The Visit- to Flora Grub in S.F. The Book- The 50 Mile Bouquet

Flora Grub floragrubb.com/ is a very hip gardening and landscaping store in S. F. that focuses of the use of succulents, air plants (tillandsia), and palms. Their selection includes many plants suited to our Mediterranean-type of climate. The store has a contemporary feel with a bold color palette. The design of this large store and cafe is as much a feature as it's offerings. I felt like I had stumbled upon a happening scene.  Was I dressed okay?

  

Above is a beautiful arrangement made in a demonstration lecture by Susie Nadler, the resident floral designer who seems to incorporate succulents and air plants in almost all of her work.

But But But...the other reason I made the trip: The flower arranging demonstration was part of the introduction this long awaited book;

 "The 50 Mile Bouquet", the50milebouquet.com/ by Debra Prinzing and David Perry. 

Debra was on hand to talk about the movement to grow flowers locally. Currently the majority of flowers are grown in South America with a heavy use of pesticide exposure to the workers and the flowers. The book tells the story of the local flower growing movement on the West Coast. It shares the stories of flower growers and the floral designers who use them. A very inspiring and uplifting project. Debra gives updates on this trend on the website.

Little Flower School comes to town

It been a long time. I've been in my studio making paintings for a show at the Morris Graves Museum in Eureka. Painting has been harder these days with my growing commitment and business of floral design.

But I had to throw down my brushes for this class and now my brain is short circuiting again. You would think that working on paintings of flowers while working on floral design would be so natural and easy.

 It's not for me. I don know......

The Little Flower School  http://little-flower-school.blogspot.com/ is run by two floral designers with separate businesses n New York; Nicolette Owen & Sarah Ryhanen.

Nicole shared that she had lived briefly in Rockridge in Oakland before returning to live in NY. Now she and Sarah have come to do a tour of  Northern California and offer 3 classes. It's a testament to their amazing talent and tech ability to plug in internationally, that they can fill their classes at a top dollar price. And the sheer number and quality of flowers and foliage they brought to class was worth the price of admission. They edited their selection of 30 or so materials from a palette that is their signature; Soft, muted colors. This time the selection was from warm side of the color wheel  which included browned out magenta, pink, yellow, grey green and purples. Though their instructions were clear and simple, their way of using color isn't. It's quite nuanced and that's what makes their work so distinctive- that and the quality of movement and and controlled wildness. My bouquet (shown) included 26 kinds of flowers tucked into a container that was the size of a large coffee mug. It didn't lend itself to a long lived arrangement, despite my care. But it was my choice to pile it on as most of my arrangements are more spare. And it brought back home the notion of the true ephemeral quality of flowers.