Inside look at the Flower Market : July 2022

It's very crisp out at the markets on these beautiful wintry mornings!! And with that comes all the beautiful winter blooms.

1. Blossom

Meaning - Blossom represents spring, a new beginning and growth. Cherry blossom has additional meaning in Japan. Here this blossom type - sakura - represents life and the fact that we don't control it.

OK, I can safely say blossom is here now, finally!! Beautiful japonica in white and raspberry, and some cherry blossoms popping up!!

Image source: Pinterest

2. Camellia

Meaning - Love, Adoration and Longing

In beautiful whites, pinks and reds, camellia is beautiful as a gardeny style flower, and also has beautiful foliage.

Image source: Elise Hassey for Floreat

3. Wattle

Meaning - As one species of a large genus of flora growing across Australia, the golden wattle is a symbol of unity

Wattle is native to Australia, and also introduced to other warmer climates around the world. It is often referred to overseas as "Mimosa".

Image source: Elise Hassey for Floreat

4. Carnations

Meaning - Fascination, disctinction, or love

With so many beautiful colours available, carnations, otherwise known as sims, have well and truly made a comeback.

I would never have dreamed a few years ago that I would be using carnations in our bouquets, but now, because of their colours, texture, and longevity, they are becoming a staple during the winter months!

Image source: Pinterest

5. Flowering magnolia

Meaning - Endurance and perseverance

Beautiful flowering magnolia, in a wine pink, or white, there's not much that compares!! The flowers are fleeting, but the most beautiful thing you've ever seen.

Image source: @tmeschepel

6. Freesias

Meaning - friendship, trust, thoughtfulness and innocence

Freesias come in beautiful soft white and mauve, with brighter burgundy and yellow. They are so shapely and whimsical, beautiful on their own, or so pretty in mixed bunches. They open slowly, and last about a week!

7. Cymbidium Orchids

Meaning - orchids mean thoughtfulness, refinement, fertility, beauty, charm, and love, they're the perfect bloom to celebrate all of life's precious moments.

The lovely Neville Schaefer of Schaefer's Orchids only makes an appearance at Sydney Flower Market each Friday in the Winter months when his Cymbidium orchids are on full show, and what a treat it is when he's there. Our orchid order is always impeccably packed in boxes so that his prized Cymbids don't get damaged on their journey back to our studio. We got our first box last Friday, which is always a very exciting day!!

Image Source: Elise Hassey for Floreat

8. Cyclamen

Meaning - expresses love and sincere tenderness

Image Source: by Floreat using Cyclamen from T and ME Schepel

Each Friday in Winter, Arietta of T and ME Schepel pulls up a truck full of bright coloured beauties inside Sydney Flower Market: cyclamen, begonia and African violets. Cyclamen are such special flowers; each stem has it's own unique character within the bunch, some with frilly edges and others with ombre colour.

They come in white, pale pink, hot pink, watermelon and red, and can sometime last nearly a month as a cut flower!!

9. Tulips

Meaning - perfect and deep love

One of the biggest supplier's of tulips in Australia is de Boer tulips (which translates to "The Farmer"), who began their family business in the fields of Holland. Based in Victoria, they are now the biggest supplier of tulips to the Sydney Flower Market and their contribution to the Australian local flower industry is invaluable. Their wide range of interesting single, double, parrot and frilly tulips are some of the most beautiful we've seen.

Image Source: @ilovewednesdaysphoto for Floreat

They come in oranges, pinks, peaches, reds, burgundy, purple, yellow, white, and they last for 7-10 days, while you can enjoy watching as their stems grow in the vase, sometimes up to 15cm or more!

10. Poppies

Meaning - rememberance

Image Source: @jonimaflowers Instagram

The poppies popped up early this year, and we are very happy about that! We source our poppies from a few different growers, one of them being Jonima Flowers (read more about their family run farm here) who have tall, strong stemmed beauties in an incredible range of colours.

The come in white, pink, peach, red, yellow and orange sold all together in one mixed bunch, and can last for 5-7 days, depending on their stage of life. If closed in a bud and they haven't opened after a few days, you can scald the ends in boiling water for about 10 seconds or peel their furry, green cases off to nudge them open.

11. Daphne

Meaning - Honesty, innocence and mortality

When I was once visiting Wayne and Alison from Aliway Enterprises, I could smell the most beautiful scent - when I asked what it was, Alison proudly said it was the daphne, 100m away under the camellia - need I say more!