When visitors enter the flower shop’s door they probably hear Charlie, a yellow-headed Amazon parrot, call out to them from his cage at the back of the first large room, which is usually filled with orchids. Charlie shares the spotlight with Paris Hilton, a Quaker Parrot, and Simla, a Scarlet Macaw. The trio has a view of the large walk-in cooler that is always full of flowers.
In this historic building at Magazine Street and Jackson Avenue in the Lower Garden District of New Orleans, Stephen Sonnier designs beautiful bouquets for grand weddings at places such as the New Orleans Museum of Art, the New Orleans Country Club and Houmas House Plantation. Tall ceilings with exposed beams, a wall of glass facing Jackson Avenue and a walk-in cooler crammed with every beautiful flower imaginable sets the backdrop for his work of creating grand and unique arrangements.
Today he is making bouquets for the bridesmaids in a wedding. It all looks very glamorous and upscale, but if quizzed about what he enjoys doing the most, he’s quick to reply, “I enjoy creating arrangements of foraged materials that I discover in overgrown lots, by the side of the road and from neglected gardens.”
While the myriad of roses may pull the eye toward the walk-in cooler, step inside Sonnier’s magic workroom behind Dunn & Sonnier Antiques & Flowers, and it doesn’t take long to discover hidden treasures of foraged flora throughout. A large basket of cattails sits next to a bunch of colorful berry pods, and nearby is his stash of goldenrod, and … is that Johnson grass? He smiles and replies, “Yes.
“It’s fun to explore and see what you can forage in the most unusual places,” he adds, pointing to huge branches of magnolia limbs. “I don’t care for the magnolia blossoms, but I love the leaves. I always have magnolia branches in my workroom.”
Sonnier leans over and shares one of his secrets in a soft voice, “I have some of the best gardeners in town calling to tell me when they have just cleaned the overgrowth of a garden. ‘Come by and see if there is anything you want to take back to our shop,’ they say.”
With so many beautiful fresh flowers around, who would want a vase full of grasses, berries and goldenrod? “You’d be surprised,” Sonnier says. “We have a lot of customers who love our foraged arrangements, and you must admit it is something different.”
While Sonnier hasn’t made a bridal bouquet of foraged materials, he has created more than one funeral wreath from them. “A wreath can be very handsome made of the foraged things,” he says.
Would it be unusual to find a wreath made out of palmetto leaves and ginger right next to one of white roses? “Not really,” Sonnier replies. “Some people just like things that are different.”
Count us among those people who think that bits of nature foraged from roadsides around here make a perfect holiday centerpiece.
Details. Details. Details.
Dunn & Sonnier Antiques & Flowers
2138 Magazine Street – New Orleans
(504) 524-3235
.jpg)