Flowers for Portsmouth, VA

Portsmouth reads its geography off the Elizabeth River. The city holds the west bank across from downtown Norfolk, and its oldest streets — High Street, Court, Middle, the grid of Olde Towne — carry more antebellum and Federal houses than almost anywhere else in Virginia, walking distance from the ferry landing. From that historic core the map fans out: the Norfolk Naval Shipyard and Cradock to the south, Naval Medical Center Portsmouth on Effingham, Port Norfolk along the waterline, and the newer subdivisions of Churchland and Western Branch pushed west past the Nansemond. Delivery here means the local designer already knows which streets the shipyard shift lets out onto and how the Downtown and Midtown tunnels behave at four o'clock, so an afternoon order to a room at the medical center or a porch off Airline Boulevard gets there without guesswork.

Other Virginia cities.