(Cool) Projects

(Cool) Projects: by Carling A.W. Elder

Back in August, Ellen and I had the pleasure of meeting with Heather Weisse Walsh, Editor of (cool) progeny, to hear all about this fun, family-friendly publication, and to see why Local Color Flowers might want a dose of (cool).

Started by Heather and her husband a few years ago, (cool) progeny is an online resource for parents that is dedicated to “putting (cool) back in to the crazy, upside down world of modern parenting.” Heather told us that when she and her husband became new parents, they kept striking out while searching for information about family-friendly events and activities in Baltimore. So they took matters into their own hands, and (cool) progeny was born!

(cool) progeny is bursting with good stuff! The website is divided into seven main categories of: eat, play, learn & create, style, parents, party, and out & about. Each category features articles from guest contributors who are all experts in different fields. When Heather asked if Local Color Flowers would like to partner with (cool) progeny as “Floral Experts,” we thought it might be fun to come up with some kid appropriate floral projects. So we began brainstorming…

The first project was Halloween Terrariums.  It was easy to get the kids involved in building a terrarium. They could layer the ingredients of their terrariums (rocks, charcoal, and dirt), plant the succulents, and then have a blast decorating their terrarium vessels! The Halloween Terrariums gave the kids some of their first experiences caring for plants, and they turned out so fun! 

Our second project with (cool) progeny was a “Thankful Tablescape”  For this project, the kids got to forage for natural elements such as mini pumpkins, seed pods, and Indian corn to place on their family Thanksgiving table. They also got to write what they were thankful for on the gourds and pumpkins. At the same time, the adults could design a seasonal arrangement in a large pumpkin as a centerpiece. The kids had a great time picking out their favorite natural elements for this project, and it was an easy way to include children in Thanksgiving decorating.

The third project was Holiday Swags.  A swag (a bundle of greenery that hangs on your door) is perhaps the easiest holiday floral project you can make! I loved working with Lila (Heather’s beautiful daughter) on this project. It was so fun to show her the different evergreen and berry varieties as we made her swag, and to see which decorations she chose. I wasn’t too surprised when she chose a sparkly silver ribbon and shiny Christmas ornaments :).

In the floral industry, we don’t often get to work with children. We mostly work with Brides, Wedding Planners, and well, other adults. As is necessary, conversations are often centered around details, time-lines, and requirements. There’s not much opportunity to just play with all of our amazing plants and flowers and see what comes out of unbridled creativity.  Working with the kids and seeing the flowers through their eyes was so much fun!

What I loved most about our projects with (cool) progeny was the chance to create and have pure fun with flowers and these cool kids. I’ve worked with evergreens a million times, but I don’t know if Lila ever had. I could see her curiosity as she felt the different branches and sniffed their spicy scents. Making these floral projects was a first-time experience for these kids, and it was exciting for them. Their excitement was exciting to me.

It makes me so happy to have had a small part in these kids’ first exposure to the floral world. I’m grateful to (cool) progeny for recognizing the value in teaching children early about the world of flowers, and for creating the online space to share these teachings with others. More (cool) progeny and Local Color Flowers collaborations are in the future, and I can’t wait to play some more!

Decking the Halls…LoCoFlo Style

December is here, weddings are over for the year and we are in full holiday mode!

We’ve got so much fun stuff happening over the next few weeks!

This Saturday is our last wreath making class! There are currently still spots available!

We’re also offering a holiday terrarium class on Sunday, December 15 at 11am. I’m super excited for this class because our terrariums are going to take on a holiday twist! Picture a little winter wonderland…with succulents…under glass!

Finally, we’re offering two holiday centerpiece classes on December 23rd (10am and 7pm). This is a great way to bring some of your crafty, DIY love to the dinner table on Christmas! Sign up today!

If you don’t want to MAKE your holiday goodies (we can’t all be Martha!), you can come out to Makers Alley on December 14th from 10am-2pm at Local Color Flowers! We’ve got amazing local vendors including Rat Czar, Priya Means Love, Snark Machine, Charm City Cook, Highway to Hill, Byrdie, Kinderhook Snacks, Two Back Flats and of course…Local Color Flowers.  They’ll be ready to sell you some awesome holiday gifts for everyone on your list!

 

Finally, we’ve got loads of holiday offerings to decorate your home and to share with others! Check out our holiday page for more details on how to order! Our CSA and other holiday gifts have been featured in Baltimore Magazine’s Holiday Guide, the City Paper’s Holiday Guide and Cool Progeny’s Holiday Guide!

Happy Holidays Everyone!!

