Pink Saturday - Columbia Road

Pink Saturday - Beverly at the blog "How Sweet the Sound" hosts Pink Saturday. Let the color pink inspire you!

Columbia Road is a narrow crescent of roadway, lined with small shops that are just a little too funky to be rightly called "boutiques."  These small cake shops, vintage shops, housewares and hardware stores are fun to browse in, but early on Sunday mornings, they aren't the main attraction that brings throngs to this East London neighborhood.

The Columbia Road Flower Market fills the street, with racks and stands full of cut flowers and potted plants. Everything from exotic orchids to mundane annuals is here for sale, and loudly hawked by Cockney-voiced vendors competing with one another for your business.

"Doy-ann-thuss! Two fer a fiver!" shouts one man, cradling an entire flat of garden pinks in his beefy embrace. "You've got lob-eee-lee-ah loike that, dah-lin', shood be four pots a fiver!"

At the stall next door, another vendor shouts, "Any two for three pounds!"

Further down the row, another vendor holds up a standard-pruned fuchsia in full bloom. "They's stolen that's woy they's so cheap! A fiver!"

I marveled at these blue Eryngium alpinum - I've never been able to grow this plant, and here were bunches of them.

Further down, a display of dahlias.

Or hydrangeas catch the eye.

As you squeeze through the crush, you might decide to take a break, buy a coffee or a pastry, and explore the little shops.

This one entices you with a phrase of poetry chalked on the door.

Inside, you find rustic pots, packets of seed, garden furniture, hats and tools.

You can even buy compost by the scoop here.

Other shops sell clothes, jewelry, or artwork.

We relaxed a bit before wading back through the tightly packed scrum. Such a sea of color and scent! It was irresistible! Though I knew it would be foolish to buy potted plants, unable to take them back to the US, there's no reason not to have cut flowers. I bought two bunches of peonies to bring back to our flat.

They lasted for days, filling our rooms with scent.

If you visit London, don't miss the Columbia Road Flower Market.