SEEDPODS AND PETALS

Humulus lupulus, common hops, a dangly little element that adds character to any arrangement.

The hops plays nicely with the zinnia, astrantia and perennial flax.

Coral pinks, rosy oranges, a touch of faded terracotta and some dark burgundy foliage.

The overall scheme of the flowers I played with this week is hard to name. I’ve come up with the following:

Terracotta Pink

Coral Pink

Peachy Apricot

Pinkish Orange

Faded Terracotta

I’m up for suggestions on how to describe these yummy colors!

Dan Pearson of Dan’s Dahlias grew the two types of dahlias – one leans more toward the pink end of the spectrum; the other is more like that faded terracotta color I mentioned.

The antique pink-hued Celosia were grown by Diane Szukovathy and Dennis Westphall of Jello Mold Farm.

As I was leaving the Seattle Growers Wholesale Market the other day, Janet Foss of J. Foss Garden Flowers handed me the bunch of alstroemeria as a gift. These little beauties have flecks of dark maroon on a pale orange-pink throat. I love the way they tie together the more solid colored flowers.

There is a peaches-and-cream (with rapsberries added) mood to this trio of vases.

I came home wondering what to do with these evocatove botanical elements. I pulled down three ivory vases – one is vintage Haegar; two are vintage Hull (from my recent trip to Iowa). It felt right to use these vessels, each of which has an eggshell-like color and texture.

I walked around my garden and snipped dark maroon foliage from the Ninebark shrub, which as you can see really helped to define the spaces between the flowers. I also snipped Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ in pinkish bud and a few sprays of an inherited chrysanthemum, the flower heads toned dark terra cotta.

A few more shots, showing the designs for my medium and small vintage pedestal bowls:

This little saucer didn’t have a lot of room for stems. So I used a hydrangea flower as a fresh “frog” to organize the other short stems.

A fabulous, creamy white vintage compote-style bowl, used with a cage-shaped flower frog for this color-intensive bouquet.

Everything seems to come together as a lovely gathering of a beautiful hue. The color of the moment!

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Meet a Young Flower Farmer (Episode 105)

Meet new flower farmer Janell Patterson of Flower Forest Farm in Auburn, Washington

Earlier this year I met Janell Patterson, a young cut flower grower who launched Flower Forest Farm, a micro-agriculture endeavor that’s part of Seattle Tilth’s farm incubator program called Seattle Tilth Farm Works.

There’s a forest and farm here, which perhaps inspire Janell’s charming business name: Flower Forest Farm

Located about 40 minutes southeast of Seattle in Auburn, where there are still patches of agricultural land that the developers have missed, Janell and several other new farmers at the are learning the art and science of growing through hands-on efforts. Tilth instructors provide extensive small farm business training and support. Here is some of the curriculum:

This program provides: 

• A comprehensive educational program covering farming, business planning, operations and marketing 

• On-site mentorship from experienced farmers

• Hands-on experience growing food on 1/4 acre plots

• Access to farmland, equipment, water and other necessary farming inputs

• Assistance in creating marketing channels for products

Peek through one of Janell’s pink dahlias catch a glimpse of the nasturtiums and Queen Anne’s Lace flourishing beyond.

Each participants’ time and sweat equity yields food or flowers that supply Tilth’s weekly Community Supported Agriculture subscriptions. Janell’s Flower Forest Farm is the only flower grower involved and it’s wonderful to see her beautiful ingredients supplying CSA customers and local farmers’ market shoppers. She manages a one-quarter acre parcel filled with beautiful rows of annuals and gorgeous dahlias.

A young mom, Janell brings an eclectic background to her endeavor. She has experience as a professional interior designer and she has been studying horticulture at South Seattle Communit College (which is where I gained my training in horticulture and landscape design). Janell also worked as an environmental volunteer managing a small rural tree nursery with the Peace Corps in Ghana, West Africa.

Fellow garden blogger Filiz Satir and I visited Seattle Tilth Farm Works in July and walked through the fields on a tour with Janell. You’ll hear Filiz’s voice (and a few of her own questions) on this recording as part of our conversation. See more of my photos below:

The forest looms beyond the Seattle Tilth Farm Works, creating a beautiful setting for growing flowers (and food)

Zinnias on display in straight rows, ready to be harvested.

Another pretty dahlia, one of hundreds that Janell planted this season.

Sweet peas were at their peak when I visited in July, trellised inside the hoop house at Seattle Tilth Farm Works.

Love the dark Opal basil that Janell grows for her mixed CSA and Farmers’ Market bouquets.

Click here to learn more about Tilth’s CSA program, including how to order Janell’s weekly bouquets.

Click here to learn more about Flower Forest Farm’s flowers, bunches, bouquets and custom services.

Made – and Grown – in America

Two vintage vases with lovely matte glazes contain simple bouquets of ruby-red dahlias and calla lilies. The silvery Dusty Miller foliage ties it all together. 

This detail photo shows how the calla lilies and dahlias are in perfect harmony with the little strips of the love-in-a-mist.

