Unexpected: Green

I love working with all flowers, but I especially love it when the unexpected comes along.

My bride of early April, Liz, wanted something a little bit different. Her favorite flower is trick dianthus - unusual as its bloom is completely green and fuzzy - and she wanted her flowers not to be flowers, but greens. Lots and lots of greens with touches of the most beautiful yellow freesia. For the bouquets, I added orange ranunculus to the bridesmaids and white spray roses and vendela roses to the bridal, the latter featuring the trick dianthus.

The visual impact was quite striking and very fresh looking - what a lovely idea for spring!

Workshop: Ode to Spring

Happy Mother's Day! I hope everyone who celebrates this day in some form or another has had a wonderful day. I celebrated doing what I love most - working in my garden.  Such gorgeous weather!

Anyway, it's been a very busy month for me - April simply flew by and I intend to post all that I have been up to for the past four weeks - so please be patient!

First up is actually my most recent endeavor - last Wednesday evening I was so happy to be asked to lead a workshop at St. David's Golf Club. Over the course of two hours, I demonstrated a host of ideas for springtime arranging, using a vast array of materials - all types of flowers, greens, and even fruits and vegetables - as well as some more unusual, unexpected materials such as scented geraniums, french lavender, veronica, buplurum, thistle, dusty miller, thyme, and rosemary.

Each participant then created her own lush masterpiece, using the prettiest of spring flowers - peonies, concador lilies, pink spray roses, marlise roses, larkspur, stock, delphinium, snapdragon, viburnum, hydrangea, and ranunculus.

Thank you for such a fun evening. Have a look at all that we did in two hours - so much creativity in one room! (Thank you as well to some of the members for contributing their photos.)

Individual buckets of flowers for each participant

Getting ready

Some of the materials I used 

Dusty miller, hydrangea, and ranunculus

Peony perfection

Parrot tulips and trick dianthus

Talking about using warm and cool colors in an arrangement

Before 

and after - succulents, orchids, moss, and river rock for your terrace

Acid green athos and sweet william pop against the vintage blue glass

A fun look for a party - see the strawberries? Strew them down your table.

Before

and after. Unexpected springtime kissing balls - one herb, one moss and daisies

Star of Bethlehem and ranunculus

Asparagus containers - add the Star of Bethlehem from above to complete the look

Moss purse - pink and green

Moss purse with veronica, herbs, and purple tulips

Designing an arrangement in an urn

The work of the participants

Each designing their own masterpiece

Lots of fun!