Flowers Art & Design

An address in the baroque Friedrichstadt

Flowers Art & Design sits at Kronenstrasse 55 to 58 in Mitte, between Friedrichstrasse and Markgrafenstrasse. Kronenstrasse belongs to the grid of the baroque Friedrichstadt, laid out west of the old city at the start of the eighteenth century, which still accounts for the straight lines and the short distances in this part of Mitte. All around lies a quarter of offices and hotels: ministries, law firms and publishers have their addresses here, and next door the Friedrichstadt arcades run with their glazed courts beneath Friedrichstrasse. For a flower shop this is a particular neighbourhood, because many orders come from the buildings around rather than from the apartment house next door. The shop therefore works less as a place for passing trade and more as a workshop with regular customers. The nearest station is Stadtmitte on the U2 and U6 lines, and bus route 200 stops on Leipziger Strasse. It is around a kilometre to Potsdamer Platz and about half that to the Mall of Berlin. That a language school sits in the same building says a good deal about the character of the address: this is a commercial building and not an apartment house.

From a bouquet to a planted balcony

The list of services at Flowers Art & Design is broader than at many neighbourhood shops. Bouquets are tied to order in a classic or a modern hand or put together freely, and in very large formats as well, and beside them come arrangements and pieces, room and table decorations, wedding flowers, event flowers and funeral flowers. A field of its own is the planting of terraces and balconies, which is renewed several times over the year. For private households and for office rooms there is a flower subscription with regular bouquets of choice, so the vase in the reception or the living room does not stand empty. Decoration for events is taken on only after a personal consultation, because concept, vessels and quantities are agreed beforehand. Delivery runs with a flower taxi of the house within the city. In the shop itself there are fresh cut flowers and potted plants, and anyone who is unsure gets a recommendation rather than a ready made range out of the cooler. The florist Olga Schmidt founded the business, and a small team of trained florists works with her today. The house describes itself as a creative atelier and not as an ordinary flower shop, and that claim shows above all where a whole room is designed and not only a vase filled.