seasonal floral design Archives - Slow Flowers Podcast with Debra Prinzing

Episode 665: Home in Bloom with Author, Educator and Floral Artist Ariella Chezar

Tuesday, June 4th, 2024

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Ariella Chezar’s new book – Home in Bloom – is a vivid, inspiring look at the role of flowers and plants in interior design. Through her stunning, wild work, Ariella invites us to revel in the inherent drama of nature, encouraging us to infuse our living spaces with beauty and abundance, while fundamentally altering a room’s energy through the transformative power of flowers.

From Home in Bloom by Ariella Chezar — This kitchen is decorated with four arrangements that share the golden orange color of spicy-smelling marigolds. A large champagne bucket elevates this humble flower by inviting it to tumble as if still in the garden. Smaller vases hold tiny tangerine gem marigolds, while creamsicle orange nasturtiums spill from a shelf.

It’s been many years since today’s guest Ariella Chezar appeared on the Slow Flowers Podcast, so I’m thrilled to welcome her back for our first video episode.

Home in Bloom by Ariella Chezar — Ariella Chezar is the author of The Flower Workshop and Flowers for the Table and a master floral designer who has appeared in numerous magazines, including Opray Daily, Martha Stewart Living, and Real Simple. She is an instructor and has designed flower arrangements for the White House. Photography by Gentl & Hyers

The occasion is the recent publication of Ariella’s fourth and newest book, Home in Bloom, written with Julie Michaels. The benefit of recording for our Slow Flowers YouTube Channel is that you can see a preview of the interior pages of Home in Bloom as Ariella describes many of her beautiful designs and installations.

ARIELLA CHEZAR is a master floral designer and the author of Seasonal Flower Arranging, The Flower Workshop, and Flowers for the Table. Her work has graced the cover and pages of Martha Stewart Living, O Magazine, Better Homes and Gardens, Town and Country, and many more publications. She is a highly sought-after teacher and lecturer and has designed flower arrangements for The Obama White House. Ariella lives in The Berkshires of Massachusetts, where her garden serves as inspiration for her designs.

Left: The seven stems of fritillaria are displayed in three tea glasses on various levels. They complement the painting of a lemon in the background anda, by being displayed separately, make a stronger impression. Right: The copper pots of this New York City loft inspire two dramatic arrangements dominated by assorted Itoh peonies. They are paired with the bell-like blossoms of the martagon lily and, in the larger arrangement, joined by Polkadot Series foxgloves and framed by the blooming burgundy branches of the physocarpus, or ninebark. Clematis vines balance all that height, but it’s the peonies that dominate.

Home in Bloom celebrates the seamless integration of architecture, light, and natural landscapes into floral design. Ariella layers colors and combines improbable wild elements, resulting in arrangements that are as gorgeous as they are dynamic. With each page, she invites us to revel in the inherent drama of nature, encouraging us to infuse our living spaces with beauty and abundance, while fundamentally altering a room’s energy through the transformative power of flowers.

A gathering of ‘Limelight’ hydrangeas, sea oats, and elderberry branches light up the olive walls of this faded manse. They join an arrangement of ‘Queen Lime’ zinnias on the marble table, evoking an era of plenty.

Home in Bloom is organized into chapters that celebrate every room in the home—Welcome, Nourish, Celebrate, Pause, and Wilding, as it takes us on a journey through flower-filled living spaces. The arrangements in each chapter are accompanied by detailed captions that inspire us to walk outside and bring the wilds of nature into our environments. The book features hundreds of gorgeous photographs by renowned photographers Andrea Gentl and Martin Hyers.

Thanks so much for joining me today!

READ: Mary Ann Newcomer’s review of Home in Bloom, recently published in Slow Flowers Journal online.

LISTEN to Ariella’s past guest appearances on the Slow Flowers Podcast
March 2014 (Episode 133)
June 2016 (Episode 251)

Follow Ariella on Instagram

Order Home in Bloom

Thank you for an inspiring conversation, Ariella!

