Flowers for Reno, NV

Reno wears its nickname on a steel arch over Virginia Street, and the Biggest Little City really does behave like a small town stretched across a wide valley. The Truckee River cuts through the middle of downtown; the Midtown District's shops and murals run south from there; the university crowns the hill to the north; and the money has drifted southwest over the years, out toward Caughlin Ranch and the Somersett and Damonte Ranch master plans. A florist's day here mixes all of it — a birthday arrangement for a Midtown bungalow, a get-well bouquet to Renown Regional on Mill Street, a graduation order for a dorm up at UNR, and, when the passes are clear, the occasional run up the Mount Rose Highway toward Lake Tahoe. Weather is the real variable; when a Sierra storm parks over the meadows, the southwest and Verdi edges of the map slow down and the honest answer at checkout shifts from a two-hour window to an evening one.

Other Nevada cities.