Flores Blumenbinderei

A florist on Solothurn's Hauptgasse

Flores Blumenbinderei is a florist's shop at Hauptgasse 69, 4500 Solothurn, run by Heidi Bisang and her team. The homepage introduces it as "die Welt der Blumen in Solothurn" (the world of flowers in Solothurn), and its site description promises a select, seasonal range of flowers and plants, with bouquets, arrangements and planted containers made with passion.

Weddings have their own page, "Hochzeit & Feste" (weddings and celebrations). It opens: "Feiern Sie Hochzeit, Geburtstag oder ein Jubiläum", celebrating a wedding, a birthday or an anniversary, and says the shop designs the bridal flowers and creates atmospheric table and room decorations for the event. The rest of the site covers the shop, an online shop with delivery on request, balcony and garden plants, home plants, funeral flowers, subscriptions and vouchers, accessories and exhibitions.

The team

The team page lists five people:

• Heidi Bisang, owner, Floristin FA (a florist with the Swiss federal diploma, the level above the basic certificate);
• Andrea Lehmann, Floristin FA;
• Adela Ruzickova, Floristin EFZ (the Swiss federal vocational certificate);
• Alina Burri, Floristin EFZ;
• Lia Reidhaar, intern from Oeschberg.

A post on the homepage explains the last entry: Lia Reidhaar joined this spring as the shop's new intern from Oeschberg, a school in Koppigen in the canton of Bern that trains florists and gardeners, where students spend a work placement in a flower shop during their second year.

For a couple, the point is that this is a shop with several qualified florists, two of them at diploma level, rather than a one-person studio. The homepage calls them "die kreativen Gestalterinnen in unserem Team" (the creative designers on our team).

The wedding page

The wedding page is mostly a gallery, "Impressionen", organized by style. The headings are:

• Blumenbogen: a flower arch;
• Gesteckter Brautstrauss: a bridal bouquet arranged in a holder;
• Amerikanischer Brautstrauss: the American bridal bouquet;
• Wasserfall-Strauss: a cascading waterfall bouquet;
• Wiesenstrauss: a meadow-style bouquet;
• Gebundene Brautsträusse: hand-tied bridal bouquets.

The photographs carry credits to wedding photographers (Andrea Rufener, jaypeg photography and Lenka Reichelt), so these are pictures from real weddings. The range runs from the structured arranged bouquet to the loose meadow style and the cascading waterfall shape.

For a couple who do not read German, the headings are worth decoding before a consultation. "Gesteckt" means the flowers are set into a holder or base, which lets a bouquet keep a fixed, built shape; "gebunden" means tied by hand from the stems, the looser and more natural method. The waterfall bouquet trails downward in front of the dress, while the meadow bouquet is the informal, garden-picked look. Naming one of these, or pointing to the photo under it, is the quickest way to tell the team what you want.

The homepage teaser for weddings uses the word "Brautschmuck" ("Wir gestalten für Sie den zauberhaften Brautschmuck"), which in German covers the bride's floral accessories as a whole rather than the bouquet alone, alongside "stimmungsvolle Raumdekorationen" (atmospheric room decorations) for the celebration. The site does not list boutonnieres, church decoration or specific table pieces by name beyond the general "Tisch- und Raumdekorationen" (table and room decorations), and it has no packages or prices for weddings.

How to book

The wedding page gives the process in one sentence: "Rufen Sie uns an oder kommen Sie persönlich vorbei – wir vereinbaren gerne mit Ihnen einen Termin, um in Ruhe alles für den Festschmuck zu besprechen." In English: call us or drop in, and we will gladly make an appointment to discuss everything for the celebration flowers at leisure.

The contact details are:

• Flores Blumenbinderei, Heidi Bisang und Team, Hauptgasse 69, 4500 Solothurn;
• phone 032 621 69 68;
• e-mail info@flores-solothurn.ch.

The shop is open Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 18:30 and Saturday from 9:00 to 16:00. The long weekday hours and Saturday opening make a consultation visit straightforward to schedule for a couple who can get to Solothurn. The shop is on Facebook and Instagram, and a newsletter carries its offers.

The shop and the online shop

The homepage invites visitors to come to the shop for inspiration. The online shop is aimed at people who want flowers or plants regularly at home or in the office, which the shop designs and delivers on request. It is split into flowers and accessories. A "Stories" section carries news about the business, and there is a page for exhibitions. The funeral-flowers section opens with the question "Möchten Sie Trost spenden mit Blumen, wo Worte fehlen?" (would you like to offer comfort with flowers where words fail?), and the footer links to terms and conditions and a jobs page. None of this is wedding-specific, but a visit to the shop or a look at the Stories and social media accounts is the easiest way to see current work.

What the site leaves open

The site is in German only and does not say whether the team works in English or French. It also does not publish:

• prices or a minimum order for wedding flowers;
• whether the team sets up at the church or venue on the day, or delivers only;
• how far from Solothurn the team will deliver, and at what cost;
• how far ahead a wedding should be booked;
• anything about access by public transport or parking.

A couple writing from abroad should name the date, the church or venue and its town, the bouquet style from the gallery that they like, and the table and room decoration they have in mind, and ask about language and delivery in the same message.

Who it suits

Flores suits a couple marrying in or around Solothurn who want an established shop with a team of trained florists, a clear choice of bridal bouquet styles, and flower arches and table decoration from the same place. The gallery organized by bouquet type makes it easy to point to what you want.

It suits less well a couple who want a price list or package before the first meeting, or whose venue is far from Solothurn, since the site says nothing about travel. Both are easy to raise by phone or e-mail.