photo by
The Unlikely Florist
Lifestyle
25 Wild & Wonderful Floral Shops From Around the World
Maybe flowers are our truest language. Sunny sprays tied with simple string served from vintage Volkswagen vans, swan vessels laden with mismatched market fresh blooms or arranged in a cover-worthy crimson floral wall, utilize sight...
Maybe flowers are our truest language. Sunny sprays tied with simple string served from vintage Volkswagen vans, swan vessels laden with mismatched market fresh blooms or arranged in a cover-worthy crimson floral wall, utilize sight and scent to imbue immense joy without a single word. Walking into shops tangled with brambles and botanicals, alight with blooms of every color and covered in floral curiosities is certainly one of life’s simplest, yet greatest pleasures. Here are 25 of the most wild and wonderful floral shops from around the globe.
Are greens more your thing? Check out 30 of the Cutest Plant Shops Around the World →
Reporter: Katie Bush
Are greens more your thing? Check out 30 of the Cutest Plant Shops Around the World →
Reporter: Katie Bush
How did the New Zealand-born son of an orchardist and fine artist end up designing a floral wall for Kim Kardashian’s Vogue India cover, after years pursuing careers as a snowboarder, lobsterman and actor? The Unlikely Florist, otherwise known as Spencer Wells, was born of a need to express himself in a beautiful, (yes, unlikely) medium. If you’re a Venice Beach local, sign up for a floral subscription, delivered right to your door, or find his 1980 VW van, dubbed Untho, as the cutest roving flower shop and stage for his detailed floral designs.
There’s nothing sweeter in the south than Amelia’s Flowers, served up in three vintage Volkswagen Transporters parked all over Nashville, Tennessee spreading floral joy to everyone. Helmed by florist Mattie, not Amelia, who named the business for a daughter she hoped to have one day. Either track down the truck or order a farm fresh bouquet delivered straight to your door. Each bouquet is wrapped in simple brown paper, tied with a string and picked fresh every morning.
Bleuet Coquelicot is a tiny shop in Paris’ Canal St. Martin neighborhood, selling simple, country flowers, run by a floral poet, who goes by the name of “Tom des Fleurs.” The immutable magic of Bleuet Coquelicot is imbued by the soul of the proprietor, who lives in a loft above his shop, knows his customers by name, raises flowers and plants for a year before he sells them and creates beautifully simple arrangements from his cornflower blue storefront.
Located in the Richmond District of San Francisco and helmed by Bay area native and florist, Alethea Harampolis, Studio Choo West is her beautiful, light-filled studio and storefront. In addition to being a place for Harampolis’ beautiful “wild and unruly” floral style, it’s home to Snakeface Apothecary, her line of medicinal perfumes and beauty products as well as a shared space with Yonder SF, a curated collection of direct made goods from around the globe and a working ceramic studio.
Sometimes happiness is a choice, other times it’s so inherent it literally exudes from every crevice. So is the entrance to Moyses Stevens, the sweetest, happiest looking flower shop in London with a celebrated sophistication. The white facade is festooned with decidedly British florals of pinks and purples. Purveyors of luxury florals and arrangements, their lime and burgundy bouquet bags are coveted all over the UK.
The Guild is the real-world, retail counterpart to renowned interior design darlings, Roman + Williams’ buildings and interiors practice, located in New York City. As such, it includes a stunning home goods inventory, excellent everyday French cuisine at La Mercerie Café from Chef Marie-Aude Rose and a flower shop by Emily Thompson. The flower shop is exquisite and untamed, thorny blackberry brambles mingle with fresh citrusy kumquats wrapped languidly around overhanging light fixtures for a wild, yet utterly magnificent and unique look you need to see for yourself.
Located in a historic storefront in the heart of Lisbon, Pequeno Jardim or “little garden,” is actually one of the oldest establishments in Chiado, the name of the square within which the shop is located, dating back to 1922. The shop is marked by a walkway of vintage tiles, beautifully weathered teal double doors and delicately detailed blooms and botanicals spilling out onto every available surface.