Slow Flowers Summit 2024 – News

We are swiftly into the countdown phase before the amazing 7^th annual Slow Flowers Summit – taking place June 23 through 25^th. I can’t wait to see you there! Today, we dropped our FINAL ticket promotion, so take note. Now through June 11^th, next Tuesday, you can take 10 % off your Slow Flowers Summit registration. Use the promo code LETSDOTHIS — all one word – to take 10% off your registration at slowflowerssummit.com.

THURSD.com on the Slow Flowers Summit 2024

And speaking of good news, last week, we were delighted with some incredible press coverage about the Slow Flowers Summit. In its coverage of the Slow Flowers Summit, the online floral lifestyle magazine called THURSD.com called it the “must-attend event for floral fanatics.” Thank you for affirming all that’s gone into creating such a valuable educational experience for flower farmers, floral designers, and farmer-florists interested in enhancing their skills and understanding around sustainable and slow flowers. The link to the article in THURSD is in our show notes.

Click to read the entire THURSD.com story

Thank you to our Sponsors

This show is brought to you by Slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 750 florists, shops, and studios who design with local, seasonal and sustainable flowers and to the farms that grow those blooms. It’s the conscious choice for buying and sending flowers.

Thank you to Johnny’s Selected Seeds, an employee-owned company that provides our industry the best flower, herb and vegetable seeds — supplied to farms large and small and even backyard cutting gardens like mine. Find the full catalog of flower seeds and bulbs at johnnyseeds.com.

Thank you to The Gardener’s Workshop, which offers a full curriculum of online education for flower farmers and farmer-florists. Online education is more important than ever, and you’ll want to check out the course offerings at thegardenersworkshop.com.

Thank you to Store It Cold, creators of the revolutionary CoolBot, a popular solution for flower farmers, studio florists and farmer-florists. Save $1000s when you build your own walk-in cooler with the CoolBot and an air conditioner. Don’t have time to build your own? They also have turnkey units available. Learn more at storeitcold.com.

I’m so glad you joined us today! The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than one million times by listeners like you. Thank you for listening, commenting and sharing – it means so much. As our movement gains more supporters and more passionate participants who believe in the importance of our domestic cut flower industry, the momentum is contagious. I know you feel it, too. If you’re new to our weekly Show and our long-running Podcast, check out all of our resources at SlowFlowersSociety.com

Debra in the Slow Flowers Cutting Garden — Thank you for listening! Sending love, from my cutting garden to you! (c) Missy Palacol Photography

I’m Debra Prinzing, host and producer of the Slow Flowers Show & Podcast. The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brenlan. The content and opinions expressed here are either mine alone or those of my guests alone, independent of any podcast sponsor or other person, company or organization. Next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more Slow Flowers on the table, one stem, one vase at a time. Thanks so much for joining us today and I’ll see you next week!

Music credits:

Drone Pine; Gaena; Blue Straggler; Long Await
by Blue Dot Sessions
http://www.sessions.blue

Lovely
by Tryad
http://tryad.bandcamp.com/album/instrumentals
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

In The Field
audionautix.com

Posted in American Grown, Architecture, Blog Posts, Book reviews, Creativity, floral design, Gardening, General, interior design, Plants, Podcast Episodes, SLOW FLOWERS Podcast, Slowflowers.com the Directory of American Flowers, Sustainability, Writing | No Comments »

Week 3 // Slow Flowers Challenge

Sunday, January 25th, 2015

Miniature cymbidiums in all their glory, offset with calla lily foliage from Danielle Hahn’s private landscape at Rose Story Farm in Carpinteria, CA.

On the road with the Slow Flowers Challenge, I’m in Southern California this week to do some story scouting, podcast interviews and to attend the winter board meeting of the Garden Writers Association in Pasadena.

So naturally, I wasn’t able to create my own seasonal and local bouquet!

For Week 3 of 2015, I want to showcase this exquisite arrangement designed by Danielle Hahn at Rose Story Farm. I visited her in Carpinteria, CA, this week (USDA Zone 10) and was delighted to see a vase of miniature cymbidium orchids and calla foliage on the kitchen island at the Hahn family farmhouse.

Rose Story is an American flower farm, specializing in organically-grown old garden roses, David Austin’s and heirloom varieties for the floral industry. That means their field-grown roses bloom mostly in May, June, July and August! Since it’s winter now, the farm’s rose production is limited.

