If you’re like me and allergic to a lot of things, chances are you’re also allergic to the pollen that comes from flowers. Growing up we couldn’t have beautiful flowers around the house and rarely had them outside. It was a real bummer since a lot of my cousin’s houses had fresh flowers out most of the time when I’d visit. I grew to live with it though, and in college even created a fake flower out of chicken wire and expanding foam for my mom. It worked for the purpose and was a nice centerpiece on our living room table for a while. Fast forward a few years and I attempted to create a butterfly garden in my backyard, which only resulted in one round of living flowers before they all shriveled up and died. I do plan to try again one day though, but that will be a project in itself.

After I graduated I started really getting into LEGO again. I’d loved building as a kid, but didn’t really stick with it through school. Once I graduated and had time, it became a growing passion of mine. I’m not the type of person to freestyle with bricks though as I like to stick to the book to make sure I build the set as originally intended. I do however, love seeing creations online and in the Fox series LEGO Masters. LEGO even opened a new Discovery Center at the Great Mall in Milpitas. You can check it out and get tickets here. They have tons to do and a huge LEGO store. When we get to go, I will definitely post pictures.

Now the purpose of this post ! You can only imagine my excitement when LEGO announced they were coming out with a botanical set. I saw it first on Instagram and had to instantly go to the site and add it to my wish list. Typically most sets once announced are on the site and even list a release date. I also went ahead and created an event in my phone’s calendar so I’d be notified the night before it released. Most online releases I’ve seen so far come out at 9pm the night before the date stated. It’s a time zone thing I think, but has worked for me so far to secure some hot sets before they temporarily go out of stock.

Fast forward to the day it became available and I was able to add the beautiful flower bouquet to my cart for checkout. I was so ecstatic. I could already imagine it sitting on my table so when folks come over they can walk by and do a double take then ask “Are those LEGOs?” to which I’d happily nod yes. Within a few hours, the set had temporarily sold out. I waited for them to arrive and built them that night. We had a vase already on our living room table and I stuck the flowers in there. It looked great, and I thought to myself I should’ve bought another one to make it look fuller. So I went back online but it was still temporarily sold out. I had gone by the stores a few times with no luck, and the store locater wasn’t able to see any in stock. It took a few months but I was finally able to secure a 2nd set that I will build at a later time and put into a nice arrangement.

In addition to the flower bouquet, LEGO announced the Bonsai Tree and smaller Roses and Tulips sets. I went ahead and picked up one of each when they released. I should’ve learned my lesson the first time though and gotten 2, to which I had to wait again until they came back in stock online. The Bonsai Tree is probably my favorite in the series so far, as you can display it in a more traditional green or pink cherry blossom version. The build itself is actually very unique since the base is also made out of LEGOs. The Roses and Tulips I put with my original bouquet to add more variety to the display.

You can see all of the images below and can click the captions below the images to view them on the site. All images were pulled from LEGO.com.

LEGOs most recent addition to the Botanical collection is the Bird of Paradise set which is up for pre-order right now on the site. I’ve gotten the chance to see some up close at my current job, and they are indeed beautiful flowers. This set looks fantastic and is a spot on image of the flower itself. I am beyond excited to add this to my collection and display them in my house. I also cannot wait to see what they come out with next because I guarantee you I will be buying and putting it on display in my house.

Happy building !