It is said no matter where you are in Paris, you can always find a Metro station, a boulangerie and a fleuriste. One might hope that flower shop is Champ Libre Fleuriste. Open for over 20 years, its shop is marked by a mix of wildflowers and garden-grown florals (mostly local) both cut and potted plants, as evidenced by the beautiful overgrowth spilling from the front of the shop.
Pulteney Bridge Flowers was established in 1984 by Vivian Perry, in the city of Bath and now includes two shops in the centre of Bath, the other being Anemone at Milsom Place. The shops themselves are small, carved into the traditional Bath stone found throughout the city, but the ambience and artistry spill out onto the street. It embodies that quintessential old-world glamour of earlier (and current) centuries’ obsession with gardens.
RELATED ARTICLES
You might be interested in…
Solabee is a full-service floral studio and curated plant shop in Portland, Oregon, chock full of botanical treasures. Radiant alabaster walls and vintage tiled floors gleam with natural sunlight and serve as the most beautiful of backdrops for the curated floral jungle. The conservatory-style shop also includes a plethora of rare and unusual plants, a build-your-own terrarium station and a collection of locally crafted wares and art.
If flower arranging is an artistic medium (it is), consider Anna Potter of Swallows and Damsons in Sheffield, UK, a master. The shop is a testament to Anna’s degree in Fine Art and passion for vintage glamour and rustic style with an air of impossible and approachable sophistication. The shop is awash in mint and teal walls, vintage botanical prints, weathered cabinets chock full of terra-cotta and color-coded vessels, curiosities and rare blooms arranged so artfully and with such a rare color palette they evoke feelings of old Dutch Masters.
A neighborhood flower concept shop in the bohemian oceanside enclave of Venice Beach, California, Flowerboy Project serves up lush blooms, Vittoria coffee, a variety of locally baked treats, sandwiches and curated goods in the sweetest of settings. With a second location at The Freehand Hotel in Downtown LA, it’s evident this concept has legs, er, stems. The standout feature from owner Sean Knibb, Venice denizen and full-service hospitality designer extraordinaire (he designed Koreatown’s The Line Hotel), is the ever-rotating flower wall. Simply head to the shop and pick your blooms market style and either create your own arrangement on the spot, or ask a friendly team member for assistance.
Boasting two superb boutiques in Paris and an online shop, Flower.fr is a purveyor of high-end luxury florals. Specializing in rare and charming flowers from small, often Parisian producers, each arrangement tells a unique story. The shop on the rue des Saints-Pères, nestled in the heart of the 6th and 7th arrondissements, is where the most beautiful varieties of flowers are set out on the sidewalk every day - forgotten garden roses, rare orchids, sought-after plantation flowers, all ready to be composed with love by skillful hands inside the shop.
Located in Malmö, Sweden, Florista is a creative and charming flower shop, helmed by owner and florist Sophie, that will linger with you long after you’ve left the city. A simple, neon sign displays the shop’s name, beautifully juxtaposed against a vintage storefront. Inside you’ll find rare and wild blooms set against dark blue and green walls, in mismatched vessels of various jewel-toned colors. Owner Sophie thinks it is important, particularly during Sweden’s long and dark winter, to surround oneself with florals and nature especially when indoors for long periods of time.
The Flower Bar Bangalow is a sophisticated and rustic family-run flower shop set in an old bank building, located in the hinterland of Byron Bay New South Wales in the bustling village of Bangalow. From light, feathery pampas grass to an abundance of peonies, hydrangeas and anything locally grown in-between, you’ll find it here at this cavernous yet warm space. You’ll also find a ceiling criss-crossed by reclaimed wood beams, lit by overhanging copper vintage lights, colorful pillows and an overgrowth of delicious botanicals.
Petersham Nurseries has two locations in London, its original home in Richmond and a newer, elegant space in Covent Garden. Each space isn’t so much a shop as it is a floral destination. At both locations there are garden shops and cafes, but at the Covent Garden location there’s also a bar, delicatessen and central floral courtyard for al fresco dining in the summer months. Insider Tip: for over a decade, on a handful of evenings throughout the year, they host candlelit supper clubs in their glasshouse restaurant, normally only open for lunch.
