The Flower and The Vase

 http://www.terrestra.com/floral/  

                       The Flower and The Vase 
       Thursday, December 12, 6:30-7:30
       30 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley  $45.

Here's a link to an event I'm very pleased to be sharing with Terrestra, a new store in  Mill Valley that sells many wonderful artisan crafted vases and home accessories. I'm going to be demonstrating some Holiday floral arrangements and talking about the pairing of flowers and vases- kind of a Flower/Vase 101. Registration is limited.

 Contact me at maryannnardo@sbcglobal.net or Terrestra to register.

Friendly Fall Fetishes

Every year, every season, brings a compelling new interest, a new obsession in working with flowers. I decided to look up the definition of fetish- yes, my interests had gone that far.

Fetish: 

1. An object that is believed to have magical or spiritual powers, especially such an object associated with animistic or shamanistic religious practices.
2. An object of unreasonably excessive attention or reverence
3. Any object or non-genital part of the body that causes a habitual erotic response or fixation.

Okay, yes for number 2- a little of number 1, but not number 3- well, at least not yet. 

This fall my fixations are marigolds, grayed out Ami majus (Queen Anne's Lace, for those who missed that post), echinacea flowers w/o petals and privot berries. I keep using them over and over, trying to get to something, trying to realize something or just trying. But time for that obsession to be over. After this week, no more fall colors allowed. We're straight on into Christmas dream time.

Striped down flowers

There are two flowers in this arrangement that have no flower petals. Hmmm?

Two Bits

Roses continued: There is a
flower grower in Sonoma County,
to the north of us called Neve Brothers
hp://www.nevebros.net.

They are fourth generation flower growers and have been growing some garden type roses recently, roses that actually open.

This is a relatively new development in the floral industry. Roses are mainly bred to stay pretty closed, never quite exploding into full bloom.

Thanks Neve Bros for getting on board.  Growers respond to what people want and people really love the garden type roses that open and have a scent. They are available
at the Marin County Farmer's Market, but sometimes their garden-type roses are only available at the SF Flower Mart.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
                                                                                                           

And this fine little fellow sticking out of this wood vase
is the dried cap of a leek flower. It's a membrane that protects a leek flower 
as it grows. When the flower is ready to open the tissue comes off. They are these fragile little shapes; really cool and weirdly endearing. I've had the dang thing for three years.