Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

As a floral designer and gardener I have an insatiable hunger for new materials to work with. Is this part of our modern society, to always be on the hunt for the next thing? I guess I only need remember the plant explorers of past centuries for that answer. Men and yes, women too, who put their lives literally on the line in the constant search for plants to intoxicate with their beauty, to consume, alter our states of consciousness, heal our bodies.....etcetera, etcetera. 

So my new discovery is a Heirloom Chocolate Morning Glory that's just coming into bloom in my garden after being planted from seed in the spring. It's a one day only blossom though using a length of vine cutting with large enough flower buds in water will provide subsequent blooms. Wow! For those of you who know my love of browned out flowers, well here it is. And I needn't go any further than Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds in Petaluma for my expedition: http://www.rareseeds.com/ 

The store is located in a venerable old bank in downtown Petaluma, befitting young Jere Gettle and his mid-west based company's mission to save seed varieties from around the world (by their count around 1600). They have become a tool to promote and preserve our agricultural and culinary heritage. There are three stores across the county, a magazine, and yearly festivals. We're lucky to have the National Heirloom Festival put on by Baker Creek, held annually up north in Santa Rosa in early September. This is a real hoe down featuring growers, speakers, and like minded organizations amidst a backdrop of amazing vegetables. 

Best of all is the enormous winter squash mountain carefully built squash by squash to a towering height- but back to the Morning Glory...

Out of the Doldrums....and into fall

 This Petunia got me out of a little funk. The word I kept repeating in my - never stops talking- interior dialog, was doldrums.  It's a word used (thanks Wikki) to describe places of "low-pressure area around the equator where the prevailing ocean winds are calm". If you're in a sailboat, this is not usually a good situation.  Colloquially, the doldrums "are a state of inactivity, mild depression, listlessness or stagnation". Sounds about right.

I like the nautical association. I've been chasing after hot weather and water this summer. Only not in a sailboat, but in mountain lakes. Ideally it would have been great to have warmish water & hot weather while in that sailboat, but that's a hard combination to find locally. It's gets pretty foggy and cool in coastal Northern California in late summer so an escape is needed if you want a lazy, languid slice of summer. So we settled on hot weather in cold, cold mountain lakes. But there are no more mountain lakes scheduled & we're going into September and beautiful fall. The brakes are on. Not ready, not ready- yet.

Ah, back to the petunia. It's a perennial variety from a grower the local Farmer's Market. So far it's pretty tough, does not need much water and keeps re- blooming. I love the color and how it works in the garden. Though I wouldn't use it for event work, it's surprisingly resilient to work with. I think petunias are another one of those- so out they'll come back in- flowers, especially with varieties like this around. They feel a little retro like the teapot.

simple, simple

small wedding, Big Love

For a couple who took a long, slow road that ended up at the altar. They don't want to be all over social media. They just want to keep it in their circle. That is a pretty cool idea these days. Congratulations! 

Game Changer

Pairings: What is interesting to me is when a flower out of current favor in the design world gets paired with something that is really popular and helps the "lesser" flower get another look.  In this case I'm really responding to lowly blue spiky agapantha with the very popular clematis (about 10 days old & still beautiful). Then the carnation (lots of signs of of a return ) is combined with the a variety of big leafy geranium foliage that is all over these days.

Embrace prejudices and to keep trying to look with open eyes.

And well, I just added this big onion flower and the blue vase because I liked the contrast of the rustic, earthiness of the onion with the elegant blue vase.

Part 2: Some of the Wedding Flowers

Let it be known that working with flowers for a living, and especially providing them for large events is simply a lot of hard physical work. When people have an image of a florist working with flowers, perhaps they have a picture of someone working at a bench, thoughtfully and artfully adding this or that to the subject at hand. Ah yes, yes, maybe a few more roses here and a dash of ornamental grass there…. There is so fricking much time and effort leading up to that moment and what lies ahead; the bleary early hours at the flower mart, heavy buckets of water, thorns that want to bite your flesh, endless flowers to recut and strip. Are the vases going to be delivered in time? Things will go wrong, solutions need to be improvised. Flowers will wilt in the sun – or in this case of this wedding, the ferocious wind. But it does get you to the moment when you ponder the curl of a leaf, the gesture of a branch and it’s so worth it. You're caught in flower fever and keep coming back for more. The seduction of flowers….

