Imagine my surprise and absolute delight when wandering Salem, Oregon’s Saturday Market last weekend with my sweetie, we encountered this smiling, soft-spoken floral magician. Mary Dean grows color and magic on two fertile acres along the Willamette River in Buena Vista, Oregon. She has been making a life she loves, growing and selling her flowers from there for nearly thirty years.
Her artful pairings of texture and shade and hue were so unlike any of the other flower stalls selling bouquets that day that I just couldn’t help but stop and drink them in. And then, since this had been intended solely as a runaway weekend (rather than a working one), and because I had not at all been expecting to stumble on such profound magic, I needed to walk several blocks back to my parked car to retrieve my point and shoot camera before introducing myself, acquainting her with our project and asking permission to photograph her with some of her floral offerings.
In daily life, this is what is known as a BONUS!
Samplings of a few of Mary's, sensitive, textured, flower-wise bouquets.
And now a chance to meet Mary Dean in person: a quick little handheld video visit in her booth at the Salem Saturday Market.
A summer bouquet, created with ingredients from the West Seattle Farmers' Market
Now that I’m back in Seattle, I have an abundance of choice when it comes to local Farmers’ Markets, operating both seasonal and year ’round.
Yesterday being Sunday, we visited our neighborhood West Seattle Farmers’ Marketand sought out Jan Roozen of Choice Bulb Farms. Jan is a good friend of David’s and he’s previously featured a video interview with Jan. He shared his knowledge about daffodil post-harvest techniques, which to date has been one of our most-viewed video interviews. It was a treat to finally meet him and spend some time with this charming flower farmer.
Jan shares his vast knowledge with regular customers each Sunday.
After drooling over the amazing selection of flowers from Jan’s farm in Skagit Valley north of Seattle, I came home with an armload of stems, blooms and sprays.
Fresh-from-the-field, these flowers inspired me to make a summer bouquet. I hope you enjoy this textural design in shades of apricot, cream, lemon, lavender and bluish purple.
Before I tell you how much it cost to create this floral design, I invite you to submit your guess!
If you bought this from a high-end flower shop, how much do you think you’d spend?
The reader who comes closest to guessing the correct price wins a set of note cards from my book, Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways. Entry deadline continues through Thursday, August 12th at 5 p.m. Pacific. Post your vote below.
Here is how the design came together, step-by-step:
Step One: 10 stems of Solidago 'Yellow Submarine'
Step Two: Add 20 stems of Brodiaea coronaria, cut at two different heights for variety.
Step Three: Add 10 creamy white Dahlia 'Moonraker' stems.
Step Four: Insert a dozen foxtail lilies (Eremurus x isabellinus). This variety is a Shelford hybrid.
Step Five: Add a trio of 'Globemaster' alliums.
Step Six: Place several clusters of five stems of drumstick allium (Allium sphaerocephalum) for contrast to accent the bouquet's lighter colors.
The last step: Enjoy! Remember to change the vase water every day or so to keep it fresh. And it’s a good idea to trim the bottom of the stems when you change the water to extend the life of the flowers.
Contest Update: We received lots of guesses on Facebook, as well as a few on this page so I’ve decided to send a set of notecards to two winners:
Rama Nayeri, freelance garden writer and owner of Creations Landscape Designs, an Orange County-based firm, accurately guessed that I spent $30 on these flowers – congratulations! (and I know that Jan Roozen was super-generous, charging me just $30 when I’m sure he should have asked for at least $45).
Jennie Love, owner of Love ‘n Fresh Flowers, a Philadelphia-based floral studio, a market grower and member of the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers, wagered that this would be a $100 bouquet from a flower shop and that you’d spend $150 at a high-end shop for an arrangement with these wonderful ingredients.
The former first daughter chooses an organic bouquet
Organic gardenias for a beautiful bride, de Manio Photography
On July 31st, Chelsea Clinton wed her longtime beau Marc Mezvinsky. All you have to do is type “Chelsea Clinton Wedding Bouquet” into the Internet search field and up pops hundreds of posts about her choice of organic and natural flowers.
This is great news! It reflects a cultural shift among younger brides to request “green flowers” from their floral designers and event planners.
According to celebrity floral designer Jeff Leatham in the Aug. 16th issue of People, the bride and groom asked for “a lot of organic flowers: limelight hydrangeas, white roses, green parrot tulips.”
Leatham shared more floral details in an interview with US magazine: “It was very important [to Chelsea] to keep it organic and natural…The theme, floral wise, was organic, clean, simple and elegant.”
Chelsea carried ”a beautiful, clean, simple ball of Gardenias. The men had Freesia boutonnières,” Leatham added.
Chelsea’s flower choices are an inspiration for brides and their designers everywhere. On your special day, it’s even more important to let your flowers reflect your values and personal style. Organically-grown blooms are indeed the most soulful and sustainable choice!
