H Julien Designs

i have never personally been into the shop, but Howard, Katie and team are so friendly.
The flowers amazing, the designs breath-​taking and staff the best!!! Who could ask for anything more!!! I actually make up reasons to call them. LOL Shhhhhh. Don’t let them know.

Absolutely Beautiful!
The flowers I ordered for my Mom are gorgeous! The owner was a nice and as helpful as can be on the phone and completely undersold how amazing the flowers were going to be.
The delivery girl wished my Mom and very Happy Birthday when she delivered the bouquet which made my mom’s day even more special.
Can’t thank you enough and can’t recommend your company enough! Can’t wait to use you again!

This store is incredible. I walked in on my way home from school and I left with a bag full of goodies and a BEAUTIFUL piece of metal art. The owner has an impressive collection of interior decorations, flowers, bath and body products, candles, handmade glasswork, products for the men in your life, and some extremely unique and sophisticated art designs. I am going back for more metal art, by far my favorite thing in the store.
Thank you, Howard for such a beautiful selection. Your style is so classy.

While it would have been more convenient to go on-​line to pick something pre-​packaged …(we were traveling overseas and it was the middle of the night our time when I remembered –yikes!) — I really did want the flowers to tell my sister-​in-​law we were thinking of her. Unilocal led us to this florist very close to where she lives so we gave a call.
The guy I spoke to was great. I told him colorful and fragrant … he suggested that we include the lilacs … and just left it to his discretion. He could not have been nicer.
She was thrilled! The photos she sent showed a full and colorful arrangement. Very satisfactory!

Their Unilocal page says they are open till 6 on Saturdays. I rushed over for a purchase when I only had enough time to go to one place. They were closed and there was no sign explaining.

This florist is the best. Truly creative designs.
The staff is charming and polite.
A definite find!!!

Maybe they have great florist and wonderful arrangements! I will never know because they have horrible service. I called for a simple floral check and gentleman was annoyed and rushed me off the phone. Guess, he was too busy! Called back to find out they were rushing an order together. But, no excuse for poor service!

Howard is an amazing florist. He is so creative and his work is impeccable. Several years back I threw a retirement party for my father, and I didn’t want the flower arrangements to be too feminine. Howard used pheasant feathers, and everything looked perfect.
Howard also helped my husband pull off a last minute surprise party for my birthday.
He is a real gem, it’s hard for me to imagine him being rude.

I stopped in about an hour before closing yesterday to buy a Get Well/​Welcome Home arrangement for my boyfriend who was coming home from the hospital after surgery. My budget was $ 100 and the man was so rude and snotty, that while I knew the bouquet would be gorgeous, I left the store and went to a florist on Solano. Very disappointing experience.

Howard is the best ever! He did my gorgeous, lush, and exactly-​what-​I-​wanted bouquet, my bridesmaid’s bouquet, four groomsmen boutonnieres, and the groom’s special boutonnière for our wedding. I can’t thank him enough because they were the most gorgeous flowers I’d ever seen.
I talked to Howard both over the phone and in person. At his store he sized me up, murmuring under his breath about the appropriate diameter for a bouquet for someone my height and stature. He then proceeded to pluck individual flowers out of vases and hold them to my face to see if the color worked with my skin tone. Howard is the real deal: a consummate floral artist. He even asked me about the material of my wedding dress so he could coordinate with it. He also was very, very considerate about my considerable allergies to certain flowers. For the first time in my life I had a bouquet I wasn’t allergic to — he carefully avoided the long list of flowers I said I just couldn’t handle.
Some more evidence of quality: my bouquet was finished with pearl floral pins, not just stuck boringly in a row, but arranged in geometric clusters. The boutonnieres were finished in white satin with the ends curled attractively instead of hanging down with green floral tape. My bouquet did not droop the entire day — or for four days afterwards. The groom’s boutonnière coordinated both with the groomsmen and with the bride’s bouquet and Howard used some sort of unusual green tubular plant to create upwards movement. This was not just a rose and leaf bout, I tell you.
Price wise, he’s about 15% more than the shoddy florists of Berkeley who use tele-​floral. My bouquet cost $ 185 and I was quoted $ 150 elsewhere. The boutonnieres were $ 15 a piece and well worth it for the gorgeous roses, greenery, and hand satin finishing. You’ve seen the ugly, boring flowers that fall apart at weddings — do you want those to be yours? No? I thought so; go to Howard.

Today wasn’t the first time I’d seen the wonderful work of H. Julien Designs, but it was the first time the door bell rang and the gorgeous arrangement was for ME!!!
Since we are close to the 4^th of July, the sender chose to celebrate our nation’s birthday as well as honoring me… and the artfully arranged flowers and greenery did so in an elegantly creative way. Yeah for ME!!!

