Arrangement

I did buy flowers yesterday.

The flower shop was filled with plants in natural-colored pots, and perhaps "filled" is misleading, because as I walked along the side shelves and the large table in the center of the long narrow shop, I noticed that each dwarf orchid or fern was given its own space, and that there was nothing large or showy in the entire room; it felt, rather, like a gallery of Persian miniatures.

I went to the back, where a single small cooler contained tall galvanized buckets of cut flowers; there was more color behind the glass than in the whole rest of the shop. The florist was a Japanese woman, small and elegant in beige and black; her daughter, I decided from the way they spoke to one another, was speaking in French to a customer on the phone; she had a sophisticated short haircut and wore black with a loose lavender vest.

The florist came over to me and asked what I would like. I don't know yet, I said. Some lilies, perhaps? she suggested. Startled, since lilies are among my favorite flowers, my eyes went to them, on the second tier of shelves, above the roses; there were yellow ones, and orange, pink, and further over to the right, white and some dark shades. How much are they per stem? I asked. Six dollars, she said, and I said fine, I'd like one stem of the white and one of the dark red. She nodded and opened the door and carefully chose and removed two stems, and then asked, would you like them like this, or with some greens? With some greens, I said. She was already bending down looking at the choice of greenery in another section of buckets, and I moved closer, away from the counter, to tell her no asparagus fern, no baby's breath please, but she had already pulled out a single long frond, like the leaf of a sanseviaria, and was holding it away from her body, in back of the lilies which she held tightly together in one hand. She glanced at me. I gave a slight nod and smiled, and instinctively stepped back. She pulled out another broad oval leaf, of darkest green, and two branches with smaller oval leaves that she placed on a low table. Holding the lilies and long leaf in place with one hand, she doubled the dark leaf, curling its point back against the other gathered stems; again she paused to consider her decision. Then she cut two smaller branches from the ones on the table, and held them on the opposite side from the doubled leaf.

I watched, my breath slowing down, understanding now what I was being given. With her other hand she unrolled a length of fine greenish hemp, cut it, and tied the arrangement together, wrapping the twine for a distance of perhaps an inch and a half along the stems. She didn't look at me again for approval, and all of this was done quite slowly and deliberately. When all the stems had been secured, she held the arrangement away from her body again, and then quickly, deftly, tied the top of the long frond into a knot.

She moved to the main counter and placed the arrangement on a piece of delicate grass-green paper, not tissue, but something finer and impervious to water, and then enclosed all of it in transparent cellophane, stapled up the side, and gathered all of this below the blooms with a bow of dark green ribbon affixed with a gold sticker bearing the name of the shop. Then she slowly turned the bouquet to face me, looked up, and met my eyes with a very slight incline of her head. I smiled, nodded, and said thank you very much, it is extremely beautiful. She smiled then, very slightly, and I paid her and walked out into the sunshine.

Comments

[Kim]

It is quite lovely. I believe that would become my favorite shop from this point forward.

[dale]

Yikes. The smoldering sensuality of Montreal :-)

[Vivian]

AAAhhh yes. it was just waiting for you!

[Marja-Leena]

Beautiful and elegant in its simplicity. I do think the Japanese are superb in flower design.

[Beth]

Kim, she definitely won me as a customer, as much for the experience as for the flowers!

Dale, oh yes, you've got it!

Vivian, I'm not sure, was it waiting to be created for me? All the parts came together in the shop, and had to do with her lead, my choice, her sensitivity to who I was and what I'd like. All of which happened very quickly and very slowly, too. It was fascinating.

I agree, Marja-Leena. That topknot (which doesn't really show in the picture) really made me gasp inwardly when she did it, I was so surprised! It never would have occurred to me.

[mary]

A moment of grace in the day. Just enough to relieve the gray sameness. What a lift.

[ej]

what a fine work of art!

[Diana]

mmm, Ikebana while you watch. Worth so much more than the price of the flowers.

[Jean]

How lovely. And a lovely photo of you too.

[Jan]

Such a simple pleasure, so nourishing to the soul. They are beautiful, Beth.

[Mouse]

The French have such beautiful flower shops.
In fact my favourite place when I am feeling low is the flower shop in Guingamp.
I often think how wonderful it must be to work as a florist, so very good for one's soul, n'est-ce pas?

[john]

There is an essay in Loren Eiseley's book "The Star Thrower' wonderfully titled 'How flowers changed the world'.In it is noted the English poet Francis Thompson's thought that one could not pluck a flower without troubling a star.Eiseley comments'Intuitively he sensed like a naturalist the enormous interlinked complexity of life'
Here there is such reverence and japanese gentleness that nothing seems out of synch
Nice full bookshelve with lots of larger books suggesting perhaps art books.. sorry for being nosy I can't help myself.When i visit someone's home for the first time I head for the books to check them out

[Natalie]

Beth, beautiful tale, beautifully told and beautiful photo of you and the flowers. Did the florist's magical fingers also manage to increase the number of flowers in the bouquet? You said you bought only one white and one dark red lily but in the picture.....

[Beth]

John - yes, that's a corner of our studio and those are indeed art books. I'm always curious about other people's books, too.

Natalie - there were several buds on each stem!

[barb jensen]

This is so beautifully written. A contrast to the day you didn't buy those expensive tulips; and such value in these two lilies~ an experience, a performance, a work of art, and flowers! I love the image of the florist's daughter on the phone.