T h e O r g a n i c F l o w e r - G r o w i n g , G a t h e r i n g , a n d D e s i g n G u i d e

Debra Prinzing Photographed by David Perry

A Fresh BouquetSeasonal, local and sustainable flowers

Foreword by Amy Stewart, author of Flower Confidential

A Fresh Bouquet is a flower book for today – inspiring, beautifully photographed, filled with timely advice on buying, growing, harvesting, and arranging blooms that are truly fresh, locally-grown.

– Kathleen N. Brenzel, Garden Editor, Sunset Magazine

American cut flower growers are alive and well, more innovative and engaged than ever. Their contributions to the floral industry are unmatched in variety and quality. Debra Prinzing and David Perry have perfectly captured their passion.

– Judy M. Laushman, Director, Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers

A Fresh Bouquet explores a subject close to the hearth as well as our health, not only bringing sustainable gardening right to the convivial heart of the home, but proving that being responsibly organic can also be breathtakingly beautiful.

– Jenny Andrews, Garden Design magazine

Debra Prinzing is so adept at capturing small moments as well as the big picture – not just the stunning hue of a tulip or the angelic petals of a fresh-picked peony, but also the philosophical movement behind their natural beauty. A Fresh Bouquet takes us into the fields and studios, guided by the people whose hard work, passion and imagination are revolutionizing how we garden and why we buy for the mantel vase, the party centerpiece and the wedding bouquet.

– Craig Nakano, The Los Angeles Times

Text copyright © Debra Prinzing

Photography copyright © David Perry

A Fresh BouquetSeasonal, local and sustainable flowers

T h e O r g a n i c F l o w e r - G r o w i n g , G a t h e r i n g , a n d D e s i g n G u i d e

Debra Prinzing Photographed by David PerryForeword by Amy Stewart, author of Flower Confidential

IntroDuctIon

Follow your flowers from field to vase

sectIon one

The Freshest BloomsHow to enjoy fresh flowers year-round, even if you aren’t a gardener.

sectIon two

Seasonal HarvestA seasonal approach to growing and gathering floral design ingredients.

sectIon three

Artful ArrangingThe basic tools, design theories and professional techniques.

sectIon four

Weddings, Celebrations, and other FestivitiesHow to achieve high style with seasonal and local blooms.

sectIon fIve

A Year in FlowersFloral arrangements for each month of the year, including wild-gathered ingredients.

sectIon sIx

Flower and Foliage DirectoryFloral ingredients organized by bloom time, flower and foliage color, and design function.

APPenDIx

Flower Resources, Ingredients, and SuppliesIncluding a Glossary of Terms.

Contents

Do you enjoy flowers in your life? Are you drawn to a voluptuous old garden rose like a bee is to honey? Is burying your head in a just-picked garden bouquet and inhaling its perfume a joy-inducing experience? You are not alone. Our love affair with flowers is ancient and visceral.

But lately something has been missing from everyday flowers. The clutch of gerbera daisies or bunch of tulips from the supermarket seems disconnected from the less-than-perfect, but incredibly romantic flowers growing in my own backyard. The mixed bouquet delivered by a floral service looks stiff or lifeless. These blooms feel far removed from the fields in which they grew.

Unless you’re a flower gardener who grows perennials, annuals and roses to fill vases throughout your home (or give as gifts to others), to many, the flower has lost its soul. The common ingredients of most florist arrangements seem sterile and rigid, as if they were produced in a laboratory and not a flower patch, nurtured by sun and rain.

Grown by a $40 billion worldwide floriculture industry whose goal is a uniform product durable enough to withstand long shipping times, these “freight flowers” are altogetherdifferent from zinnias, peonies and cosmos you clip from the garden for a vase on the windowsill. The $100 bunch of long-stemmed roses may look close to perfect, but it has been off of the farm for two or three weeks. Those scentless creations were likely grown in a foreign field and shipped on a dose of preservatives to travel here – poor substitutes for heady, abundant bunches gathered from grandmother’s cutting garden. They have lost the fleeting, ephemeral quality of an old-fashioned, just-picked bloom.

