Summertime and the living is....hot

Cool off your days with the cool tones of our new Michigan glads. From bright cool watermelon colors, to cold crystalline white, our cool toned glads are just the thing for this time of year. Perhaps you'd rather heat up your nights with our hot Latin colors of eye-popping reds, flames, and yellows, they are just right for your next fiesta! Either way, we've got you covered with the most colorful flowers of the year.  Call, 504-529-1638 or email: john@harkinsneworleans.com to see which colors are available today.

A Noble Experiment

 It has always been accepted in the flower business that, while Moms get lots of flowers on their day, the Dads get none.  A big Fathers’ Day at harkins, the florist would be two or three orders.

 We are trying to change that situation this year.  At the recommendation of Maria Elliott, Stewardship Director at Trinity Church, we are promoting floral gifts for Fathers’ Day with Mobile Loaves and Fishes receiving part of the proceeds.  This is a post-Katrina outreach program at Trinity to help those rebuilding the city.  Each day the specially outfitted truck heads toward areas such as the Ninth Ward and Chalmette with food and other necessities of life.  Volunteers staff the truck, and there is no charge for what they distribute.

As Maria states emphatically, “Real Men Like Flowers (and Plants)!”  How about it, folks?  Can we do away with floral inequity between the sexes?

If you are interested, go to our website, www.harkinsneworleans.com and click on the Fathers’Day icon.

Mo,  Hist’ry

The building at 1359 Magazine Street, the second home of harkins, the florist, has experienced a checkered past.  Situated in the heart of what would come to be called the Lower Garden District, the area was subdivided from an earlier plantation in the mid-19^th century to provide a fashionable neighborhood for the arriving English-speaking Americans. 

 The three story Greek Revival Townhouse at 1359 Magazine was built on a grand scale as were most of the homes around Coliseum Square.  There was the main house with a dependency and wrought iron balconies wrapped around two sides.

 Soon, however, New Orleans paid a price during Civil War and Reconstruction.  The city lost its pre-eminence as the leading city of the South, and hard times ensued.  By the latter part of the 19^th century a wave of Italian immigrants arrived in the neighborhood.  Double parlors became neighborhood shops with the new families living in the back and upstairs.  There was a “Sweet  Shop” in the front parlor at 1359, and a homely barber shop was built on the side yard.

 The fortunes of the neighborhood continued to slide in the early 20^th century with each room of the grand homes becoming what amounted to tenement apartments.  The next wave to arrive were Appalachians, down from the hills and mountains of the Upper South seeking a better life.  Bar rooms proliferated, and  the neighborhood was a rough place to be.

 But the fortunes of the neighborhood turned for the better around circa 1970.  Camille Strachan, fresh out of Tulane Law School, recognized the architectural gems the neighborhood had to offer.  She enlisted other young people, “Urban Pioneers” they were called, and the Preservation Movement in New Orleans was under way.  The Strachans, Costas and Samuels were the founders.

 The early years of the Coliseum Square Association were challenging.  There was an attempt to build a second Mississippi River bridge soaring over Felicity Street, and there was the battle of the riverfront expressway.  The Camp Street Up Ramp clogged the neighborhood with traffic, and it took decades to bring it down. Credit Lydia Schmalz with leading that Herculean effort.

 The good news is that the neighborhood did survive, and, over four decades, has had an amazing resurgence.  Capping the movement of late has been the development of the International School of Louisiana in the Andrew Jackson School building.

 To return to the harkins, the florist story, the move to 1359 Magazine came toward the end of the first decade of the neighborhood’s renaissance.  The building had been 11 apartments.  A short term owner had begun gutting the building, but had barely scratched the surface.  Pigeons and termites were the inhabitants at the time.

 Joe Plavetsky, one of the first to venture inside the most unusual new flower shop, says now he thought the owner had to be crazy or was smoking the begonias or maybe both.

Miracle of miracles, harkins, the florist survived, and Joe Plavetsky, the genial maitre d’ at the Rib Room is a loyal customer and dear friend.

Welcome Back, Saracena!

No, this isn’t a person, it’s one of the most fun flowers with which we work.  Actually, it’s not even a flower, but the leaf of a flower.  Saracena is native to this region, growing in marshy, bog type areas. These are fly-catchers which are considered an endangered species, but our supplier has an exemption because they are being cultivated as a commercial product.  Some of you would recognize saracena as pitcher plants or frog bellies.

 The story of how saracena  came to be the exotic offering of this area which are shipped around the world is an interesting one.  Early in the 20^th century a Hungarian immigrant by the name of Sigmund Tarnok came to New Orleans to tend the gardens of prominent Uptowners.  His work ethic paid off so that he was able to buy several hundred acres of land near Picayune, MS.  He, and later his son, planted the land with all sorts of flowering trees and bushes. The son, Coleman, and his wife developed a thriving business over time growing field crops of Sweet William, tuberoses and white yarrow.  Once a florist used their version of a flower, it was hard to go back to shipped in product.

Coleman worked till just before his death at age 86 .  We have sorely missed him and his wonderful product.  But we are now delighted that his daughter, Linda Tarnok Lord, is reviving the growing operation.  Linda spent much of her life as the lead designer at Rohm’s.

 We have been reveling in the return of saracena this Spring.  And for Louise McGehee’s graduation we were delighted to use lush, fresh ligustrum garland just like Linda’s father did over the years.

 We lost a couple of other local growers post-Katrina, so it’s so great to welcome back Linda and Nature’s Garden.  The Fathers’ Day section of our website features saracena in some of the selections if you would like to check them out.

Flower Care and Handling

This month we'll be talking about alstroemeria.  In the language of flowers, to give alstroemeria is to show friendship and devotion.

Copyright © 2009 Harkins Florist.                                                                                                                                                                                               

  11/30/2009