October 28, 2010

It was a dark and stormy night . . .

  . . . Not the kind that's good for taking pictures of ten vibrantly autumnal centerpieces of Aztec dahlias, Devoto Gardens sunflowers and dianthus, and my camelias, and cotoneaster berries. But here they are, complete with a little glimpse of my super low-tech (but very effective and zero-waste) brick-based transportation system.

3 comments:

  1. I admire the flowers don't get me wrong but facinated by the flower transportation device - in desperation, my husband has been mine on several occassions! I have a sheet of MDF which stands on 4 square posts of wood (at corners), with circles cut out the diametre of my buckets. Transportation, without tears and wet wrapping has been a headache for me, so I'm curious! I need something for smaller arrangements now people have started asking for them and this might be the thing.Is it a tray with brick tiles? Genius.

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  2. Yeah, transportation is my very least favorite part of any event, too. Your bucket holding apparatus sounds pretty cool! I've been thinking on making a more formal, wooden setup too.

    But now, for deliveries of single small arrangements I take a low, lidded box. Unfortunately, the kind that boxed wine comes in works great (do you even have that stuff in England?) Anyways, I take that box, approximately 6" tall by 12" long and wide, and slice an "x" the diameter of the container into the large surface of the box. Then I squeeze the container into the "x". I also have a long, low lidded wholesale flower box back from when I worked at a florist in Boston that fits six "x's" so six arrangements, on top. I'd like to get my hands on some more of those.

    Otherwise, for delivering many arrangements I have a lot of low wooden fruit and wine boxes (the fancy wood kind that swanky wineries use to ship and market their wares), about 30" long by 18" wide by 6" tall. These I stuff with old textiles (bath and kitchen towels, sheets, burlap bags from the local coffee roaster), or blocks of wood to take up space. Then I squeeze in three containers per box: two on the corners on one side, then one in the middle on the other side.

    I have some taller wooden boxes for propping up larger arrangements.

    I use the bricks to keep all these boxes from sliding around and into each other.

    Let me know if any of all that doesn't make sense and I'll post some pictures. : )

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  3. Thanks for all the info! My head is dizzy with Xs and corners, but that was magnificently explained! Wedged- in arrangements within boxes seems the way to go. Heavy is good to stop the whole lot sliding as I go around roundabouts etc. I have never driven so smoooothly or sworn so revoltingly!! For buckets, the holes in a raised mdf sheet works well, but I should have varnished because vile MDF doesn't like getting wet and warps.

    Check you out needing an office - yay!xx

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