January Carnations

Every month has its own flower, January’s flower is the Carnation!

The Carnation dates back to Greek and Roman times. Theopharastus, a Greek botanist, named it Dianthus which translates as “flowers of god.”

Like roses, the colors of carnations carry a meaning.

Carnations in general: Fascination, Woman's Love
Pink Carnations: Mother's Love
Light red Carnations: Admiration
Dark red Carnations: Deep Love and Woman's Affection
White Carnations: Pure Love and Good Luck
Striped Carnations: Regret, Refusal
Purple Carnations: Capriciousness
Yellow Carnation: Disappointment, Dejection

The Carnation is the national flower of Spain and the Scarlet Carnation is the state flower of Ohio. (The floral emblem of the US is the rose, Tennessee’s state flower is the Iris and the state wildflower is the Passionflower)

Peace Lilies

First of all, Happy New Year!!

One of our most popular plants is the Peace Lily, also known as a “Spath.” Curious as to why it was so popular, I set out on an internet mission to find out.

The Peace Lily is originally from the more tropical parts of the Americas and Southeast Asia. There are about 40 different species of Peace Lily (Genus Spathiphylleae), but we only carry one species. Not only do Peace Lilies brighten your day by providing a little bit of nature in your home, but they’re good for you too! Like all plants, Spaths turn carbon dioxide into oxygen making any room breathe easier. They also help clean the air of environmental pollutants.

Peace Lilies are easy to care for: they only need water once a week. One website said that since it is originally a tropical plant, it thrives when you spray it with mist. Some pretty obvious warning signs that your plant isn’t doing well are brown leaf tips and yellow leaves. Brown leaf tips usually mean it has too much salty fertilizer that hasn’t been washed out with water. But be careful! Yellow leaves mean you’ve watered it a little too much.

The flowering part of the Peace Lily is the cylindrical part surrounded by the white leaf (called a bract).

Stop by and put some Peace in your life!

The Daily Flower

Have you heard the news?!?! Yes, Humphreys Flowers has started a new flower shop called The Daily Flower, right in the heart of the downtown area. And it’s not just any flower shop—you know, like all the other ones already here in town. No, it is a one of a kind European style flower market. The only one here in Chattanooga! Keeping up with our reputation as being a cutting edge, artistic, and innovative city, this was an a ddition that was completely necessary.
Our quaint little shop is located on the corner Georgia Avenue and Patten Parkway in the bottom the First Volunteer Building. This cute little picturesque, corner shop is a convenient place for you to drop by and pick up a few of your favorite stems of flowers, or for you to easily take to someone else. We also have a few other small specialty blooming plants that are ready for you to take as well. Not only this, but you can also place orders just like you were here at Humphreys. Conveniently, your order will be placed at the Georgia Avenue shop and sent over here to us at the McCallie shop. It's that easy!
Make sure you stop by and check out the new shop soon! You’re sure to love it!

Today as I walked into our beautiful shop, I was so excited to see a beautiful arrangement in our cooler. Yes, that’s right, once I looked past all of the early (but necessary) Christmas trees, mantle garland and wreaths, there was a very classy Thanksgiving center piece. As much as I love Christmas—which is a lot—I love Thanksgiving even more.

This might be because all the pretty fall colors are still involved in all of the arrangements. I don’t know. I just know that I always love this holiday. It’s a great time for family, but without stress—just relaxation, and really good food. And of course, the food table has to be ornamented with an elegant floral arrangement. It just makes the look complete. So come by and check out our Thanksgiving arrangements to keep you and your family’s memories brighter and more beautiful than ever.

Flower Care How-to Guide: 10 Ways to Care for Your Special Arrangement

1. Keep it away from heating sources
2. Keep it away from windows with a lot of sunlight
3. Keep the room at as low of a temperature as comfortable
4. Keep out of reach of small children and pets!
5. Change out the water every other day
6. Ask your florist for flower food packets that you can put into your water when yo change the water out at home.
7. Recut the stems of all the flowers at an angle when you change out the water
8. Make sure none of the leaves on the flowers sit below the water line
9. If any of the flowers begin to look droopy, take them out and recut the stems again to see if they will perk up again.
10. Remove flowers that droop and do not revive after recutting the stems.

Finding Fall Through the Clouds

Today marks the 1,000th day of the unstoppable precipitation and nap-time-inducing cloudiness that have been gracing us with their presence. Ok, so maybe that it slightly exaggerated, however, I don’t know anyone who wants this dreary day weather to keep on its roll. We’re ready for the beautiful leaves of fall to drape gracefully from tree limbs—so beautiful they almost appear artificial—and for the shielding mountains at our perimeter to soften with captivating rust themed colors. The air will be crisp, but not biting like the winter. The wind will be soft and just enough to rustle the fallen leaves in their orange, red, and yellow costumes. Those leaves will make their happy crunching sound that no one can get enough of, and children will busy themselves by making piles of the crunchers to throw themselves into.
The good thing—something to look forward to—seeing through the rain and thick clouds to the beauty waiting on the other side. This rain is going to do nothing but intensify the beauty of fall that we can’t wait to see! Whenever the rain finally stops and the trees realize that their camel sized thirst has been satisfied for much longer than they would ever need, their foliage will be more astonishing than we could ever imagine.
The cool crisp air will require no more than a light jacket and little activity. The corn mazes will be full of wandering children lost among the stalks that will be taller than they’ve ever been! Millet, sorghum, bittersweet and other fall arrangement foliage will accent vased flowers in ways that will be innovative and astounding—sure to amaze the surprised recipient, and please the anticipating sender.
So keep looking through the rain, the beauty of fall is on its way!

So what’s the deal with all of this social networking stuff? It’s all over the place. I mean, even John McCain has a Twitter account, and my grandmother has Facebook. So really, why is all of this so popular now? I remember when I didn’t know anyone who had a cell phone, and when my dad got a pager I thought we were big stuff. We didn’t get the internet in my house until I was a sophomore in high school and that was the buzzzzzz, beeeep, uuuuehhhhhhhhh, kind. And when anyone was using the internet no one else could get a phone call. My AOL instant messenger time was limited to only certain hours of the evening—this was nearly catastrophic to my social well being.
Well, things have definitely changed! Here at Humphreys Flowers we started this blog over the summer, and soon after that began a Facebook page as well. But not only that, because of the overwhelming developing popularity of Twitter, we have one of those now too. And the best thing about that is that I just send Twitter a text of my tweet and it automatically updates my Twitter page! Very convenient. So you all should definitely check out our Facebook and Twitter pages—become a fan and a follower!