A Greener way“Green” floral design is only recently appearing in the sustainable living lexicon, but the term suggests using flowers that have been grown with eco-friendly methods. To us, it conjures up thoughts very similar to the slow food movement. Why can’t we have flowers that are very local and highly seasonal? Isn’t that a more sustainable approach?

A F r e s h B o u q u e t 1

Above: The fading allure of

field-grown tulips is reminder

of the fleeting nature of a

garden flower. They are to

be enjoyed and cherished

in season..

Opposite: Diane Szukovathy

of Jello Mold Farm in

Washington’s Skagit Valley

is a sustainable grower

whose practices are safe for

the earth, the flowers she

plants and the people who

ultimately enjoy them. She

brings blooms from the field

to market within 48 hours

of harvest, to the delight of

floral designers and flower

lovers alike.

Follow Your Flowers from Field to Vase

I n T r o D u c T I o n

Faced with concerns about our food supply, the materials we use to build and furnish our homes, and the energy resources we consume, more people than ever are asking questions about the environmental impact of everything they use, drive, eat and even wear.

And yet, until recently, conscious consumers were unaware of the decidedly non-greenaspects of their floral purchases. They bought bouquets without ever considering the source, or about the manner in which those flowers were grown (not to mention the environmental costs of shipping a perishable commodity around the globe). Comments like: “I don’t eat my flowers, so why should I care if they are organic or not?” or “How damaging to the earth is a $10 bunch of cellophane-wrapped mums anyway?” may seem innocent, but the cumulative results of such attitudes are unhealthy for humans and the earth. Lack of data exists on the harmful affects of pesticides and other chemicals used in the commercial floral trade. But given the choice, who wouldn’t want to hold and smell a flower that was grown organically?

“ Here you’ll find inspiring and creative resources and how-to ideas and information to enjoy sustainable and seasonal flowers in your daily life, even if you aren’t a gardener.”

A F r e s h B o u q u e t 32 A F r e s h B o u q u e t

Held in the hands of a child,

there is an even sweeter

innocence to this bodacious

bouquet of field-grown

peonies and roses. These

blooms are safe to hold

and sniff. A branch laden with

crimson clusters of

crabapples represents

an autumn crop that’s

uncommon and exquisite

in seasonal floral

arrangements.

Anecdotal evidence from our interviews with organic f lower farmers, green floral designers, and retailers who market VeriFlora Certified Sustainably Grown flowers supports our belief that many consumers want to bring home blooms that are fresh, local and safe. Whether or not they consider themselves environmentalists, flower lovers are beginning to ask whether the beautiful roses, lilies and tulips they purchase at the local supermarket were grown domestically or a few continents away. They are looking for labeling that guarantees flowers have been produced in an environmentally and socially responsible manner – and finding it at an increasing number of outlets as diverse as Sam’s Club, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and even the neighborhood grocery store.

More flower shops and wedding designers are marketing themselves as “organic, local and sustainable,” and seeking healthy, artful ingredients grown in their own communities by small family farms. As demand for green flowers increases, the supply of alluring, fragrant and sustainable crops will also increase. As the seasons change, so do the blooms, allowing us to celebrate the full cycle of a calendar year in the garden. It may mean celebrating Valentine’s Day without roses, but you can instead embrace the moment with hyacinth blooms you have forced indoors to give your beloved.

As more flower consumers pose the “is it sustainable?” question, we’ve collected all the answers in the pages of A Fresh Bouquet. Here you’ll find inspiring and creative resources and how-to ideas and information to enjoy sustainable and seasonal flowers in your daily life, even if you aren’t a gardener.

This book aspires to be the essential resource for savvy, eco-conscious consumers who may be aware that the flowers they buy at the corner market or order from a local florist or national wire service are not sustainable, but need a road map to guide them to better – and more beautiful – alternative practices. Rather than pointing to the perceived lack of choice or limitations of the floral industry, A Fresh Bouquet will inspire and equip gardeners, flower enthusiasts, floral designers, event planners and their clients to take a proactive, informed approach to the flowers in their lives and work. Consider it the organic flower-growing, gathering and design guide.

