Meet the Flower Girls: Elizabeth

In an effort to give you a behind-the-scenes peek into the world of flowers and the creative hands that build our beautiful arrangements, we are starting a new interview series: Meet the Flower Girls. Today Elizabeth is kicking things off to tell us more about her work. Here we go...

-What type of customer request is your favorite and why?

I love when customers call and request a "go for it" (meaning big!) flower crown. Although flower crowns aren't my forte to make the sentiment behind an elaborate and beautiful crown is my favorite. Either someone is buying one for themselves so they can feel beautiful and appreciated or buying one for a friend to make them feel beautiful and appreciated - I love that!  

-If you were buying your best friend a gift from the shop what would you pick out?

A deck of Tarot Cards because everyone needs some good mystical perspective. 

-What has been the most memorable day or event with the shop?

The rush of September wedding season is always the most memorable. I vividly remember driving home from the shop at 2:30am after making arrangements all night for three or four weddings the next day. That late night drive home was so calm and peaceful - just me, the deer, skunks, and rabbits. The next morning we hit the ground running and everything was a success. 

-What is your dream flower project?

I'd love to design and build an arbor for an elaborate and super beautiful flower installation where we could use water buckets instead of foam. I'd love to be able to use that over and over again!

-Can you share one thing that may surprise people about working in a flower shop?

There are so many little things to keep track of because we offer such a wide range of services and so much goes into each offering. We need to juggle weddings with advertising, planting our garden, having boutonniere supplies on hand, keeping the floor clean, folding blankets on the retail floor, making arrangements on the fly, answering the phone...you get it!

-Lastly, what type of flowers or plants do you buy or grow for yourself? 

I've always grown herbs like mint, rosemary, and lavender at home and now I'm happily in a house where I can plant some flowers! I'm starting with peach nasturtiums (I love their foliage) and hellebore (they are my #1 favorite). 

Thank you Elizabeth! Have a question you're dying to ask a Morrice flower girl? Comment below and we'll make sure your question is included in the next Meet the Flower Girls interview. 

Easter Basket Ideas for Everyone

Easter is just two days away and the shop is stocked with new spring items to help your Easter bunny out! Everything here from beautiful basket grass to floral printed pencils and adorable finger puppets was chosen with care. 

If your bunny is stumped, here are some specific suggestions for special ways to fill a child's, teen's, or adult's basket with unique goodies. As always, we have buckets of happy spring flowers that anyone would love to receive for their holiday table.  

All of these things are in the shop! We are open Friday the 30th until 5:00 and Saturday the 31st from 10:00 til' 4:00. 

For kids: 

Special Seed Packets (edible flowers, herbs, bee feed mix): Beautifully packaged seed packets to plant watch grow.

Pollinator Push-Pops: Push the push-pop and scatter custom seed blends to grow a garden that attracts exciting pollinators like bees, hummingbirds and butterflies. 

Felt Flowers: A stem or two of whimsical felt flowers add surprise to a basket. 

Finger Puppets: The ideal basket stuffer - cute, small, and special. We have unicorn, rocket, and mermaid characters. 

Zipper Purses: Special rainbow and sprinkle bags ideal to hide jelly beans inside! 

Floral Printed Pencils: A practical and beautiful gift. 

For teenagers and adults: 

Easter Cards: Beautiful stationary to accompany a bouquet of tulips.

Crystals: Add power and energy to an Easter basket! We have a huge selection of stones and crystals - choose Pyrite, a powerful, grounding and protective stone, an Amethyst to enhance intuition and create a sense of calm and balance, or Lemurian Quartz to assist in removing all types of energy blockages.  

Rifle Paper Co. Pins: The world's cutest pins for jackets, backpacks, and totes.

Specialty Chocolate Bars: Pick from bars spiked with Pistachios, Cranberries & Sea Salt, Candied Ginger, Candied Orange Peel & Coriander, or French Vanilla, Salted Almonds & Olive Oil Ganache. 

Add Magic!

Flower Confetti: We heard some Easter Bunnies leave a trail of flower confetti leading you to the goodies! Dried flower petals also make a special nest for eggs. 

Basket Grass: Don't buy the plastic stuff! We have neutral colored natural Easter grass for just $5 a bag. The grass is made from light wood shavings and is very lovely! It can be packed up to be used again next year.

