Design Classes at Butterbee Farm!

We are beyond excited to announce an upcoming collaboration with our friends at Butterbee Farm! This summer, Local Color Flowers will be offering two design classes AT Butterbee Farm in Pikesville. What could be more fun…visiting a flower farm, meeting the farmer, cutting and choosing your own flower  and learning to create beautiful designs with those flowers!

Our first class will be our Mid-Summer Head Wreath Class on Saturday, July 26 at 11am. Attendees will choose blooms and foliage and learn to create whimsical, natural head wreaths and other floral hair pieces. Everyone will get to take their head wreath home! (thanks to Readyluck for the gorgeous head wreath photo)

Our second class will be our Down on the Farm Summer Centerpiece Class. The farm will be in full swing in August and all our attendees will choose blooms, herbs, and foliage to create a beautiful centerpiece to take home.

Sign up today! Happy Summer!

Buying Local, Making a Difference

Those of you who know us, know we talk A LOT about importance of buying local. The reality is, it’s not just talk. As a small business, we are committed to spending the dollars our clients give us in a way that supports our local growers and our local community.

We wanted to share with you some analysis on our spending this year.

Local Growers: We spent 49% of our income last year on buying flowers, foliage, branches and plants from local farmers. (up from 38% last year!) We purchased flowers from 21 flower farms this year (up from 17 last year)

We’re especially proud to say that 2% of our farm dollars went to farmers inside BALTIMORE CITY! While this may not seem significant…it’s HUGE! This is the first year we have ever had flower farmers inside Baltimore City. Thanks you to all of our growers! We hope to give you even more business in 2014!

Locally owned, small businesses: 19% of our total income was spent on small, locally owned businesses. Using our hard earned dollars in our own community is important to us. We love our local business partners including Carma’s, CVP, Charm City Cook, Kinderhook, Chesapeake Wine Company, the Food Market, Apothecary Wellness and many many more.

Local Designer: 15% of our total income went to pay our amazing TEAM! Our designers and delivery helpers are locavores themselves that love Baltimore and love to support local business.

Chain Stores in our Neighborhood: 12% of our income was spent at chain stores in our neighborhood. While these businesses (Waverly Giant,  Waverly Ace,  Govans Carroll Fuel etc) are not locally owned, they are located in our community and employ local folks.

Non-local business: The last 4% of our income was spent at non-local businesses. Most of this money was spent on vases, our new wreath maker and other floral supplies.

Buying local is an important way to show support for your neighbors and your community. As a small Baltimore business, Local Color Flowers will continue to buy local, support small businesses and farms, employ local designers and strive to make an even more positive impact on our community. 2014 is going to be awesome!

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.

Learning with Love ’n Fresh Flowers

On Sunday, I took a drive up to Philadelphia to visit my friend Jennie of Love ’n Fresh Flowers and attend a class at her farm. Despite the heat, I couldn’t wait to walk around and see everything. Some flowers were familiar, others I coveted (I cant lie) especially a bright red scabiosa that was to die for! What a beautiful farm Jennie has. You can tell that it was planted and is maintained with love and passion.

The class was called “Mastering the Wildflower Look”. After everyone arrived, Jennie took us on a tour of the farm explaining what it’s like to be a flower farmer/designer. I’m always inspired by farmers because I know how hard farming can be (heat, rain, bugs, wind, unpredictable circumstances) and that many people take for granted all of what farmers provide for us.

After the tour, Jennie demonstrated her design technique and then sent us off to make our own creations.

I enjoyed practicing my hand at a very wild style since we don’t use this style that often. My design included baptisia foliage, feverfew, coreopsis and those gorgeous red scabiosa in a little pizza sauce can.

I was happy to meet so many great people all of whom were excited about using locally grown flowers in their designs. I was also so happy to sit in the shade after the class and talk with my friend about business and strategy and technique and plans…it’s these talks that make me so grateful to be part of an amazing community of local growers and designers. I couldn’t do what  I do without them.

To see some more photos from the trip, check out our flickr page and Jennie’s blog about the day.

Looking forward to being able to return to Love ’n Fresh Flowers real soon!