Visiting Longwood Gardens

I can’t believe Tuesday was my first visit to Longwood Gardens! I have lived in Baltimore for 11 years and I can emphatically say…I was missing out! I feel so fortunate that I live so close to these absolutely amazing gardens.

Longwood Gardens, located just outside Kennet Square PA, is just 72 short miles from Baltimore. Longwood Gardens was purchased by Pierre S. du Pont in 1905 as a way to protect it’s trees from being cut for lumber. Today, it encompasses over 1050 acres of gardens, woods, fountains, meadows, waterfalls and an incredible Conservatory.

So much of it reminded me of the gardens at Versailles.

I was there for fun-but also for a little networking and learning. Tuesday was the Mid Atlantic Regional Meeting of the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers. It’s always great to spend time with the growers and great to learn more about what they’re growing and how they’re growing. There were great presentations about mini, colored calla lilies, dahlias, grasses as cut flowers and post harvest care.

I can’t wait to go back again!

Real Weddings: Jane Ann and Kent

I met Jane Ann and Kent at Flowermart last year.

They came over to our booth and told us they were engaged (they were GLOWING) and that they really wanted to use as many small, local businesses as they could for their wedding.

A few months later, Jane Ann called and said she was  ready to talk flowers. We had a great breakfast together at Miss Shirley’s where we found out that we were both from Western New York- me from Buffalo and her from Batavia-just a few miles up the road.

Jane Ann wanted to use lots of bright spring colors for her flowers. The only stipulation-no orange!

 

The Bride’s bouquet was made up of brightly colored snapdragons, tulips, mini calla lilies and ranunculus. All of the flowers came from Farmhouse Flowers and Van Dyke Brothers Farm (and hosta leaves from my garden!)

For the table arrangements, we decided we wanted clear glass/crystal vases since the wedding was taking place at Coradetti Glass Studio. After some thrift store shopping, Jane Ann invited me over to look at some of her mother’s antique crystal vases. We decided that they would be a perfect fit. It was especially great because each vase was so unique-it really added alot to the arrangements.

   

 

One other great thing about this wedding, besides meeting Jane Ann and Kent were all of the  great vendors I was able to meet that worked on this wedding include the fab Beej Flamholz, chef extraordinaire; Jill Andrews and Sara Mathes from Jill Andrews Gowns who made Jane Ann’s beautiful dress, Jennifer Graves of Sky Blue Events and Greg Sileo who provided me with these great photos!

This pictures says it all! It’s definitely my favorite of the day!Wishing Jane Ann and Kent many years of happiness and joy together!

Real Weddings: Jeff and Mariko

Jeff and Mariko were married on a cool, clear, April afternoon at Irvine Nature Center. When I met with them over the winter, they described the style and feel they were trying to create for their wedding-simple, natural, beautiful. They wanted to stick with whites and greens and were excited to use a variety of herbs for both the wedding party flowers and the table arrangements.

  The Bride’s bouquet was made up of white snapdragons with great green tips, white ranunculus, a few early, hothouse peonies, white freesia, sweet peas and white tulips. The flowers came from Farmhouse Flowers and Van Dyke Brothers Farm.

The groom’s boutonniere was made with a single white freesia and a fresh sprig of rosemary.

  After the ceremony, the couple and their family and friends enjoyed dinner and dancing at Linwoods in Owings Mills. The tables were decorated with sweet and savory scented potted herbs (my favorite was the pineapple sage) from Farmhouse Flowers.

Thanks so much to one of my fave photographers Jocelyn Mathewes for sharing her beautiful images with me.

Congratulations to Jeff and Mariko! Much happiness and joy to both of you!

Real Weddings: Emily and Jon

When I met Emily, and later Jon, I immediately knew that these were people that would be great to work with. Emily wanted a very colorful, natural feel for her flowers. She wanted bright spring colors that would complement the beautiful melon dresses the girls were wearing. She especially wanted to incorporate orange-in all shades (which made me SO happy-since as you know…I’m partial to orange!)

  The bride’s bouquet was was made up of gerber daisies, lilies, tulips, mini calla lilies, ranunculus and snapdragons-all in vibrant spring colors. The wedding party flowers were from Farmhouse Flowers and Van Dyke Brothers Farm.

These girls all looked so beautiful! I especially loves the buttery yellow gerbers they wore in their hair!

And the bride was just stunning!

The groom’s boutonniere was made of a single, white mini calla lily.

One especially great part of the wedding was the table arrangements. Each of the over 20 table arrangements were unique and showcased the most beautiful poppies and sweet peas from Wollam Gardens!

  Jen and I had so much fun making and setting up these tables.

And the cake! I can’t leave out the cake! Jen did a great job of decorating the cake.

And the couple did a great job of having a super cute cake topper made in their likeness. I especially love that the bride on the cake topper is holding a bouquet that looks just like the bouquet we made for Emily!

Thanks so much to Red Rose Photography for the absolutely gorgeous photos of the bouquets and wedding party. You make us look good!

