New Galleries

Hi! Just a quick note - I have four new galleries up on my Website. I have a LOT more photos I am hoping to get from other weddings very soon, but in the meantime, please have a look at the newest portfolios!

Tish Long Flowers - Galleries

You'll see thumbnail photographs on the left side;  the four new albums are at the bottom of the page - Anna, Diana, Danielle, and Melissa.

Enjoy! And many thanks to these brides - I loved doing your wedding flowers!

Tish

Designing for a Crowd

Whether you have four or four hundred to your table for a celebration, I think there is nothing as beautiful - or necessary - as flowers for your centerpieces. Of course, you may say I am biased, but believe me when I say that flowers make the visual design of your table come alive more than any other element, whether your space is large or small.

So last week, when I created the flower arrangements at Waynesborough Country Club, I had this concept in mind - how could I make the greatest impact in this huge space? There was a 40-foot table set up for the main buffet, three other huge buffets scattered around the rooms, and 35 tiny vases. In addition, they asked me to use a cornucopia for the main centerpiece.

Designing on a large scale can be fun, and I wanted to create a variety of harvest-themed arrangements for the members to enjoy as they celebrated Thanksgiving. When one designs big, the challenge is to create a visual impact both from far away and up close - it sounds simple, but it's not. Too much material or color can look junky and messy from far away, and too little has no interest up close. I also had to design 'in the round' - the main piece would been seen from all sides.

So I chose a few colors - reds, purples, greens, and hints of oranges and yellows for a good, far-away impact - and used gilded fruits, branches, berries, vegetables, pods, moss, and gilded wheat to create the detail and delight up-close.

For flowers, I used purple stocks, bells of Ireland, solidaster, Freedom roses, Milva roses, yellow lilies, orange lilies, white, orange, and yellow snapdragon, trick dianthus, and green cymbidium orchids. It was a fun event to work on, and I loved the chance to create a variety of looks within a single theme. Enjoy!

Main buffet -

To give you a sense of the space in which I was working -

A collar of gilded wheat for the cornucopia -

A side view of the buffet -

A rear view -

The other side view -

One of the three additional buffet pieces - lots of pods and branches -

Green apples always look so fresh -

A shot of one of the vases for the tables -

A Last Look at Fall

As we ease into the winter months, I wanted to be sure I posted some photos of the Thanksgiving work I did last week. I know many are already decking the halls and putting out Christmas lights, but I believe in granting each season and holiday its due - why rush? Half of the fun is the anticipation!

So, with that, here's a look at the flowers I did last week for a Thanksgiving dinner in a private home. The 32-foot long table was set for thirty with an adjoining children's table. I simply love the grace of this dining room - it's perfectly designed for entertaining and the table linens, chairs, and flowers complemented the wall color and rug beautifully. What a wonderful home in which to celebrate Thanksgiving!

I used white and green Fresca hydrangea, three varieties of hypericum berry, Milva roses, Terracotta roses, brown cymbidium orchids, cockscomb, gilded wheat, and pheasant feathers - all cushioned in loads of seeded eucalyptus - to create a lush, berried, autumnal look. My client wanted it to be elegant, and I think the effect was amazing!

I also created two other large pieces - one for the kitchen and one for the front hall - where I added thistle, lilies, curly willow, Bells of Ireland, orange snapdragon, and a pop of solidaster - both in silver containers.

Last, but not least, I arranged two small pieces for the powder room of roses and freesia - I always think that flowers in the powder room are a wonderful touch. One's guests do appreciate them! 

Enjoy the lushness of fall! 

Front hall - a bit blurred!

Kitchen -

Powder room -

Christening Party

A few weeks ago, I received a phone call from one of my brides of last year, Alexis. She was calling to ask me to do the flowers for her new baby daughter's christening, and I was thrilled to do it!

Alexis wanted the flowers to be feminine (in honor of her daughter) but not bridal - so I selected white hydrangea, pale pink ranunculus, birch branches, and green moss all arranged delicately in tall mercury glass vases. We also used a number of mercury glass votives as well as some vintage mercury glass and etageres of Alexis'.

On a crisp, bright November morning, the effect was soft and inviting. Guests gathered around a roaring fire at George's in Wayne for some cocktails before they moved onto a cosy lunch in front of the sunny windows. What a wonderful way to celebrate the baby girl on her big day!

Putting the Garden to Bed

Although I love each of the four seasons, I am always a little sad when summer is over and my garden gradually fades away until the first hard frost. I don't cut back my garden aggressively like I used to - rather, I let each flower and plant live on and reseed until each has finished its work for the year. Last winter, my Queen Elizabeth rose bloomed on December 1!

As of today, my Russian Sage is still going strong (it loves the cooler weather) and my angel wing begonias are tall and rangy but hanging on. My flowering maple behaves as if it's still June, and many of my other perennials have reseeded and are beginning to brown and crumple.

I'm wintering over vast amounts of scented geraniums - at least 8 varieties - as well as some of my specimen begonias. Live plants and flowers are essential to any home, but especially to a home in winter.

Here are a few shots of my garden in mid-August. (I'll be back again soon as I have a lot of work to show you!) Enjoy this last look at summer -

A type of anenome - it doesn't bloom until August and it has a tendency to take over the garden if I'm not especially careful. I like to call it the "Jurassic Park" plant because it gets so huge!

Tweedia-

A variety of native Lobelia -

My beloved windowboxes - filled with coleus, scented geraniums, and angel wing begonias -

More begonias -

I love old-fashioned flowers and vines, such as the morning glory. I have this all over the various garden walls -

The moonvine plant - I love it! It has these enormous, Georgia O'Keefe-like blossoms and it blooms at dusk. It's now pretty brown and dried out, but I am glad I have these photos -