Orchids are a wonderful winter-blooming option for every climate.

A few years ago, Dani’s father brought her a wide array of winter flowers that would bloom in her garden when the roses were dormant. She wrote this on her Instagram post of these orchids: “It’s cymbidium time . . . these are a teensy variety and first to bloom. A gift from my late father who decided we needed something during our rose dormancy. One thousand plants and some are fragrant!”

There’s something quite powerful and lovely about associating our floral choices with memories and the people we love – and Dani, how beautiful that your own remembrances of your father are connected to these orchids.

Love this glossy calla lily foliage, another seasonal option from Dani’s garden.

Okay, I know not everyone lives in Carpinteria (just a stone’s throw from Santa Barbara), so what’s going on in other parts of the country?

Here are a few designs from Slowflowers.com Members in colder corners of the U.S.

I share these to illustrate how much beauty each region has to offer – if only you look!

From Ann Sensenbrenner, owner of Farm to Vase in Madison, Wisconsin. This was her New Year’s arrangement featuring conifers and evergreens, ilex berries, dried grasses, dried seed heads and dried flowers.

From Kate Dagnal of Goose Creek Gardens in Oakdale, Pennsylvania.
Kate posted this arrangement on Jan. 16th as part of her “Friday Night Romance” series, a peek at the bouquets she creates each week.
I love how this arrangement features late-season Dusty Miller, as well as gorgeous juniper berries, dried hydrangea flowers, dried grasses.
I actually think I see a few succulents in this bouquet, too!

TIP: From the Flower Farmer

Red twig dogwood (Cornus sericea) with Cymbidium ‘Sleeping Dream Castle’.

Red twig dogwood (Cornus sericea) with Cymbidium ‘Sleeping Dream Castle’

Orchids make great cut flowers!

According to Sandra Peterkort Laubenthal, whose family grows roses, lilies and orchids in greenhouses outside of Portland, Oregon, cymbidiums can be displayed as a flower-studded stem or cut individually off the stem for floating or inserting in floral tubes.

It’s hard to know, however, how fresh the flower is. “What makes the most difference is if they are cut right after blooming,” Sandra says.

“Look at the lip to see if it has turned pink or is otherwise discolored. This is an indication that the flower has been pollinated by an insect – and that dramatically shortens the cymbidium’s lifespan.”

(c) Slow Flowers: Four Seasons of Locally Grown Flowers, by Debra Prinzing

Posted in American Grown, Blog Posts, Creativity, floral design, Flower Farming, Gardening, General, Plants, Playfulness, Slow Flowers Challenge, Slowflowers.com the Directory of American Flowers | No Comments »

SLOW FLOWERS Podcast: Studio Choo’s Jill Rizzo and Alethea Harampolis on The Wreath Recipe Book (Episode 166)

Wednesday, November 5th, 2014

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Jill Rizzo (left) and Alethea Harampolis (right).

I’m so pleased to welcome Slow Flowers Members Jill Rizzo and Alethea Harampolis. Floral designers and founders of SF-based Studio Choo, they have a carefree, nature-inspired design philosophy that touches everything they create.

As a floral design shop, studio and boutique, Studio Choo focuses as much as possible on locally-sourced flowers and plants, styled with a nod to the wild and untamed.

You have a chance to win a free copy of their newest project, The Wreath Recipe Book, courtesy of publisher Artisan. To enter, please post a comment below about YOUR FAVORITE wreath ingredient from nature, the woodland, the garden or flower fields.

You must post a comment in order to enter a drawing to win a free copy of this lovely new book. The drawing will take place at 5 p.m. Pacific Time on Saturday, November 8th and I’ll announce the winner on the Nov. 12th episode of The Slow Flowers Podcast.

Alethea and Jill originally met and worked together at an esteemed flower shop in San Francisco. Their shared passion led them to found Studio Choo in 2009.

After many weddings, deliveries and penning their first book, The Flower Recipe Book, Studio Choo expanded into a new studio space in South San Francisco last year. The Flower Recipe Book took them across the nation, teaching design classes in massive markets, quaint shops and beautiful farms. When they returned home, they worked tirelessly to turn their studio into a unique expanse devoted to design classes, an apothecary, a workspace for weddings and events, a well-curated shop and a place to honor the love of flowers that started it all.

