With Sympathy...

This is an arrangement we recently did for a funeral. 

It is a nice size to give if you would like a member of the family to
 be able to take the flowers home and enjoy them for a while.

These apricot quince blossoms are gorgeous and long lasting.  

They were a perfect compliment for the Gerbera daisies and kermit poms.

I think I'm in LOVE...

You'd think that as a florist I would be completely jaded about flowers, 

and maybe I am a bit, but every now and then I see a flower that just takes my breath away...

Meet Pink Finesse--one of the prettiest roses I've seen in a long time.

This bouquet was for Eliza--lucky girl!

This poppy pod boutonniere just makes me happy.

Not a bad use of left over flowers, I think.

Gifts from the Garden

Every now and then I like to go into my yard and design a flower arrangement from whatever is looking good at the time.  A few weeks ago when very little seemed to be alive much less blooming in my yard, I decided to challenge myself to come up with an attractive arrangement that I could donate for a service auction in my neighborhood.

  

I uprooted a few hens and chicks, clipped a bunch of milkweed (careful not to touch it with my bare hands), and poked in some forsythia along with crepe myrtle pods here and there.  

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have come up with anything I liked better had I made the trip to the wholesale flower outlet.

Simple doesn't have to be Boring.

This centerpiece sprang from necessity when the white dahlias we ordered did not come in as large as expected.  Instead of placing each flower in individual small glass cube vases, we decided to make a bolder statement by floating them together in a low, wide container accented with horsetail grass wrapped with black bear grass.  Simple, but definitely not boring.

Matti and Dan

I've already posted pictures of Matti's bouquet but I couldn't resist this picture.

The groom's boutonniere.

This is by far my favorite arrangement from this wedding.  I love the height and all the different textures and elements--the bare branches with dendrobium orchids juxtaposed with the straight lines of the horsetail grass, the voluptuous dahlias next to the chartreuse frog eyes, the clear glass pedestal and the black philodendron leaves.

The bare winter branches of the crepe myrtle tree are perfect for weaving the small stems of dendrobium orchids--no wiring required.

Originally Dan and Matti had planned on just having three white calla lilies in a vase for their centerpieces.  I suggested that perhaps we could come up with something more interesting.  It's amazing how the artful addition of one black philodendron leaf, three stalks of horsetail grass, and some black bear grass can make such a huge difference.

The cake.

Burgundy Dahlias in the Round

When Matti and I started discussing flowers for her wedding, one thing was for certain--she wanted burgundy DAHLIAS and nothing else would do.  Imagine my panic when the first flower source I contacted informed me that dahlias are not available at this time of year.  I didn't want to disappoint, so on a hunch I kept going through my list of suppliers until I found someone who could get us what we needed.  I was informed that the flowers were coming in small but they seemed to be getting bigger--Maybe by the time we needed them they would be in better shape.

Hurray! The flowers gods smiled upon us and this is what we ended up with for Matti's bouquet.  I was relieved and she was ecstatic.  More to come on Matti's wedding day...

Not Your Average Carnations

I have to admit that I have been guilty of being a carnation snob--as in,

 I really don't like them--usually.  But the other day as I was looking over 

the offerings at the wholesale flower place, I saw the most amazing purple

 carnations.  I couldn't resist.  I bought them and now I have a whole new 

respect for these flowers.  Not only do they look great en masse and come 

in colors that are sometimes hard to find, but they are tough-- 

this arrangement lasted almost two weeks!