New York, New Yooork

I was just in NYC for a whopping five days to relax and celebrate with friend and colleague Tricia Huddas. I kid you not, this song from On the Town was in my head the entire time I was there. They have, hands-down, the easiest access to awesome fresh flowers of anywhere I've ever been. It took all of the self-control I have to not purchase flowers for our hotel room when we passed by a bodegas with displays like this every few blocks!

Savannah in Bloom - Hybrid Ranunculus

I'm in my old stomping grounds of Savannah, GA for a big corporate event and I knew that Natalie and Heidi from Savannah Florist A to Zinnias would be up to their very capable elbows in flowers this weekend due to a number of weddings as well as all of the blooms for our event. I told them I'd love to help when I wasn't working on the event, if they would like, and they were more than happy to have me come to clean and cut flowers with them after Thursday's 18-box delivery. They thought I was silly to WANT to help with such a task, but I really did enjoy it. Just seeing the buckets and buckets of flowers was pretty amazing.

I won't even start on how mad I was to not have a camera to get pictures of the sheer number of flowers....but these hybrid Ranunculus were incredible. You may be able to get some idea of their size in comparison to the white roses at the bottom corner of the picture - but not a just comparison because they are huge.

I couldn't imagine cleaning and cutting flowers with better company, and hope to share some real pictures of the flowers for our corporate event next week.

A Bunch of Locals from Wollam Gardens

I took a quick trip to Wollam Gardens, in Jeffersonton, VA, to meet with the flower farm's crew about a possible this internship this summer. I'm happy to say that I will be starting at the farm in mid-August and helping through the fall (Dahlias!).

And, of course, I couldn't leave without a bunch of their season's best - Anemone, Freesia, Ranunculus and Hellebore!

As for the vase, I got it a Big Lots for $4! There is no reason to be using the lame vase that you got with flowers sent to you by a boyfriend during college from 1-800-flowers or something like that when you can find inexpensive containers, with A LOT more character all over the place.

Floral Re-Mix - Hydrangea with Ranunculus in Anthropologie Pot

Suzanne's Bouquet didn't really seem right for an arrangement in my apartment, so I decided to deconstruct it and make something new - sans blue Hydrangea...I was just not feeling blue Hydrangea this week.

So that left me with white Hydrangea, white Ranunculus and the mystery reddish brown leafy plant. I used a pedestal pot that I got from Anthropologie a few months ago. We do not need, nor can we fit, another home good in our apartment. But I justified the random purchase that day by telling myself that it was only $8 (deal!), I needed to get my parking validated (they didn't validate), and it was heavy enough to also use as a weapon in the case of an intruder (I live in a 4th floor walk-up...who would bother?). I couldn't find it on the web site, but I've seen it at both the Georgetown and Friendship Heights Anthropologie stores recently, so it's still around if you need parking validation or a weapon...

This piece was actually further re-mixed when I decided to bring flowers to my in-laws' house for Easter dinner. I broke down some of the pieces into a smaller, mercury glass cup that I was happy to leave with them. So I got a lot of mileage out of this week's floral purchase, despite the bad start with the sad blue Hydrangea.

Suzanne's Bouquet - Blue and White Hydrangea, and Ranunculus

Here are the results, Suzanne! I know it's not exactly what you were thinking of, but it's certainly a tribute to you. And, honestly, if it were my bouquet (it's not), I'd add the brown into the bouquet with the ribbon INSTEAD of the chocolate Cosmos. You will still have the Hop Buds mixed in to break up the expanse of Hydrangea.

Suzy Q also wanted me to suggest how to incorporate an antique ring into the bouquet. That is why I incorporated the brown ribbon to begin with. The ring is actually my engagement here - not antique, just rocking a nice "patina" due to lack of proper cleaning.

Suzanne's Bouquet - The Materials

When I shared this blog with my high school friends (we all post on a Google Groups page regularly to keep in touch), Suzanne - a June bride - automatically wanted my take on her bridal bouquet:

Tell me what you'd do with this: Blue Hydrangeas, White fluffy
flowers of some sort (like white ranunculus) Chocolate Cosmos Hop Buds And an
Ivory fabric to put around the stems. For my bouquet I want mostly blue
with touches of white and a few chocolate cosmos and ivory ribbon.

I told her I'd do what I could with the supplies that I can get! Hop Buds and Chocolate Cosmos were not possible. But I did use the reddish brown leaves of the unknown plant mixed in there to show how the brown color would look in the bouquet. (I will find out what it's called asap)

And I need to share this story about the Blue Hydrangea! I won't say where, but I saw them and picked them up so I could make good on my promise to Suzanne. Just like I do with all of my flowers, I took them home, trimmed the bottoms and put them in water with antibacterial floral food. Well, within hours the blue Hydrangea were basically dead. Wilted, dropping petals, droopy, ugly, shriveled, dead. So I took them back the store - where I buy A LOT of flowers - and asked for new ones. Easy trade, right? The floral manager gave me such a hard time! She was insulting and really passive aggressive....more or less accusing me of mis-treating them OR lying about when I bought them OR stealing OR all three. I ended up taking a bouquet of white Hydrangea to replace the sad blue specimen and bought 2 stems of blue elsewhere. Funny enough, my friend's mother had the SAME problem with blue Hydrangea from the SAME store as me... You can see in the picture below how droopy those hydrangea are!

Results tomorrow...

Spring Centerpiece - Ranunculus, Alstromeria, Trachelium and ??

The Spring Centerpiece for my dinner with friends was a learning experience! That is the point of this blog though. Right? Here are some teaching points it provided:

• It took A LOT of flowers to get a full look. The Ranunculus could have used another day to open (though they probably look great now).
• I spilled water all over myself while bringing the centerpiece to my friend Sara's house! Next time I will add water AT the destination, and possibly use floral foam when the arrangement will be traveling.
• Cats love flowers...who knew! My dog could not care less.

The Trachelium looks like Broccoli in the pictures! The "??" in the post title refers to the twigs sticking out. Are they baby Pussy Willow? If you know, I'd love to hear from you! It was mixed in with the Ranunculus from Wollam Gardens.

The curious cat is Mr. Henry Kerr - he gave the centerpiece a little nibble and pat, but did no serious damage.

And here it is with our delicious dinner - which was Cod in a Sack with Fennel and Onion, if you were curious.

Spring Centerpiece - The Materials

It's a sunny spring day here in the District, so I walked down the hill to Georgetown to check out some of the great antique stores and find a container for the centerpiece I'm making for our dinner tonight with some friends. I had a silver footed bowl in mind, and everything that I saw at the antique stores was a bit pricey or larger than I wanted (which would be pricey to fill). I decided to try Pottery Barn, instead and found exactly what I was looking for!

Chancellor Snack Bowl

It was only $15 and apparently it would work for snacks too. What a deal.

As for the floral supplies, I am excited to be working with these local Ranunculus. I purchased them from Wollam Gardens' table at the Dupont Circle FRESHFARM Market on Sunday. I also have a few other fillers from Whole Foods , but I plan on the Ranunculus being the stars. Once again, please excuse the pictures! These are even worse - they're from my blackberry phone! Must get new camera...