The House of Flowers is a black comedy-drama television series that ran for three seasons, with one short film special, between 2018 and 2020. Predominantly set contemporaneous with its release, it also featured a plot in 1979, telling the story of the de la Mora family and their florists (La Casa de las Flores, The House of Flowers) across several generations.
The first season introduces the family and their associates in 2018; the matriarch Virginia, husband Ernesto, and their three adult children and teenage grandson are developed at the start of the first episode. Various affairs come to light, revealing a larger extended family, throughout the season. The first season largely focuses on Virginia and eldest daughter Paulina leading different fights to free Ernesto from jail.
Chronologically following the first season, but released shortly after the second season, is a special short film showing the funeral of Virginia. There are some guest stars unique to this short film. The second season then follows, focusing on the three children after their mother's death, as well as introducing the villainous characters Jenny Quetzal, Purificación Riquelme, and Victoria Aguirre – a con artist, Paulina's sister-in-law, and the siblings' grandmother, respectively. While the third season continues from the moment the second left off, it also introduces a parallel storyline taking place forty years earlier in 1979, featuring younger versions of several characters, as well as new characters unique to the timeline. The third season follows the de la Mora children, and the young Virginia and friends, as they all mature. A movie released in 2021 follows Paulina.
|-|style="text-align: left;"|Notes: A dotted line indicates a marriage or committed relationship, and a dashed line indicates a more casual romantic or sexual relationship. Solid lines indicate familial relationships. Current and past relationships are included.
See also: The House of Flowers season 1.
Virginia de la Mora Aguirre is the lead in the first season, where she is portrayed by veteran telenovela actress Verónica Castro. As Castro left the show after this season, the character of Virginia was killed off. However, the likeness of Castro would recur throughout the show. The second season introduced a photograph of Isabel Burr as a younger Virginia, with Burr being added to the ensemble cast for the show's final season.
Virginia is seen as a moral person by her acquaintances in Mexico City's upper classes, a status inherited from her own mother. However, she had a liberal youth and supports the LGBT+ community as well as being a habitual pot smoker and sexually liberated. She runs the florists, but starts selling weed on the side to supplement their income when Ernesto is arrested and the family's accounts frozen in season 1; however, she has a vindictive side and left Ernesto in prison even though Roberta left her evidence to help free him. She ultimately sells the florists to pay for his release, before leaving without warning. She travels to the United States for cancer treatment, but dies shortly thereafter, having had an affair with Alejo.
See main article: Paulina de la Mora. Paulina de la Mora (Cecilia Suárez) becomes the lead character from the second season. She is a daddy's girl who works alongside both her parents at their florists and cabaret. A successful businesswoman, she is loyal but also very liberal and accepts everyone no matter their background. This leads to her friendship with drag queens and prisoner El Cacas. In the first season, she begins to fall for her ex-partner María José again, while also discovering that Ernesto is not her real father. She also manages the family affairs and businesses; these three issues dominate Paulina's story throughout the show. Towards the end of the third season, she learns the tragic story of her biological father, marries María José again, and lets go off the florists and cabaret.[1]
Suárez was involved in the project as the long-time muse of creator Manolo Caro. Though neither assumed the character would be popular, her particular way of speaking – as devised by Suárez – became a viral hit. Described as a pop icon, Paulina and Suárez have been given praise, particularly by Vogue España.
Elena de la Mora (Aislinn Derbez) is another of the ensemble cast. The character is the middle child of the de la Mora family, and the show opens with her return from New York City to attend Ernesto's birthday party. In the first season, Elena explores her fears of settling down and starting a life independent from her family; in the second and third seasons, she unpacks her sex addiction and elitism.[1] She also discovers her own personality, rather than imitating the interests of whichever boyfriend she had at the time. At the end of the show, Elena settles down with boyfriend Pablo, a lower class former colleague, and has a child who she names Patricio. Though he is biologically Diego's child, Elena and Diego choose to raise him together and with their own partners (Pablo and Julián).[1]
Derbez says that when Caro contacted her about being in the show, she accepted both because of Caro's quality track record and because it would be one of the first Mexican Netflix shows. She also noted that sometimes she found the show challenging, as she was working alongside a cast of renowned actors, though she said that they became like a family; she was also pregnant throughout shooting of the first season and found this added some difficulty.
