A Contemporary Floral Shop in Toronto That Embraces the Weird and Unusual

Flùr arrangement in Riverside House by Passages Studio. Photo by Riley Snelling

When Chloë Fraser walked by a small floral shop on Queen Street in Toronto, she had no idea it would change the trajectory of her life. At the time, she was searching for the right path for her future. She’d spent several years working with art and cultural institutions, including MOCA and TIFF, followed by a brief stint in advertising, before turning her sights toward a master’s in architecture that she quickly realized wasn’t for her.

Cue Coriander Girl, a cheerful floral studio that has since relocated to Prince Edward County. “That sort of is what started it all for me,” Fraser says. After learning the ropes of floral design there, in 2017 she opened her own shop, Flùr, in a gallery-inspired space designed by MSDS in the Annex neighbourhood. “They did this very successful and really enriching job of transforming the envelopes of the space into something else and using unusual materials,” Fraser says, noting that the designers’ approach has helped shape her own floral practice.

Photo by Nicole and Bagol

Photo by James Tse

That practice strays from the traditional tight globes of roses or the romantic and soft arrangements of garden style popular a few years ago. Instead, Fraser is guided by what she describes as a “profound interest in the weird and unusual within the floral world.”

Flùr’s arrangements are contemporary and sculptural, and Fraser embraces playing with scale and material. She opts for seasonal and local cuts whenever possible and designs with longevity in mind—like the flowering branches of quince that begin in the bud stage and can last up to three weeks. Other blooms that may appear at the shop include fluffy bursts of pink on the arms of Kwanzan cherry branches, dripping black alder catkins, drapes of lush green spirea, delicate hellebore blossoms, or alien-like banksia pods.

More recently, Flùr has expanded into dried flowers, bolstered by commercial and corporate clients who couldn’t keep up with maintaining fresh flowers. “Both in an attempt to avoid waste, but also as a way of exploring the afterlife of flowers and the possibility of using them in an alternate state, I started to work with a lot of dried materials and to test by purchasing things fresh and drying, and to see how the character would change or persist,” Fraser says.

Flùr arrangement in VSP Consignment. Photo by Lauren Miller

Catering to a wide variety of needs with aplomb is part of the job for the floral designer, who works with a lengthy list of clients that includes high-end hotels, restaurants, and boutiques. She has also cultivated relationships with some of Toronto’s top architecture and design firms, including Ashley Botten Design, Mason Studio, Studio Paolo Ferrari, and TK Creative. With the end product in mind, be it photography, a newly designed home, or an installation, Fraser adjusts the materials accordingly, taking into account the finishes and forms already in the space and any other factors that could affect the arrangement.

Another is Flùr’s curated collection of artist-made vessels, offered both as part of the arrangements and on their own in the shop. Like wheel-throne stoneware pieces by New York ceramicist Clair Catillaz of Clam Lab. Or minimalist slip-cast earthenware vases by the Copenhagen brand Raawii.

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“I’m just profoundly impressed by the artists that we do work with because of their commitment to making things that are both art objects and functional objects,” she says. “That’s not a small feat.”

 

For Fraser, a bold vessel doesn’t compete with her arrangement but rather works with it in harmony—a conversation that flows between artists. “My practice has become very wedded to the vase as much as anything else,” she says. “The joy—both in terms of our clients and their regular engagement with flowers and for me, as a person who commissions and curates stuff for the shop—is then having vessels that have a defined character because then you can respond to it in a meaningful way.”

Clam Lab ceramics. Photo by Nicole and Bagol

She applies a high set of standards to the vases she carries at Flùr. Beyond a striking look, it must have a wide enough opening to fit ample stems into, which also comes in handy for cleaning, and enough weight that it won’t tip, even when filled with tall heavy branches. Her last criterion may seem like a given but has proven to be a challenge: it must be watertight. “I cannot tell you how many vases I’ve wanted to carry and then realized that they can’t actually hold water, or they weep, and it’s always a disappointment,” she says. “Who wants to worry about ruining a beautiful dining table?”

Lately, Fraser has been working to expand the brand’s website. Up until now, many of Flùr’s services—from subscriptions to interior photography projects to one-of-a-kind event installations—have been by word of mouth, a testament the brand’s reputation. And while organically formed relationships will always be important to Fraser, she is in the process of standardizing all that information so that it’s clear from the website what’s on offer. Flùr just launched a subscription page and an image gallery with featured projects that showcase all of its work.

For those looking to get into floral design on their own, Fraser suggests investing in a good set of sharp floral shears, pruners for thicker stems, and a watertight vase. When it comes to the arranging, nothing beats getting your hands dirty. “I think play is paramount—handling, playing, exploring materials, whether it’s foraged or purchased. Combining materials in unexpected ways, just to see how they work together and if they work together, is just really important,” Fraser says. “The only reason I know what I do know now is through having just touched a lot of things. And some of those experiments have worked out, and many of them have not.”

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