Change your relationship with flowers. Meet flower farmers, supermarket flower buyers, floral designers, wedding planners, farmers’ market vendors and creative gardeners around North America who are committed to growing, selling and designing with a “green” approach. Feast your eyes on David Perry’s evocative portrayals of the farmers, the designers, and some of the most fascinating gatherers you’ll ever meet. Get lost in his images of both the uncommon and the everyday – buds, blooms, branches, leaves and berries – as they grow and as they are ultimately used. Read Debra Prinzing’s intimate narratives of the growers committed to and passionate about sustainable farming and the creative floral artists who use ingenuity and innovation to source local and seasonal ingredients. Follow the story of A Fresh Bouquet, as she traces these beloved blooms from the field to the vase.

We hope that this book connects you with a healthier, flower-filled lifestyle, one that helps you engage with nature, with the environment, and with the very blooms you desire. Enjoy safe and sustainable flowers whether you grow them yourself in a small cutting garden or in pots on your balcony. Gather bouquets with your children; share bunches with a neighbor who doesn’t have a garden. Source fresh blooms from sustainable flower growers in your neighborhood, whether you’re in the town or the country. And finally, learn how to design with confidence, as you create soulful, classic, and evocative “fresh” bouquets of your own.

4 A F r e s h B o u q u e t

Above: The heady scents,

evocative color and romantic

appearance of old-fashioned

lilacs are perhaps the

quintessential symbol

of springtime.

Right: Washington flower

farmer Erin Benzakein of

floret plants her fields

with perennials, annuals

and old-fashioned roses,

satisfying an eager customer

base of brides, designers

and enthusiasts who

subscribe to her weekly

flower delivery service.

Opposite: Breathtakingly

beautiful, the summertime

arrangement designed by

floret includes heirloom

roses, garden geraniums

and ornamental alliums.

The husband-and-wife team spent more than a decade creating elegant residential gardens in Seattle. When they purchased their land eight years ago and moved from the city to a semirural comm-unity, Dennis and Diane wanted to support themselves as farmers.

They hoped to establish a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) operation and raise food crops for subscribers. After volunteering with a neighboring organic vegetable grower, though, the couple soon discovered the economics of vegetables didn’t work for them. “We couldn’t make our mortgage growing food,” Dennis points out.

Admittedly a pair of “plant freaks,” he and Diane instead planted flowers. Four of the seven acres at Jello Mold Farm, named after a Seattle building covered in decorative copper Jell-o molds that Diane once created, are devoted to flower crops. The farm grows 150 varieties of annuals, perennials, flowering shrubs, ornamental grasses and even decorative edibles like grapevines, Cinderella pumpkins and heirloom squashes. Eight hundred peony shrubs and one thousand-five hundred dahlias produce an endless supply of gorgeous, romantic stems during peak season.

To these flower farmers, the term “sustainably grown” means a commitment beyond just using organic fertilizers and pesticides. Diane and Dennis consider themselves land stewards who share their acreage with an array of wildlife, including trumpeter swans, bald eagles, ospreys, several kinds of owls, hawks, and many songbirds. “We work hard to keep the soil healthy and natural balances in place,” Diane says. “That way, the critters make a living and so do we. Sustainability for us means leaving the land in better shape than we found it.”

Jello Mold Farm began supplying city flower markets in 2007, attracting interest from floral designers, brides and specialty shops. Soon they began selling to a number of florists and the Ballard Market Grocery Store, whose floral buyers recognize a renewed sense of nostalgia among customers. Best Buds, a tiny flower shop in Seattle’s upscale Madison Park neighborhood, was the first to sign up for Jello Mold’s twice-weekly deliveries. “They’re great about supporting local growers,” she says. “And customers know that our flowers are local and fresh, because we pick only one or two days before a delivery.”