The Holidays are Coming to LoCoFlo!

It’s November. We’re just about finished with weddings for the season. Know what that means? It’s holiday time!! This is our first year in our new space and we are SO excited for everything that we’ve got planned!

For those of you who want DIY your holiday centerpieces, holiday wreaths or holiday gifts, Local Color Flowers has some super fun design classes for you.

• Terrific Terrariums! Our next terrarium class is Saturday, November 16th at 10:30. Sign up today!
• Thanksgiving Centerpiece Class! Want to wow your guests with homemade centerpiece filled with locally grown flowers, foliage, succulent, berries, dried elements and more? Sign up for our Thanksgiving Centerpiece class!
• Wreath Making Class! Who needs a generic, grocery store wreath? Not you! Come make your own, personalized wreath filled with locally sourced greens, dried goodies and more!
• Holiday Terrariums! Our holiday terrarium class will include designing a holiday themed terrarium AND a holiday ornament!
• Christmas Centerpiece Class! Like our class at Thanksgiving, you’ll feel just like Martha when you wow your guests with homemade centerpiece filled with locally grown flowers, foliage, succulent, berries, dried elements and more!

No time  for DIY? Local Color Flowers has LOADS of centerpieces, wreaths, holiday gifts and more available NOW on our website. Order today! 

We’re also offering gift certificates that can be used for flowers, our 2014 CSA, subscriptions and classes. A perfect gift for the flower enthusiast or locavore in your life!

Local Color Flowers is so excited to announce our first holiday pop-up market- Maker’s Alley!

This is going to be such a fun event and the perfect place to purchase unique holiday gifts! Our AWESOME vendors include Rat Czar, Priya Means Love, Two Back Flats, Charm City Cook, Snark Machine, Highway to Hill, Kinderhook Snacks, and Byrdie!

Be sure to buy local this holiday season! See you soon!

MAKE TRIBE

Make Tribe: By Carling A.W. Elder

A few weeks ago, I met up with two lovely ladies to join a discussion about how Local Color Flowers could help grow creative conversation in our Baltimore community by teaching a terrarium class. As Lindsay Hite and Jessica D’Argenio Waller shared their vision for their newest project, Make Tribe, I grew more and more excited. Make Tribe would be a series of seasonal workshops for the sole purpose of sharing expertise, forging relationships, and feeding inspiration, and as we chatted I thought,  “It’s happening!” This event is already encouraging creative conversation between us, and it hasn’t even begun! Naturally, Local Color Flowers jumped at the chance to partner with Make Tribe.

As Lindsay and Jessica had explained, each Make Tribe event would be lead by a creative professional or “Partner” who wanted to share their expertise, but it wouldn’t be a class or lecture where you merely heard about their artform. Each event would be a workshop where you worked with your hands, got dirty, and took home a souvenir and a new skill. These parameters were of course a perfect fit for a terrarium class, and for Local Color Flowers since we love getting our hands dirty!

The day of Make Tribe’s inaugural event, I showed up at the venue with trays of gorgeous locally grown succulents from Farmhouse Plants and Flowers in Brookeville, Maryland. Lindsay and Jess had the venue decorated to perfection with pretty signs, hanging garlands, chic cocktails, and Make Tribe souvenir booklets.

 

Three long tables were set up in the middle of the room lined with supplies for building the terrariums. Waiting at each place setting was a different glass vessel, and as guests trickled in, they claimed their favorite one.

 

I loved sharing my knowledge of terrariums with all the creative spirits who attended this event. The enthusiasm of every participant was supportive and infectious, and the conversational  manner of the class opened the door for many questions, comments, and new friendships to form. Everyone’s personalities shone through in the terrariums they created; from which color succulents they choose, to the shape of their vessel, to the figurines and accents they added.

Special thanks to Lindsay Hite of Make Tribe for these beautiful photos. To see more photos from the class take a look at our flickr site!

It was truly wonderful to see such creativity blossoming all around, and to play a small part in bringing Make Tribe to life.

Upcoming Design Classes at Local Color Flowers

We’ve finally got our class schedule up for the 2nd half of 2013! Taking a design class at Local Color Flowers is a super fun way to get creative and learn about floral design, green design practices,  locally grown flowers and the farmers that grow them. 

We’ve got seasonal classes, terrarium making classes, wreath making classes and more!

Come with a friends or make some new ones. Everyone gets to take home their creation at the end of class.

Sign up today!

