Living On Through Peonies

When Seaberry Farm mentioned yesterday that they had single peonies available this week, I knew right away that these were Mel’s peonies.

Before Mel Heath died, he sold off most of his plants and farm equipment. Seaberry Farm took much of what was available. Wen Fei confirmed that the peonies that were available were Mel’s. She said:

“We go around our farm everyday saying things like "go cut Mel's peonies" or  "go get Mel's tractor"…we miss him greatly.”

We miss Mel too…  but today especially, I’m thrilled to have our first peonies of the season be Mel’s peonies.

What Locally Grown Foliage Looks Like in the Winter

Yesterday, Carling made this beautiful arrangement for a dinner party and posted it on Facebook. We received a comment/question  from a woman who has taken a few of our design classes and is enthusiastic about improving her design skills.

“I was just wondering today if I could mix winter greens with spring flowers? This picture answers the question.”

It was a great comment, and one that deserves some attention. Local Color Flowers is proud to use locally grown flowers in all of our arrangements. What you may not know, is that we also you 100% locally grown foliage as well. In the winter, most of the foliage we can get from the local farms is evergreens including boxwood, magnolia, fir, pine, cedar and camellia along with lots of “sticks” including pussy willow, curly willow, fantail willow, flowering branches and more. On a rare occasion, we can get our hands on dusty miller and eucalyptus.

Our designs are unique because we are designing with what is available locally-flowers, foliage and branches. Using evergreens gives the arrangement a “winter’ feel. Combined with tulips and iris, the arrangement perfectly reflects the season, as we think it should…cold, crisp, green, brown…with the promise of spring ahead.

Real Weddings: Danielle and Chuck

I have so much to say about Danielle and Chuck’s wedding…one blog post might not be enough!

Chef Beej Flamholz emailed me about a year and a half ago and asked me if I would be interested in working on a wedding with him. He said the clients would be a good fit for us. I met Claudia, the bride’s mom a few months later when we met for the first time to discuss the flowers. Claudia and I hit it off immediately!  Her daughter Danielle was in medical school so she was going to be coordinating the flowers in her place. They wanted multi-colored, vibrant flowers that looked “wildflowry” and natural. They also wanted to help collect antique bottles and jars that would be used for the centerpieces.

As the year of planning progressed, the vision for the flowers became more clear. They wanted a rustically decorated chuppah, a mix of potted and cut flowers and one of my favorite elements of the wedding-a Farm Stand!

As the wedding day approached, our whole team was bursting with excitement. By this time I had met Danielle and Chuck and Danielle’s uber-creative sister Nicole and I was so excited to create a beautiful wedding for them.

Danielle looked so beautiful and happy on her wedding day, I actually cried when I saw her!  She carried a naturally shaped bouquet filled with peonies, ranunculus, astilbe, dusty miller and a mix of herbs. Since Danielle was flexible with the colors of her bouquet (she wanted soft colors and shapes to compliment her dress) we were really able to get creative with what was growing locally that week.

The ceremony took place on the first floor of AVAM. The bride’s uncle built the chuppah and our talented team of designers decorated it with kousa dogwood, mock orange, peonies and curly willow. We also draped the bride’s granddad’s prayer shawl over the top of the chuppah. It was a beautiful, sacred place for Chuck and Danielle to get married.

After the ceremony guests enjoyed a beautiful farm to table dinner from Chef’s Expressions and Chef Beej Flamholz. I’m not just saying this-the tables looked AMAZING! I seriously cried when they were all decorated and ready for guests to arrive (I cried a lot at this wedding). Each detail came together perfectly-the vintage glass, the barn wood boxes, the apothecary jars…it was a perfectly miss/matched collection that looked wonderful together.

Long farm tables mixed with round tables added to the visual interest in the room.

 

And then…there was the Farm Stand! In lieu of a traditional favor table, we created an authentic Baltimore Farm Stand for Chuck and Danielle’s guests to “shop” at the wedding was over.

We filled the stand with uniquely Baltimore treats!

 

Lucy and Amelia black eyed susan seed bombs were a big hit as were individual packs of Zeke’s coffee and jams by Infused Spreads.

Nick’s Brand Backfire spices went fast as did the local strawberries, honey and McCutcheon sodas.

 

It was a great way to celebrate a couple who wanted to highlight the local goodness Maryland has to offer.

I was exhausted, but so joyful when this wedding was complete. I felt so proud to be part of this amazing team, so honored to be part of Danielle and Chuck’s wedding.

This was truly a team effort! Thanks to LoCoFlo’s amazing team of designers, farmers market/thrift store shoppers and venue setter-uppers! Thanks to to the growers who provided thousands of stems of locally grown flowers for this wedding including Seaberry Farm, LynnVale Studio, Wollam Gardens, Farmhouse Flowers and Plantmasters.

Thanks to the super-talented Beej Flamholz for pulling everything thing together. Beej is an amazing chef and his planning skills are to be commended.

Thanks to Eli Turner Photography for these spectacular photos…which…as you can probably guess…made me teary-eyed when I saw them. To see more photos from Danielle and Chuck’s wedding, you can check out Eli’s blog and our flickr page.