Eco-technique

Green couture: More than ever, floral designers and their customers are adopting green practices, and the vase itself is one important way to be more sustainably-minded. For example, instead of using inexpensive, made-in-China glass floral vases, I opt for something unusual (and usually just as affordable).

 

Great vases can come from flea markets, garage sales, thrift stores and hand-me-downs from relatives. For less than $15 at a time, I purchase a case of one dozen made-in-the-USA Ball canning jars – ideal vases for last-minute gift giving. In fact, I’ve trained my neighbors to return their jars so I can reuse them for future bouquets.

 

 

A lovely table arrangement where the vases seem to blend into the primitive wall mural of Orient, New York . . . as imagined and painted by Skip many years ago.

Last April 2012, I wrote about the beautiful memoir by my late friend Clyde “Skip” Wachsberger.

The book is called Into the Garden With Charles.  It was first published privately by friends of Skip’s (under the guidance of editor and friend Karen Braziller) in December 2010. Farrar, Straus and Giroux published it commercially in early 2012, although Skip did not live to see that event. Read more about the book here.

I have not been able to visit Orient, New York, or see Charles Dean, Skip’s surviving husband, since January 2012, when I traveled there for the memorial service honoring Skip’s life. I love this place and all of the friends I’ve met through these two men. The garden during summertime at Adsworthy, where Skip and Charles made their home, is very special. And for some reason, my trips in recent years were during fall or winter, so I hadn’t toured that verdant place during its peak since 2005 or so. Too long!

Last week I was fortunate to return for a mere 36 hours. It wasn’t nearly enough time, but every moment was filled with wonder, delight, friendship and memories. 

One of the highlights was getting ready for a big, yummy, community dinner prepared by the man Charles has now found to spend his life with. That is Charles’s very personal story to tell, so I won’t say more. I’ll only add that he is now with a dear, charming person and I’m pleased to see Charles so happy.

Skip’s presence is still very much evident in his garden. I was mindful of his exuberant spirit watching over me as I snipped stems, leaves and flowers from uncommon specimens that he originally selected, planted and tended to over the years. The opportunity to create the centerpieces for our wonderful dinner party was all the more special for the connection I felt between those plants and Skip. While the bouquets’ dahlias came from a local flower farm stand and the yellow roses were a gift to Charles from a family friend visiting his sister, artist Frieda Dean, everything else came from Skip’s garden. I relied on his plants for bold and fine foliage, tiny buds, fern fronds and seed heads. Charles supplied the beautiful cut glass urn and two small cream pitchers for the vases. 

Our table sparkled with vintage linens, pottery, silver and stemware. You can see how it looked above.

Here are some more images of the bouquets, in the garden:

A still life with three bouquets, on a vintage cast-iron bench in the garden.

A small glass pitcher looks so beautiful in the dappled light that spills onto an iron garden chair.

The larger vase features all sorts of gorgeous leaves, fronds and stems from Skip’s garden.

I’ll close with one of Skip’s quote about his garden, excerpted from Into the Garden with Charles:

 “I had been presented with a blank canvas, a large one at that. For an artist, this was ideal. I gardened the way I painted: I began with a picture in my mind and then I figured out how to create it. The only difference was that my colors and textures were living beings with a thirst for life; they would grow every which way once I had placed them on the canvas. I had no intention of ever finishing the painting.”

UP ON THE ROOF

I made this bouquet at the invitation of Ellen Spector Platt, a fellow garden writer who shared her NYC rooftop bounty with me

Ingredients:

Long after I left Manhattan, Ellen redesigned the longest-lasting floral elements, using several bud vases to each display a single Caladium leaf (c) Ellen Spector Platt

Eco-technique

Bouquet 2.0: After my visit, Ellen emailed me: “Your arrangement still looks good, but after 4 days it needed some grooming.” Here are her tips for reviving a bouquet: “Don’t try to groom it by pulling out a wilted stem, since you’ll likely take out other good stuff along with it. Instead, leave the stems where they are and reach in to snip off a single dead flower. Or, cut off the entire top of the stem, leaving the bottom in place. No one will ever know it’s there.” In this arrangement, the black-eyed Susan blooms were the first to be removed.

 

“By the time many of the stems start to die, I just pick out the few good ones that are left and put them in a narrow vase or bottle to wring out my last bit of enjoyment,” says this experienced floral designer. “I’m sure I’ll be left with the caladiums, looking like an entirely new design.” And sure enough, nine days after we made the original bouquet, Ellen sent me this photo of her green bud vases with the beautiful – and long-lasting – caladium leaves.

The little brother of a summer teen farmer donned a sunflower hat that Mud Baron gave him at Muir Ranch. Adorable~!

Here’s some more great news about the Urban Farming Movement.

In 2011, a dedicated team of volunteer teachers and students began converting 1.5 acres of Pasadena, California’s John Muir High School campus into a school-based farm.

