Latest news and stock from viva verde
The latest news and happenings from viva verde, flowers and plants!
Friday June 6th, 2008
Happy summer to everybody, fingers crossed that the sunshine decides to stay and give the June brides warmth for their happy days! (Was that a bit cheesy? Sorry...)
We have a gorgeous selection of plants at the moment, a little bit of everything for indoors and outdoors. A range of bedding plants, bouganvillea, hydrangeas in blue, white, lace cap and climbing, white pot roses, olive trees and a selection of vegetables and herbs. We have a new organic supplier named Joe who grows (locally!) a selection of courgettes, cucumber, beans and a huge selection of chilli plants and basil. We have cinnamon basil, who ever heard of cinnamon basil before? We also have beautiful, summery hanging baskets, these can be made to order in your specific colours.
We have a fantastic new selection of ceramic containers in all sizes and colours, ranging from cream to turquoise, plain or embellished with ceramic flowers, tea lights, hanging tea lights, large bowls for floating flower heads, and sea shell vases and decorations. Please keep your eye out for the photos I will be posting.
We will be making up a large variety of wedding flowers over the summer, no two brides will be the same which is more interesting for us! It will keep us inspired and hopefully inspire some of you when it comes to selecting what you need for your big day. We will be at the wedding fair at the Hilton Brighton Metropole on October 26th of this year, put it in your diary and make sure you come and see us.
We are doing our second "all english, all local flowers and foliages" wedding next week. This is an exciting opportunity for us to put together all of the decorations and bouquets using local English suppliers, and hopefully will encourage others to think about supporting English growers and independent suppliers. I will post the photos after the event, please let us know what you think.
Happy summer! Happy gardening!
Lynnette, Kevin and Archie
Monday the 28th of April, 2008
First of all, serious apologies for taking so long in writing to you all! Yikes! The wedding season is creeping up on us and we are kept on our toes at the moment trying to squeeze everyone in for a consultation before Summer comes along!
Well, my favourite time of year, ~Spring~, and all of its lovely flowers shall be coming to an end soon, so it will be goodbye tulips and hello Summer with all of its glorious flowers! We have just started with our bedding plants and trays of herbs and other delicious nutritional plants. Our organic plant man will be arriving this Friday with all different sorts of things for your kitchen garden or kitchen containers! Nothing beats homegrown organic beans, leeks, tomatoes etc! If you have any preferences for certain items than please ring and we can order them in for you.
We had a lovely big delivery of new pots and containers just last Friday. A large selection of bowls and tall vases in a gorgeous shade of turquoise are just some of the items. I will post a photo of them this week to tempt you all into the shop!
Kind regards,
Lynnette, Kevin and Archie
Monday the 25th of February, 2008
Greetings to everyone, hopefully you are all enjoying the beautiful weather we are experiencing here on the south coast. Although I do realise that the weather is not so good in other parts of the world. According to my parents it is minus 35 Farenheit in North Dakota and no signs of spring just yet!
Valentine's Day has passed us by and so now we are gearing up for the next big holiday which is Mothering Sunday on the second of March. In other words, six days from today!! We have some beautiful plants, containers and flowers ready for the big day, just give us a ring and we can talk you through the selection. I find that gorgeous bunches of spring flowers are always popular for Mums, and we are more than able to fulfill whatever your requirements may be.
Our flower window display is based around Kevin's mum's wedding china tea set; we have created a mossy little flower bed for the cups to stand on and floated a few pink flowers in the milk jug. This is our inspiration for our mother's day special of a pretty bone china cup and saucer with a small flower arrangement inside or a funky coffee mug with a matching flower arrangement. The cup and saucers will be sold for £12 and the coffee mugs for £10, the perfect gift for your special someone.
We provided flowers for Helen and Jonathan Day's wedding at the Lansdowne Place hotel on Friday the 15th of February. I have put a few photos of their big day on the blog site for you to be inspired by. We are still taking bookings for weddings this summer, just give us a ring and we can let you know if your big date is still available.