As advocates for sustainable flowers, Diane and Dennis have a high-touch approach. They tell a story about each alluring bloom and its must-have attributes, enticing designers to embrace unusual ingredients. In turn, the bouquets and arrangements using Jello Mold’s seasonal elements are uncommonly beautiful and sophisticated in palette and form. Designers reliant upon conventional flowers and foliage can enliven their work with Jello Mold’s bountiful and artful crops: The ninebark shrub’s sultry maroon foliage, raspberries blushing on the vine, or Ruby Silk Grass, with red tassels on tall stems are just some examples.

A F r e s h B o u q u e t 76 A F r e s h B o u q u e t

Berries, rose hips, pea vines, colorful branches. Perhaps not the typical

“bouquet” fare you would expect to find at your local supermarket or even an

upscale florist. But flower farmers Diane Szukovathy and Dennis Westphall view

everything that grows on their seven-acre farm in Washington’s Skagit Valley as

a potential ingredient for a gorgeous arrangement, gift bouquet, or centerpiece.

Portrait of a Flower Farmcut flowers sustainably grown

Above: This just-picked gourd

vine will satisfy designers

eager for uncommon

seasonal floral ingredients.

Opposite: Diane Szukovathy

and Dennis Westphall of

Jello Mold Farm infuse their

fields and crops with passion,

playfulness and a sustainable

business philosophy. In

doing so, they inspire

their customers to desire

and value locally-grown

floral ingredients.

S E A S o n A l H A r V E S T

come autumn, the heirloom

apple orchard is a source of

unique and evocative floral

design elements.

Selections reflect the fleeting nature of botanical ingredients, the inevitable seasonal changes that Jello Mold Farms celebrates rather than resists. Twice a week, Diane emails an availability list to 30 Seattle area customers. The “fresh list” informs and inspires, with items like: “Atriplex (Orach) – plumes of colored seed pods, available in bright green and deep maroon-red,” “Chasmanthium (Northern Sea Oats) – shimmering green flattened seed heads, tall stems,” or “Shoo-Fly – unusual Chinese Lantern relative, bright green lanterns with purple-black crown, multi-branching.”

These enticing descriptions gladden the hearts of flower buyers and designers who yearn for creative ingredients, just-picked crops and local flavor. Stems are gathered into “grower’s bunches” (five or 10 per cluster) and secured with a long twist-tie on which is printed: “Jellomoldfarms.com | Mount Vernon.” The tie itself is a subtle marketing and educational effort, because customers begin asking for Dennis and Diane’s flowers by name.

The farm isn’t able to charge more for its floral products, even though costs can be higher to grow sustainably. Jello Mold basically matches the prices buyers expect to pay at a wholesale flower market (where there are some locally-grown flowers, but most arrive from around the world, having been harvested more than a week earlier and likely treated with preservatives and fumigants).

Diane realizes this may eventually change if flower consumers see sustainable blooms as having an added value. She strives to infuse her deliveries with value nonetheless. “I always try and put something special in my bouquets to get a following,” Diane says. “Our quality is fabulous, and I want people to remember that. Quality is our best calling card.”

She shares flower-farming techniques and marketing ideas with neighboring growers and around the country through the trade group Association for Specialty Cut Flower Growers. Thanks to a research grant from the ASCFG, Jello Mold Farm has been experimenting with methods to extend the growing season – earlier in spring and later in fall – in a hoop-house heated by an organic compost heap. Growing in a hoop-house allows Jello Mold to raise sweet peas, anemones, ranunculus and other spring flowers a full month earlier and to grow sunflowers until the first week of November, much later than if they were left in the fields uncovered.

Dennis and Diane have introduced flowers and other ingredients that the floral industry rarely sees, much less uses in its designs. “We’re in the education business,” Dennis points out. The farm maintains a “trial garden” of new cultivars and varieties, tracking when and how plants bloom, as well as how they perform as cut flowers.

Growing flowers in their season is a reality – and business philosophy – for Diane and Dennis. But this approach also means the flower farm’s most productive “window” occurs from March to November. In future years, Diane hopes to offer seasonal “winter” crops, such as cardoon foliage, winter-blooming camellia, witch hazel branches and some of the 40 varieties of unusual willow branches raised by a neighboring artist and basket weaver. Climate, weather, and seasonal issues including length of daylight, work to the farm’s advantage in spring and summer, but leave the late fall and winter less productive. That’s when planning, research and preparing for the following growing season takes place.

