Free Flower Time

Hello! It's Free Flower Friday again, our favorite day. This installment is brought to you by Asheley and Deanna. Sarah is in California, which is to say we're listening to a lot of Tupac and channeling Sarah's gansta floral powers.

Please leave a comment and be sure to include your e-mail. Hope you win!

hellebores, an arrangement

It's quite early where I am, and as my melatonin levels adjust I find myself here with time to share a little arrangement I made last week. Before it gets lost forever in the black hole that is my iphoto. Do you like it?

I've been inspired so much by our students lately. They often place flowers quite high; sometimes it's awkward and I'll suggest they move a stem or two... other times I'll encourage them to continue, and I make a mental note to remember their wild design. I can't tell you how much I learn about color and form from our students who have never arranged flowers before. It's one of the neatest things..



I know...we need to talk about hellebores at some point. Maybe after I get mine from SanFransisco later today...I'm so excited I can't stand it. Nicolette just got up, the sun is starting to rise, and we're off to the LA flower market to see what's in store for our class tonight.



LA is strange.

Nicolette and I arrived in LA this morning, and by the afternoon we had already driven around the city numerous times collecting supplies for the week's flower classes...

As we were driving, multiple accidents were avoided, Nicolette shouting "look!"

followed by traffic stopped behind us as we oogled JASMINE, LEMONS, CALIFORNIA, POPPIES, LANTANA, BOUGAINVILLIA, WISTERIA, EUCALYPTUS, HYBISCUS, CANA LILLIES

etc...I could go on....

bottle brush trees, red bud...

My friend Sohrab is putting us up in his swanky bachelor pad, and presently we're sipping champagne and sampling his insane record collection..

I'll check in again tomorrow with updates

also

My mom knit these socks for me two years back and today I don't know where they are, which makes me really sad. I'm so tired and damn cranky this morning. I just need to get up, walk the dog, and head on down to the studio to take it out on my flowers. I have a lot of important meetings today and tomorrow, and I just pulled out my one grey hair - should have left it in so they know I'm serious...

April 24, 2009

The florists curse; can't sleep in.
Exhausted this morning and filtering back through my photo library working on my portfolio. Should have kept my hair short. But it's as when you wait a long time for the bus and consider just walking instead... the longer you wait, the more you're invested in waiting.

Currently living in the purgatory of hair styles.

free fritillaria friday

Have I mentioned yet how good March is for flowers? It is an out-of-control-beauty-explosion; eyes rolling back in heads; dizzying; paralyzing...



Come March 1st, its peak season for Jersey grown ranunculus and at the market you'll find Nicolette and I racing around with armloads of them whether we need them or not shouting GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME! Professional right? Not to mention the quince, jasmine, tetra anemones (now so strong and gorgeous), early cherry blossoms....



Fritillaria are coming in strong now too; Melagris, Imperialis, and Uva (as pictured above). These tiny, graceful harbingers of spring are also known as "fox's grape." Hearty in zones 3-9 these small bulb flowers bloom around here in late March through April. You can plant them in quite shallow earth - 2 to 3 inches deep - so they can be nicely layered on top of deeper bulbs like tulips or daffodils.



Anyway I have a bunch of the Uva's in the studio now, so the winner of the free friday flowers gets an arrangement featuring them. Comment to win, and good luck!

[lucky #1!]

dutch masters

There's been a lot of anticipation for our Dutch Masters Class over at Little Flower School in the past months...We've started collecting the blooms to use; including these incredible Fritillaria Imperialis...

These are special (and rather skunky; to be frank, they're rank) but like good parents, floral designers love all flowers the same - the sweet and the skunky.

The Imperialis is so special we only bought one per student; and we've had a last minute cancelation in Sunday's class, maybe you'll consider taking it and snatching the tenth fritillaria imperialis...

And! speaking of dutch masters; I have to share another exciting flower school I just discovered; Remco van Vliet is teaching classes, more info here.