Emily describes her frequent flower purchases at the weekend farmers’ market such as New York’s Greenmarket in Union Square. The love affair with tulips brought home and plunked in a vase – to be appreciated until “the petals all dropped off” – led to her interest in the art of floral arranging. She writes:
It turns out that I am not alone in wanting instruction: flower-arranging classes are on the upswing. Established institutions have long offered programs in traditional arranging, but newer schools, with a natural, free-form aesthetic, have begun popping up across the country, part of a swell of enthusiasm for things homemade.
We’re all about the “homemade” movement when it comes to floral design. A Fresh Bouquet takes it one step further — to encourage lovers of flowers, floral designers and growers of cutting gardens to start where it matters: using seasonal, local and sustainably-grown ingredients.
I spotted this cool sign in Chicago's West Town neighborhood.
While in Chicago earlier this week, I had the chance to meet Lynn Fosbender, owner of Pollen Inc., a sustainable floral design studio for weddings and events. She invited me to tag along as she shopped for flowers at a local farmer’s market. Afterwards, we returned to the Pollen studio, located in an old brick warehouse next to Chicago’s famous “El” trains.
Lynn Fosbender, designer and owner of Pollen Inc., a sustainable floral studio in Chicago, shops for locally-grown flowers at the farmer's market in her neighborhood.
Lynn’s design philosophy is influenced by both horticulture and ecology. With a B.A. in Horticulture and graduate studies in Restoration Ecology, you might wonder why Lynn ended up working with flowers.
Her career choice can be credited to a love for great design combined with extensive experience creating bouquets and arrangements for conventional florists (including a 4-year gig managing one of Chicago’s top retail flower shops). Yet even while working in the world of cutting edge floral design, Lynn knew wanted to use sustainable practices, something she hadn’t much observed in the industry.
“I was looking at all the stuff we were throwing away that should have been composted,” for example, she says. “For several years I thought I would like to own a full-service flower shop that was eco-friendly. I knew if anyone should do it, it should be me.”
Lynn’s vision was adopted by a group of MBA students at Loyola University business school who developed a business plan inspired by her ideas. Thus, Pollen Inc., was born last year.
For now at least Lynn has opted to launch her venture as a studio, rather than in a retail space. She laughs when confiding that her 400-square-foot apartment originally housed her “studio,” that is until she found and moved Pollen to a relatively spacious 500-square-foot warehouse space.
Lynn selected some gorgeous, locally-grown lilies for an upcoming wedding
After our early-morning farmer’s market stop, I followed Lynn back to the studio. With her arms filled with pale peach lilies, a bunch of verdant millet seedheads and dozens of brilliant sunflowers grown by a local Illinois flower farmer, Lynn led me upstairs to her light-filled loft-like space. She processed the flowers while we discussed her green philosophy, the challenges of keeping brides (and grooms) happy with their flower choices, and the future for sustainable flower design.
It’s no surprise to learn that local farmers who sell to Chicago area floral designers are limited by a growing season that ranges from May through October. Lynn acknowledges that in the colder months, she relies on the wholesale importers who bring Veriflora flowers to market (usually from California or South America). “Otherwise, I would be using twigs and moss -- that’s what’s local in the winter,” Lynn says with a grin. But then, she pauses and mentions a favorite local source for orchids -- a popular wedding flower that’s greenhouse grown. She thinks beyond the obvious path and seeks to find sustainable options -- even out of season.
“I try to offer people more eco-friendly alternatives; things they might not otherwise notice,” she explains.For example, Lynn avoids using oasis, glues, dyes or sprays, almost always using water-filled vases for arrangements. By offering an affordable vase-rental service for weddings and events, Lynn makes it easy for clients to make the eco-friendly choice.
She also promotes and markets her studio in the green wedding world, collaborating with other vendors such as caterers, photographers and invitation printers. “The brides for three out of my next four weddings asked for locally-grown flowers,” Lynn points out. “It’s my hope that by next year, I’ll be able to do all green weddings.” Pollen’s web site outlines Lynn’s approach to green wedding flowers:
For couples looking to reduce their wedding or commitment ceremony’s impact on the environment, Pollen offers floral designs created with sustainably grown flowers.Our first choice for product (and the greenest option) is local, organically grown flowers. Of course, being in Chicago, locally grown flowers are only available for a part of the year. For the many months that the Midwest’s climate is not hospitable to flower growing, we offer Veriflora, Fair Trade, or Rainforest Alliance certified flowers. These third-party certifications assure that flower growers are working toward ecological sustainability and social responsibility.
In addition to thoughtfully sourcing our product, we operate the business in an eco-conscious manner. We shop for product and deliver your flowers in a shared vehicle. All marketing materials are produced with the environment in mind, from recycled paper business cards to green web hosting. And we reuse packaging materials as much as possible. When we take the boxes and bags used to safely deliver your event’s floral designs, we’ll be saving them to use for the next event!
Here’s a short interview with Lynn. She discusses her motivation for using sustainable flowers, as well as The Chicago Green Wedding Alliance, a new collaboration she launched with like-minded businesses and artists:
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