Congratulations to Emily and Jon! Here’s wishing you all the happiness in the world! Couples like you are what make this the best “job” around!

Tim and Lianne: A Sneak Peak at the Flowers

I always try to wait to get the photographers pictures from the wedding to post on the blog. But you know what…I don’t want to wait! I’ll still post the “Real Weddings” stories when I get the photographers pictures, but I’m starting a “sneak peak” post to give you an early look at the flowers and weddings we’re working on.

Lianne and Tim’s wedding took place today at Irvine Nature Center in Owings Mills. Despite the CRAZY winds, it was an absolutely beautiful day!

Orange Ranunculus at Farmhouse Flowers. We used these in the arrangements and in the bride’s bouquet.

Bob Wollam, Owner of Wollam Gardens posing at his stand at the Penn Quarter Farmers Market. I picked up delphinium, bachelor buttons, poppies, curly willow and viburnum from him. I LOVED visiting with Bob. He’s awesome!

Boutonnieres. Rosemary and a little hen and chicks succulent.

The girls bouquets: Solomon's seal, spearmint, rose geranium, gerber daisies, snap dragons and bachelor buttons.

The Bride’s Bouquet.

At Irvine.

Sunny-but WINDY!

The tables were all different for this picnic themed wedding.  We used mason jars, tin buckets and lemonade carafes.

Thanks to Marina and Carla for all of their help this weekend! More photos to come!

The Dilemma of Mother’s Day

Today I read that 1.9 billion  dollars is spent on Mother’s Day flowers in the US every year. That is a lot of flowers. If you live in Baltimore or DC or any of the surrounding counties and your mom or gram or anyone else you may want to buy flowers for lives close by, you have SO MANY OPTIONS for buying locally grown flowers for them. 

• You can check out the Local Harvest website for a farmers market close to you. There are markets all weekend so get out there and support your local farmers.
• You can go to the Whole Foods and choose the “locally grown” cut flowers
• You can go to a local nursery and buy potted flowers that can be planted in a garden.

But what if your mom doesn’t live in Baltimore. What if she lives at the beach in a little town in Florida-20 miles from a real town and 45 miles away from a city.

Here are the options I’ve explored:

I looked in the ASCFG Buyer’s Guide to see if there were any farmers near there that might be able to deliver a flower arrangement. There was only ONE Florida grower listed. Cheney Farm in O’Brien, Florida. It was 172 miles away and they don’t ship.

I looked up florists in Clearwater (closest big town) and in Indian Rocks (the small town where she lives). I even called a couple to see if they had local flowers. None said they did.

There is Organic Bouquet.  They are an online company specializing in organic flowers for bouquets and for DIY’ers. They have Eco Standards, they buy organic-but most of their products are coming from outside of the country (as far as I could tell from the website). I could NOT tell where the actual arrangements were being shipped from.

And then, there is the option of not sending her flowers. (I’ll be visiting her next week-so I could take her out to dinner or something like that-but it’s not the same as flowers).

I’ve got to make my decision soon, since my mom’s birthday is Saturday and Mother’s Day is Sunday.

What would you do?

It’s Time for the Sunday Market!

I love the Sunday market. I would even go so far as to say-it’s my favorite market. Of course it has it’s downsides-no sunlight since it’s under a highway, it’s not year round, it feels sort of gritty…but so what!  I love it.

I love that all kinds of people in this still semi-segregated city of Baltimore come to shop at the market. It’s one of the few places you can hear several languages being spoken in the same place…Russian, Chinese, Spanish, English. And everyone is eating! Falafel, croissants, tacos, omelets, smoothies, Thai food …it doesn’t matter what time it is…people are eating!

At the Sunday market you are sure to see your friends, neighbors, colleagues and more. For me, it’s the perfect weekend social time with my friends. This morning, Marina and I met at Zeke’s stand for coffee and then made the rounds….asparagus, strawberries, chard, ciabatta, eggs…and pickles. We shopped till we ran out of money-and couldn't carry any more food.  After a busy week, it’s the perfect way to catch up.

And of course…who doesn’t love the bean man! Thank goodness for the bean man. I had to buy a freezer for the basement just to keep all of my frozen beans.

While there isn’t a cut flower grower at the market-that doesn’t mean that there aren’t cut flowers. There loads of produce farmers that bring bright, beautiful, cut field flowers…some of my favorites are the cosmos and gomphrena, snapdragons and dahlias.

It’s also, weirdly enough, a place that makes me feel really proud of Baltimore. I can’t really put my finger on it. The best way to explain it is to describe one of my favorite days at the Market-Opening Day of Ravens Football. That Sunday morning in early September is usually cool…it feels like it’s time for football. It feels like a relief after such a hot summer. Everyone at the market is wearing Ravens gear…they are hopeful, excited…happy…and they are buying vegetables, and cheese and coffee for their football parties. It’s one morning that everyone feels proud to be from Baltimore.

So if you haven’t been-the Sunday market is open Sundays, from 7-noon, under the JFX. Definitely check it out! And look for the LoCoRoll…and say hi!