Secret Florist: Whole Foods

It’s always nice to have greenery around the house during the holidays, especially if you’re entertaining and need to make things look vaguely cheerful. But the cost can really add up with so many floral arrangements going for $80 and up. Time to get to know a secret hostess weapon: the floral department at Whole Foods.

This “Holiday Greetings Bouquet” might have a cheesy name, but the combination of white and red roses, berries and lots of greenery looks lovely once it’s home in a vase. The flowers last for about a week, and at $16.99 each bouquet, you can afford to buy two. (Another trick for making grocery store bouquets look like they came from a florist – buy two and combine them into a large one.)

Whole Foods also has white calla lilies for cheap. Your conscience will also be lily-white: Unlike deli flowers, Whole Foods’ flowers are fair trade.

If you just want a little Christmas in your place without springing for a whole huge tree, this two-foot-high European tree ($29.99) has working colored lights. Eat your heart out, Charlie Brown.

Most practical of all is this rosemary tree ($16.99), because once you’ve finished admiring it, you can begin slowly eating it. Rosemary is a hardy winter herb that survives outside at temperatures of 20 degrees Fahrenheit and above.

And if it gets any colder than that anytime soon, we’ll probably need more than flowers to cure the winter blues.

Whole Foods Holidays