Briana Vicioso is the host of the Hour of Flowers, which takes place monthly.
(Jennifer McCord / for The Times)
Each flower carries a personal story. For Briana Vicioso, the calla lily was her parents' wedding flower, a symbol of her mother's beauty. “She had a big, beautiful white calla lily in her hair,” Vicioso says. “I love my parents. They are the reason I am here. I will never forget where I came from.”
The Hour of the Flowers begins with Vicioso announcing, with a warm smile: “Today it's time to touch the grass.” The florist points behind her to hundreds of flowers contained in buckets (blue thistles, ivory anemones, and silver-painted calla lilies), all twisted and spread in the air. “Tonight is going to be very sweet and intimate,” Vicioso says, contemplating the beautiful chaos at his feet. A smile appears on his face.
Moments before the workshop, participants sit at candlelit tables exchanging horoscopes and comparing their favorite flowers. A mention of the illustrious bird of paradise flower elicits coos and wonder from the women. Izamar Vázquez, who is from Jalisco, Mexico, reveals her love for roses, which make her feel connected to her Mexican roots.
Vicioso hosts her floral-themed wellness workshop near the iconic Original Los Angeles Flower Market in downtown Los Angeles. In January, the first Flower Hour event sold out, prompting her to turn it into a monthly series. Vicioso describes the event as a “three-part journey” where participants are invited to drink herbal tea, smoke cannabis joints rolled with rose petals, and create a floral arrangement. “The guide is to connect with the medicine of flowers,” says Vicioso.
Rose petal sets, tea and floral arrangements are part of The Flower Hour event offerings.
The event takes place in the art cluba membership-based coworking space. “Flower Hour is really beautiful. Everyone can explore their creativity while meeting new people,” says Lindsay Williams, co-owner of the Art Club.
The idea for La Hora de las Flores came to Vicioso during a conversation with his mother. “We joke all the time that flowers were meant to come into my life,” she says. She works as a florist and also models, even appearing in the pages of Fashion. Vicioso grew up in a Caribbean home, where flowers and offerings were part of daily life. “In my culture and religion, many of the practices of my family, an Afro-Caribbean religion, we build altars.”
Like many cultures, flowers have sentimental value in their religion. “I'm Caribbean, so a lot of my family practices a Yoruba religion, which comes from Africa. In the Caribbean, it's known as Santeria.”
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After a difficult year and a breakup, Vicioso wanted to combine her love of flowers with community building. Because Vicioso uses cannabis for medicinal purposes, the workshop naturally includes a smoking component. “My family has been smoking cannabis for a long time for many reasons. It's a really healing plant,” he explains.
In the workshop, even cannabis receives the floral treatment. Vicioso presents his joints wrapped in rose petals on a silver platter on each table. She rolled each one by hand. “If you have never smoked a joint rolled with rose petals, the difference with this one is that it will have roses that will have a slight tobacco effect,” he announces.
During the workshop, Vicioso highlights the importance of purchasing cannabis from local sellers. The cannabis provided was purchased from a Northern California seller. The wellness workshop aims to recover the healing ritual of smoking cannabis. “This is a plant that has already been commercialized,” says Vicioso. “There are many black and brown people who are in jail because of this plant.”
The resulting workshop is what Vicioso describes as “an immersive wellness experience that is the intersection of wellness, creativity, community, and flower appreciation.” The workshop serves as a reminder to enjoy the Earth's innate beauty in the form of flowers, including cannabis. “It's this gift that the universe gave us for free and that I have a deep connection with,” says Vicioso.
Conversation cards to generate discussion among participants (above, left). The workshop serves as a “third space” for Angelenos to engage in tactile creativity and community building outside of traditional nightlife environments.
After enjoying chamomile and lavender tea and smoking a joint, Vicioso presents the flowers to the group before inviting them to pick their own. She emphasizes the personality traits of each flower and describes the green carnation as a “Dr. Seuss” plant. Then, there are the calla lilies with their “starring moment”. It becomes personal. “Start thinking about a flower in your life that you can discover,” he says. “If you feel like you need inspiration, you can always remember that these flowers have stories.”
Vicious infuses wisdom into her flower arranging instructions: There are no mistakes. Let the flowers tell you where they want to go, he urges. Intuition will be your guide: the wilder, the better.
“Made in Mexico” reads a sticker on a bunch of green stems. “Like me,” Vázquez says, laughing. “Everyone is doing their own thing. Like a family,” he says later, arranging the stems.
Flower Hour participants and Vicioso, center, chat as they build their own floral arrangements at the sold-out event.
Two participants, Vázquez and Rebeca Alvarado, are friends who run a floral design company together called Izza Rosa. Like Vicioso, the friends have a connection to flowers through their Latin American culture. They met Vicioso in the floral industry and were delighted to discover his workshop.
“This is a great way to connect with other people,” says Vázquez.
Alvarado agrees, adding, “You're meeting people in addition to going to bars. You can connect in different ways when there's an activity.”
Vázquez uses flowers to stay connected to her Mexican heritage, adding that she prefers to support Mexican vendors. In recent months, the downtown Los Angeles flower market has struggled to recover from ICE raids underway. “Some are afraid to return,” says Vázquez.
Hand-rolled cannabis joints wrapped in rose petals are presented on a silver platter at The ArtClub (top, right). The Flower Hour aims to reclaim the healing rituals of cannabis and flowers.
Another participant, Barbara Rios, was attracted to the workshop for stress relief. “You can hang out with your friends, but it’s nice to do things with your hands,” she says. “I work a stressful job, and it’s nice to have that third space that we’re all craving.”
On this February night, the participants were predominantly women, save for one man. In the future, Vicioso hopes that more men learn to engage with flowers. “There’s a statistic about men receiving flowers for the first time at their funerals, and I think we have changed that,” she says.
To conclude the workshop, Vicioso encourages participants to build lasting friendships and incorporate flower arranging into their daily practice — even if it’s just with a small, inexpensive bouquet.
“Get some flowers together, go to the park, hang out with each other and hang out with me,” she says. Participants leave with flower arrangements in hand. In the darkness of the night air, it briefly looks as though the women carry silver calla lilies that are blooming from their palms.
