Flowers for Olympia, WA

Olympia is a capital city that still feels like a harbor town. The Legislative Building's dome rises over the south end of Budd Inlet; below it Capitol Lake, the Percival Landing boardwalk, and the Fourth Avenue bridge tie downtown to the water. Delivery here has three distinct rhythms. There is the civic one — the Capitol campus, the agency office towers, the courthouse — which spikes hard during legislative session when reception-desk drops need to beat late-running hearings. There is the medical one, pointed at Providence St. Peter on the Eastside, where get-well and new-baby orders route daily. And there is the everyday one: the Westside blocks climbing toward the Evergreen State College, the Bigelow and Eastside neighborhoods, Lacey out Martin Way, and Tumwater down by the falls. Farmers-market Saturdays and the region's long green season keep local designers leaning on Pacific Northwest stems most of the year.

Other Washington cities.