LoCoFLo Inspired DIY Project

Guest Blogger Jen Bryant

I am a big fan of LoCoFlo.   I always read the blog to see recent floral creations and to get new ideas. The  “Go Green, Recycle” post showed a picture of a simple, yet beautiful arrangement in a tin can. I loved this and since my family goes through tons of tin cans per week, I thought tin cans would be perfect to use for the upcoming baby showers I was hosting.

I started saving cans of varied sizes.

I picked up fabric remnants from the design firm where I work.

I glued some.

I hole punched and tied others….

Beautiful!

The flowers came from a friend’s garden full of the most beautiful dahlias and Locust Point Flowers at the Waverly Farmer’s Market in Baltimore.

The cans made great table decorations, favors and prizes!

What a fabulous DIY for any event! Thanks LoCoFlo for the idea!

Congratulations on finishing up a terrific wedding season in 2009!

The Dreaded “Hard Frost”

While Local Color Flowers is a design firm, we aren’t like “regular” florists. While “regular” florists probably spent this past week placing flower orders by phone or email with a wholesale market or supplier in California, or Ecuador or Holland, I spent the last few days trying to find out “Who Had a Hard Frost?”

I didn’t even really know what a Hard Frost was…I just knew that it signaled certain death for any field flowers. I recently learned that a Hard Frost is when both the air and the soil have dropped below freezing. Not to be confused with a Soft Frost- when the air has dropped below freezing but the soils hasn’t.

So, this week I called every grower we have to see if they experienced a hard frost this past weekend. Most had-on Sunday…October 18th. However, some hadn’t. Some had flowers in hoop houses that were safe. Others had flowers in the greenhouse…some even covered their dahlias with blankets for us!

I was worried. I was having flower dreams…

No worries though. For our last two weddings of the season we have absolutely gorgeous dahlias, scented geranium and hydrangeas from Locust Point Flowers and Belvedere Farm.

We also got beautiful snapdragons from Pam Pahl’s farm.

Finally, we got beautiful mums and marigolds from Breidenbaugh Farm.

It should be a great weekend!

Flowers for Rent

I trade flowers for rent at the little workshop that is currently the LoCoFlo home base. The deal is… whenever I have an event, I provide flowers for the owner of the building. (his offices are upstairs). Here are two little arrangements I made today for the folks in the office.

Breaking News! Local Color Flowers will NOT be the next White House florist!

I thought we had a chance…but according to the Washington Post’s Reliable Source, it sounds like Laura Dowling is going to get the job. By checking out her website and blog, I’ve learned that she trained in Paris and is considered “a specialist in the garden-style approach” to floral design. Check out her portfolio to see her work. Really beautiful; rich, colorful, natural…

Wouldn’t it be great if she would use locally grown flowers in the White House? Farmhouse Flowers and LynnVale Studios  are on both only 35 miles from DC…Wollam Gardens is only 58 miles from the White House…Here’s hoping…

“You’re one of us now…”

That’s what John McKeown of Locust Point Flowers told me last Saturday morning at 6:30 am-when I went to pick up flowers from him. His comment was prompted by a hair brained plan I explained to him….On Wednesday at 5pm, I would leave Baltimore with Kathy York, my great grower friend from Scarborough Farm in Southern Maryland and we would drive to Long Island for ONE DAY of the National Conference of the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers.

On Thursday at 4pm after a full day of learning, we would drive back to Baltimore (Kathy to Mechanicsville) and then Friday we would both begin work on the weekend’s events-an event at Gertrude’s and a wedding at the Cloisters for me and two weddings for her. That seemed normal…right?

I guess I might also have mentioned how I was looking forward to the winter…when I could catch up on everything I have neglected since March…like sleeping…and going out to new restaurants, seeing movies, reading books, doing laundry, gardening, house projects…

I guess I am one of them now…not bad huh?

LoCoFlo: Green Bride Guide Approved Vendor

Oh yeah, you read it right. Local Color Flowers is now an approved vendor on the Green Bride Guide!

The Green Bride Guide’s new Vendor Directory is a great resource for finding green vendors for your wedding or event. The Green Bride Guide has vetted the vendors, so that you can feel comfortable choosing them for your green event.

If you check out the Maryland vendors, besides Local Color Flowers, you’ll see our friend Audra from Chocolaterra – a fab small business here in Baltimore specializing in homemade truffles made of organic and fair trade chocolate. I ate about 6 of them the other night at the Chesapeake Sustainable Business Alliance monthly meeting!

In addition to the Vendor Directory, make sure to check out Local Color Flowers in the Green Bride Guide’s Real Wedding Section too!

Real Weddings: Laura y Sean

Laura and Sean met in Buenos Aires in 2004. After several years of friendship, dating and traveling the world together, they were married in Fells Point on September 19, 2009. I met with Laura several times over the past year-brainstorming and fine tuning the design of her flowers.

