Wednesday, March 3, 2010

DIY Dried Flower Wreaths: MD Style

If I haven’t said it before-I LOVE MARYLAND FLOWER FARMERS!  I really love them. I love their flowers and their farms but I really love THEM too!

Last Thursday I got a phone call from Mel Heath, owner of Bridge Farm Nurseries in Cockeysville. Mel doesn’t have email and he doesn’t text. Sometimes he sends his flower lists by fax, but that is as technical as Mel gets. He invited me to come over to the farm on Monday morning for dried flower wreath making. I wasn’t really sure what to expect. All I could imagine was craft making in girl scouts.

When I got to Mel’s, he took me up to the second floor of the barn where he dries flowers. I’ve been in the barn dozens of times, but never upstairs. There were hundreds of bunches of dried flowers in dozens of the varieties. They were flowers Mel hadn’t sold in the past year including beautiful dried peonies.

So here’s what I started with: a “starter” wreath (as Mel called it) and a bouquet of dried green hydrangea and purple monarda or bee balm (which I would have SWORN was pincushion flower).

IMG_0373 I kept it pretty simple. I only added pink celosia to my wreath…and then I was finished.

IMG_0385 To be honest, I was more interested in chit chatting and watching everyone else’s projects than I was in my own wreath.

My great friend Kathy York of Scarborough Farm was there. Of course she had a crazy, unique, MARYLAND wreath; crabs, a crab hammer, a hot sauce bottle, shells, driftwood…and she was trying to figure out how to get beer bottles or bottle caps on there.

IMG_0377I also got to meet Kathy’s “Aunt Sue” who I’ve heard about for YEARS! Turns out, Aunt Sue and I have lots of friends in common-including my old friends at Epiphany Episcopal Church!

IMG_0375 Finally, Mel and his staff, Eric and Rose Marie were so much fun and so inspiring. Mel and Rose Marie were making the greatest, wreaths with local flowers that I’ve ever seen!

IMG_0376 Check it out! This was one of Rose Marie’s wreaths.

IMG_0383 I’m so glad I played hooky from my “TO DO” list to make wreaths!!

3 comments:

  1. I'm glad you went too! This is what I miss most, the farmers! Mel said John was there the week before, I too LOVE the flower farmers!

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  2. Oh my.... I want to work there. The wreaths and flowers are gorgeous.

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  3. very nice ellen.i'm so glad that you have my artistic talent.

    mom

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