Gotham Gardens in Transition

This week we're saying farewell to our home for the past 10 years here on Amsterdam Avenue. The space in the neighborhood we hoped to move into isn't ready yet. In the meantime, we'll continue to do fabulous flowers and garden design in a temporary studio. The phone number is the same: 212 877.8908 and you can reach us by email: info@gothamgardens.com. We'll miss seeing all of you who visit the shop regularly. We'll also miss our good friends at Levain Bakery, Freddy & Peppers Pizza, Beacon Hardware, Andy's Deli, Crumbs, and all the other retailers, big and small, that give this neighborhood so much character. Years ago, who would have dreamt that Amsterdam Avenue would have been filled with so many interesting places to shop and eat.

For the moment, we'll leave you with these words from people wiser than us.

"Earth laughs in flowers." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Bread feeds the body, indeed, but flowers also feed the soul." The Koran

"Can we conceive what humanity would be if it did not know the flowers?" Maurice Maeterlinck

Another Reminder Why Mothers Deserve Beautiful Flowers

Today's "For Better or For Worse"

A Reminder of Why Mothers Deserve Beautiful Flowers

Because mothers try so hard to make sure siblings manage to survive one another.

(Especially mothers of boys. And especially mothers of boys like Tucker and Brad. Their YouTube video surely makes their mom proud of her hard work.)

The Shoveling Samaritan Works Here!

The bus stops right outside the shop. During that last heavy snowfall, people getting on or off the bus had to climb over a perilous mountain of snow and significant pile-up of slush. We try to do our civic duty when we can. This time one of our people has earned the sobriquet "the shoveling Samaritan." Here's the piece that lead off yesterday's Metropolitan Diary in the New York Times.

DEAR DIARY:

As I climbed a multi-foot snowbank in late February to wait for the uptown M7 bus, I noticed a thin, middle-aged woman wearing an open jacket and no gloves, shoveling snow away from the submerged curb.

She was wearing what appeared to be a Metropolitan Transportation Authority-issue shirt underneath, with the colored circles of various bus and train routes.

Me: “I can’t believe they make you do this, with no gloves either! I have enough problems with the M.T.A. as it is.”

Woman: “Oh, I don’t work for the M.T.A.”

I motioned to her T-shirt. She opened her jacket more so I could better see: the colored circles were part of a design that spells something out.

Woman: “This? This is my New York City Marathon T-shirt. I work in there [she pointed to the flower shop behind the bus stop] in the basement, and I was just so hot!” Dan Heching

What are those Olympic medal winners holding aloft?

We have to admit it's not the most telegenic bouquet we've ever seen. The designers, June Strandberg and Margitta Schulz, said they wanted the bouquets to reflect British Columbia and "look natural, like something you would see if you drove up the mountain." As you can tell from the medal ceremonies, that's not the look the design panel wanted. The powers-that-be chose a rather severe design that includes green spider mums, green hypericum berries, aspidistra leaves, leatherleaf fern and monkey grass. Between 80 and 150 bouquets are being made each day, many by novice florists trained by Ms. Strandberg in a program she runs for women who are in recovery, victims of violence or ex-convicts. By the time the last medal is awarded, they will have turned out a total of 1,800 bouquets. Having dealt with some difficult clients in our time, we'd like to award a gold medal for perseverance to Ms. Strandberg and Ms. Schultz. By the time the design panel had finished tweaking their original design, they'd gone through 23 samples.

Designers June Strandberg and Margitta Schultz deserve their own gold medal for endurance and perseverance.

Upper West Side Pick of the Week

We were surprised and delighted to discover My Upper West, the Upper West Side Blog has chosen Gotham Gardens as their Pick of the Month for February. We especially liked what they had to say about Valentine's Day, which is fast approaching. "... if you are thinking about what to get your sweetheart as a token of your love, consider one of the unique arrangements from Gotham Gardens. The flower and plant shop on Amsterdam offers some innovative designs so that your arrangement is more than the phone-it-in-red-roses-in-plastic-wrap."

Last year a woman confessed that, while she didn't want to seem ungrateful for the dozen red roses she knew she'd be getting, she really envied the women getting our lush arrangements of roses, peonies, ranunculus, orchids, sweet peas and other gorgeous blooms.

So, gentlemen, why not really dazzle them this year?

Think Ahead for a Really Special Valentine's Day

In need of inspiration this Valentine's Day? Take a tip from those Victorians who knew romance and flowers were as intertwined as, well, figure skating and sequins.

Though Valentine's Day falls on a Sunday this year, consider kicking off the celebration on Friday. There's always a special thrill in getting flowers at the office. (And so what if part of it is the look of envy on colleagues' faces.)

Catch your Valentine off guard with breakfast ... or at least, coffee -- in bed on Saturday morning and roses on the tray. (And scatter the petals where you may.)

Brunch on Sunday? You'll knock their socks off if you arrange with us ahead of time to have a lovely centerpiece waiting on your table. No additional cost for all the looks of envy cast your way.

In hibernation mode, especially with the Olympics underway? We can deliver a gift basket to your door, pairing a gorgeous bouquet with special treats from our neighbors: the infamous chocolate chip cookies from Levain Bakery, Wicked Hot Chocolate from Jacque Torres, cupcakes from Crumbs, wine from Pour, or salumi and cheese from Salumeria Rosi.

Six More Weeks of Winter

As anyone who has ever seen the movie "Groundhog Day" with Bill Murray knows, there is only one genuine, authentic groundhog prognosticator and that's the one in Punxsutawney, PA. According to Phil, we're in for six more weeks of winter. All the more reason to wrap oneself in thoughts of love and warmth.

Here at Gotham Gardens, we've turned to some of our favorite writers for a little illumination on the subject.

Some of us who seem to have been in hibernation this winter liked this gem from Zora Neale Hurston: Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.

The gardeners couldn't resist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Love does not dominate; it cultivates.

Those of us who remember the enchantment of Il Postino are immediately swept away to a sunny Mediterranean island thanks to the words of Pablo Neruda:

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way
than this: where I does not exist nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.