Remco was kind enough to invite me into his studio for a morning, show me his workspace and the small world in which his business dwells the Flower District.
PlantTherapy: Remco, Master of the Met
His studio contains the essentials, which includes a workspace, a flower cooler to keep his stock dormant, and a small, lofted office space.
His studio does not stop where his walls do; being located in the Flower District is the equivalent of a sushi chef setting up shop in the middle of Tsukiji. Even though it is towards the end of the Districts work day (12:00!), Remco brings me on a mini street tour to meet his extended family. All of his flowers come right from this street; his brothers wholesale business is right nearby. The shop is closing when we arrive and they are rushing the flowers back into the enormous cooler room to preserve their freshness. He explains that the flowers come from the Dutch flower auction block, Aalsmeer, which is the single largest commercial space in the world (they auction 19 million flowers every DAY!). We flit from shop to shop, and Remcos eyes (possibly the sharpest tool in his repertoire) never stop as he searches over the days offerings. The handshakes and greetings also are abundant, signaling the tight community that lives and works on this street.
According to Remco, it is always a challenge to create the Mets large arrangements. He inherited this legacy after apprenticing for several years with Chris Giftos, the original Met florist, who developed special methods for creating such large arrangements. He has to find good supplies of large enough flowers and branches every week, which can be difficult. They also must last a week without withering. In the shops I see stacks of branches Remco points out the song of India which will appear in the following weeks arrangements. The next week I see them among the arrangements and feel as if I am seeing an old friend as I recall them in their bundled state. The weekly rotation at the Met is created through his imagination to use what is sold within the local shops.
And he miraculously keeps this up for every week of the entire year. My little vase at home suddenly seems easy. -Matt N. (not Maxwell)
Comments (6)
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Matt!
Thanks for the very cool tour, and for letting us all feel like privileged insiders! Now we can all say, on our next trip to the Met, "Hey! I know the guy who knows the guy who does those amazing arrangements!" I hope he loves his job as much as he should.
Remarkable there is enough tillable soil to meet demand. But I'm glad there is!
And your writing, always great, keeps getting better and better.
OMG- his floral designs are amazing...guess they should be if he is responsible for The Met. Good thing my wife didn't see this before our wedding or we would have even went even more over our floral budget.
Wow, Matt!
Your writing in plant therapy always interests me. You have a real knack for describing things in a unique way. So, Remco may have "razor sharp" eyes, but you definitey have a "poet's eye."
ps-- I bet you're cute
You all are too nice. Trust me, my picture would def. not get a 'Jon Carloftis'-sized response.
The nicest thing about looking for things to post is showing people that normally are paid to be discreet or invisible. Every week thousands of people see what Remco does, but only a few really know that he is responsible. The flower and plant community in NYC is relatively quiet - and humble - they let their work stand out and be noticed instead.
It was also interesting to hear about Aalsmeer. Many flowers have already had about a week from the time they were cut from the plant to the time they are bought. If we could buy directly from the plant, a flower could potentially last twice as long in an arrangement.
thank you for that post. i'm a huge fan of seeing a whole process... from aalsmeer to the met. nice going! can you show me:
how long stemmed roses grow? where? what does that look like??
and how do the blue, magenta, and green daisies come to be?
i have many questions....
best!
So glad you liked this post, I had a lot of fun visiting with Remco. Roses...we'll see what we can find...
As for those daisies, sounds as if you are referring to Gerbera Daisies - they grow in different colors. But it would be fun to find out how :)