Flores Navarro

A gift for your granny, a floral centrepiece to add colour to a business meeting, a last-minute bouquet to make up with your partner... Navarro, one of the city's most reliable florists, has a huge catalog of products to fit all the needs and budgets of all kinds of clients. Sylvia Navarro represents the third generation of this floral empire, the mother of all flower shops, which is open 24 hours a day.

They've had this non-stop timetable for some 30 years now, and it came almost naturally to them. 'At first we closed at 9pm, then we moved it to 10pm, and while we were cleaning and tidying up, people would still come in,' says Navarro. 'We'd open back up at 5 in the morning, so we thought it was better to just stay open the whole time.'

When you think about people who buy flowers in the wee hours of the morning, you might imagine scenes of excited granddads, regretful husbands and determined lovers. 'We get them too,' says Navarro, 'but most of the late-hour clients are regular people. Taxi drivers, police officers, couples on their way home from dinner, and people who work at night. I remember one guy with insomnia who bought flowers for his garden at three in the morning.'