“Some years ago, we were gardeners in the city with a romantic notion of having a farm,” their website proclaims. “Little did we know the reality! Now we’re knee-deep in paradise, and lovin’ it.”

A F r e s h B o u q u e t 98 A F r e s h B o u q u e t

Above, from top: The sheer

diversity of rare shapes,

textures and colors grown

by Jello Mold Farm is

awe-inspiring, including the

unusual purple-streaked

cardoon in the foreground;

Blooms, berries and

ornamental vegetables

are equally enticing.

Right: A foggy morning on a

working flower farm. While

Diane and Dennis make their

living from the land, they

also consider themselves

environmental stewards of

their farm, their crops and

the creatures who coexist

here with them.

Above, from top: Twice-weekly

deliveries to Seattle includes

a stop at TerraBella Flowers

& Mercantile, where owner

Melissa Feveyear (left) sources

fresh and seasonal botanical

ingredients from Jello Mold

Farm and other local suppliers;

Plump and abundant, ruby-red

rose hips are a must-have

design element for autumn

floral arrangements.

like their counterparts in the

culinary world, floral designers are

seeking locally-grown and seasonal

“ingredients” for their arrangements

and bouquets. Whether motivated

by environmental concerns, client

demand or pure fascination with

utterly gorgeous seasonal crops

from organic flower farms, creative,

eco-aware designers are leading the

green-flower movement.

“chefs always talk about their

relationships with farmers,” Diane

Szukovathy of Jello Mold Farm

observes. “And we’ve been noticing

that the designers who use us best are adventuresome (often younger),

and pushing past just replicating ‘the conventional bouquet.’ At the heart of

everything are human connections and the ability to tell their customers:

‘I know the farmer who grew this flower.’”

The connection between farmer and florist can lead to heightened expressions

of creativity. By seeking out, learning from and patronizing enterprising cut-

flower growers in their community, a new generation of innovative wedding

and event designers, studio florists and flower shops is redefining what is

meant by the term “fresh flowers.”

In their own voices, meet three floral artists who bring a “local, seasonal and

sustainable” point of view to their work:

The Green Bouqueteco-designers source sustainable and uncommon floral elements

S E A S o n A l H A r V E S T

A F r e s h B o u q u e t 1 11 0 A F r e s h B o u q u e t

Erin Benzakein, floret flowers:

“I want to make every season as lush as summer,” Erin Benzakein proclaims. “My main crops include sweet peas, ranunculus, peonies, hydrangeas, old garden roses, Oriental lilies, sunflowers, and dahlias. But I harvest from spring to late fall, so there are some months when I cut branches, vines, berries, thistles, grasses and pods for my arrangements.”

The young mother, certified organic flower farmer and floral designer tends to two acres rampant with delicious botanical ingredients. She supplies her regional Whole Foods stores with as many abundant, eye-pleasing mixed bouquets as she can harvest each week. Erin also creates and delivers seasonal flowers to weekly subscribers and designs for brides who want “green” wedding flowers.

Inspired by memories of planting forget-me-nots as a child, Erin began growing sweet peas for their heady fragrance. When first starting out, she sold $5 bunches in Mason jars and was surprised by the power of such innocent blooms: “I have never seen anything have the affect that flowers do,” she says. “Watching someone cry over the memory a sweet pea can elicit is very moving.”

As with buying locally-grown honey, vegetables, milk, meat and eggs, Erin believes that consumers want local and sustainable flowers. By providing customers with the freshest, safest, most vibrant blooms that can be had short of planting a cutting garden of their own, this flower artist “connects people to the seasons again – in the deepest possible way.”

www.floretflowers.com

old-fashioned and evocative,

Erin’s garden peonies fill a

vintage pewter bowl. They

are paired with scented sweet

pea vines, flowering clematis,

plum-colored smoke tree

foliage (Cotinus coggygria)

and wild blackberries.

Above: Erin Benzakein, an

American flower farmer

and her bountiful, fresh-

from-the-field bouquet.

