This roundup of things we liked this week originally appeared in the February 6, 2025 edition of the Secret Strategist newsletter, a weekly email where we share the stuff our staff — plus a rotating cast of writers, design-world people, and various others with very good taste — would otherwise keep to themselves. If you want to get our picks straight to your inbox each week, sign up here.
We recently caught wind of the Botanical Brothers, a new flower-delivery service with the nicest bouquets. Ranunculus! Snapdragon! Poppies! Anemones! A good option for Valentine’s Day obviously, but also just a nice, flexible, recurring thing to set up if you’re someone who likes having flowers in the house but hates buying deli flowers that die two days later. We got in touch with them to find out more. The company was founded in 2021 by Fabian Wood, who grew up in West Sussex, England; his brother Hugo joined about a year ago. “My parents are both very keen gardeners,” says Fabian. “I didn’t really train; my instincts came from my mum’s cutting garden. And our granny, age 89, still has an amazing garden.” Adds Hugo: “Our philosophy is pretty simple. It’s hard to get really good flowers in New York without paying a lot of money, and it doesn’t need to be that way. We have our own delivery guys, our own sort of way of preserving the flowers. We can use something like a dahlia that just wouldn’t have been able to survive a trip in the post.” Recently, they’ve started working directly with farmers in the Hudson Valley, New Jersey, Vermont, Ontario, California, and South America. They deliver all around the city, but the highest concentration of customers, Fabian says, is in Clinton Hill, Bed-Stuy, and Fort Greene. “That’s where Fabian landed and was just knocking on doors, saying, ‘Do you want to try this out?’” says Hugo. “Our best die-hard customers are still there.” —Katy Schneider and Simone Kitchens
This Week’s List
* Speaking of flowers — we’re moved to share our longtime favorite anemone farm, Battenfeld’s. They ship and are so much cheaper than they are at the flower market. (Also a special place to visit if you’re in the Hudson Valley.)
* Hearing that we were sharing the Battenfeld’s recommendation, Strategist editor Lauren Levy was moved to share her mother’s special orchid guy. “His name is Randy, and his number is 516-859-7535,” Lauren’s mom told us. “Definitely cheaper than going into a regular Manhattan retail shop. He’ll deliver them planted in a glass vase if you want, or not, and he has a big variety. He’ll tell you what types he has and what’s in season. You can either call him up for a delivery, for you or as a gift for someone, or he shoots out a mass text to everyone on his list around holidays.”
* Okay, getting off of flowers. Strategist senior editor Hilary Reid alerted us to the fact that this great 2003 Soho loftish DWR couch is up for auction at Housing Works.
* This abalone inlay fish bottle opener holds a strange beauty.
* Strategist writer Erin Schwartz recently stopped by Sample House, a materials library in Long Island City. “Interior designers and furniture-makers and architects go for research; there’s a membership, but I bought a day pass. It was incredible to see thousands of samples — mohair upholstery, silk carpeting, speckled aluminum, polka-dot raffia, tile so bright and smooth you want to eat it — all in the same place. At $75, the day pass is too expensive just for curiosity, but if you have specific projects in mind and love ogling materials, I recommend it. Come in with a plan — we spent so long oohing and aahing at tile that we scrambled at the end of our two-hour time slot.”
* The table lamps at the Grammys were Ikea.
The Strategist is designed to surface useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Every product is independently selected by our team of editors, whom you can read about here. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.