What to Write on the Card?

We've all been there - picked up the phone or walked into the florist, ordered a beautiful bouquet of flowers and suddenly feel like a deer in headlights when faced with penning a special card message. And we get it - love, loss, celebration - it's all personal and hard to put into words. But...words are important and a sweet, simple, unique card message can really make a difference.

Here are some ideas:

Ways to write about affection:

Pick a lyric from a favorite song: It's no mystery why tunes like You Are the Sunshine of My Life (Stevie Wonder) and You Make Loving Fun (Fleetwood Mac) are timeless hits. 

Get specific with what you love about them: Their laugh, ugly slippers, sense of adventure? If you have a cute pet name for each other, this is the time to use it. 

Poetry: When in doubt, whip out a short and sweet poem.  

Memory: Mention a special memory in a simple and straight forward way like "Thinking of us at the lake last summer...can't wait to do it again." 

Humor: Crack a joke. Everyone loves a joke. 

Just say it: Penning the classic "I love you" is always perfect. 

Ways to write about sympathy: Send kind thoughts by way of condolences, appreciation, or an offer to help. Here is what we mean...

Condolences: A simple way to tell someone you're thinking of them during a hard time. “Remembering your wonderful mother and wishing you comfort.”

Appreciation/Memory: Share a specific trait you loved or memory about the person who has passed. 

An offer to help: "Dropping dinner off Tuesday night and thinking of you until then."

10 Everyday Reasons to Give Flowers

With Valentine's Day coming up it got us thinking...why wait for February 14th to give someone you love the gift of flowers? We can think of about a million everyday reasons to give flowers but here are our best 10. 

10 EVERYDAY REASONS TO GIVE FLOWERS

1. A Bad Day: Everyone has a bad day once in a while. A bright and colorful bouquet of fresh flowers, especially happy yellows and pinks, immediately lightens a heavy mood. 

2. Stress: Who isn't stressed out? A small bouquet or houseplant for a desk or windowsil is a simple way to add a bit of calm to a hectic environment. 

3. Good Luck: Maybe someone has an upcoming performance, interview, business trip, or is starting a new challenge (no sugar for 30 days!). Fresh flowers are the best encouragement. 

4. Thank You: There are a million kind everyday acts made by friends and family that can be reciprocated with flowers - a friend who stayed on the phone with you late at night, a partner who cleaned the house, a teacher who spent extra time with your child. 

5. Catching Up: Sending an old friend or family member you haven't spoken to in a while fresh flowers is the best way to say I'm thinking of you.

6. Random Act of Kindness: Your favorite librarian, bank teller, grocery clerk...they could all use an anonymous flower surprise. 

7. Remembering: Maybe it was this day 10 years ago that you rescued your dog or finished building your house. Birthdays and anniversaries are not the only important life dates to remember with flowers. 

8. You're Amazing! Sending someone flowers just to say You're Amazing is basically the best surprise ever. 

9. Treat Yourself: Buy YOUR favorite flower for YOURSELF. You deserve it. 

10. Mark the Season: A bouquet to mark the start of a new season - fall blooms in late September, a jolly holiday arrangement in December, bright daffodiles in April, and big summer garden blooms in July remind us how special the seasonal cycle is.  

Most importantly, you don't need a reason! Just do it.

Valentine's Day Options for Men

Valentine's Day immediately brings to mind red roses, heart shaped boxes of chocolates, and fancy bottles of perfume but what if you want to buy a less flashy gift for your husband or boyfriend? Can you still celebrate the day of love with a thoughtful, yet manly, gift?

The answer is yes! Believe it or not, there are a variety of romantic yet masculine Valentine's Day gifts in the shop. Below are our picks for our favorite guys. 

1. House Plants: Whether destined for his desk or bedside table, everyone could use some greenery in the cold winter months. 

2. Orchid: Easy to care for yet impressive to admire, orchids are romantic without being overly feminine.

3. Manly Soap: Everyone can appreciate a nice smelling soap bar for the shower. Pick from unique scents like Saltwater, Coffee Mint, and Man Bar (a cedar and sandalwood blend). 

4. Sweets: When in doubt, go for the sweet tooth. Pick from gourmet hot cocoa mix, sea salt caramels, or specialty chocolate bars. No need to wrap, the packaging alone is a piece of art. 