Finally, special thanks to Chuck and Danielle and their families. You were truly a joy to work with!  Congratulations!

New Growers for LoCoFlo

This has been a great week for LoCoFlo! On Wednesday, I went  to Annapolis to the Mid Atlantic Growers meeting. This group of growers meets in the winter (November, January and February) to discuss best practices, share upcoming flower orders, listen to speakers, get trained on new techniques-and mostly just TALK about growing flowers.

Somehow…I get to go to these meetings even though I’m not a grower…which is AWESOME!  I learn so much in these meetings about new flower varieties, new design techniques and more. I also get to meet new growers that are close enough to Baltimore to sell to LoCoFlo.

This month, I especially enjoyed meeting and talking with  Madgie from M and M Plants in Montgomery County and Suzanne Montie from Red Chimney Flower Farm in Bowie.  I’m excited to have set up a phone meeting for next week with Wenfei Uva of Seaberry Farm.  I was also encouraged to hear about some young growers buying land and trying to make the transition from regular job to flower grower. The more people growing flowers locally the more options we have for our clients. So keep growing! Finally, through the magic of Facebook, I got connected to Plant Masters in Montgomery County. Check out their Facebook page to see beautiful photos of their locally grown flowers.

I’m so excited for 2011-to visit new farms and buy from new growers!

Fruity Options for Wedding Centerpieces

LoCoFlo loves using the best locally grown, seasonal flowers for our clients special events. But flowers aren’t the only thing that go into these creations. We often use berries, foliage, fruits, veggies and more to add color and texture to our designs.

This year, we had several opportunities to use fruit from Reid’s Orchard in Pennsylvania. Mr. Reid has the most amazing fruits and vegetables (for both eating and designing). I especially love shopping at his stand because I get to visit with two of my favorite farmers-Katie and Anna Maunz!

In August, we created centerpieces for a wedding in Virginia with over 100 pounds of produce from Reid’s. These centerpieces were definitely a conversation starter-both amongst the multicultural staff at the hotel and the guests! 

For the couple’s sweetheart table!

All of the produce from this wedding was donated to the DC Food Bank at the end of the night!

Just a few weeks ago, we used some great green apples in these lush fall centerpieces for a wedding at the cloisters. (These apples made their way back to me  this week as a gift of spiced apples from the couple!)

What would a Fall wedding season be without a seasonally inspired centerpiece of gourds, pumpkins, apples and pears.

Besides using herbs for boutonnieres and bouquets, we often add sprigs of herbs to the place settings to add a little color and fragrance to the table.

 

Fruits and veggies also made their way to favor tables as well. Here are two examples of LoCoFLo brides that had us set up a Locally Grown Farm Stand full of local produce and reusable grocery bags for their guests could  take home with them.

For sure, LoCoFlo gets to work on some of the coolest, most progressive, creative, socially conscious, beautiful weddings around!

Thanks to Reid’s Orchard, Breidenbaugh Farms, Martin’s Farm and Pahl’s farm for the beautiful produce and herbs!

Road Trip To Easton

For those of you who don’t know, my dear friend Marina moved to Easton two weeks ago.

Marina and her husband Bart were our first friends when we moved to Baltimore 11 years ago. Bart and I had been friends growing up in Buffalo, but hadn’t seen each other in at least ten years when we moved to Baltimore.

He and Marina were our neighbors and friends in a city where we knew no one. How lucky I was to have found Marina. She is truly one of the most amazing, talented, wonderful women I have ever met. Our friends have a joke, if someone doesn’t know how to do something-anything from sewing curtains, making jams, cooking a certain vegetable, growing a certain plant, baking a buckle, canning -anything-we always say: “marina would know”.

Marina’s wedding was the first wedding I ever did flowers for. We went through the Master Gardening program together, we worked in each others gardens, we went to Flower Design class together. We went on flower road trips together.

And then we started locoflo. Marina’s a superb designer. She was a creative eye with a bent toward more natural, integrated designs. She loves color and has a confidence when designing that allows her to try new things-things that would make me nervous! She is inspiring to watch and work with.

But alas, she’s left Baltimore. And for me personally and professionally, there is now a hole that probably won’t ever be filled.

But today I realized-that Easton’s not that far away. When Finn and Marina and I went on our tour of Easton, Marina told me (about 2 seconds before it happened, with one quick breath) that there was a little florist shop at this little market and the girl there grew her own flowers and that she wanted me to meet her-and that she wanted to meet her too.

Of course, in typical Marina fashion, our impromptu meeting went great! I’ll write more about our new grower/florist friend from Seaberry Farm in my next post but suffice it to say- her flowers were beautiful, she has a huge farm growing acres of woodies, she said she’s always looking for workers, she has kids Finn’s age and she invited Marina on a play date! SWEET!

After a yummy lunch at the Railway Market, I said a teary good bye and headed back to Bmore. While I was sad to be leaving Marina, I was happy that she was still close-and was feeling hopeful that our adventures in locally grown flowers would continue-albeit long distance for now.

Lovely, lovely day.