Today, Muir Ranch grows a variety of flowers, vegetables and fruits that are included in weekly CSA boxes as well as school cafeteria lunches. Students can complete community service or internship graduation requirements by enrolling in classes at the Ranch. Muir Ranch also provides paid internships to students, which are funded by private donations, special events, farmer’s market sales, and subscriptions to the produce box program (CSA).  Every week, Muir Ranch CSA subscribers get a box or bag of about 7-10 different types of fruit and vegetables grown without the use of pesticides or chemical fertilizers. Customers pick their shares up at central distribution sites throughout Pasadena. Muir Ranch CSA partners with several local farms for seasonal fruit and vegetables to supplement what they can produce, providing tax-deductible weekly boxes to over 100 subscribers. It is the CSA program that generates much of the income that keeps this place operating.

“Mud” Baron, Executive Director of Muir Ranch, is an urban farming activist and proud bouquet-maker.

One of the people at the hub of this fast-rolling wheel is Mud Baron, a passionate school garden advocate who serves as the Executive Director of Muir Ranch. That sounds like a high-falutin’ title, but in all reality, he is true to his nickname. Mud gets down and dirty – and REAL – with his kids, teenagers whose horizons are much brighter after they’ve learned to grow and sell food and flowers to local customers. 

How did this former design-build contractor end up teaching gardening and farming skills to urban youth? I’m still trying to figure out the exact path of Mud’s career, but suffice it to say he’s in his element growing food and flowers. He totally lights up whether he’s shooting the breeze with one of the teen-CSA interns or sharing drinks with me and a board member (Mud ordered the Stone IPA, brewed with dandelion greens).

Board member Leelee Clement Doughty discovered Muir Ranch through the Pasadena Garden Club, which brought expert Rosarians to the farm to teach students about rose growing and rose care. She got hooked and started volunteering. “The best sales pitch is the Ranch itself,” she told me. A lifelong gardener and corporate finance escapee, Leelee digs the lessons she sees young people learning: Cooking and Catering, Marketing, Nutrition, Math and Business, Science and more. Right now, Muir Ranch is a “fiscally sponsored proeject of the Pasadena Education Foundation,” but if Leelee and Mud’s vision is realized, it will soon be a standalone nonprofit. 

The Ranch is situated behind John Muir H.S.

Many programs besides the CSA are supported under the umbrella of Muir Ranch, such as partnerships CSAs run by with other local schools and learning gardens. Muir Ranch also and hosts monthly “Plug Mobs” to help the community start their own gardens. In Mud’s mind, no Southern California-based teacher should go wanting for school garden supplies. “The Plug Mob program means that finding seeds and plants is no longer a factor for 2,000 schools,” he says. Muir Ranch operates like a plant nursery, helping source and distribute seeds, bulbs and flats of plant starts. Like modern day Johnny Appleseeds, Mud and his supporters share what they have and spread around the love.

Muir Ranch hopes to add a culinary program that will connect students more closely to food systems. As young people “connect the dots,” they become involved in how food it is grown, distributed, and finally cooked into healthy meals. Besides being a center for education, Muir Ranch hosts a variety of ongoing and special events. The program is known for its floral arrangements, and I love that Mud has taught his interns and student workers how to harvest and assemble bouquets. When I visited last month, he gave two young women a challenge to create a bouquet for me. I loved the ease and confidence with which each gather flowers – mostly annuals and summer dahlias — into a custom-made bunch.

And the word is getting out about Muir Ranch’s flowers. One of Mud’s interns just earned $400 selling wedding flowers to a market customer. According to Mud, that experience has opened her eyes to possibilites for a bright future. 

Here’s that beautiful bouquet, an impromptu gift that I cherished.

Volunteers are welcome (and needed) at this innovative program, especially to weed, prepare beds, turn compost, plant seeds and plugs, move worm “tractors,” maintain irrigation systems, water nursery plants and harvest crops. If you’d like to stop by and help, the regular Muir Ranch Workdays take place Monday-Friday from 8 to 11:00 a.m. 

PASSION FOR PEONIES

I came home from Alaska with these luscious peonies – and it seemed as if no other flower could compete for room in the vase.

From the Farmer

FLIGHTS OF FANCY

A summer bouquet for my friend Stacie Crooks’s annual garden girlfriend soiree.

This charming arrangement is even more interesting when viewed from the top as the gooseneck stems appear to be flying in all directions!

Ingredients:

7 stems Dahlia ‘Coral Gypsy’, grown by Jello Mold Farm

15 stems white love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena), grown by J. Foss Garden Flowers

5 stems chartreuse Hypericum perforatum (a florist’s variety selected for its colorful fruit), grown by Jello Mold Farm

7 stems goldenrod (Solidago sp.), grown by J. Foss Garden Flowers

11 stems white gooseneck loosestrife (Lysimachia clethroides), grown by Jello Mold Farm

20 stems burnet foliage (Sanguisorba obtusa), grown by Charles Little & Co.

Vase:

6-inch tall x 4-inch diameter glass vase 

Eco-technique

Transporting bouquets: Save your arrangement and your car with a smart stabilizing trick I learned from flower farmers who make frequent bouquet deliveries. Use a box that is at least half the height of your vase; seal the

top and bottom so you have an empty “cube.” Using a utility knife, cut a large X on one side of the box. The cuts should be approximately the same size as the vase diameter. Push the bottom of the vase into the X-opening. The

triangular cardboard flaps created by the cuts should bend inward to hold the vase securely while you drive.