Have a great week,
Lynnette, Kevin and Archie
Thursday 31st of January, 2008
Well, here we go, the last day of January and exactly two weeks until Valentine's Day! The roses that we will be providing are truly beautiful! We have decided to supply a Supreme rose and a Premium rose to suit every person's budget. The supreme rose is an extra long stem grand prix rose which is the best rose available here in the UK, and also the tallest! With roses, the longer the stem, the bigger the flower head, which means that this metre high rose has a flower head the size of a saucer when fully open. We will be selling these beauties for £65 a dozen and this will include luxury gift wrapping; they are also available in a half dozen for £35. Our premium rose will also be a grand prix, just a shorter variety coming in at 60 cm. This will also come with luxury gift wrapping and will cost £46.50 for a dozen or £25 for a half dozen. You will have the option to have foliage included for an extra £5. All of the above will be supplied as bouquets, hand tieds will be available at different prices. Please contact us to find out more or better yet, to place your order!
We have had a new delivery of pots, picture frames and containers. I have put a few photographs here for you to get a feel for the new range. There are quite a few different black and white varieties in different shapes and sizes as well as some beautiful turquoise containers. Filled with spring bulbs, there is something for everyone's budget.
I will post some photos of the roses when we get them in.
Kind regards,
Lynnette, Kevin and Archie
Thursday 10 January 2008
Happy New Year! Well Christmas has come and gone and we managed to survive it! We had a good Christmas here at the shop, where we had gifts for all tastes and budgets and of course... some great flowers and plants.
This yucky weather turns thoughts to Spring and yes I know it's a bit of a way off, but you've got to have something to keep you going... right? But before that, we have two very important events in the florist's calendar... Valentine's Day and just a couple of weeks later Mother's Day. So close together! Blimey we won't have much time to think. So come on gentlemen, don't forget your lady, or gentleman for that matter this Valentine's and order some beautiful flowers from us.
Keep your eyes peeled over the next few weeks, and we should have some piccies and prices for you to peruse.
Keep warm
Kevin and the team
Monday 10/12/07
Happy December every one!! It is that time of year again and it seems to creep up on us faster every year I think! Remember those days when Christmas and Birthdays seemed to never come fast enough....
We have arrived at the Holidays slowly and elegantly this year by keeping the window decorations to just beautiful silver and black on one side and a creative flower arrangemnent on the other side. We have also started making our door garlands, no two are ever the same so they are truly Bespoke! Just let us know what your style is and we will be happy to make something suitable. There are a few photos on here for you to look at.
Please pre-order your Christmas flower needs as soon as possible to guarantee that we will have exactly what you require for your festivities. There is a huge selection of plants arriving from Holland on Wednesday and also we will be using our local nurseries for a variety of seasonal plants through out the next few weeks. Our Christmas twigs and berries are also arriving and we will be having new deliveries of flowers almost every day for the run up to the Holidays.
If you have a specific container that you would like an arrangement in, then please just bring it in with you and we can make something up in it for you!
We will be open every day now in the run up to the 25th of December, including Sundays and Christmas Eve. We will also be open on the Friday and Saturday before (and including!) Christmas Eve.
Saturday 24/11/07
Hi there. It is a frosty morning here in Hove but at least the sun is shining! The cold weather is good for us as it keeps the beautiful hyacinths fresh for all of you to take home and enjoy! We have a selection of single stem hyacinths in either blue or white or a pot of threes in pink or blue for you to choose from.
Other additions to our plant selection are amaryllis plants, a double bulb in white, colourful cinerarias, small azaleas andgorgeous purpe campanulas. We also have two pineapple plants for those who have a warm conservatory. The first of the cymbidium orchids have also arrived; they each have three flower spikes and are in cream or green.
Our Christmas decorations are finally here and are going fast! We have a beautiful range of black and silver ornaments that are very elegant and would be suitable for decorations all year round. There are some photos on this page or please ring and we can discuss in detail what you require.
We are gearing up with orders for handmade door garlands in colours of your choosing. We will be using locally grown foliages where ever possible. Also let us know if there are any specific Christmas requirements to help you make your season even more festive!
Have a great week!
