Photo by Jenny Hill

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Tour Our Shop

Your first impression when you walk into The Garden Path might be the wonderful scent. It's a combination of fresh, dried and drying flowers. We often hear, "It smells so good in here!" We love it too. It inspires us and hints at all the things that go on behind the scenes in a flower shop.
A few steps farther into the shop and you'll come face-to-face with the day's selection of flowers. We are fortunate to have several deliveries each week, so the flowers are always fresh and plentiful. We can usually make our choices right off the trucks, and we choose the best of the best!


In addition to everyday flowers like daisies and carnations, you are likely to find some unusual flowers like kangaroo paw. A native of Australia, it has been especially strong and vibrant this summer. If you've received any of our bouquets recently you may already be acquainted with it. We have enjoyed using it in many of our weekly specials the past few weeks.
We love our dried flowers and foliages. The wreath is a combination of salal, boxwood and several varieties of eucalyptus. You know it smells good! We've found we're one of the few places in the local area to carry dried flowers. Most of them are ones we dry ourselves from local and seasonal flowers and greens. Most are simply air-dried, but for certain blossoms silica gel allows us to retain the form and color of the original flower. It's a fun pastime. And drying them is only the beginning. We then make beautiful wreaths, swags and table pieces from them. Good for all the senses!
Our gift assortment is fun and unique. It's mostly things we'd like in our own homes and gardens. My one rule of thumb is that everything has to relate to flowers or gardening. Come and see for yourself!

Friday, July 24, 2009

Introducing The Garden Path Flower Shop






Thanks for dropping into the blog for The Garden Path Flower Shop. You'll find our physical store at 636 N.E. Baker Street in McMinnville, the heart of Oregon's wine country.




First and foremost - we're here because we love flowers! Have you ever seen anything more perfect than these sunflowers? They're field-grown about 10 miles from the shop. We are so lucky to live where we have access to such beauties.




Other local flowers we're using now include baby's breath, phlox, stock (love that fragrance!), dahlias, glads, lilies, hydrangeas - and more too numerous to mention!




I love that these flowers use minimal energy input to get to my shop. Why buy solidaster or sunflowers from South America when I can get them locally! They are fresher and prettier, last longer and make me feel better about my "carbon footprint".