Chama, Dulce and Rio Arriba County, NM

Seasonal Stock on a Chama Order

Flower types may be substituted for whatever the florist has on hand, and at the elevation of Chama in February that clause is used rather than recited. The type of arrangement is the part that holds: no change in size, no change in shape, no change in value. Rio Arriba County is one of the highest and coldest counties in New Mexico, and what is easy to source here in July is not easy in January.

A photo of the finished arrangement is sent once the florist has made it, at no extra charge, and on a Chama address that is the only check there is. Across 5.861 square miles with 87520 at one end and 87532 at the other, that picture is the only thing a distant sender can actually check. A Rio Arriba County order placed from out of state gets the same picture as one placed a mile away.

Pick a Size for a Dulce Kitchen

A kitchen table in Dulce and a hallway in a Española house are different rooms with different ceilings, and the piece that suits one looks wrong in the other. Rio Arriba County has no large hospital of its own, so most orders here go to houses.

The full catalog shows each design at the size it is built to, which is worth two minutes before an order rather than a surprise after it. Height is the decision people get wrong most often, and it is the easiest one to check. Ten postal groups cover the fourteen villages, so an address up here is often better identified by its group than by its name.

Sympathy Orders and the Long Drive

A standing piece belongs at the place the service is held, and in a county shaped like this one that place can be an hour from the family house. Ordering the day before is the difference between one drive and two. Rio Arriba County has no single town where everything happens, which is unusual and changes how a sympathy order gets planned.

Tierra Amarilla is the seat and one of the smaller settlements in it, which is unusual and worth knowing when an address is being typed. Española is the largest town by some distance and carries 87532 and 87533 between them. Chamita, Hernandez and Los Luceros sit close to it along the same stretch of river.

The 1 PM Line for Truchas

An order placed before 1 PM Mountain time is delivered the same business day. Flower deliveries run Monday through Saturday, Sunday delivery is not available, and the window is between 9 AM and 7 PM, with a preferred hour inside it available on request but never promised. That hour is stated in the recipient time zone rather than the sender's, which is the detail people get wrong.

Fourteen villages hold pages of their own beneath this listing, among them Truchas up on the high road and Ohkay Owingeh down on the river. Taos County, NM lies east across the gorge, and Santa Fe County, NM picks up to the south. New Mexico is listed county by county at NM county delivery, and a Rio Arriba County order that goes wrong has three days to be raised for a replacement, a refund or a partial credit.