I’ve done most events by myself and it’s particularly intense. What was wonderful about this experience was the comradery of a group of talented people working together to create something amazing; and working to do it in Ariella’s style. We had an overabundance of amazing food to snack on as we worked through all the wedding components. Plus we got to forage a lot of flowers and botanicals at the farm. Need some more olive branches? Just walk on over to that tree and start cutting. We also foraged exquisite garden roses and more clematis. I learned so much being there and was so very grateful to be there. Thank you, Ariella for your generosity of spirit and softly singing for us that one afternoon.

Part 1: The Road to Clematis does lead to Ariella Chezar

I had a funny dream last week where I contacted Ariella Chezar and asked her if she needed help on a wedding and she said yes. 

If you’re not familiar with her design work, you're in for a treat:  http://ariellaflowers.com/

Ariella Chezar is one of the finest floral designer/ artists working today. I had never met her as she’s currently living in Massachusetts and has a store in NY City. She’s one of my favorite designers. Her work is blossom luscious. I love her sense of color and touch with tropical flowers which seem hard to pull off without being a suntan cliche.

And I have to pinch my cheeks, because it wasn't a dream. Ariella sometimes offers workshops at Chalk Hill Clematis Farm. When I was there last week (subject of my last post), I Iearned the workshop had been held but that she was returning to the Bay Area to do a wedding and use the Chalk Hill workshop.

Well, dang- how could I not at least ask? Designers don’t always bring their staff!

Being a newcomer, I offered to wash buckets and perform whatever minor floral infractions and miscellaneous tasks that were required. It was just the kind of help Ariella needed and the event was coming up fast. She already had our local designers, Max Gill and Peter St. Lawrence on board to help along with Momo, a designer from the south bay and Lee, Max’s assistant. So with a two days notice, off I went. 

These photos were taken at the Chalk Hill workshop of work in progress and flowers for a photo shoot of her upcoming book. Stay tuned for the finished flowers.

Chalk Hill Nursery

 

Tuesday was hot and clear. I made a trek with my good friend, Carol to the even hotter climes of Sonoma County to visit Chalk Hill Farm  http://chcfarm.com/.  Chalk Hill specializes in growing one flower variety only: the clematis, a viney perenial with lovely star shaped flowers of all shapes and hues. The goal was to make an introductory visit to the farm and bring some home to experiment with. Chalk Hill takes their clematis seriously. When we arrived, we were led into a beautifully designed workshop where the clematis was laid out on a table for our perusal like fine artisional cheeses. Fernando, the keeper of the clematis, kept bringing out more varieties from the cooler and finally let me go in and sift carefully through buckets of exquisite flowers, tendrils tangling and untangling. 

Clematis is not widely available even at the San Francisco Flower Mart.  Chalk Hill has created a welcome niche business as they grow specifically for the floral design business and ship all over the county. Diversification seems key to the survival of any farm. Other offerings are olive oil and balsamic vinegar, a beautiful workshop space and refrigerator to rent, and a book on clematis growing. There is a small rustic/formal garden that we toured and found a shady spot to lunch. It's mass of climbing roses were past their prime, but the clematis were doing just fine and will be flowering into early fall.

I already knew that the evergreen clematis armandii is one tough cookie, but in general they are a new material for me. It seems that clematis flowers are surprisingly long lasting. Delicate, yet tough. Looking forward to working with this new friend.

Store Bought Bouquets Class/ June 28

Well done! Remember to practice and see you in the fall!

Front, back, to pattern or no