If You Don’t Fake It . . .

So you say you don’t care how much fake flowers have improved--you want the real thing. Here are some seasonal best buys (and remember that anything under a dollar a stem is definitely a bargain):

* January: Carnations, chrysanthemums, heather, leptospermum (blooming shrub).

* Spring: Tulips, iris, daffodils.

* Summer (the peak time to buy flowers): roses, larkspur, delphinium, sunflowers.

* Autumn: Reinvestigate the once-boring chrysanthemums. New varieties and colors--like peach and pink--are continually being propagated, and the prices are low through November. There is also filler material such as caspia; statice in raspberry, peach, blue and purple; celosia and marigolds.

* December: Poinsettias, paper white narcissus, amaryllis, silvery kochia. (Holiday greeneries such as a pine-and-holly wreath--if kept out of the dry Santa Ana winds--can last a month.)

Source: American Institute of Floral Design