Last December on the day of Gayle’s birthday, I ended up buying her a nice bouquet from the flower stand at Andronicos on Solano Avenue. This was Plan B.
Plan A involved delivery of a well-​anticipated arrangement from H Julien Designs. Unfortunately, he and I both got off on the wrong foot that morning on the phone. I was balancing a difficult schedule that involved getting my son off to school (I’m a single parent), hand delivering the flowers to Gayle and then getting to work in time for a mandatory meeting. He was apparently put off my «rudeness», which perhaps was my slightly sarcastic audacity for complaining that the actual delivery would be significantly past the agreed delivery window. His response was to unilaterally cancel the order, throw some «rudeness» of his own back to me, and abruptly hang up the phone. And when I called back to to apologize and try to calm things down, he accused me of harassment, told me that I would never be welcome in his store, and abruptly hung up again. Wow.
H Julien Designs has attractive, colourful, and creative floral arrangements. This observation is based on actually being by his store on previous occasions. I just didn’t think I would ever personally experience a Soup Guy-​like Seinfeld moment while trying to buy these top-​notch flowers for my now fiancé.

I love to watch this man work. He enjoys what he does and puts a lot of care and creativity into each arrangment. Beautiful works of art. I gave my mom an arrangment on mother’s day and she got complements from strangers just walking down the street with them.

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful – kind, patient, helpful with my new son and daughter planning their wedding. Then exquisite, artistic delivery – perfect flower genius and kind man. What more could you ask? A hundred stars, Lynn Phares

I was sent to Julien Designs this afternoon for the first time to pick up some flowers to display at my work. I came in with a small little metal vase the opening a little larger then a quarter. Julien greeted me with a smile, I told him what I needed then he began to work his magic. I stood aside in awe every time he would put a new addition into the small opening. In the end I was extremely impressed with the appearance and size of the flower arrangement. All the colors and textures went together beautifully. The arrangement had everything from giant leaves and skinny sticks to humongous flowers and even real lemons. While walking back to work with Julien’s creation I felt like I was carrying an award. This flower shop rocks!

I buy flowers here whenever I can. Howard has the finest selection, and puts together stunning arrangements. If you need to send out an impressive bouquet, or decorate for a special occasion, this is the place to go. Howard is AN ARTIST.

Howard is a not just a floral designer. He is a floral design genius. Plain and simple.
Time and time again he creates uniquely signatured pieces that feel both architectural and spontaneous. They are truly works of art. Stunning beyond belief. His pieces last for days, extending the visual pleasure they bring.
It wasn’t even a question in our minds who would do our wedding flowers. Howard’s creations made the room sparkle with color and elegance.
At our reception at home, one week later, he pulled off the miracle of the decade (I exaggerate not). He and his crew literally transformed our stark and tumbled, mostly dirt, post-​construction back yard into a garden of delights.
I had full faith that the best result would come about by leaving the floral and décor concepts up to Howard. So the surprise at seeing his vision in place was immense. Sorbet-​hued table coverings on tables, with tastefully-​golden bamboo seating. Bringing it all together were the most amazing, whimsical oversized globes of flowers (imagine a dr. suess landscape) one for each table, each one a more intense hue of the table covering beneath it. Our buffet table was graced with a strikingly large bare branch in a heavy ceramic pot, onto which he hung more of flower balls in varying heights. It should have been in a contemporary art museum. Or in your wildest imagination. He insisted we try his fun flavored-​seltzer bar, complete with attendant, and it was the talk of the party. No one wanted wine with such a fun drink option. The event was a smash and a gorgeous scene. All thanks to Howard.
If you crave exotic flowers, cutting edge design, exquisite color harmony and contrast, you’ll be more than ecstatic with Howard’s masterpieces. AND the icing on the cake is that you’ll be working with the most delightful, passionate and kind person you could ever imagine.
But beware, as what happens with awareness of all goods of refinement (fine chocolates, wine, music, etc), once you know better there’s no going back!

I can’t speak to the price, because I received an arrangement from them as a gift, but I can say that it was one of the most beautiful I have received. And I used to work at a flower shop, so that says something!

I have never shopped here because I can’t afford it.
But my friends and I are always eager to check out their window displays which are so chic-​beyond-​chic they puzzle, delight, and amaze all at once.
My favorites are the art involving mosses. The ultimate favorite is one design featuring steel-​colored vases and clumps of mosses which were joined into large basket-​ball-​sized broccoli-​crown-​like ball resembling huge spores. «The Spore Cannon» was our only name for it, and it was beyond any other window design we have seen.
Another amazing one was a chair covered in green moss.
The designs are often wonderfully minimalist, fusing east and western motifs in ways that blow the mind.
The place is six levels of chic beyond the Berkeley usual. Whoever runs it is obviously deeply steeped art world, to degrees that probably can only be found in New York, Paris, Milan, Basel, or Tokyo.

Howard is an incredible artist. He did the flowers for my wedding and I was absolutely thrilled with what he put together. I had only the vaguest idea of what I wanted. I just knew I wanted something beautiful and not too wedding-​y (you know — not too stiff and formulaic). The bouquet he created far surpassed my expectations. It was truly a fairy tale bouquet. The maid-​of-​honor bouquet and boutonnires were equally spectacular.
The best part is that he worked with my cake designer (Julie Durkee of Torino Baking) so that my cake perfectly matched my bouquet. The combination was breathtaking. I posted photos so you don’t need to take my word for it.