Summer Bouquet - flowers that love the heat
Farmer's Market Centerpiece - you can't get more local

Terrific Terrariums - Baltimore meets Portlandia
Pump up your Pumpkin - a great pumpkin design Charlie Brown

Thanksgiving Centerpiece - make a pilgrimage to our studio for this festive class
Wreath Making - locoflo style

Holiday Terrarium - a twist on the Terrarium class
Holiday Centerpiece - even Martha would be jealous

For additional information, email Ellen at ellen@locoflo.com

Hope to see you at LoCoFlo soon!

Mother’s Day Rocks!

Only 2 weeks until Mother’s Day and LoCoFlo is excited to offer all sorts of goodies for special moms in your life.

Sending a beautiful, locally grown flower arrangement is a great gift for Mother’s Day. Local Color Flowers will head out to local flower farms and pick up May’s best blooms. With the weather being so weird this season…that could include some early season peonies! 

If you love local flowers and want to share them throughout the seasons, you can give the gift of a Flower Subscription. Subscription members will get flowers every season, every month or every week (your choice!)  This is a perfect way to enjoy the bounty that Maryland has to offer throughout the year!

If you really want to give a gift that keeps on giving…how about an herb garden or terrarium made with locally grown herbs and succulents?

To find our more or to place an order, head over to our website and fill out an order form. Deliveries or pick ups available on Friday, May 11 or Saturday, May 12. Get your order in today!

Terrarium Love at Cylburn Arboretum

On Sunday morning between flower deliveries, I headed over to Cylburn for an amazing morning of terrarium building. Tovah Martin, the author of The New Terrarium was on hand to teach and guide us.  I knew Tovah and I were kindred spirits when early on in her presentation she said “You think you’re here today to make a terrarium, you’re wrong. You’re here to change the world!”. Way to think big!

Tovah was an inspiring speaker who is intensely passionate about her work. She spoke of the positive impact terrariums can have on people that are experiencing nature deficit disorder (which is most of us, whether we know it or not!). She also was very clear that terrariums are an expression of your own creativity and artistic mojo (her words!).

After about an hour of instruction and history on terrariums, we got started.

We started with gravel and charcoal mixed together to encourage good drainage. Next came about 1-2 inches of African Violet potting soil. 

Then came the plants. There were mosses and begonias and all sorts of other goodies. One thing that Tovah said, that I thought was interesting was NOT to use succulents in terrariums. She said while you often see them in photos in terrariums, they don’t live very long and aren’t suitable for the terrarium’s environment.

I chose my plants, dug them good and then covered them with some moss and other found items like acorns, bark and twigs.

Finally, I gave it a little water and popped the top on. I’ll open it up in a few weeks to give it some air and a little more water. Other than that, it maintains itself.

Tovah was no nonsense in her message. She made the class take an oath to share what we learned with others. Be on the lookout for LoCoFlo terrarium making classes in 2012!

Terrariums Part 1: Bits of Nature Under Glass

I’ve been wanting to try to make terrariums for a while. This weekend I assembled everything I would need to start some simple, fun terrariums. First, I picked out some vases/vessels that I thought might work. The only real requirement for a terrarium vessel is that it be glass. It can have a lid or no lid-both work.

I didn’t realize when I chose them that most of these vessels are pretty small. So Part 1 of my terrarium adventure was making SMALL terrariums.  Large terrariums will come next.

I bought most of my materials (sand, charcoal, soil, stones) at Valley View Farms in Hunt Valley. In addition to the purchased materials, I foraged for material (bark, pine cones, moss, twigs, rocks) in the yard, in my neighborhood on my evening walk and on this weekend’s bike ride.

The plants (air plants, succulents, ice plant, begonias came from Valley View, Breidenbaugh Farm, Plant Masters and from my yard.

So…this was my first terrarium. I loved it because it was made in a traditional “fish bowl”vase  filled with two types of sand, several kinds of stone and one lovely/lush succulent. Simple but very cool!  

This was my fave! I feel like a Killers song should be playing in the background!

This one would look great on a mantle with candles and other potted pieces.

This is a woodland scene inspired by our bike ride/hike through Robert E Lee park today. The cube is filled with blackened charcoal and sand and is planted with several types of moss.

I got this vase at Ikea years ago and it was always to skinny to use for much. This is a great little spot of nature to put on a window sill or office desk.

I had to use at least one Ball jar. This was a short, squat one filled with charcoal, moss and bark.

This was the last terrarium of the day. It was in a sideways spice jar filled with sand, bark, stones and moss.

I’m really excited about these terrariums because I think they are going to be great for centerpieces, home or office decor or for gifts. They’re customizable and require little to no watering. What could better? Who wants one?