HALLOWEEN!

Hurricane Sandy is ushering in this very scary Halloween season. In Montreal it's dark, and wet, and the whistling winds sweep swirls of dead leaves into the air and make the overhanging trees sway eerily. Every now and again the lights flicker as Frankenstorm beats at front doors and rattles electrical wires all across the city. People have decorated their homes with swaths of spider webs, and spooky Jack-O'-Lanterns that seem to follow you with their fiery eyes as you pass by. Who knows what is creeping up behind you out of the darkness of the night?

Tomorrow on All Hallow's Eve young children will dress up and come knocking on your door hoping they won't have to trick you if you don't treat them. They might have frightening costumes, but they are as scared of you as you are of them because, for one night only, you are a zombie. 

Your spooky neighborhood Montreal Florist has found you easy and cheap but frightening Halloween costume solutions on YouTube. Happy Halloween...

A Pumpkin Riot!!!

Pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkins galore. That's our motto this season. They make great seasonal centerpieces and give your home a rustic and welcoming feel.

Lucky for you, our online discount codes are back. When you order this rioting arrangement online, enter "Hallo2012", and you'll get 20% off the original price!

Part of what we do is help you find the perfect accent pieces for your home or for a friend's home. Follow us on Pinterest to discover more of our brilliant ideas, or other ideas we found on the web.

Don't forget that we're everywhere online because we know that's where the future is, and what is The Flower Pot, but a Montreal Florist that's on the inside track to tomorrow?

Follow us on Google+, on Facebook, on Twitter, on YouTube, on Foursquare, and Yelp!

Are you afraid of ghosts?

Boo! Halloween is on the way. Griffintown has had its very own florist for almost 50 years, but did you know that Griffintown has had its very own ghost for even longer?

Once, Montreal was the economic center of Canada, and all that bustling activity surrounded the Lachine canal. Griffintown was an industrial neighborhood filled with low-income immigrants who worked on the canal.

Many women were reduced to prostitution to make ends meet. Friends Mary Gallagher and Susan Kennedy were both prostitutes. On June 27, 1879 Mary Gallagher's decapitated body was discovered on the second floor of a building at 242 rue Williams in Griffintown.

Kennedy was found sleeping off a hangover in the next room, and Michael Flanagan was also found on the premises. While  Flanagan was cleared of all charges, Kennedy was found guilty and sentenced to hang until death on December 5, 1879.

Meanwhile Gallagher's body was examined after two days and then thrown into a communal grave at Notre Dame des Neiges cemetery.

Kennedy's sentence was eventually commuted to life in prison, but on December 5, the intended date of her execution, something strange happened to Flanagan. As he was working on the docks, he hit his head on the edge of the boat, fell into the water, and drowned. Was it Mary Gallagher's ghost finishing off her true killer?

Today, nothing remains of the place where Gallagher was murdered except for the outline of the foundations in the asphalt of a parking lot. But as the story goes, Gallagher's ghost rises, and roams the city looking for its head every seven years.

Want to know more? Visit the Fantômes Montréal website to find out about ghost tours of the city. Make sure to book early or other thrill seekers like you will take all the spots!

If you would rather read old ghost stories like this one on your own at home, you need the decor and the snacks to go with it! The Flower Pot's Halloween special, pictured here, is a pumpkin stuffed with flowers. Our Bookworm's Delight will complement your reading perfectly! Check out our other fall arrangements to get all the pieces you need, and don't hesitate to come by our store or call us at 514-938-1234 for more spooky decoration ideas!

Enjoy the Autumn Leaves

The best thing about the fall is the beauty of the leaves changing colour. It's like nature is going out with a bang before the winter. Herbert loves to admire the New Hampshire scenery on his way to Massachusetts.

There are many ways to get to Massachusetts from The Flower Pot, but according to Herbert, there's only one way to get the best views. When you leave Montreal, you must take highway 10 to Magog and highway 55 to the border. From there you travel on the 91 until you get to St. Johnsbury, Vermont, where you switch to the 93.

The 93 takes you over a notch, right through White Mountain National Forest. Keep your eyes open, and your camera ready to capture the stunning foliage. Click here for more specific directions to White Mountain National Forest from Google.

Here at The Flower Pot, we really appreciate every season because they each bring something unique to our arrangements and to our store. This gorgeous pumpkin arrangement was inspired by fall and brings almost all the colours of autumn leaves into your home.

If you can't easily go out and about to enjoy the fall colours, The Flower Pot has found this lovely video on YouTube featuring gorgeous images of colourful leaves set to the sounds of Nat King Cole performing "Autumn Leaves".

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Dinner

What will you have on your Thanksgiving Dinner table (besides one of our lovely centerpieces of course)? Here are a couple suggestions from us, and recipes courtesy of Allrecipes.com to go with each idea!

Turkey:  The stuffing in this recipe isn't traditional but it has rave reviews so we thought it would be worth mentioning. If you're really into bread stuffing in your Turkey, here's another highly recommended recipe for making the BEST juicy turkey ever.

Stuffing: For you really adventurous people who want to make stuffing from scratch, check out this recipe for savory bread that makes a perfect base for the perfect stuffing.

Side dishes: What's Thanksgiving without a gazillion different side dishes? Here's a new twist on plain old green beans. Every one will LOVE it! Cranberry sauce is a must: take a look at this five-star recipe to make your own instead of buying a can. We don't have butternut squash every day so why not take advantage of the harvest? Here's the recipe. Mashed potatoes are a staple of course, and this sweet-potato recipe is making us drool so we've included it too.

Here's the moment you've all been waiting for. Dessert!

• Apple pie
• Pumpkin pie
• Pumpkin pecan pie

Enjoy your long weekend, and Happy Thanksgiving from The Flower Pot!

Save the Planet!

The Flower Pot's flower of the day for Tuesday, October 2nd was a Bird of Paradise which has a very interesting background. You can see it pictured here as part of our Jazz bouquet. The Bird of Paradise's real name is Strelitzia. The flower was named for George III of the United Kingdom's Queen Consort, Queen Charlotte of the United Kingdom, who was born in Strelitz.

According to Wikipedia, Queen Charlotte was a great patroness of the arts as well as an amateur botanist. Thanks to her and her husband's involvement, Kew Gardens, which are also called the Royal Botanic Gardens, greatly expanded.

Now, Kew Gardens is a very important botanical research and conservation center that employs 700 people and plays host to about two million visitors a year! Kew Gardens is home to the largest Victorian glasshouse and the largest collection of living plants in the world. In 2003, UNESCO included the gardens on the list of World Heritage Sites.

In September The Guardian published a great video about Kew Gardens and the work that is done there to combat the climate crisis (see below). For us here at The Flower Pot, flowers and plants are so important to life. We think that everyone should be involved in saving them and the planet.

One of the ways you can do that, as mentioned in the video below, is to tend your own small garden, and be aware of how plants are important to your life. That's where florists come in. It's our job to encourage people to love plants and flowers with our stunning arrangements. If people love greenery, perhaps they will be more careful with the world we live in!

For Thanksgiving we are offering a pretty vase arrangement that showcases one of the plants that are so essential to our lives: wheat! You can call 514-938-1234 to order, or order online on our website. For a real Montreal florist experience, come by the store at 1340 Notre Dame Ouest to visit our little plant and flower oasis.