Below: creamy white garden

roses share the stage with

a spring-green palette of

fresh herbs, poppy pods,

crabapples, alpine

strawberries and ladies

mantle in this lovely,

organic bridal bouquet.

Melissa Feveyear, Terra Bella Flowers & Mercantile:

With the words “Organic” and “Botanical” writ large on the sign above its door, Terra Bella Flowers & Mercantile is a neighborhood flower shop that creates special occasion arrangements and supplies weekly bouquets to corporate clients.

Many of Terra Bella’s customers have chemical sensitivities and specifically request all-natural blooms. Even those without such sensitivities prefer Terra Bella Flowers. “People readily seek me out for being organic,” owner Melissa Feveyear explains. “Brides want to know whether flowers are safe to hold or use on their wedding cake. Their organic values surpass their idealistic dreams of what may be available for their bouquet in a given season of the year,” she says.

Melissa maintains close ties with hometown growers who deliver luxury flowers or surprise her with out-of-the-ordinary buds, stems and blades. Her mix of resources includes farmer’s markets and organic farms. Crabapples, berries, quinces and hop vines come from a local orchard. Melissa relies on an organic tulip grower who forces the bulbs in a greenhouse throughout the winter months. Out-of-season rose requests (a regular challenge for “green” designers) are filled by certified organic farms in California. Even though the roses are shipped from another state, they are domestically-sourced and organically-grown, which Melissa and her customers prefer over South American factory roses. “Customers who want organic flowers are concerned about their (carbon) footprint,” she says.

www.terrabellaflowers.com

Stacie Sutliff, Blush Custom Floral:

Stacie Sutliff left a successful career with a major dot.com to follow the lure of flowers. She specializes in floral design for events with an emphasis on green weddings. Although the desires and wishes of brides vary widely, “I’m able to steer more customers towards what is locally and sustainably grown,” she says. “To me, it just makes sense that if you’re inspired by a beautiful place to get married, you’ll want to know that the flowers you hold will not harm that place.”

A studio designer, Stacie sources her flowers from local flower fields where “I know that every stem I get has been planted, cared for, and harvested in a way that maximizes its vase life and beauty.”

Blush Custom Floral’s arrangements and bouquets move customers beyond the everyday and ubiquitous hothouse blooms. “When they ask ‘where does that flower come from?’ I want to be able to say ‘it comes from the farm down the road,’” Stacie smiles.

She eagerly spreads the story of the farmers, growers and gardens responsible for the ingredients in her joyful bouquets. “I think it’s the responsibility of florists like me to build the (organic) market. If we create beautiful things that our customers value and want to buy again and again, then local flower farmers will naturally expand and innovate to meet that demand. Eventually, it will become economically feasible for them to grow some of those ingredients that today we have to import or truck in.”

www.blushcustomfloral.com

A F r e s h B o u q u e t 1 31 2 A F r e s h B o u q u e t

Above, from top: The sultry colors

of late summer appear in

farm-fresh blooms selected

by Stacie. The arrangement

includes burgundy ninebark

foliage (Physocarpus

opulifolius ‘Diabolo’),

pumpkin-orange chinese

lanterns, and an array of

richly-hued dahlias.

Stacie Sutliff takes her

inspiration from uncommon,

seasonal crops sourced from

local flower farms.

Above: Melissa Feveyear

owns an organic flower

emporium that combines

sustainable practices with

sophisticated design.

Left: With the right

connections between

farmer and floral designer,

it’s possible to bring

organically-grown tulips

and other flowering bulbs

to the market, even in the

off-season.

c E l E B r AT I o n S

Sublime and Sensuous By design, a sunday brunch that’s a feast for the eyes

Above: Designing with

sustainably-grown flowers is

important to Melissa Feveyear,

who is concerned about

exposure to pesticides used

in conventional flower crops.

Opposite: Evoking the flowers

immortalized on the canvases

of old-World painters, the

rich, botanical palette of

blooms, foliage, fruit, and

branches decorates a Sunday

brunch table. The bouquet’s

ingredients come from

local, sustainable farms

and private gardens.

