Spring is Here!

When I think of Spring flowers, I think of ranunculus and anemones and poppies and eventually peonies. There are so many showy favorites that bloom in the Spring that it’s easy to over look on the poster child of spring…the daffodil.

These double daffodils from John at Locust Point are so perfect for the start of Spring.  They are big, bright, ruffely and they make people so happy! .Happy Spring everyone! If you want to celebrate with locally grown flowers email us today!

Mother’s Day Week At Local Color Flowers

Mother’s Day is just around the corner and there are SO many great options for gifts involving locally grown flowers this year!

Moms love flowers (doesn’t everyone??)! Order your Mother’s Day bouquet or arrangement today! All bouquets and arrangements are made with locally grown cut flowers from farms within 100 miles of Baltimore! Delivery is available in Baltimore City on Friday May 9. You can also pick your order up at our Charles Village Studio Friday from 9-5pm and Saturday from 8am –noon.

While a single arrangement is awesome, maybe your mom would like the gift that keeps on giving! A subscription to our 2014 Local Flower CSA! The CSA begins in June. Members receive 10 bouquets over 5 months. It’s an amazing way to experience the changing of seasons with flowers!

If your mom really loves flowers, how about signing her up for one of our design classes! Attendees get to learn more about locally grown flowers along with designing an arrangement to take home and enjoy.

If you’re out and about and want to pick some flowers up on the go this week, Carling will be out at the Union Memorial Farmer’s Market this Wednesday from 11am-1:30pm. This is a great opportunity to pick up a wrapped bouquet, a locally grown plant and much more.

Our friends at Chesapeake Wine Company in Canton will also be selling wrapped bouquets starting Thursday afternoon. These babies go fast so be sure to get over there early!

Beginning Friday, Green Spring Station Celebrates Mother's Day with complimentary local flowers from Local Color Flowers.  Stop in any boutique and receive one beautiful stem – shop many stores and make a collection or, enjoy just one. One per customer at each store and available while supplies last Friday and Saturday (May 9 and 10).

Like I said…lots of great options! Happy Spring!

Spring Design Class at Local Color Flowers

On Sunday, we hosted our first design class in our new space! It was so much fun to have folks in the shop getting their hands on flowers!

We started out with snacks picked up from the Sunday market including pastries from Chez G and Infused Spreads, treats from the Mallow Bar and the most wonderful salted caramel brownies EVER- from Charm City Cook.

After snacks, I gave a brief over view of some design techniques that we use here at LoCoFlo. We usually start with a base-branches, foliage, herbs etc. Then we go to our focal flowers-our WOW flowers. Then finally-all the other bits and pieces the help an arrangement move. We talked a little about color palettes, orientation and scale. Then-I introduced the flowers. This week we had crabapple, sand cherry, wild mustard, red bud, lilies, tulips (in all different shapes and sizes), daffodils, anemones, gerbers, ranunculus and curly willow.

Of course we talked about the awesome local farms that contributed flowers to our class that day (Farmhouse Flowers, Plant Masters, Lynn Vale Studios, Locust Point Flowers, Belvedere Farm and the brand new Castillo Flower Farm).

Once everyone picked their flowers-the creative magic began! Everyone made gorgeous spring arrangements in a variety of color palettes.  The arrangements turned out so beautiful!

Here are a couple examples!

Carling even took a little video!

We’re definitely looking forward to more classes in the future! Keep an eye out for a schedule of upcoming classes and events.  We hope to see you soon!

Just Like I Imagined

For years, I imagined LoCoFlo having a home of it’s own where we could have plenty of fabulous space to work. I day dreamed about space to have consultations and pop-up markets and open houses and design classes.

Well, this weekend, it was just like I imagined. Friday, Carling, Irene, Laura Beth and I worked on a variety of fun projects including 2 weddings, arrangements for Kale A Rama, Lululemon, Apothecary Wellness and…the BGE guy (yes-the bge guy came to read the meter and ordered flowers to take home at the end of the day!).

(thanks to our friends at Balance Photography for photos of our kale arrangements!)

Saturday, we opened up the garage door while the Waverly Market was in full swing and sold herb and succulent gardens.

We also chit chatted with lots of friends and neighbors who stopped by to see what was inside “that green striped building”.

Finally today, we hosted our first design class in our new space! It was so much fun welcoming folks in to try their hand at floral design.

All of the arrangements turned out so beautifully! Here’s one example of a finished arrangement.

Spending the weekend working is pretty awesome when this is the kind of work you get to do!

Making A Pomander-Without Floral Foam

As some of you know, Local Color Flowers made a New Year’s resolution to give up floral foam this year. Last week, we had a new floral foam free design challenge-flower girl pomanders.

A floral pomander, or kissing ball is a basically a ball of flowers that is carried on a ribbon “strap” like a purse. Normally, we would use a little floral foam ball, soaked in water, filled with flowers with a ribbon attached.

The end result would look something like this.

To tackle this design challenge, I first posted a note on the Flower Farmers facebook group. This is a relatively new group made up of flower farmers, designers and enthusiasts. My post elicited lots of suggestions and comments which was super helpful. I was surprised and how many people had tried inventive, creative ways to make pomanders.

I took the ideas to the studio with me and posed the challenge to Carling and Irene. Our idea was basic-find something round that we could poke flowers into or glue flowers to.

 

This hodge podge group of materials represents some of the items we tried: an apple, a tulip bulb, a ball of boxwood rigged together and a wired ball of moss.

After a couple attempts, we settled on a little ball of crumpled up soft, aluminum wire stuffed with moss. we then used oasis floral glue to glue the ranunculus on to the moss.

The end result looked great!

For improvements, I think we would try to just use a ball of moss or something that could be totally composted.  Overall though, I think we were excited about the results.

If anyone else has made pomanders without using floral foam, I’d love to hear about your experience and any suggestions you have for floral foam free projects.

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!