Virginia's irises

Last summer, my optician, with whom I have become friends, gave me and Helen a tour of her iris garden.  She has lots of different varieties and we chose those we loved.  A few weeks later she gave me a bag of iris rhizomes which I course let sit in the garage until they were dried out twigs.  I finally felt guilty enough to plant them in my little nursery bed on the side of the house and hoped for the best. 
Amazing, this spring, they have flourished and are sending up the most beautiful blossoms.  I am thrilled.  I will tag them as to color and then divide them so Helen can have some as well.

  Years ago I was driving along and saw a tiny sign on the side of the road that said Irises (with a little arrow).  I followed it and came to the garden of Betty White (the other Betty White of course).  She grew irises and would sell you a cutting for $3.  She had hundreds of varieties in her garden and grew them in large beds in rows.  It was a magical place and I have thought about her garden for years.  So now, maybe I will get started on my own collection, years later than advised but anyway.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone and thank you for reading my blog.  When I look at the different countries that readers come from I am just amazed - people from Iran, Pakistan, Austria, China, Europe, Australia are reading this blog! - it is mind boggling and such fun to contemplate.  So thanks everyone and have a nice holiday today.

April Ikebana

Yesterday we had a nice ikebana class - the style was Shoka Shimputai - 3 elements in a straight line in the center of the kenzan.   For mine, I borrowed the teacher's container and used a wonderful gold orchid, an iris leaf and a sprig of burgandy and green euphorbia.   A really simple recipe but a beautiful outcome.  The second picture is a closeup of an incredible tulip from the teacher's garden - it was so full it looked like a peony.  Backed by a trimmed monstera leaf it made a bold statement.

Romantic arrangement

The other day I made two arrangements for delivery.  I found the most fabulous rose called Suez - it is a dusty pink with a cream tinge.  I used them with fantastic parrot tulips and beautiful carnations in the same coloration and a light gold spray rose and some eucalyptus and bells of ireland.  I love the colors in this piece.

More from AIFD Southern

Here is another photo of a piece I made for the AIFD Southern conference in March.  For this one I wove the Italian aspidistra paper around a tall cylinder in a lattice pattern.  I only wove this on the top half of the container.  I put an anthirium on the bottom of the container in a bed of black rocks, and then horizontal arrangement across the top.  The photo does not do it justice - it worked out pretty well and was interesting.  I used green cymbidiums, black matsumoto branches, parrot tulips and more anthiriums.  Again, not a great picture, but the piece worked out well.

Looking at photos on the blog

For the one or two of you know don't know this - you can click on any picture on my blog and blow them up so you can see more details of the work.  My photography skills are pretty minimal but I persevere, if only to have a record of the work I do for various clients so I don't repeat myself.

Reunion Dinner

This past weekend, Holton hosted Reunion weekend.  I made these pieces for the big Saturday night dinner.  The buffet pieces were made from a whole stalk of brown/gold cymbidium orchids immersed in water in a tall cylinder.  They stood on a pin holder that was hidden with a nest of gold angel hair wire with pearls trapped in it.  I also floated pearls in the water and glued some onto the mitsumate branch that encased the orchids.  The caberet table pieces were a single orchid floating on a bed of pearls, and the small centerpieces were composed of wonderful gold Combo roses and the same orchids. 

More Landon events

We also did some pieces for a tea at Landon early in the week - also pink and green.  The weather did not cooperate - it was a cold dreary day, but the farmhouse is a lovely place to spend an afternoon drinking tea!  For these arrangements we found the prettiest pink gladiolas, had them rising from a circle of hydranga and roses in nice old silver container for the dining room table, for the coffee table in the living room we made a long low piece with the same flowers. 

Landon Mother's Day

Each year, Landon School has a Mother's Day program well in advance of the real day.  The moms come to visit classes and participate in other programs during the day.  This year they asked for pink and green arrangements and this year we found great parrot tulips, pink heather, snapdragons and roses of course, to come up with these arrangements.

Spring is here (sort of, it is still chilly)

Spring in DC -  another cool and wet one this year - a drag if you are dying for consistent warm weather (like me), but the cool weather keeps all the blooms on the flowers and trees around so much longer it is really better. You can really enjoy it all in detail even though you are still wearing your winter coat and freezing.

Anyway, with the spring comes the usual mad rush of orders.  Many of our clients like fairly simple overall forms of arrangements but within these forms it is lots of fun to play with color and the combinations of different types of flowers.

Sample for Sara

We are working on samples for Sara's wedding in late June.  This is the first idea we came up with - white and blue hydrangeas, Finesse and vendela roses, orange jaguar mokara orchids and dusty miller leaves and berries.  The second picture shows how the piece looked on the specular linens they chose.

AIFD Southern conference

This past weekend I was honored to be asked to be part of a stage presentation at the AIFD Southern chapter conference in Charlottesville.  I talked about woven elements as part of floral design and refined my woven dome piece as one of the works I talked about.   I put the dome in a large low cylinder vase and surrounded the dome with small rocks to enhance the idea of a river bed - a river of ranuculus surrounded by a dry river bed.   

I am in love with these pieces - for me they are a great leap into a new form of flower arranging and so true to everything creative that I love - these pieces echo my woven work and my love of color changes across arrangements.   

