Happy Birthday Joanie

Here are a few photos I wanted to include of floral designs I did for my mother-in-law's 80th birthday party at the Academy Art Museum in Easton, Maryland this past October. It was my first official event! What excited me most about this is that most of the plant material used came from my garden, my neighbor's backyard (with permission!) or the side of the road. My son no longer asks why I pull over in random spots along the roadways. He just picks up his book and says "How long are you going to be this time, Mom?"

I did purchase Veriflora red roses, galax leaves and purple calla lilies from Whole Foods as part of my commitment to buying environmentally-friendly flowers in an effort to keep this green business truthfully green. The rest of the materials though are organic and grown in my garden, hence keeping the carbon footprint very low. Blushing hydrangeas in shades of green, red and reddish pink, sedum 'Autumn Joy,' magnolia pods, nandina berries, figs from my Brown Turkey Fig tree and strands of ivy (so glad I didn't rip that out as the Bay-Wise ladies insisted!) rounded out the rest of the arrangements. I am also grateful for the rental house down the street because it gives me even more plant material to choose from! And autumn is such an abundant time to be in the floral design business. There's so much going on who needs carnations?

Fleurishing

Okay, so here we are for my first entry. How exciting. I just submitted applications to a couple of regional flower wholesalers with hopes of approval for my humble little venture. I even have a resale number and a business name though I was devastated to discover that Fleurish wasn't nearly original as I thought it would be.

Seeds for my passion seem to be blooming. No pun intended. With a modicum of skill and a lot of luck, I am hopeful to have an intimate floral boutique up and running within a few months. Ideally, universe, I'd like a few regular business accounts and residential accounts with the occasional parties and events thrown in. Weddings and huge parties seem too stressful and I'm trying to keep the stress level down in my life, not up.

But I realize it's time to translate my loves for nearly all things floral and botanical into something that could quite possibly one day grow into paying for itself. Rather than the current scenario of me donating floral designs to various non-profit events and auctions in our community. While I may be getting brownie points on a civic level, my bank account is drying up. So I thought to myself, wouldn't it be great if I could start a little business that could pay for my flower addiction? So, buckle up, here we go.

In other news, I'm happy to say I just passed my big exam at Longwood Gardens (I got an A! Can you believe it?) so I now officially have a Certificate in Floral Design. My mother keeps asking me what it means - in other words, can I do anything with it. Or, like, is it equivalent to a degree from Harvard. Is it worth bragging about to her friends or not? She's confused but I am not.

What it means to me is that for the past two years, as a Stay-At-Home mother of two little people, I have been taking classes at Longwood Gardens because it feeds my soul! I cannot tell you why but every single time I make the 2-hour journey home from Kennett Square, I am so happy. My soul feels joyous, renewed and content. (That is, except for the mandatory Ikebana class I took. I've been spoiled by taking only classes from my mentors, Jane Godshalk and Nancy Gingrich Shenk.)

The bottom line is flowers make me happy. I didn't realize how much they would when I signed up for my first floral design class. I just knew that with two kids, I couldn't study for the classes in Ornamental Plants Part 2 with the same dedication and intensity as I did with Part 1. And I also knew how much I cherished my escape/time-off spent at Longwood Gardens, doing what didn't really matter. I'm addicted to the gardens there and just about any excuse to visit will do. I won't tell you how many miles I've put on my car chugging up and down the highway for the past 8 years... I'll save that for another post.