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BARBRA SCOTT LIFTS THE LID OF A WHITE FLORIST'S BOX -
one of hundreds lining her Manhattan studio - and takes out one perfect, apparently
dewy-fresh, coral rose. "This one has been here for at least a year," she says
casually. "The peonies in the box underneath are four months old, and"-she
points to another stack of boxes-"that lilac was cut last spring." Last spring?
What gives? Scott has preserved these blooms with silica gel, allowing them to
remain viable long after other cut flowers would have drooped and withered. Seventeenth-century horticultural writer and artist P.Giovanni Battista Ferrari was the first to describe the preservation of flowers by immersion in clean, sun- dried sand. By the nineteenth century, Americans were using a combination of borax and cornmeal for the same purpose. Silica gel was first put into use in 1961. For all those years flowers preservations was mostly a domestic craft; Scott is the first to have parlayed it into a new and successful business, the only company supplying preserved arrangements to major corporations, including Estée Lauder and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The corporate world has proven to be a natural market for Scott's arrangements- cost-effective, long-lasting "dried" flowers that look almost exactly like the fresh variety. Each bloom has been immersed for four to twelve days (depending on its water content) in silica gel, a nontoxic, dried compound of sodium silicate and sulfuric acid that removes all moisture from the flowers without changing its natural shape. In this new state, the bloom will not wilt, fade, or crumble for months, provided it is not exposed to too much humidity or handled very often. The typical corporate headquarters is the perfect environment. Safe on a tabletop in a climate-controlled lobby or reception area (places rarely visited by curious children or obstreperous dogs), a Scott arrangement will look great for at least four months. When its glory begins to fade, her staff arrives promptly with a replacement. With a Scott contract, a large company can slash a $150,000 annual flower budget in half yet lose none of the visual appeal or cachet of year-round fresh flowers. The idea has propelled Barbra Scott into a six-figure business that now employs seven people and operates from two Manhattan studios. Back in 1989 the enterprise wasn't even a gleam in Scott's eye. But she had spent fifteen repetitive years as a clothing designer and longed to become her own boss in some other creative arena. On a chance visit to a boyfriend's law offices, where she saw an abundance of expensive flower arrangements, she found herself thinking about the part-time flower-preservation business her mother ran during Scott's Montreal childhood. "I had never paid much attention to it," says Scott. "I used to come down in the mornings and see Mom taking pans of silica gel out of the oven" - it is heated after repeated use so it can again absorb moisture - "and I always wished it was cookies." Now, silica gel seems more appealing: "I thought Manhattan have a built-in clientele for preserved flowers, and because I already understood color, shape, and proportion, I felt confident I could do the arrangements. "Scott called home for a crash course in preservation, and Barbra Scott Flowers was born. It almost didn't survive. The business started up in 1990. "The stock market had just crashed, and I could not face going to a bank with an untested product," Scott recalls. "I had no other financing prospects, so I lived on my savings and credit cards. For the first tree years I was always on the verge of going out of business." When she wasn't preparing arrangements she was spending hours on phone trying to set up appointments to show her wares. "People didn't understand what I was offering," she recalls. "They would say,'Oh, but we want real flowers,' and I would patiently explain,'These are real.' " Even when she managed to get in the door things didn't always go smoothly. "I happened to call on a buyer at Barneys in his birthday, and he thought I was bringing him a gift. I hated to disillusion him, but I needed the arrangement for the next appointment. I didn't get an order that day." In its third year of operation, the company finally did work. Office managers and hotel housekeepers were beginning to see the appeal of the product, and more orders were coming in. Scott hired a support and sales staff but continue to do all of the design work herself, as she does today. "Making arrangements is still a thrill for me," she says. "I'm aware that each one is going to be around for long time and should be beautiful, one of a kind, and above all, convincing as a fresh arrangement." That presents some challenges: Since only the head of flower can be preserved (most stems contain too much water) a wire "stem" must replace the real one and then be covered with green floral tape. Glycerin-preserved leaves (more supple than dried ones) may be attached last. Scott doesn't always choose the botanically correct leaf, selecting whatever will give the best aesthetic impression. Finally, a special dry foam (one that is different from moisture-retaining florist's foam) is cut to fit the container (opaque, so as not to show the "mechanics" inside). The foam holds wire stems firmly in place. Because the design of a preserved arrangement must emphasize the flowers - and minimize the wire stems - Japanese or other spare, architectural looks are out of the question. Scott has found that a tightly packed composition works best to fool the eye, and within this style she has learned how to achieve the charming "thrown together" look many of her clients prefer. Formal or casual, she must get it right the first time. Because of the unforgiving nature of materials, it's best to leave a flower where you first put it. Scott must imagine the design ahead of time and then, building from the inside out, bring it into being one perfectly placed bloom at a time. Almost any flower she needs is as close as the nearest box. With a huge inventory kept up by bulk purchases of spring and summer flowers, Scott can make spring bouquets in October and lush arrangements of zinnias, marigolds, and dahlias in February. Hydrangeas, roses, and lilies are other favorites, but almost any flower (except hard-to- preserve exotics like orchids, which contain too much water) might find its way into an arrangement. All of this bounty appeals to residential clients as well. The key to satisfaction, as Scott hastens to explain to any new customer, is good air-conditioning. Placed in a hospitable, dry environment, one of her $400 to $1,400 arrangements will look fresh and beautiful for up to a year. Sometimes a bit too fresh, Scott notes with a laugh:"Once in a while a client will forget to tell her housekeeper that an arrangement is preserved. It gets watered, and that's the end of it." Scott also has just begun to market a do-it-yourself kit with step-by-step instructions and starter materials, and she's planning a book in the art of preserved-flower arranging. A new website will offer preserved roses, peonies, and other flowers to home arrangers, an idea born when she began to ship individual flowers to Tiffany &Co. for window displays around the country. Scott is also working in a packing system for safe shipping of fragile finished arrangements. With the Internet offering unprecedented possibilities for expansion, the only variable would seem to be the stamina of the woman who wants to wield all of this flower power. Scott is unperturbed:"I like being responsible for every detail of my business," she says. "And there's true joy of knowing that I've done it all myself." MARTHA STEWART LIVING MAY 2000 | ||
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