Shut till 21:00
Night flower market · Arch 9, Vesper Yard
We open when the flowers do.
Night-blooming cereus, moonflower, rain orchid and peony. Cut as buds at half past nine, carried across the city by bicycle, and timed to open on your table instead of in our cooler.
Scroll to open the cereus
01 of 04 tonight · Queen of the Night
It opens once a year, for about six hours.
See tonight’s counterIt is --:-- where you are.
Four things on the counter are opening right now. Next courier leaves at 23:30.
Tonight’s counter
Four blooms. Hold one open.
Scroll and they open in turn. Run your cursor across a bloom, or drag its rail, to stop it at any minute.Drag the rail under a bloom to stop it at any minute.
Shut till 21:00
Shut till 21:00
Shut till 21:00
Field notes
You are buying the hours they are open.
Scent at peak
- Vanilla
- Orange peel
- Cocoa
01 / 04
Queen of the Night
Selenicereus grandiflorus
The buds hang heavy all day and give nothing away. Around nine the outer sepals lift, and by midnight the room smells of vanilla and warm orange peel. By sunrise it has folded shut for good. You are buying six hours, and they are worth it.
- Cut
- 21:30
- Opens
- 21:40 to 23:50
- Lasts
- One night
£68
Scent at peak
- Clove
- Lemon rind
- Cold cream
02 / 04
Moon Vine
Ipomoea alba
A moonflower bud is wound like a paper straw. When it goes, it goes fast: you can watch the spiral loosen in the time it takes to pour a glass. It stays open, bright as a plate, until the first light touches it.
- Cut
- 20:45
- Opens
- 21:12, in minutes
- Lasts
- Until first light
£42
Scent at peak
- Wet stone
- Violet leaf
- Rain
03 / 04
Rain Orchid
Phalaenopsis, misted
The only thing on the counter that outlives the night. We mist the spray on the way out the door so it arrives beaded, and on a north window it will keep flowering for three weeks after the rest have gone.
- Cut
- To order
- Opens
- Over forty minutes
- Lasts
- Three weeks
£96
Scent at peak
- Tea rose
- Lemon
- Honey
04 / 04
Midnight Peony
Paeonia ‘Vesper Blush’
Picked tight as a fist. Put it in cold water at eleven and it starts to loosen before you go to bed; by the second night it is the size of a dinner plate and the outer petals start dropping on the table.
- Cut
- 21:00
- Opens
- Through two nights
- Lasts
- Five days
£58
The night run
Cut at half past nine. Home before it opens.
- Orders closeAnything ordered after eight rides on the 23:30 run.
- Cut as budsStems come off the moment the first sepal lifts, never before.
- First bicycles leaveSix riders, insulated panniers, nothing further than six miles.
- Last runAfter this it is walk-ins only. Ring the bell under the lamp.
- Shutters downWhatever is still open goes to the night ward at St Ines.