Winston Flowers, whose new Greenwich location opened last year, has always featured blooms and created arrangements that ought to be in pictures. Now they actually are.
In “The Perfect Couple,” a miniseries that bowed Sept. 5 on Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX, $308.70 billion in market capitalization), Winston arrangements are a supporting character in a murder mystery based on the novel by Elin Hilderbrand, who sets her best sellers in her hometown of Nantucket.
When Amelia Sacks (Eve Hewson) becomes engaged to Benji Winbury (Billy Howle), she’s poised to enter one of the richest families on the island, headed by novelist Greer Garrison Winbury (Nicole Kidman) and husband Tag (Live Schreiber). But a sudden death derails the wedding, putting everyone on edge and under suspicion.
The classic whodunit setting, a stunning, somewhat remote island occasion, and an A-list cast that includes Dakota Fanning as Benji’s pregnant sister-in-law, Abby, and Isabelle Adjani as a family friend, are underscored by custom-made Winston floral displays throughout the Winbury home, including the entrance hall, the living and dining rooms and Greer’s office. In Alfred Hitchcock-like fashion, Winston Flowers even makes a cameo appearance in the first episode, via one of its delivery vans. (Winston Flowers delivers to Fairfield and Westchester counties, New York City, Greater Boston and nationwide through a network of partner florists.)
It has come a long way from that day in 1944 when the father-and-son duo of Robert and Maynard Winston began their pushcart flower business on Boston’s fashionable Newbury Street.
Today, the third-generation, family-owned enterprise – helmed by Maynard’s sons, David and Ted – maintains three retail shops in Massachusetts, including the Newbury Street flagship; an 80,000-square-foot floral design studio in Boston; and a 12,000-square-foot facility in Long Island City. On May 8, 2023, the Greenwich store, which had been a fixture on Greenwich Avenue, reopened at 154 Prospect St. in a 4,600-square-foot contemporary gray-and-white space that tripled its capacity.
Winston Flowers creates nine collections each year to reflect both the seasons and annual holidays – Winter, Valentine’s Day, Spring, Mother’s Day, Late Spring, Summer, Late Summer, Autumn and Holiday. Its team prioritizes the most exclusive, long-lasting blossoms available in each season, taking into account their unique attributes, freshness, color and assigned quality “grades.” Many of the blooms used in Winston arrangements come from farmers and brokers, rather than wholesalers, around the world, primarily Ecuador, Italy and the Netherlands, with most transported via commercial passenger airplanes to help preserve fuel and reduce excess shipping.
With relationships that span as long as 20 years, Winston works to ensure that each partner adheres to other environmentally- and socially-conscious practices, such as improving the communities in which they operate and using systems that are state-of-the-art and energy efficient.
Each Winston Flowers arrangements is created by a team that hails from across the globe. Led by General Manager Carine Bonnet, Winston Flowers’ New York designers take inspiration from the interior design and fashion worlds along with floral trends. Container buyers and product designers frequent home décor shows, particularly in Paris. The resulting floral designs are showcased in custom vases made especially for Winston Flowers.
Above all, a spokeswoman said, Winston arrangements have a twofold purpose – to meet the clients’ expectations and to serve the community. Each year, Winston Flowers is involved in dozens of local events, fundraisers, and philanthropic campaigns, offering more than $500,000 in floral donations to charitable causes.