A F r e s h B o u q u e t 1 51 4 A F r e s h B o u q u e t

Designer Melissa Feveyear appreciates

the traditional definition of a Florist:

“It used to be a person who grew and

sold their own flowers,” she explains.

By choosing and gathering botanical

ingredients with that old-fashioned

notion, the Seattle florist considers

flowers from a grower’s point of view.

She asks: “Where was it grown?”

“How was it cultivated?” and

“When does it reach peak bloom?”

Yet instead of owning rural acreage filled with romantic rows of annuals and perennials, Melissa is firmly planted on city soil in Terra Bella Organic Floral & Botanical Designs, a 1,000-square-foot Seattle flower shop. Curiosity and intentionality are two of her design tools; she selects foliage, blooms, and other fresh-from-the-field elements with the same care as if she grew each ephemeral blossom or stem in her own backyard. That connection with nature is vitally important to her artistic philosophy.

“If flowers aren’t locally or organically grown, then they are coming from some huge factory farm,” she says. “People do not want flowers dipped in strong pesticides on their dinner table.”

Most of the flowers in Terra Bella’s designs are organically grown or VeriFlora Certified*. While a segment of commercially-grown flowers bear this label, Melissa has a hunger

for uncommon organic blooms – the type of flower not likely to show up at the wholesale market. She’s become a flower sleuth, tapping into unique, hard- to-find botanical sources. This means raiding her garden and the backyards of family and friends, developing relationships with local, organic flower farms, and looking for specialty growers whose crops aren’t durable enough to ship long distances.

This eclectic approach inspired Melissa’s designs for an elegant Sunday brunch. She created a seasonal arrangement for the buffet table and a corresponding bouquet for the fireplace mantle. The setting’s chocolate-burgundy-cream-and-teal color scheme, vintage furnishings and heirloom china and serving pieces presented a romantic environment for Melissa’s floral palette. “I picked out a selection of apricot, cool orange and ruby-red flowers that together make a beautiful, juicy bouquet,” Melissa explains. “I opted for this combination, simply because these are the colors that inspire me.”

She selected a vintage 36-inch glass vase for the main arrangement. Fluted at the rim andbase, its sensuous lines are well-suited for the unstructured but sophisticated presentationMelissa had in mind. A copious arrangement using many of the same flowers and greenery filled a verdigris cachepot for the nearby fireplace mantle.

This event took place in the winter, when floral designers often find it hard to locate seasonal and locally-grown ingredients. Yet Melissa had a surprisingly bountiful selection from which to choose. She used garden-fresh foliage as the foundation for this design:shiny acanthus leaves from Jello Mold Farms, a sustainable farm that regularly delivers toTerra Bella. Boughs of heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica) bearing bright red berries,glossy-leaved flowering camellia and wild dagger ferns were all clipped from private gardens.

Melissa’s evocative designs could easily be mistaken for still-life arrangements of the Dutch masters of the early 17th century. Luscious and ruffled, saffron-and-crimson parrot tulips are central to her bouquets. She also used amethyst field-grown hyacinths with the promise (and fragrance) of springtime. A variety of apricot, coral and plum-red roses,including those grown sustainably in Oregon and Ecuador, infuse the bouquet with romance, while bud-laden branches of coral quince and white-flowering forsythia lend texture and seasonal interest. And, just like the Dutch painters, Melissa invites the orchard’s bounty into her arrangement with sliced pomegranates and fuzzy apricots.

The completed designs conjure up an Old-World narrative in which each flower conveysa symbolic message to anyone who sees (and inhales) its beauty.

Wild-harvested design

elements are abundant all

year long, including the

winter-blooming Pieris

japonica, which produces

creamy white flowers.

the organic QuestionFor the Sunday Brunch bouquet, Melissa originally envisioned using voluptuous garden roses. She asked a sustainable farmer from Oregon to deliver flowers in her desired peachy-apricot color palette. (In the Northwest, even during chilly winters, a few growers raise flowers in protected greenhouses to satisfy year-round demand.)

