I’m sure many of you have heard about the LA Flower Mar­ket. You may not have gone because you heard it was whole­sale only. Fear not, lit­tle ones, go and buy to your heart’s con­tent. I went on a tour there Sat­ur­day, Novem­ber 15, under the aus­pices of Des­canso Gar­dens (www​.Des​can​sog​a​r​dens​.org). Their pop­u­lar class is con­ducted by Ray Tucker (www​.cre​ativeray​.webs​.com). Ray is a flo­ral artist and teacher and all around great guy. Very well known and well versed in the mar­ket, he took us on a com­pre­hen­sive tour for about 3 hours. Ray explained that our LA Mar­ket is the largest whole­sale mar­ket in the US, goes back to early 1900, and the sec­ond largest in the world after Hol­land. We saw so many gor­geous flow­ers there it’s impos­si­ble to list them all, but a par­tial list would include orchids, hydrangeas, tons of roses, mums, lilies, alstroe­me­ria, daisies, trop­i­cals, and dahlias. Ven­dors were also sell­ing suc­cu­lents and cacti, greens, house plants, whim­si­cal and glam con­tain­ers, wreaths and dried plants. A lot of hol­i­day dec­o­ra­tions were also available.The fran­grance of the build­ings has to be expe­ri­enced to be believed.

The secret to the buy­ing at the Mar­ket is to go dur­ing pub­lic hours: Mon-​weds-​fri ($2.00 admis­sion) 8am — 12 noon. Tues-​thurs ($2.00 admis­sion) 6am — 12 noon Sat­ur­day ($1.00 admis­sion) 6am — 12 noon. The mar­ket is between 7th and 8th Streets and Maple and San Julian Streets. There are 2 large build­ings across from each other on Wall Street. You can park on the street but it’s very easy to get a park­ing ticket so Ray rec­om­mends using a garage (he likes the one at 742 Maple Avenue — $4.50 on Sat­ur­day). Take cash — most ven­dors do not accept credit cards.

After our tour and buy­ing spree, my friends Dorothy, Lisa, Robin and I high­tailed it over to the Nickel Diner (Nick​eldiner​.com), famous for their maple bacon dough­nuts. We had ter­rific lunches com­posed of scram­bles, burg­ers, blt’s, onion rings and of course dough­nuts — we barely scratched the sur­face of deli­cious­ness. A per­fect way to end a flow­ery morning.

By the way, if you are really into flow­ers, there is a won­der­ful mag­a­zine to check out: Flower Mag­a­zine. Go to www​.flow​er​mag​.com.

www​.laflow​erdis​trict​.com

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