Think Spring

It's been a pretty rough start to winter around here, which has us dreaming of spring. And of our favorite flowers.

ranunculus, tulips, jasmine

hydrangea, anemones, tulips, peonies, garden roses, ranunculus

ranunculus, hellebores, queen anne's lace

anemones, hyacinth, ranunculus, daffodils, dusty miller, geranium

pansies

Clyde can't wait either! #lifeonthefarm

 We love to keep the shop filled with the freshest, most unique flowers and foliages of the season.

Weddings of 2013

Looking back on our weddings of 2013, we are grateful for...

Chicago Botanic Garden

...all the amazing clients and vendors we had the pleasure of working with at some of Chicago's most iconic venues.

Looking forward to a fabulous 2014!

HOLIDAZE

The Scent of Winter Greens is in the air at Larkspur!

We have all kinds of beautiful wintery pines, junipers, and fir branches in the shop right now 

as well as poinsettias and seasonal berries

Call in for a custom centerpiece for your holiday meal or a hostess gift sure to impress

It's getting festive around here!

Larkspur Farm Flowers!

all images by Tuan H. Bui

What does the term farm-to-table mean?  In the case of Larkspur farm flowers, the term is taken quite literally.  For the past six years, Beth Barnett and her husband have been raising a variety of flowers on their farm in Buchanan Michigan.  From the beginning, Beth has been dedicated to growing the flowers using sustainable processes, which means that her flowers are never treated with harsh chemicals or pesticides.  This commitment to sustainable agriculture is integral to offering Larkspur customers a wide range of beautiful organic flowers while creating very little environmental impact in the process.  Farm flowers are available from June until the end of September, a short lived but exciting season.  Act quickly, because if you blink you may not be able to take advantage of these special blooms, and a chance to bring a little bit of Larkspur’s farm to your table!

Mother's Day is May 12!

Martin Creed
Work No. 1357, MOTHERS, 2012
White neon, steel
22.4 x 47.6 feet (6.8 x 14.5 m)

Made up of white neon lettering, Work No. 1357, MOTHERS is the largest kinetic sculpture Creed has created to date: measuring forty-eight feet wide and more than twenty feet tall, it steadily rotates a full 360 degrees.  Creed often uses language in his work, spelling out unassuming words or common phrases. In some cases he works with neon on a modest scale. Work No. 845 (2007), for example—on view concurrently in the MCA’s first-floor lobby—reproduces the word “THINGS” in bright multicolored letters that are a few inches high. In contrast, the rotating neon sculpture Creed produced for the MCA plaza is intended to be monumental. As the word “MOTHERS” spins overhead, directly in front of the museum’s main entrance, it becomes a glowing presence that is both celebratory and imposing. It had to be large, Creed said, “because mothers always have to be bigger than you are” and because “it feels like mothers are the most important people in the world.” 

Help mom feel special this mother's day with a gorgeous arrangement from Larkspur, and maybe a field trip to the MCA to view MOTHERS in person.  

Help mom feel like the most important person in the world this Mother's Day,   Larkspur is taking orders now!

Hyacinth

(Hyacinthus orientalis)

In the literary myth, Hyacinth was a beautiful youth and lover of the god Apollo, though he was also admired by West Wind Zephyr. Apollo and Hyacinth took turns throwing the discus. Hyacinth ran to catch it to impress Apollo, was struck by the discus as it fell to the ground, and died.

A twist in the tale makes the wind god Zephyer responsible for the death of Hyacinth. His beauty caused a feud between Zephyrus and Apollo. Jealous that Hyacinth preferred the radiant archery god Apollo, Zephyrus blew Apollo's discus off course, so as to injure and kill Hyacinth. When he died, Apollo didn't allow Hades to claim the youth; rather, he made a flower, the hyacinth, from his spilled blood. According to Ovid's account, the tears of Apollo stained the newly formed flower's petals with the sign of his grief. The flower of the mythological Hyacinth has been identified with a number of plants other than the true hyacinth, such as the iris.  

Hyacinth grows from a bulb with a thick stalk-like stem.  The stem holds multiple floret blooms that emit a powerful perfume.  Hyacinth comes in a range of colors from white to yellow, pinks and purples to blues. 

buttercup

 

Call her buttercup, daffodil, narcissus, or jonquil any way you call her she is the unmistakable mark of spring's arrival... the sprouts of green poking through the ground from her buried bulb is a telltale sign that warmer days are coming. 

  

I wandered lonely as a cloud 

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills, 

When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed---and gazed---but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

William Wordsworth