Flowers for Asheville, NC

In Asheville the mountains write the delivery route. The city folds into the meeting of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, ringed by the Blue Ridge, so a bouquet's path is less about miles than about grade and switchback. Downtown and Montford sit high on the plateau; the River Arts District drops to the French Broad's banks; Biltmore Village and Kenilworth tuck in near the estate gates to the south; North Asheville climbs into Grove Park and the Beaverdam valley; and West Asheville spreads along Haywood Road across the river. A local driver reads the cove roads and the I-240 river crossings the way a flatland driver reads traffic lights — which is why an address in a Reynolds or Beaverdam hollow wants an earlier order than a downtown loft does. Mission Hospital on Biltmore Avenue, the region's flagship, keeps a steady thread of get-well and new-baby deliveries running through every afternoon.

Other North Carolina cities.