The studio
A bench, a cooler, and the morning market
Florelle is a small flower studio in Brooklyn. We buy at the market before it opens, condition every stem at the bench, and tie each bouquet to order.
We started because we were tired of the two options available: a supermarket bunch that lasts four days, or a luxury delivery that costs a hundred dollars and arrives in a box designed to be photographed rather than opened. There is a middle way, and it is not complicated — buy good stems in season, condition them properly, and tie them the morning they travel.
How the studio works
The day starts at the market, twice a week. We walk the floor once without buying, then buy to a list that we write after we have seen what is good. The list is short: a handful of flowers in quantity rather than twenty varieties in threes. That is what makes a bouquet look generous instead of assembled.
Back at the studio, everything is conditioned before it is arranged: stems cut, lower leaves stripped, water changed, cool room. It is the least visible part of the job and the reason a Florelle bouquet lasts a week rather than four days.
What we will not do
We do not dye flowers. We do not use floral foam in standing work. We do not put a logo on the card, or print a message on a ribbon, or send a bouquet we would not put in our own hallway. We do not claim a certification we have not been given, and we do not describe a flower as “sustainably sourced” without telling you exactly what we mean by it — usually that it was grown outdoors, in season, and travelled less than 300 miles.
Where the flowers come from
Three growers we buy from by name — two in the Hudson Valley, one in New Jersey — plus the market floor for everything else. In practice that means a summer bouquet is mostly local and a February bouquet is mostly not, because nothing much grows here in February. We would rather tell you that than pretend otherwise.
Seasonality is not a restriction. It is the reason the flowers are any good.
Weddings, events and standing orders
We take a small number of weddings each month, run weekly accounts for workplaces, and deliver standing orders across the city. The work is planned the same way whether it is one bouquet or a room: what is the room, what is the light, what does the person actually like. Everything else follows.
“A bouquet is a small piece of the season, tied up and handed over. Everything else is packaging.”Studio note
The people
Small on purpose
The florist
Buys, conditions and ties. Decides what the week's bouquets are, and says no when the market cannot deliver what a customer has asked for.
The studio
Runs the standing orders, the weddings paperwork and the delivery schedule. The person you will speak to if you call.
The van
Out twice a day in the city. Nationwide orders are packed upright, in water, and handed to a carrier we have used for years.
The Friday note
What came in, what is nearly gone.
A short letter every other Friday from the studio bench: what the market had, which flowers are peaking, and what we are making with them.
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