Flowers for the Whittemore Mansion

This morning I made a large arrangement for a showing for event planners at the historic Whittemore Mansion, the home of the Women's Democratic Club and the Asia Society. It is a lovely place right off of Dupont Circle in the heart of Washington, DC and rented out for weddings and other events.

For this piece I used "Shocking" lilies - beautiful yellow petals with burgandy throats, peach roses, rose and pink Peegee hydrangeas and cream stock.

Sunday wedding

Stephanie and Ken got married yesterday at Woodend, the Audubon Society mansion in Maryland. They had an absolutely beautiful day. The ceremony was outside in a cedar grove with a backdrop of golden trees. The color scheme was lavender and lime - we added in many shades of those colors in order to give the flowers a lot of depth. The table arrangements were modestly priced but we had fun with them. We decorated the mantles of the mansion with lime green osage oranges, purple sprayed hydrangeas, mexican sage flowers, spider and other mums, and Cool Water roses. I loved her bouquet, we used dark purple callas, lavender and purple lisianthus, lime green roses with a little collar of varigated pittosporum.

Busy Week

We had a very busy week last week, lots of events, deliveries and a wedding on Sunday. These two photos are of the pieces we delivered. We used dyed orange callas, Robin Hood mini gerbers, grasses, chocolate weigela and Euphoria roses. I love the colors in these pieces.

Holton parties

These are photos from tonight's parties at Holton. Red apache rose nosegays surrounded by curled burgandy leaves - 3 nosegays in each arrangement with a few dark red sprays and someof the chocolate weigela foliage around the edges for the table arrangements. And a buffet piece of roses, dahlias, grasses.

Full on fall

Lots of work today - Landon reunion and 2 parties at Holton. For Landon we made really fun arrangements - my favorite type - a nice combination of dahlias, peach, red and brown roses, kangaroo paws, hypericum berries and chocolate weigela foliage.

Dinner party

Same tablecloth as a few weeks ago, different arrangements. Fiesta and Okey Dokey roses, pink tinged yellow dahlias, bronze football mums, burgandy mums, orange berries and huck greens.

Osage oranges

Last week I went to the open house of my friend Rosie who grows beautiful topiaries of all types including standards of cotoneaster which were full of berries, bay laurel, rosemary, holly and many others. In addition, she designs wonderful pots for the plants that she has made in China. The pots come in great colors and are very appealing. She had her party in her adorable little house in Georgetown. The house was lovely and the garden was a treat. After the party I walked back to my car and found a park full of osage oranges. I zipped back to my car and grabbed a bag and collected about 30 of them. And was happy to use them in these arrangements I made for a party at Landon last week. I also used green spider mums, red celosia, privet berries, castor berries, sedum flowers, burgandy mums and Pink Finesse roses.

Ikebana

I have restarted my ikebana studies with Kyoko Petersen in Vienna, VA. Kyoko is a talented ikebana artist and I have a lot to learn from her. Each lesson is different, although we often repeat lessons. This past week we did an arrangement in the upright moribana fashion. The subtlety of ikebana is an interesting aspect for me - so much the opposite of the mass arrangements of which I am so fond. These are two pieces I made yesterday. The top photo includes monstera leaves and kiwi branches with lavender and green poms and some oak leaf hydrangea leaves. For the second piece I used Chesapeake viburnum leaves and the same mums.

Front desk

Every week I make an arrangement or bring a plant in for the front desk at Holton. It is a great exercise for me to try some new fun things. This week's piece was made from rolled leaves - a nice dark purple with a reddish edge. 4 of these grouped around 3 lavender roses. I made 3 of these groups and put them together in the vase. It has a very nice effect I think.

2 weddings

Photos from last weekends 2 weddings - one at the Spanish Ballroom at Glen Echo in MD and the other at the historic synagogue at 6th and I NW and then the Renaissance Hotel nearby. Both weddings had fall color palettes, one composed of orange tones and the other reds and burgandys and yellows.

Lots of fun working on these - the first photo is of the chuppah we made to match the the painted interior of the ballroom - I covered cardboard tubes with stucco wallpaper and painted some designs on them. The second photo is of the florals we attached to the chuppah at the second wedding - Circus roses and burgandy mums. The next photo of a birds eye view of one of the low arrangements for the Renaissance hotel and the last photo is of one of the bride bouquets - red callas and Gypsy Curiosa roses with yellow cymbidiums.