My second trip to the NYC Flower District was impromptu. I wanted fall flowers that bloomed in September with the colors in vogue for 2025, and I also wanted some stalks. I went to G-page, Abraflora Fresh Flowers, and Abraflora Dried Flowers. At G-page, I found white chrysanthemums with purple tips, pink hypericum berries, and jasmine vines that looked easy to carry. At Abraflora Fresh Flowers, I found indigo and white carnations and an orange celosia flower shaped like folded velvet. At Abraflora Dried Flowers, I found absolutely gorgeous Setaria stalks.

Armed with my loot, I invested about five hours arranging the flowers. Most of that time was spent untangling the messy jasmine vines. How I hated them then! At one point, I thought I would never have good arrangements and cursed my selection of blooms and stems. The wild arrangements didn't look bad in the end, but I'll think twice in the future before adding vines to any flower arrangement.

I ended up with intentionally unstructured, contemporary floral designs in the majority of the vases, using only a green thread or wire sparingly to bunch some flowers together. I received genuine but thoughtful praise from my nephew and his wife as they tried to appreciate the beauty in the unruliness. My husband also liked these arrangements, which was a surprise since they were so unstructured. My post-doc mentor, however, liked the round arrangement best, likely because it was more traditional-looking. Abraflora loved all the arrangements and appreciated the nice touches I added.

Arranging the first red vase took the lion's share of the time, as I rearranged the flowers at least five times. That experience taught me how the vines behaved in the vase. They certainly added beautiful movement and texture. However, I learned that if the vines are not fresh or if you don't know how to properly adapt them to your floral design, they can quickly turn into a disaster. None of the vases, except the rounded floral arrangement, could have come together without the Setaria stalks. The dry stalks were the star of the show; they merited their own vase. Dried, foliage-free jasmine vines were curved to form rough ellipses that provided support for the stalks. I created a beautiful silhouette image of the dried arrangement and texted it to Abraflora.