April showers bring May flowers, but that only gets them out of the ground . . . not onto your credenza. And regardless of the calendar, most flower arrangements available in New York City are long past that earthly contact anyway, having been shipped cross-country (or from another country), making them either overpriced, generic, or on their last legs even before you buy them—or worst, all of the above. That’s where the Botanical Brothers come in: a reasonably priced flower-subscription service based right here in Chelsea.
The founders, brothers Fabian and Hugo Wood, grew up in rural West Sussex, among the rambling “quintessentially English garden” of their mother, who is a passionate gardener. So passionate, in fact, that just hours before Hugo’s recent wedding on their property, she was still riding her tractor rather than primping like most imminent mothers-of-the-groom.
It is still up for debate whether their last name illustrates nominative determinism, but coincidentally their third partner, George, has the surname Gardner and his birthday is on May Day, so they’re all aptly named for their chosen occupation. But lest you think of these guys as unsophisticated farmers or nerdy green thumbs, they ooze more cool than the cut stem of a daffodil.
Fabian, by the way, considers himself to have “the greenest of the thumbs” in his family—after his mother, of course—while Hugo homes in on the business side. Fabian arrived in New York in 2020 with the idea of transferring the floristry enterprise he began in London to the Big Apple.
Hugo, who was working in finance, jumped at the opportunity to join his brother when the plausibility of succeeding began to sprout, and Fabian acknowledged he couldn’t do it alone. What they saw available in New York were expensive flowers of dubious origin and longevity; they wanted to provide a service that made the beauty of better-quality blooms accessible to a greater audience. “You shouldn’t have to be earning $150,000 to buy yourself flowers,” states Hugo.
Thus they began their subscription model, which costs $45 per bouquet total, made up of approximately 16 stems of seasonal flora with no delivery fee or minimum frequency. You choose how often your want or need a gorgeous bouquet to grace your doorstep, all designed by Fabian himself and composed by a team of one of the eight team members who are now “Brothers.” The flowers themselves come from mostly local farms, the Brothers having cultivated relationships with the flower growers, which they hope to expand and strengthen as their business grows.
The flowers arrive in a reusable box, the “wets” (the thirstier stems) bundled with a compostable hydration wrap inside a compostable baggie, alongside the “dries”, which are varietals that can survive longer without additional moisture. Ideally, the boxes can be collected on the next delivery, cutting down on packaging expense and waste. Or one can opt out of a box entirely, and receive the stems swaddled simply in sturdy paper. The Brothers’ goal is to provide the most affordable, sustainable, and gorgeous flowers possible, and since the blooms arrive unarranged, a bit of learned floristry comes as an additional bonus.
Fabian is the artistic director, so to speak. The instructional insert provided in each delivery illustrates one manner of composing the stems, as he imagined them, for the uninitiated. He has a wilder style, looser and more organic than most uptight bridal-esque bouquets. He likes the “contrast of the concrete, brutalist” simplicity with frillier, softer blooms. Of course, creativity is encouraged, and once they are in your possession you can arrange, combine, add, or subtract as desired. All the flowers are identified on the back of the insert, alongside some anecdotal trivia, and the more technical guidance on composing your bouquet. A vase (just $10) is optional, since most New Yorkers have accumulated their own collection.
While the colors and types of flowers shift from week to week, depending on what is seasonally available, the size of the arrangements is usually around the same, so the Brothers advise that one good vase should handle the flowers arriving weekly.
At present, about 30 percent of their offerings are locally grown, the rest coming from California. The local mix has grown by 30 percent in just the last 12 months, and they are trying hard to expand the local procurement, but it “involves a lot of politics,” as well as finding farms with greenhouses for the colder months outside the typical growing season.
Each neighborhood has a specified delivery day-of-the-week, multiples in busier neighborhoods and increasing as their business grows. After that, you determine the frequency you want your posies delivered, opting out in the weeks when you’re away or not in need. They deliver as far north as 125th Street and down to south Brooklyn, Long Island City, and into Queens, with no added fees.
Botanical Brothers
929-626-8262