Florist on the Fifth

Funeral flowers follow conventions that differ between families and communities, and getting them wrong is the kind of mistake nobody mentions to you afterwards. Having staff who will talk through the options properly is worth a drive to the east side of the city when you are making those calls in a bad week. This shop is set up for exactly that sort of order: larger than average, with real cooler capacity behind it, working the occasions a small neighborhood florist cannot handle.

No. 5 Road out here runs past farmland, greenhouses and the long row of temples, churches, mosques and gurdwaras that gave the road its nickname. It does not feel like the rest of Richmond. There are stretches with no sidewalk and no reason to stop, so a trip here is deliberate rather than incidental. Lunar New Year is the one period to order well ahead instead of turning up, because demand across the city spikes in the days beforehand and orchids and lucky bamboo disappear from every shop at once. Plan a fortnight out and the drive becomes straightforward.