that will please the YST. A quick, fast, and dirty rundown.

Avi Adler, 87 Luquer Street, Brooklyn (718-243-0804).
All attitude and guaranteed to impress. A wall of 8,000 lemons with yellow chrysanthemums for an Esquire party? A landscape of 5,000 Swarovski crystals? Adler has a whopper of a client list (Lauder, Goldman Sachs, Louis Vuitton, etc.)Adler will not do single arrangements. For the seriously high-maintainance YST.

Spruce, 75 Greenwich Avenue, at 11th Street. (212-414-0588).
A Candy favorite. V. simple arrangements. Trademark creations include wooden crates of roses, tulips, and sweet peas.

Belle Fleur, 11 East 22nd Street (212-254-8703).
Flamboyant. Pricey. The least-expensive arrangement is $50, but worth it.

Zone 6, 589 Broadway, between Prince and Houston Streets (212-219-4070).
Don’t know how we stumbled across this one. But we were recently sent a slamming batch of lilies. Whoa.

ZeZe, 398 East 52nd Street, (212-753-7767).
Gwyneth’s fave. We dig it too. So will YST.

David Browne’s Flower Shop, 399 Bleecker Street, at West 11th and Perry Streets (212-352-1224).
Good enough for hotelier Andre Balazs (who uses him for personal needs as well as for his Mercer hotel), good enough for YST. Exotic. If you can deal with him, Browne does beautiful work.

Miho Custom Floral Design, 310 East 44th Street, between First and Second Avenues (212-922-9122).
Flawless. Manolo Blahnik’s florist of choice. Known for her “twists,” in which she wraps stems around the vase. Her orchids rock, too.

V.S.F. (Very Special Flowers), 204 West 10th Street, between Bleecker and West 4th Streets (212-206-7236). Roses, dahlias, and lysinthus are du jour. Pot and soil are usually included. Also carries tools and garden accessories.

Elizabeth Ryan Floral Design, 411 East 9th Street, between Avenue A and First Avenue (212-995-1111). A neighborhood favorite, Ryan is best known for her charming window displays. (A three-foot-wide pumpkin? Is YST a Cinderella type?) Prices are decent. A mere ten-spot gets you, um, something…

Prudence Designs, 228 West 18th Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues (212-691-1356). Prudence’s trademark Chinese-takeout- box arrangements are pretty darn cute and sure to please the YST. We also like the floating floral creations. (Though we’d rather not know too much about the poor fellow who has to deliver them.)

Lotus NYC Flowers, 161 Seventh Avenue, near Perry Street (212-463-0555). Time was that Luis Collazo worked by appointment only for the likes of Brooke Astor and Thierry Mugler. Now his art is public property. A bit of name-dropping goes a long way with the YST. Very pretty stuff here.

And, alas, a New York no brainer.

Christian Tortu for Takashimaya, 693 Fifth Avenue, between 54th and 55th Streets (212-350-0111).