Julián de la Mora (Darío Yazbek Bernal) is the youngest child of the family. In the first season he contemplates coming out as gay, before coming to terms with his bisexuality and proposing to boyfriend Diego. After they split, Julián reconnects with his ex, Lucía, and apparently fathers a child by her before it is revealed she has told many of her exes the same to scrounge them of money. In the final season, he matures and helps Diego through his own crisis of sexuality, before agreeing to help raise baby Patricio with Elena, Diego, and Pablo.[1]
María José Riquelme (Paco León) is Paulina's transgender wife. They first dated when María José was José María and attending university in Mexico, before marrying and having their son, Bruno. Five years before the start of the show, María José came out, leaving Mexico and divorcing Paulina. She transitioned in Spain, keeping in touch with Bruno, and returns to Mexico to act as the family lawyer. She and Paulina reconnect, and the family move to Madrid together after Virginia dies. María José also has a mentally ill sister, Purificación, to whom she is devoted. At the end of the series, María José and Paulina remarry.[1]
Diego Olvera (Juan Pablo Medina) was the family's accountant who assisted the dying Virginia; having to keep his role a secret, he came under suspicion of betrayal from Paulina, being held at arms' length until he regains her trust. He was also Julián's on-and-off partner, before they decided to raise a child together. He was raised in a rural part of Mexico and was disowned for being gay; his own family encouraged him to attend gay conversion therapy when he and Julián were in a rough patch.
Bruno Riquelme de la Mora (Luis de la Rosa) is the son of Paulina and María José, a teenager who rebels against both of his parents at different times, particularly when they want him to live in Spain. Returning to Mexico, he speaks with an affected Spanish accent and dialect, frustrating María José. Bruno is supportive of Micaéla, his biological aunt despite being younger, accompanying her to a talent show and in trying to become a teen pop idol.
Ernesto de la Mora (Arturo Ríos) is the widower of Virginia, through which he is the father of Paulina, Elena, and Julián, and was the lover of Roberta, though which he is the father of Micaéla. Despite his cheating, he is loyal to all sides of his family. When they were younger, he was a close friend of Virginia and they only married to prevent Virginia from being forced to marry Asustin. Instead, Ernesto was more interested in Carmelita, with whom he reconnects after Virginia's death. Generally uninvolved in the family flower shop, he helped Roberta and Paulina operate a cabaret. He is arrested for fraud he did not commit, with the rest of his family hoping to preserve their reputation by not revealing this, even as the reputation gets tarnished in other ways. He briefly joined a cult that he let take over the family property when trying to find purpose after his life is upended. As a young man, Ernesto is portrayed by Tiago Correa.
Carmelita (Verónica Langer) is a classic nosy neighbor who both attempts to undermine the De la Moras by revealing their transgressions against high society, and constantly seeks the family's approval. She had arrived to the neighborhood as a young woman, and held a flame for Ernesto for many years despite being best friends with his wife. She is generally supportive of the family. For a while she dated Poncho, a stripper from the cabaret who gets injured; Carmelita believes he needs to use a wheelchair and dotes on him, when really he had recovered. She later gets back together with Ernesto. Young Carmelita is portrayed by Ximena Sariñana.
Claudio is the son of Roberta, and Micaéla's half-brother, biologically unrelated to the De la Moras. Based on this, he dates Elena on-and-off, and later La Chiquis. Having some loyalty to his extended family, his priority is his own financial stability and protecting Micaéla.
See also: The House of Flowers season 2.
See also: The House of Flowers season 3.