Mr Stinky (my amorphophallus plant) finally came up out in my yard around Father’s Day – easily at least a month later than last year’s arrival.  It has grown so quickly and reproduced a dozen babies – check ‘em out!

The large one is over 5 feet tall and the stem is at least 3 inches across – that means the rhizome must be the size of a football!

Here is another unusual thing in my garden – an Italian tomato call Cuore Di Bue (which means Heart of Ox) – It’s a fancy oxheart type tomato with lots of flesh and not much seeds.   Have not had any turn red yet, but I’ll post a pic when they do!  How’s your garden growing?

My black eyed Susan (rudbeckia) is blooming gangbusters!  And spreading out nicely – Lots of flowers to cut and bring inside in a vase!

What?  You don’t have flowers in your yard to cut and enjoy!  Well stop into any Walter Knoll Florist location and check out our Summer Roses – a full dozen are only $12.50 cash n carry – at $12.50 a dozen, I think you’ll want 2 or 3 dozen!   What a perfect day to take a dozen roses over to your neighbor who is grabbing your newspaper off your front lawn while you vacation next month!

SR36 - 36 summer roses, arranged and delivered for $81.98 (LOCAL ONLY)

Or we have mini hydrangea bunches at wholesale pricing too – $24.95 for a mixed pastel colored bunch.  (While supplies last)

HYDR Hydrate Your Day Hydrangea Bouquet $61.98 Delivered thru 7/24 (LOCAL ONLY)

What is Provence? When you hear the word, do you think of the South of France, and olives, lavender and sunflowers? I certainly do, as well as a slower of pace of life, and delicate seafood feasts at cafes. Which brings me to “Provencal” as in “Fluke Provencal”.

Jim B's Fluke Provencal

Delicate fillets of fluke (in the cod family) simmered with fresh tomatoes, olives, capers and wine.  I had my first fluke and my first “Provencal” in the Hamptons last week and came home with an unbelievable hunger for more.  Well the local Schnuckie Man didn’t have fluke, but they did have some very fresh tilapia fillets so I bought a little over a pound – 4 fillets.

First you make the sauce: In a large skillet and into a bit of olive oil sweat some shallots (2 or 3 small ones) with a tablespoon of dried Herbs de Provence (My big ol’ jar of Herbs de Provence” came from Janet, a souvenier from her trip to France earlier this year!).  While the onions were sweating I went out to the garden and gathered tomatoes, oregano, lavender, basil and thyme.  I also picked a jalapeno, an Italian hot finger-pepper, a Serrano chili and a sweet banana pepper.  I cut each pepper into a different shape (to identify later when I was eating them) and added them with inch thick chunks of tomatoes (about 3 medium sized) to the sweating onions.  Cooked them for a minute then added about a half cup of the fresh herbs, finely diced.  Then a cup or perhaps a bit less of white wine and about 3/4 cup of Kalamata olives, halved.  Simmered it for about 5 minutes then set it aside in a bowl.  Rinse and dry the fish fillets, then lay them out on a plate and squeeze half a lemon over them.  Cover with saran and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.  Blot dry with paper towels just before sautéing them.  Use the same pan, just wipe it out and add a tablespoon or two or olive oil – add the fish to the hot oil.  When the edges of the fillets were white, I flipped them and poured over the reserved sauce, spreading all the ingredients around well.  Only took about 3 minutes each side on the fish.  Just before serving, add a couple tablespoons of rinsed capers and another quarter cup of the fresh herbs.  Drizzle with a bit of olive oil when serving. The peppers were a wonderful addition to the dish, not hot to bite into but a lingering heat . . . yum yum yum we love hot peppers around here!

Tilapia Provencal with Garden Peppers

And sunflowers! Back to Sunflowers! One more week of the Walter Knoll Florist wholesale sunflower bunch special – 5 stems for $7.50 as well as many of our sunflower bouquets are at special pricing!!

Greetings

After a week of bone chilling rain here in St Louis, the clouds parted and we were blessed with a perfect sunny day for the Benton Park Chalk Art Festival. This 11th Annual Chalk Art Exhibit, Competition and Festival in the Benton Park Neighborhood was held in Historic Benton Park at Arsenal Street & Jefferson Avenue on and around the award winning Strolling Bridge. Walter Knoll Florist was pleased to help sponsor the event – Walter Knoll Florist Gift Cards were given to the first 25 paying adults. For $20 each adult entrant got a pair of cotton gloves, a box of brilliant colored chalk and a piece of the sidewalk! Kids were $1 and received free treasure bags. Viewing of course was Free!

Sponsors

Kids are free

Young and old alike got into the act and everyone had a great time.

Even Uncle Rich got into the act - He's just a big kid at heart.

