"I fell hopelessly in love with this store when I was in Miami and spent an entire day driving from one Field of Flowers location to the next because I just couldn’t get enough of it. Here, at last, were all the flowers I’d seen all over the world, and now I could buy just a stem of each-a single green star-of-Bethlehem, a stalk of seeded eucalyptus, a “Limbo” rose, and a “Star Gazer” lily. Many flowers sold for around a dollar a stem, including gorgeous red and orange Ecuadorian roses (and this was just a few days before Valentine’s Day, when most florists were selling arrangements for eighty bucks), and young green hydrangea blossoms, which are impossible to find anywhere else in winter. It was like a wholesale market for the ordinary retail customers, an utterly unpretentious, bare-bones, superstore setting where you could get the most gorgeous flowers from around the world. And all of the flowers came with a firm vase life guarantee: seven days for most, and five days for some short-lived specialty flowers. I was hooked. I filled my drab hotel room with odd and unusual flowers I picked up at the three shops, and left them behind for the housekeeping staff to wonder about."

Flower Confidential by Amy Stewart