In addition to the Liberty London Great Marlborough Street entrance, she also has a Turquoise Island shop in Notting hill and a flagship boutique in the heart of Pimlico Road in Chelsea, a premiere design district. Each location houses busy boutiques showcasing in-house decorations and accessories alongside all the Wild at Heart blooms.
A.P Bloem is a floral shop located in the heart of the Amsterdam canals, in the prestigious Spiegelkwartier neighborhood and helmed by Alexander Posthuma, who creates handmade and artisanal arrangements for every day as well as special events, like weddings or luxurious pop-up 'forests', across locations such as hotels, museums, boats, gardens, chateaus and exhibition spaces. The shop is marked by crisp, black canopy with white lettering and a statement-making red door set against a brick row house. There is a sweet bicycle parked out front and a signature floral style drawing inspiration from the beauty of nature, wild fields and the Golden Age making it a must-stop floral shop.
Bramble & Wild is an eco-conscious, award-winning little blue flower shop at the base of quirky Catherine Hill in Frome, Somerset. It’s a shop curated by master floral experts, Grace and Kirsty, with formal training in art, design and floristry, bursting with unusual seasonal blooms from local growers. The shop is also chock full of curated gifts like Kew Garden’s hand-thrown pots and Cowshed botanicals as well as the most in-demand house plants from the Monstera Deliciosa and Fiddle Leaf Fig to the Pilea Peperomoides and succulent varieties.
RELATED ARTICLES
You might be interested in…
Frida’s isn’t simply a flower store, it’s a franchised floral movement in Italy with 18 stores all over the country and counting. With a different design to each store, the premise remains the same. Frida’s isn’t selling occasional flowers (although they’ll certainly do so both in-store or online), they’re purveyors of pre-arranged florals to bring joy and enhance each customer’s every day life. The Golden Cone is the Frida standout and includes 5-10 prearranged stems of roses, tulips, freesias, callas, buttercups, peonies, hyacinths, lilies or whatever is in season.
At designer department store powerhouse, Liberty London, practically synonymous with floral patterns, there isn’t much you can’t find, eat, do or experience within its walls. At the entrance to the Great Marlborough Street store, you’ll find Nikki Tibbles, Wild at Heart Florist, where single stems are artfully displayed in burnished, vintage silver tumblers. Known for an opulent and unique style, the shop showcases beautiful blooms and arrangements, handmade with love.
Scarlet & Violet is a flower shop in London and self-described “busy place full of flowers & scent, a lot of chatter, creativity and a whole load of leaves dropped on the floor.” Much like its arrangements gracing the pages of Elle, Vogue and Brides Magazines to name a few, it is the overgrown, vintage wildness of the shop, teeming with swan vessels, vintage weathered benches and shelves sweetly laden with the latest market finds that makes it so welcoming, nostalgic and utterly modern at the same time.
The aptly named, Muse, a fragrant flower shop in Montmartre is just that to anyone looking to paint their life in florals. It’s a secret garden of sorts, awash in mountains of beautiful, locally grown unruly blooms and helmed by Iranian born Majid Mohammad. He shares his passion for flowers with every customer who walks through his doors as well as works with any budget which is truly magnificent, considering his clients range from hotels and restaurants to fashion houses such as Maison Margiela John Galliano, and jeweler Nuun.
Eric Buterbaugh is a world-renowned florist based in Los Angeles, beloved by celebrities, society figures and fashion houses. So it comes as no surprise that the space bearing his name in West Hollywood strikes a sweet note in the hearts of flower lovers everywhere. Housed within chic charcoal walls is a perfumery meant to pair your persona with the perfect floral scent, a lushly landscaped garden lit by chandeliers for events, and an expansive gallery and project space, where solo and group exhibitions of emerging and established artists display their works, with a focus on florals and the medium of scent.