Late winter-early spring: A camellia branch with a swag made of 65 little hyacinth blooms.

I’ve gotten to know Jill and Alethea over the past few years, reviewing The Flower Recipe Book for Sunset magazine, hosting their book-signing presentation for florists at the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, and inviting them to the stage when I produced the floral design workshops at the SF Flower & Garden Show last March. But due to the fact that we live and work in different cities, I simply had not been able to record a Studio Choo interview.

Welcome to the Studio Choo shop.

Last month, I took a last minute trip to SF and while there, I invited myself to visit the new Studio Choo space. *Thanks Christina Stembel of Farmgirl Flowers for the lift – I’m so glad you got to stop by, too.

Even though it was a Friday and flowers for a few weddings were in production, Jill and Alethea were so sweet to take a half an hour and talk about their latest project — JUST OUT — “The Wreath Recipe Book: Year-Round Wreaths, Swags, and Other Decorations to Make with Seasonal Branches”

A wistful spring wreath uses flowering dogwood branches, sheet moss and earthy mushrooms.

Using the same recipe-like approach to seasonal branches that they presented with cut flower arrangements in the Flower Recipe Book, this time Jill and Alethea employ the same clear format in explaining how to make wreaths, table settings, napkin rings, package toppers, wall hangings, and other branch-based decorations.

A gorgeous garland with cotoneaster branches, pomegranates, purple sage and strawflowers.

Divided into Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, and based on when the main plant “ingredients” are available. Ingredient lists and step-by-step photographs give readers a starting point for trying these recipes and adapting each to one’s own aesthetic and style.

Here’s that amazing Tahoe wreath Alethea just made, using foraged material from her recent vacation.

I know you’ll enjoy our conversation about Studio Choo, and how Jill and Alethea blend their unique point of view as designers with a dynamic business model that takes them in some very unexpected places. Alethea has just launched her own scent collection called Snake Face and together the two are cooking up workshops and other creative endeavors for the year to come.

Bittersweet wreath with fall chrysanthemums, marigolds and safflowers.

And here’s some background on this dynamic duo:

Studio Choo BFFs.

Alethea spent her time before Studio Choo as an estate gardener in Seattle where she managed the wet and wild rolling hills of the city’s rich and famous. After working in other boutique flower shops perfecting her art, she returned to her native Bay Area to settle back in.

Jill grew up with her mother, aunt, and uncle all running their own flower shops, so it now seems only natural that she would do the same. After spending her childhood in Rhode Island learning the difference between roses and ranunculus, she graduated with a degree in illustration from Parsons School of Design and moved to San Francisco to try life out west.

Studio Choo started with a sneeze. Jill’s tiny sneeze, to be exact. It was so small Alethea remarked upon this tiny sneeze and thus “Choo” became a shared nickname between the two. They remained friends when Alethea left the Bay Area, and they dreamed of starting a business together one day. Upon Alethea’s return a few years later (early 2009), they finally took the plunge to open their floral studio and the eponymous Studio Choo was born.

Studio Choo’s Friday deliveries, ready to go.

Jill and Alethea encourage their readers and customers alike to bring the outdoors into our homes and celebrate the special qualities of each season.To find inspiration in plants that are in season wherever you to live — I wholeheartedly endorse this philosophy because it’s at the heart of what the Slow Flowers Movement is all about.

Listeners like you have downloaded the Slow Flowers Podcast nearly 25,000 times. If you like what you hear, please consider logging onto Itunes and posting a listener review.

My personal goal is to put more American grown flowers on the table, one vase at a time. I promise that when you tune in next week, you’ll hear another insightful and educational episode of the Slow Flowers Podcast.

The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Wheatley and Hannah Holtgeerts. Learn more about their work at hhcreates.net.

Posted in American Grown, Blog Posts, Book reviews, Creativity, floral design, General, Podcast Episodes, SLOW FLOWERS Podcast, Slowflowers.com the Directory of American Flowers, Writing | 20 Comments »