THANK YOU Farmhouse Flowers

On Wednesday, we got a call from our friend Dave Dowling, from Farmhouse Flowers explaining to us, that after 20 years of growing flowers, he was closing his business. Dave’s nephew, who owned the land Dave farmed, had defaulted on a loan, and despite working hard to find a solution, the land was sold at auction this week. There was crying and…some more crying and sadness and worry and of course gratitude.

Farming is hard and often unpredictable-weather, land, money, staff. For many, the rewards are worth it. I’m reminded today, as I am most days, how important buying local is- not just as lip service to what some see as a trend—but as a way of building community-as a way of building a life.

Today, everyone at Local Color Flowers would like to thank Dave Dowling for the amazing contributions he has made to our industry, to our community and to our lives.

THANK YOU for supporting the idea of Local Color Flowers from the beginning. Back in 2008, it might have seemed crazy to think that a small floral design shop in Baltimore could sell 100% local flowers. But you listened, you encouraged, you taught, you believed.

THANK YOU for being a leader in the cut flower industry for the past 20 years. Your passion, commitment and expertise is evident in everything you do. From lobbying congress, sharing resources at the Maryland Cut Flower Growers meeting, leading tours of the farm, and being a true icon within the ASCFG.

THANK YOU  for growing our flowers. For the past 6 years we have been so fortunate to go to the farm, week after week after week to pick the most beautiful flowers four our clients. Flowers that got saved and cut just for us. Thank you for helping to start Capital Flower Growers, which, after many years of lobbying, finally brought Montgomery County and Virginia flowers right into Baltimore. Thank you for all the beauty you brought to so many people.

  

THANK YOU for texting, calling, emailing when we have problems, questions, sad news, exciting news, broken coolers,  some variety of flower we can’t identify and flower orders…always flower orders.

Most importantly, THANK YOU for the positive impact you’ve had on our lives so far. Your friendship and mentorship has helped to mold who we are as a business.

  

We love you Dave! We know that this is the beginning of a new chapter and we can’t wait to see what’s to come.

Local Color Flowers Wins 2nd Place in the ASCFG Design Competition

Back in November, I had the pleasure of attending and speaking at the annual conference for the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers. Since I had never been to this national get together of flower growers, I spent the weeks before the conference asking our local growers what it was like-what I should expect.

One of the highlights that I heard over and over again was about the Design Competition. Growers from all over the country (including ALASKA!)  bring flowers with them to the conference to be used during the design competition. This year’s theme was “Raising the Jar”. All of the arrangements had to be made inside the ever popular mason jar. You could either bring your own (if you had a fancy one you loved) or you could use one of the standard Ball jars the ASCFG provided.

As soon as I got to the hotel, I headed into the design room. The design room was nothing more than a standard hotel conference room. However along the walls were buckets and buckets of flowers, foliage, branches, grasses, seedpods and more.  Much of the material there I had never used-some of it I had never even seen.

While i felt nervous being in a room with so many great growers/designers, I jumped in. The last wedding I did before going to the conference was a beautiful Fall wedding filled with great orange and green flowers. While orange is my favorite color, I had orange overload. So even though there were amazing orange options (callas, proteas, berries, ornamental peppers), I opted for something more subtle, more unique. I had also been working almost exclusively been working with dahlias for previous two months, so I was happy to pass on the large bloomed flowers as well.

My arrangement was in green and “black” tones. I used mostly grasses and herbs including a chartreuse salvia (that I have to convince someone to grow here!) that was beautifully vibrant against the millet and “black” ornamental peppers. As is usually the case, I didn’t mind that you could see the mechanics of the stems in the jar, however is did think my jar looked a little boring. To finish is off, I tied a piece of ornamental grass to the jar and called it complete. 

I really loved this arrangement although it felt different than many of the arrangements I’m used to making. There were no parameters (except the jar). I didn’t have to use someone else’s color palette or style inspiration. It was just mine. It felt freeing-especially at the end of the season.

The voting was secret ballot and went on for two days. I didn’t give much thought to not being able to be at the conference Wednesday night when the winners were drawn because of an event I had to work on back in Baltimore. I was beyond surprised when Dave Dowling of Farmhouse Flowers texted me to tell me I had won 2nd place. I didn’t believe him-but quickly got confirmation from some other friends that were there.

I was really excited about this award! Not because I am personally very competitive, I don’t think I am. I was just so thrilled that I could compete with these growers/designers that I look up to (and stalk on facebook and blogs).

So, here it is is. My prize!

Thanks to the ASCFG and especially Neal Caggiano for all of his effort on the design competition. Special thanks to all of the growers that provided flowers from their farms for the competition. It was a wonderful experience!

Day 1 at the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Grower Conference

So, I’m finally here! When I agreed to speak at this year’s conference for the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers, it was months and months away. But sure enough, weddings are over for the season and here I am in Reston Virginia spending a few days with some pretty amazing people.

When I first arrived, I headed straight to the Design Competition room. This was an ordinary hotel conference room filled to bursting with flowers that growers brought with them from all over the country…flowers I’ve never seen and all kinds of things I wish we had more access too locally like artichokes and safflower.  

The idea for the Design Competition is that everyone uses the flowers to create a design of their choice. This year, the theme was “Raising the Jar” and all of the designs were made in Mason Jars. It was a great time visiting with friends from Farmhouse Flowers, Love n’ Fresh Flowers and M and M Plants. It was also really inspiring to see everyone’s designs.

So here is my submission. What do you think? No real flowers. Mostly grasses and foliage but I still thought the colors and textures were so pretty.

After the design competition, I headed over to the welcome reception where there was a lively discussion about the future of the flower industry and the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers.

Today I’m looking forward to a full day of conference sessions, seeing some of our growers like Bob Wollam of Wollam Gardens and meeting new people!