5. Booze Infusers: Bring home an "infuse your booze" kit and whip up two specialty drinks on Valentine's Day night. 

6. Sourdough - Recipes for rustic fermented breads, sweets, savories, and more: A beautiful cookbook is not only a thoughtful gift for a home baker but may also inspire you to cook together more. 

7. Massage: There is nothing that says "I love you" quite as much as the gift of self care. Sonya Mayrand massage gift certificates are available at the shop for 60 minute ($110), 75 minute ($130), and 90 minute ($150) sessions.

Giving The Gift of Kindness

This holiday season we are working to inspire our friends, neighbors, and clients to create and spread random acts of kindness throughout their communities. What better way to celebrate the holidays then to brighten a strangers day and inspire them to do the same?

If you are unsure on how to get started, here are five ways to organize random acts of kindness:

1. Participate in Morrice Florist's Kindness Project: Help us spread random acts of kindness across Martha's Vineyard. Anyone can participate in our Kindness Project and help promote love and generosity across the Island. For starters, keep a lookout for phantom buckets of flowers around the Island. These blooms are our gift for strangers to take, share, and use to spread kind thoughts. If you would like to sponsor a bucket of kindness blooms simply call the shop and we will set it up for you. 

2. Join the Kindness Rocks Project: Their goal is simple - to promote random acts of kindness to unsuspecting recipients by either painting and dropping inspirational rocks or some other creative message.

3. Apply to be a RAKtivist: ‘RAKtivist’ is short for ‘Random Acts of Kindness activist’. Think of RAKtivists like kindness ambassadors—and, like all ambassadors, they’re a part of an active, global community. RAKtivists are everywhere. The student who stops to hold the door open for a teacher with her hands full? They’re a RAKtivist. The commuter who offers their bus seat to an elderly passenger? They’re a RAKtivist too. The parking attendant who leaves a note on someone’s car, complimenting their parking skills? You guessed it. RAKtivist. Anyone who believes kindness can change the world, who reminds everyone around them how much love there is in the world, who inspires hope and generosity with their actions as much as their words—they’re a RAKtivist.

4. Be The Spark: Pick a category (Environment, Animals, Community, Work, Family, School, Sports, Just For Fun), Cost (Free, Inexpensive, Expensive), and Time Investment (Instant, Minimal, Moderate, Investment) and see a list of random acts of kindness that can fit into your life. 

5. Complete a 31 Day Kindness Calendar: Even better, invite a friend to complete the kindness calendar challenge with you.

PS. Get 10% off your purchase in the shop by bringing in a food pantry donation item! 

Holiday Hostess Gift Ideas

We're entering the holiday party season and while being invited to festive bashes is always exciting, sometimes pulling together a last minute hostess gift is overwhelming. Should you bring wine, flowers, chocolate, booze!? Don't worry - we're here to help. Our shop is packed with specialty gifts and here are four unique, thoughtful, and generous hostess gift ideas anyone can manage.

Amaryllis & Paperwhite Bulbs: The gift that keeps on giving.

Amaryllis bulbs are a festive and low pressure gift for a hostess who doesn't want to tend to a houseplant or delicate bouquet. Given warm temperatures, strong light, and water upon arrival, they will put on a spectacular show 8 to 10 weeks later that will brighten up even the gloomiest winter day. We have already planted ours so they should be blooming right around the holidays. Paperwhites require little more than to be potted and watered to produce clusters of fragrant blooms that perfume the whole house. Paperwhite bulbs can be potted using small rocks, sea glass, or marbles.

Fall Arrangement in a Personal Vessel: Add your own touch.

To make a flower arrangement even more special, bring a vase or container from home to the flower shop and ask the staff to create a unique piece around your personal item.

Infuse Your Booze: Cheers to the season!

Gift your hostess the magic to create instantly infused artisan cocktails at home. Grab an infusion jar, pour in booze, heat, shake, and enjoy four special cocktails. Pick a cocktail to match your hostess - maybe it's Sweet Heat (strawberry, jalapeno, citrus, cane sugar, bitters), Campfire (orange, vanilla bean, smokey tea, can sugar, bitters), or Rocky Coast Bloody Mary (tomato, celery, Maine seaweed, horseradish, black pepper, lemon, bitters, spices, Maine sea salt, apple cider vinegar, and cane sugar). 

