So, it turns out the White House florist is retiring after 31 years on the job. Nancy Clarke has been making flower arrangements for the White House since 1978 when she started as a volunteer. (Who knew you could volunteer to work on flowers at the White House?)After reading about Ms. Clarke's retirement, I started thinking-wouldn't it be cool if Local Color Flowers could get that gig? How would it work? Marina and I (and Eric and Bart and Finn) would have to move to Washington. We would plant a cutting garden on the south lawn, near the organic vegetable garden the First Lady planted last month. We would need a hoop house (that we could share with the veggie gardener if he wanted to extend his growing season) and a greenhouse to ensure we had locally grown flowers year round. We'd probably still have to buy from other growers, so we would pull in the growers that we use that service DC: Woolam Gardens, Farmhouse Flowers, Lynn Vale Studios and others.
While Nancy Clarke did amazing work, it was mostly in a traditional style. Wouldn't it be fun to see arrangements with ornamental peppers and kale and artichokes and crazy curly willow and that crested celosia that looks like a brain. Wouldn't it be great if the First Family committed to using locally grown flowers in the White House? Wouldn't it mean the revolution was in full swing if two girls from Baltimore became the White House florists?
An even cooler gig would be working at The Orchid Station on Lost. You might have to travel through time. Which reminds me...
ReplyDeleteThere was an advertisement during Lost last night for a local and family run nursery in Howard County called Sun Nursery (http://www.sunnurseries.com/). LoCoFlo might want to check them out as a potential supplier. Does anybody know them?
I like the idea of being in the White House doing the floral arrangements! HMMM how do we go about getting that gig????
ReplyDelete