Lynnette
Thursday 08/11/07
We had a very busy and successful Sunday at the Brighton Metropole Wedding fair, thank you to everyone who came by to say hello and have a look at some of our designs! I have put some photos on this page but will also have copies in our portfolio in case there is something specific you would like to discuss about one of the arrangements. We met a variety of both brides and grooms and hopefully we were able to give inspiration for your big day, or even just for a vase of something pretty and unusual for the house.
The first of the winter flowering bulbs are arriving tomorrow, with pots of white and pink hyacinths. We have daffodil bulbs for sale and are hoping to get some tete a tete plants from our supplier when possible. Both Kevin and I are big fans of the winter flowering bulbs so will have a nice selection as soon as we can!
We have been selected as Brighton and Hove's Masterflorist for the area. You should be seeing more information about this in the local and national press. I will be able to tell you a bit more about it next week, just thought I would give you a quick heads up.
Have a great week!
Lynnette
Friday 26/10/07
The cold weather has finally found has! We had to bring out the thermal socks for the first time this week!
We have a fabulous new display unit that we are very excited about filling with loads of interesting things in the run up to Christmas. It is a lovely old wooden hand cart that is now full of pumpkins, gourds and orange chilli pepper plants. Kevin found it in an antiques market and knew straight away that it would be perfect parked outside the shop, and he was right! Take a look and let us know if you agree.
We have just had our first supply of three stemmed cymbidium orchids, in red, green or white. They have lovely green foliage and will go into our window display later on today. I can email you photos if you would like to see them up close, just let me know.
We also have a selection of red or pink anthurium plants, you know the ones... they look like plastic and have a funny bit sticking out?!? I will post some photos shortly when I have found a space to display them.
Wednesday 17/10/07
Autumn has definitely arrived in viva verde this week! The flower stand is packed full of beautiful autumnal colour flowers and foliages, including corn on the cob! It is fresh corn left on a long stalk and would look beautiful in a vase on its own or in a harvest festival type bunch of flowers. We also have pumpkins and gourds which would look great clustered around or even in your vase. Instant display! I have to admit that this is a favourite time of year because of all the oranges, reds and browns now coming into their natural season. Add to that all of the lovely leaves falling around us, and boy, we are inspired!
We have a large selection of cyclamens this week in all different colours and sizes. The mini cyclamens are hardy enough for outside but can be placed in the house for a while to enjoy their beautiful flowers. We have mini, medium and large cyclamens in all shades of white, pink and red with plain or varigated leaves. The small are £1.95, medium are £3 and the large are priced at £5.50. We have a variety of suitable containers to make it a special gift. Please ring the shop and we can discuss this in more detail.
Are you a keen recycler? We have in stock recycled newspaper bags from India. The newspapers are collected from the streets and then made into little carrier bags that support street children in India. Each bag is completely different to the others and some even have finished crossword puzzles! It makes a gift even more special and unusual. Bags cost 50 pence each.
Wednesday 10/10/07
We had a busy time last week, preparing for our very first wedding fair held at Plumpton Race Course. It was a last minute decision to be involved but we think it was successful! I guess you could say it was a good practice run for our next wedding fair which will be at the Brighton Metropole Hotel on the fourth of November, 2007. Thank you to all who came along and had a chance to see our arrangements and have a chat. We were also able to meet other wedding suppliers which we feel offer the same ethos as ourselves and so have placed them on our links page. Archie, the welsh terrier, joined us at the wedding fair, but chose to nap in the van for the afternoon with the chance of a few country walks thrown in!
Attatched are some of the photos of our arrangements on Sunday. Please let us know if you have any comments or questions about these arrangements, they are all available in different sizes and colours.
We have just had a new supply of phalenopsis orchids arrive on Friday, they are all two stemmed plants in a variety of colours, mostly in shades of pink with small varieties as well as the usual larger orchid flowers. Autumnal plants are also arriving weekly, we have just had our first selection of azaleas to go along with our indoor and outdoor cyclamens, solanum, sedum and ornamental brassicas. (That is cabbages to some of you!)
Our other new exciting arrival last week was the addition of Emily Burningham's beautiful cards and matching gift wrapping paper. We think she is a talented London artist and are very happy to have her items in the shop.