Here are two more takes on this woven armature - the one from the previous post with the white phals - one with fabulous poppies in various sherbert colors and the other with the most subtle colors of french ranuculus.

I hope to keep this armature fresh for some time and try types of new flowers with it....stay posted.

Potomac Floral Competition

Yesterday was the annual open house at my wholesaler - Potomac Floral.  I entered the competition and was determined to display a simple piece with no styling.  I love to style tables but thought that this piece could stand on its own without a lot of frou frou and votives and other stuff.  I love this piece - worked on weaving the varigated lirope for a few hours and draped the white phals over the dome.  I think it was a strong piece and was very happy with it.  As usual, there were people who loved it and people who did not - that is always the risk of these shows.  But this competition helped me push this type of design a little further down the road. 

Flowers for Claire

Claire's husband called with an order for flowers for her - something cheerful and spring like.  I found the most wonderful coral pink peony tulips and built the arrangement from there.  Dekora roses, Girly spray roses and dark purple callas and cones to create some interest. 

Peony tulips

I make a weekly arrangement for Holton and have a lot of fun trying new things.  Occasionally I like simple single flower arrangements - this type of arrangement really showcases the particular flower.  This week I found some beautiful yellow peony tulips - they open up to a multi petal display and are quite nice.  I cut the tulips fairly short since they will grow a bit in water and used the unbruised leaves as a backdrop for this asymmetrical arrangement.

Delivery sights

Today I drove all over the metro area making deliveries.  When I passed this bottle tree in Takoma Park I did a double take and had to take a picture on the way back.  So cute - I would like to do this at my house.  Colorful and fun all year long and in front of the cutest house.

Maybe the last orchid arrangements for a while

Today we made and delivered 16 of these little orchid arrangements as thank yous to all the ladies who helped with the Holton auction.  91 miles and 5 1/2 hours later we still have 7 to deliver tomorrow....

We made the larger arrangement for the head of the auction committee. 

Orchid arrangement with some variations

This little arrangement is a variation of the orchid piece I made last week - it is a slightly smaller scale with fuschia dendrobiums,  one baby green hydrangea and some varigated flax leaves placed asymmetrically.  I also used a twist of flat fuschia wire to decorate the vase.

Landon reception

Last night here was a reception over at Landon.  It was a cold night and they were expecting a huge crowd so they opened up the house as well as a heated tent.  The linens had a tropical vibe and maybe that helped everyone think about the warm spring that is coming.....soon we hope.

Anyway, the other night I was at Homegoods - the absolutely best source for interesting containers (other than estate and yard sales).  They had some pieces that really worked with the linens and I tried some new things.  Orchids with grevillia greens and burgandy galax for the cab tables, and bound callas in two different types containers.

Orchid arrangement

I made this arrangement today for a friend.  I love the idea of the large group of upright horsetail as a background to the more fragile pink dendrobium orchids and the one sprig of speckled phalenopsis. 

Valentine's Day is today

Pictures of some of the pieces we delivered today - we were all over the metro area but luckily it is a beautiful day today - 65 degrees - such a gift in the middle of February.

The first piece is for our client Claire.  We did the flowers for Claire's wedding to Bob about 3 years ago.  Claire was a little leery of American florists and Bob made the initial contact.  We won her over with her wedding flowers and have been delivering arrangements to them ever since.  For her Valentine's arrangement we used Charlotte and Black Beauty sweetheart roses (I love Black Beauties - they look like velvet and are a great dark wine color).  We added red ranuculus, red tulips, dark purple callas, lirope grass and some varigated ti leaves.

The second piece was a lower budget arrangement with some of the same flowers and some alstromeria added.   I added a twist of red wire around the vase and shaped a little heart - I like how it looks like a child's sketch.  It adds a touch of the holiday without resorting to some of the more typical holiday add-ons.

The last arrangement is a pave arrangement made from Charlotte roses and galax leaves.

Sweet Peas! From Japan!

Today I went over to the wholesaler to get flowers for several Valentine jobs.  Boxes of sweet peas from Japan had just come in - one color was more beautiful than the next.  I love this lavender/mulberry combination and had to have a bunch.  They are very fragrant as well as beautiful and surprisingly affordable.  You can see more colors at the Potomac Floral website.  Now I have to think about what I will put with them.  They would be great with lavender Amnesia roses but also with something cream...

Valentine Weekend

Things are getting busy here.....today I delivered a thank you gift, 8 centerpieces, an orchid plant, and a bouquet.  I love the combination of peach and burgandy - there is something about the depth of a dark color and a light pastel that works so well....for these I used Finesse peach roses, Leonides rust colored roses, burgandy Safari Sunset, gardenia leaves, chocolate mini artichokes and some burgandy mums.

Valentine Nora

Valentine's Day at Restaurant Nora.  Every year we try to tweak the display a little and do something different within the budget etc.  We also try to reuse as many of her props as possible.  This year I wrapped her 3D puffy hearts with vintage ribbons and trims and put them in the garden room window box along with the Christmas amaryllis and some new red spray roses.  In addition I covered her large styrofoam hearts with pieces of a very graphic cutter quilt, this works with the decor of the restaurant which includes antique quilts and folk toys.