Handcut Marshmallows + Heirloom Hot Cocoa = Love

Tie a bundle of Little Flower Candy Co. pillowy, handcut marshmallows (pick from vanilla, peppermint, or cinnamon-sugar) up with a tin of Cacao Especial, a fine heirloom hot chocolate mix blended to sweet perfection with raw cane crystals infused with ground vanilla beans.

A Day In The Life

A Day In The Life Of Morrice Florist Owner Emily Coulter with photographs by Jocelyn Filley Photography

7:15 Wake up and head downstairs to make Madeleine & Eloise's school lunches. Drink coffee. 

8:00 Help the girls get dressed, make breakfast, and get the kids off to school.

9:00 Arrive at the shop. Check emails, organize the day, review the calendar, walk around the shop. Welcome the flower crew as they arrive. 

9:30 Clean out the coolers, pull out old flowers and reorganize what's left. Head out to the back garden to pick whatever is ready. 

10:00 Flower delivery truck arrives. While it unloads check messages, scheduled orders, make a list of the day's deliveries, and write out personal greeting cards to include with bouquets. 

10:15 Open the new boxes of flowers and process them by cutting the ends, pulling off lower leaves, and dropping in fresh water. Place all the new buckets of flowers out on the floor. 

11:00 Start creating arrangements for all the day's deliveries. 

12:00 Eat lunch at my desk or outside in our hidden back garden. 

1:00 Make vase arrangements and wrapped bouquets for walk-in customers. Fill the floor cooler with fresh flowers. 

2:00 Back to my desk to respond to emails and write new event proposals. 

3:00 Meet with a potential bride and groom in the shop's greenhouse. 

4:00 Walk the floor of the shop to check the house plants, chat with customers, and review the invantory of home goods and gifts. 

5:00 Close up the shop. Head back to my desk to finish emails. 

6:00 Head home and start dinner.

7:00 Read the girls a few books, work on puzzles together, give the kids a bath. 

8:00 Put the kids to bed and either accidentally fall asleep with them or sneak in a glass of wine before heading to bed.  

Why Are Flowers So Expensive?

It’s true, flowers are expensive but the price you see when you walk into a flower shop represents a lot more than the blooms in front of you. Like a special restaurant meal or bottle of wine, flowers are a luxury. Each stem begins with a seed and requires a lot of love and attention to make it into your arrangement.

This is why flowers are so expensive...

-Growing flowers is hard work and every step of the process takes time and money - from the seeds, to garden maintenance, care, and the final harvest.

-Many flowers are grown far away and travel long distances to florists for arrangement and sale. As our shop is on an island, traveling to the flower market in Boston or paying for a flower shipment to come over on the ferry are additional travel expenses on top of the basic ones.

-Flowers are delicate so they require extra care while picking, traveling, and processing. Because flowers need to be transported and handled so carefully the process takes more time and thus more money. If blooms are bruised or crushed in the process they can not be used.

-It’s hard to imagine but a lot of money is invested behind the scenes in flower research and development to grow the perfect color, size, and variety of blooms.

-It’s expensive for a flower shop to maintain an inventory of fresh blooms that can create bouquets that are appropriate for walk-in customers and daily phone requests.

-All flowers take production. On a typical week, flowers arrive on a Tuesday and immediately get processed. Each bunch is accounted for, stems are cleaned of foliage, freshly cut, and put into fresh water. After all the necessary production tasks are done, flowers are either monitored out of the cooler or placed directly in the coolers awaiting design.

-All flower bouquets and arrangements are works of art. Countless hours go into the placement and design of each arrangement and floral piece. Everyday arrangements, wedding bouquets, hand-created boutonnieres, corsages, centerpieces, and aisle flowers take experience, patience, and creativity to master.

-After designs are complete, transporting and delivering flowers is not the same as shipping “stuff”. To transport and deliver flowers, each bouquet must be packaged, misted and placed into an air-conditioned van to arrive perfectly.

-You get what you pay for. When you deal with less expensive flowers, unfortunately, you usually get lower end design work with less attention to detail and more greenery. A florist with higher prices is most likely offering ethically grown, beautifully arranged, personal pieces.

So your flowers were hand picked, traveled to Martha’s Vineyard, processed with care, arranged with love and now they are yours - how amazing is that!