Laura wanted to keep things simple for her wedding flowers. Simple in this case meant using one color for the flowers…GREEN! Not greens-as in filler-but GREEN flowers. For the wedding party flowers we worked with just one type of flower: bright green zinnias from Belvedere Farm! They looked great against the girls dresses.

For the tables, which were set up outside of the Douglass Isaac Myers Maritime Park, Laura had a vision-and what a vision it was! It turned out perfect! Long tables were covered in brown crab paper. On top of the crab paper was  a long runner of green and brown tulle. On top of that were the striking wine bottle shaped vases that Laura ordered from CB2.

In each vase we used one gorgeous green hydrangea picked the day before from Bridge Farm Nursery.

We added a few stems of brown and green broom corn as well to give the vases some variety in height.

In addition to having  a “green” color scheme, Laura and Sean created an event that was easy on the environment including working with Waste Neutral to supply compost bins on site and compostable plates and silverware.

Felicidades a Laura y Sean! Wishing you many happy years ahead!

Thanks to Susquehanna Photographic, Christine Egan and Kateri McGuinness for the great pictures.

Dahlia Love

What is there not to love about fall dahlias! These beauties came from Scarborough Farm, Belvedere Farm and Locust Point Flowers.

Birds of a feather…must stick together!

Last night, the Chesapeake Sustainable Business Alliance held their monthly networking meeting at Boordy Vineyard. The meeting featured wine from Boordy, food from Atwater’s, truffles from Chocolaterra and flowers…from Local Color Flowers! It was a great evening to highlight how important it is to buy local.

 

In addition to networking, guests listened to a panel discussion made up of local farmers including Bobby Prigel of Bellevale Creamery , who has been in the news a lot recently because of his struggle to build a creamery at his farm, Joan Norman of One Straw Farm, and Rob Deford of Boordy Vineyard.   The discussion was moderated by Renee Catacalos, the Publisher and Editor of Edible Chesapeake. While buying local seems to be gaining momentum, the panelists recounted their most recent struggles and how individual consumers and supporters can help.

1. Lend a Hand: For the Prigels, and others farmers like them, pro bono legal assistance is needed. One suggestion was the creation of a pro bono group, similar to Maryland Lawyers for the Arts, but for farmers, to assist them with local and regional land use and zoning issues. 
2. Make Yourself Heard: Joan Norman and Robert Deford both had the same message-Make Yourself Heard! Support local restaurants and bars that support local growers. Request that your favorite liquor store carry local wines. Check out Marylanders for Better Beer and Wine Laws. 
3. Take it a Step Further: In addition to going to the farmers markets to support local growers and artisans, we can all do more to support our local economy. Check out the Buy Local directory for help finding other small, local businesses in Baltimore. Also, use the Local Harvest site to find farms and markets providing sustainable food in your area.

I was also excited to meet some great new people including Kelly from Emory Knoll Farm, Jordan Faye Block from BE and Byron from 2B Enterprises.

If you would like to see what the Chesapeake Sustainable Business Alliance is all about, their next monthly meeting will be held November 2 at BE in Federal Hill at 6pm.

Real Weddings: Ashley and Alan

Ashley and Alan were married in late August at Chizuk Amuno Synagogue in Baltimore. Ashley was great to work with. When I first met her, we looked at some color schemes together and she decided she  liked the palette  from a wedding we did the year before: blue, yellow, white and green.

While that is a beautiful mix of colors, the challenge is…blue flowers are not that easy to come by locally. There are few we use when they are available: hydrangeas, delphinium, larkspur, bachelor buttons-but that’s about it. So when it came time to make Ashley’s order, we called in all of our favors. Dave Dowling at Farmhouse Flowers helped by giving us his last few hydrangeas and all of the delphinium he had. We called friends with hydrangea bushes and pilfered what was left of the blue hydrangeas. By this time in the season, most of the hydrangeas are starting to “antique”-that is, turning from blue to greenish bluish purple.  We picked the bluest ones…and here’s what we created!

Bouquets were made with white lisianthus, tuberose, delphinium, yellow cockscomb, and yellow zinnias.

 

“The flowers on Sunday were amazing!” Ashley wrote. “The bouquets, the centerpieces, the cake --- everything!!  I got so many compliments on them! Thank you for everything you did to make our day so special!”

The bride is happy…we’re happy! Thanks to Jerry Eisner for the great pictures.

Congratulations Ashley and Alan.

LoCoFlo Grower Bob Wollam is Making News!

Bob Wollam  of Wollam Gardens is pretty cool. So is his farm. And so are his flowers.

He was “growing local” before local was cool. But now, all of his hard work is paying off. "It's certainly a terrific time for local flower growers. Our time has come. We have finally been able to break the noose of the importers," he says.

 

 

Check him out in the Washington Post last week.

Congratulations Bob!