Flower Preservation in Seattle

Know Your Local Flowers

Preserving the Flowers of the Pacific Northwest

One of the many benefits of choosing a local florist for flower preservation is their thorough knowledge of the blooms that thrive in your hometown. Local florists know what those flowers need to remain vibrant for generations.

In flower preservation, moisture content, petal thickness, bloom lifespan, and humidity control are all a massive part of both the beauty and risk of custom designs, so knowing how each bloom changes form and color as it dries (and what kinds of humidity and temperature it is likely to be exposed to after it dries) helps us know how to best preserve the original shape and color of your blooms.

For example, in Washington state, most locations west of the Mt. Rainier rain shadow are perfect for the growth of thick but fragile flowers that require quick and consistent action to prevent mold in their thick petals as they dry.

This can make shipping your flowers, even overnight, a massive risk for rotting and wilting even if careful steps are taken to avoid damage.

One of Seattle’s two official slogans is “The City of Flowers,” and the dahlia has been Seattle’s official flower since 1913. The Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, a farmer-owned cooperative, built its business on delicate local flowers that don’t ship well, such as dahlias, sweet peas and lilacs. As a result, Seattle bouquets follow the seasons. Spring brings tulips and daffodils, many from the Skagit Valley, home of the country’s largest tulip and daffodil bulb grower. Peonies arrive in late May and June, then sweet peas, lavender and hydrangeas carry the summer, and dahlias bloom until the first frost. Sequim, on the Olympic Peninsula, has the largest concentration of lavender farms in North America. The region’s acidic soil turns many garden hydrangeas a deep blue. Washington’s state flower, the coast rhododendron, grows wild in the region’s forests and fills gardens across Seattle and the Eastside each spring. Each of these flowers preserves differently: hydrangea florets, sweet peas and lavender press beautifully, while dense peonies and dinner-plate dahlias hold far more water and need extra care to keep their color.

Dahlias

Western Washington’s native wildflowers range from common to globally rare. In spring, blue camas carpets the South Sound prairies, and Pacific bleeding heart, trillium and red-flowering currant brighten lowland forests. By midsummer, Mount Rainier’s subalpine meadows fill with lupine, magenta paintbrush and avalanche lilies.

The region’s truly one-of-a-kind flowers live high in the Olympic Mountains, visible across Puget Sound on a clear day. Piper’s bellflower, which tucks bright blue, star-shaped blooms into rock crevices, and Flett’s violet grow there and nowhere else on Earth. Across the Cascades, the Wenatchee Mountains are home to two more Washington originals, the Wenatchee Mountains’ checkermallow and showy stickseed. Most of these rarities grow on protected land, so they’re flowers to photograph, not pick.