“When the roses arrived, though, they didn’t have the look and feel I had hoped for, nor were they quite the right color,” she explains. This unexpected, day-of-the-party-mishap is something designers face all the time, but it creates a special challenge for florists committed to using only seasonal, local and sustainable ingredients.

To compensate, Melissa supplemented her rose palette with ‘Milva’, a soft apricot rose imported from a sustainable farm in Ecuador. “I had to change my vision for the design to use different flowers that were available but also in keeping with my values,” she explains. Fortunately, the dark plum-red spray roses from Peterkort, the Oregon grower, were gorgeous, lending dimension and contrast to the design’s softer botanical elements.

Like locavores who want their food to originate within a 100-mile radius, eco-savvy floral designers have their own definition of “local” when sourcing botanical material. Melissa’s challenge is to balance her desire for organically-grown blooms with the environmental impact of ordering cut flowers from domestic and international growers beyond her corner of the U.S.. These artistic and ethical decisions are reflected in each one of her beautiful bouquets.

In fact, Terra Bella influences the entire chain of people with whom it comes into contact, since Melissa seeks out and supports farmers with a compatible philosophy about flower-growing. She strives to encourage and educate her clients about the many benefits of requesting “green” flowers. “My customers do care about supporting the community and local farmers. But they don’t always think about how organic flowers will affect them personally. That is, until they learn how many pesticides are used in conventionally-grown cut flowers. That awareness is only just starting.”

A F r e s h B o u q u e t 1 71 6 A F r e s h B o u q u e t

Opposite, from top: Melissa relies

on relationships with local

flower farmers who specialize

in unique, sustainably-grown

crops. She frequently shops

for flowers at Seattle’s Pike

Place Market, where Alm Hill

Gardens sells field-grown

tulips in season.

A sublime spectrum of coral,

apricot and red roses inspired

the Sunday brunch bouquet.

eco-tip “Oasis,” is a Styrofoam-like product made from petrochemicals. While florists have for years used the generic green blocks of foam to stabilize stems in low or wide-mouthed vases, Melissa doesn’t want to expose herself, her clients, or the environment to the material. Research for a healthier, organic substitute led her to wood aspen. Also known as excelsior, the material is comprised of fine wood fibers. It is often used as packing material for wine bottles and other breakables. “It isn’t treated with chemicals like florist foam and it doesn’t degrade quickly in water,” Melissa says. She inserts stems and branches into a tangle of the natural-colored wood aspen that has been fit into a water-filled vase. Excelsior is available at craft shops and from online sources that sell packaging material. (top right)

Design techniqueMelissa creates romantic, sophisticated bouquets by designing with a light hand. She highlights the natural form and shape of each flower, stem and branch by letting them fall gently into place (rather than manipulating or contorting them). One of her favorite techniques is to group similar blooms together as they would appear in the garden. “I like to cluster flowers,” she says. The pleasing color assemblages give Melissa’s bouquets added interest and make her designs feel “just picked.” (bottom right)

“ By designing with uncommon, local and seasonal flowers, I connect my customers with the botanical beauty of nature.”

floral Ingredientsseasonal and sustainably-grownParrot tulips and hyacinths, Alm Hill Gardens, Bellingham, WA

Acanthus leaves, flowering quince branches and white forsythia (Abeliophyllum distichum),Jello Mold Farm, Mt. Vernon, WA

Heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica), Jean Zaputil’s garden, Seattle

Western sword fern (Polystichum munitum), Jean Fiala’s garden, Fall City, WA

Camellia branches, Melissa Feveyear’s garden, Seattle

wild-foraged ingredientsPieris japonica, from “Tosh,” a Seattle hunter-gatherer who gleans natural ingredients and sells them to floral designers

Locally-grown ingredientsSpray roses, garden roses and maiden fern, Peterkort Farm, Oregon

Lime green Viburnum flowers, British Columbia

eco-certified flowers‘Milva’ roses, Ecuador

* Veri-Flora is a “sustainably-grown” label that guarantees crops are produced in an environmentally and socially responsible manner to meet high freshness and quality standards (www.veriflora.com)