I bought a couple of bouquets for some of the Chinese teachers on my last day before the summer holidays. Flower bouquets are a huge industry here in China and flower shops dot every street in a ratio of about 2/10.
Each shop opens at around 7:30-8am and I've caught a few of them receiving some of their flowers in the "rough" and getting them ready for bouquets. Roses seem to be the most labour intensive since the stems have to have their leaves and thorns stripped before they are used for anything else. Thankfully shop owners have a special tool that looks like something you would use on wiring to remove plastic coating and thorns and leaves are removed in one swipe.
The average price for each bouquet is between 40-100rmb depending on the flowers used and I picked up a beautiful lily bouquet for 80rmb and a purple flower bouquet for 50rmb. Popular choices for are roses, lilies, carnations, and mini plush toys (yup... imagine a bouquet but instead of flowers are little stuffed cows!) Generally you can just walk up to a shop and the bouquets are placed on one side of the shop but you can also pick from an array of flowers and pay a little more for a custom piece.
It's also custom to wrap every major stem in coloured gauze or tissue as filler instead of using foliage, which honestly I've found to be a little tacky, but heck, that's just how it's done here! Every bouquet is then finished off by wrapping it completely in coloured tissue. Bouquets are quite the serious matter here!
Enjoy!
Each shop opens at around 7:30-8am and I've caught a few of them receiving some of their flowers in the "rough" and getting them ready for bouquets. Roses seem to be the most labour intensive since the stems have to have their leaves and thorns stripped before they are used for anything else. Thankfully shop owners have a special tool that looks like something you would use on wiring to remove plastic coating and thorns and leaves are removed in one swipe.
The average price for each bouquet is between 40-100rmb depending on the flowers used and I picked up a beautiful lily bouquet for 80rmb and a purple flower bouquet for 50rmb. Popular choices for are roses, lilies, carnations, and mini plush toys (yup... imagine a bouquet but instead of flowers are little stuffed cows!) Generally you can just walk up to a shop and the bouquets are placed on one side of the shop but you can also pick from an array of flowers and pay a little more for a custom piece.
It's also custom to wrap every major stem in coloured gauze or tissue as filler instead of using foliage, which honestly I've found to be a little tacky, but heck, that's just how it's done here! Every bouquet is then finished off by wrapping it completely in coloured tissue. Bouquets are quite the serious matter here!
Enjoy!
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