Some folks thought out of the box

At first glance - flowers, second glance - Dog Paws

4th place is this wonderful pyramid image

This one is going to pop out of the sidewalk

2nd place:

Mike poses with his eye in the sky

Image stolen from a TV tray by yours truly

This young fellow was enamored with the buildings in drawing 17 - he did a great job

First Place was this great jack-o-lantern ghost art

by St Louis' own famous local artis Phil Jarvis

Lots of picture taking going on

And somehow I pulled off winning 3rd place!

fini

I’m ahead of the game this year – hoping to have dozens of knitted gifts to give –
Here are 5 hats I’ve made since mid August or so

Wacky Hats

I especially like these two, so if you see someone wearing something like this, ask them if Di made that hat!

Cool you say? No, very warm!

Please don’t ask me for the pattern! I figure them out as I go along or I copy a previous pattern from one I have made.

Are you perhaps not so nimble fingered and wondering about holiday gift giving? Walter Knoll Florist can solve that problem! Call us about our holiday corporate gift giving ideas! We’ll have beautiful poinsettias, wreaths (decorated and plain – live and everlasting) as well as a whole line up of holiday floral bouquets! After all, we’re Walter Knoll Florist, Your Personal Florist Since 1883 Call us at 314.352.7575 or toll free at 1-800-341-ROSE (7673) WKF.COM

We have brought back our Summer Rose Special! Stop into any of our retail locations thru July 15 and pick up a dozen roses at only $12.50!!! These are 12 to 15″ roses and although generally available in red, other colors will also on occasion be available! These are fresh, wrapped loose roses, pick up a dozen in a vase for $29.99! Such a deal! Available for delivery from our website (vased only for deliveries) in 1 dozen, 2 dozen or 3 dozen to a vase. And only at Walter Knoll Florist!

Secure your place on the couch by surprising the little lady with a dozen or more roses!

We’ve had a very busy week at Walter Knoll Florist, and again this year we gave a WKF gift card away with every Secretaries’ Day arrangement! The give away was so fun last year, we brought it back! We love new customers!

This week hasn’t been all work though, the office staff was treated to an afternoon off to go to the Cardinal/Mets game yesterday…and what a game! There were 20 runs! I’m not much of a sports fan, but I couldn’t say no to a sunny and warm spring day at the ballpark. I surprised myself by getting into watching the game!
Happy Secretaries’ Week to all you assistants out there! I hope your hard work was acknowledged also!

Cardinals Mets April 23, 2009

Well, the Mr Stinky hoopla is over, the amazing flower is dying back now, no more stinky smells. Soon, the plant will emerge – I’ll post a pic at that time! Thanks for visiting us at the Garden Center!

Spent Flower

We received this wonderful card from the “Look What I Made” Girl Scouts and just had to share . . .

This year the VP ball was held at the Hyatt Regency Ballpark Hotel St Louis (formally the Adams Mark Hotel) on Saturday December 20th.  Walter Knoll Florist provided the flowers for the event. This project started months ago with samples, that resulted in project that involved  more that 100 people  to have the table decorations created.  This year the centerpieces featured a large glass cylinder with suspended glittered snow flakes lit by LED lamps, the flowers in keeping with the snow theme are all white, using Avalanche roses, Casablanca lilies, white gladiolas, white Fugi mums, accented with shimmering redwood tree pine cones and silver trim and snow twigs.

It took more that 50 on site Walter Knoll Florist employees to make this happen.

Steve and Jeremy Loading the 30 ' Truck

This tree is in the Lobby of the Metropolitan Square building in downtown St Louis (Located at 1 Metropolitan Square).  This year the tree has been transformed to tell the story of the history of St Louis. Included in the ornaments are 32 large, custom luminaries that were hand crafted by Walter Knoll Florist.  These luminaries show a pictorial history of St Louis.  The luminaries are made from Lexan, a clear polycarbonate that has been cast into tubes that then have historical images from St Louis’ past displayed with back-lit illumination.  Images featured include Louisiana Purchase, Thomas Jefferson,  Lewis and Clark, The 1904 Worlds Fair, Charles Lindbergh & the Spirit of St Louis,  the construction of the St Louis Arch and many other Saint Louis historic moments.

Standing at over 45 feet tall, this is the largest Indoor holiday tree in the St Louis area.

The Christmas tree in the lobby of the Metropolitan Square Building

This year we added a podium and a book with copies of the images and a description of each photo.

The Podium and Picture Book feature LED lighting

Some Close Ups of the Luminaries

Many of the images came from the Missouri History Museum and  several from the personal collection of Mark Allen from Anmar Photography.

If you are out looking at holiday decorations this season, it is worth your time to go by and see the biggest and best tree in St Louis. The Metropolitan Square Building tree is a great backdrop for a holiday photo.

This tree was assembled and decorated by Walter Knoll Florist and we manufactured many of the decorations as well.

If you would like to ask Walter Sr a question about the decorations click here.