The do’s and don’ts of the Downtown Los Angeles Flower Market
The do’s and don’ts of the Downtown Los Angeles Flower Market
We call ourselves Marketplace, so part of our job is exploring how marketplaces work, in all their forms. David Brancaccio and the “Marketplace Morning Report” team set out to visit five markets, all in the near-orbit of this program’s world headquarters in Los Angeles. None are financial markets in a formal sense, but all markets are financial markets in a way, right? The goal was to learn the right and the wrong moves with an expert.
Today, tricks of the trade in the lush fragrance of the Los Angeles Flower Market.
There are a couple of fun coincidences that arise at The Original Los Angeles Flower Market in Downtown Los Angeles. To start, one of our guides is Poppy Askew. She runs a company called Poppy Lavender Florals. Name can be destiny: a flower entrepreneur named Poppy.
And, secondly, The Original LA Flower Market? It’s on Wall Street, along with the many other shops that make up the flower district here. We spend a lot of time covering the other Wall Street, so all of this dazzle is nice for a change.
“There’s fresh flower folks,” Askew points out. “All these sunflowers are local, things come in from Mexico every day. Now that it’s not as hot, we get to see some of our fall items creeping in.”
Moving into the market, one walks past hydrangeas, dahlias, daisies and much more. This chunk of the marketplace is over 50,000 square feet. The broader LA flower district sees 250,000 customers come through each year. How does Askew make it manageable for her business?
“A lot of what I do is make sure that I allow time when I’m shopping to talk to my vendors, because that’s how I’ve been able to build up my business,” she says. “Because every stall is its own little, like, ecosystem in itself. So I can have this communication where, ‘Come on, what’s in the back? What else do you have in the cooler?’ You know, that type of relationship, because they’re always keeping secret roses in there.”
The Original LA Flower Market is open 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. specifically for businesses buying wholesale with an approved badge. After 8, it’s all customers welcome. Beyond developing a relationship with individual vendors, here’s another trick of the trade: You might be eligible for what in California is called a “seller’s permit,” a kind of license allowing early access to the good stuff in all sorts of markets. You can do this if you have a side-gig business, with those permits in many states being cheap or free.
“You get no tax and all of that sort of small business benefits,” Askew says.
Another tip when examining the merch: Don’t drip.
“Don’t pick up a bunch and then hang it out on top of the others that are in the bucket, because the water dripping from the one you picked up onto the other one isn’t friendly,” Askew says.
And don’t get dazzled by the “business end” of your brightly petaled quarry. Also check down under.
“What you’re looking for is definitely not just the top, but pick them up and look at the leaves around,” she says. “Look at the secondary flowers that are like one step below the top ones. Are there any brown leaves? Is there anything looking like maybe it shouldn’t be in the bucket? Is there a smell coming from the bucket?”
Jaden Hernandez is another frequent shopper here. Her business is Just Because florals, operating out of Whittier, Calif.
“My first and usually main stop is going to be Sunrise Wholesale,” she says. “They’re very, very fairly priced. And they’ve always helped me out, because they do know I’m a student.”
She’s also studying business and architecture.
“One of the biggest things, I would say, is just planning out in advance,” she says. “Because floristry is an art, but it also is, like, you have such a time crunch. You only have so much time with these flowers to keep them viable, to keep them beautiful, and when you’re doing events, people want them at the peak of their beauty.”
Hernandez points out some anemones to illustrate the way you get this timing down.
“They are the flowers with the white and blue petals and the black centers. Those ones are really beautiful right now because they are pretty closed. So those would be perfect for a wedding or an event. Not yet at their peak. So you would need to prep those, strip all the leaves off, get them in some fresh cut water, and be changing that water every day up until your event.”
She also has a good tip for some things to avoid.
“You always want to go straight home and process those flowers,” she says. “It’s a mistake to leave them in the car more than 30 minutes to an hour. They’re going to die. I’ve done that once or twice where I have a big order, and it’s warm outside and some of the flowers were a little less beautiful than when I first purchased them. So you live and you learn.”
It’s like buying ice cream: You’re not going to come home from the grocery store and leave in the trunk, are you?
Find all of our Tricks of the Trade stories accumulating here.
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