Episode 239: Flora Organica Designs and Faye Krause at the Arcata, CA Field to Vase Dinner

March 30th, 2016

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On March 12th the first of several Field to Vase Dinners for 2016 took place inside a state-of-the-art greenhouse in Arcata, California –  Humboldt County, located way, way up north in the Redwoods.

What a stunning installation, transforming a working greenhouse into a glorious dinner party setting at Sun Valley Flower Farm (c) Amy Kumler

Faye’s concept for the installation was Tulips + Bulbs overhead as the chandelier and color blocked tulips in vases down the center of the table (c) by Amy Kumler

The venue: Sun Valley Flower Farm, a leading grower of cut bulb and field flowers in the United States. According to its web site, Sun Valley chose this area as an ideal environment for growing bulb flowers, due to its mild winters, cool summers, generous humidity and coastally moderated sunlight. The fields surrounding the greenhouses also provide excellent growing conditions for spring, summer and fall iris, and summer flowers including crocosmia, hypericum, and monkshood.

Endless tulips!! (c) by Amy Kumler

On March 12th, the celebration was all about American-grown tulips and other-spring flowering bulbs — hundreds of thousands of them in all their colorful glory.

The evening’s festivities attracted 150 dinner guests who gathered at an uber-long farm table occupying the greenhouse’s center aisle between the tulips. The menu was scrumptious and the table was adorned with at stunning array of fresh, seasonal tulips, designed by Faye Krause of Arcata-based Flora Organica Designs.

(left) Faye Krause, posing with her daughter Klara; (right) Faye (center) with her design team, Suzy Haggerty and Susan Kelly. The design team poses in front of Faye’s gorgeous curtain of California irises. (c) by Amy Kumler

The magnificent iris curtain, pairing Sun Valley Flower Farm’s iconic irises with Faye Krause’s artistry. (c) Debra Prinzing

Field to Vase Dinners take place on American flower farms and inside greenhouses of U.S. growers who participate in the Certified American Grown brand. Slow Flowers members are at the heart of these dinners, frequently invited to design the evening’s tablescape as a reflection of their aesthetic and affinity for locally-grown flowers. In Arcata, there was no question that Faye was the first choice as designer.

A bird’s eye view of the Field to Vase Dinner’s tabletop (c) by Amy Kumler

Special guests Amy Stewart (Flower Confidential) and her husband Scott Brown added local style to the F2V Dinner; And I was on hand to make introductions and remarks about the Slow Flowers Movement (c) by Amy Kumler

Faye invited Suzy Haggerty, of Haggerty Designs, a fellow Slow Flowers member in the Arcata area, to join the design team along with Susan Kelly of Three Sisters Custom Flowers & Events in Palo Alto, who offered her services. Since Susan attended the Field to Vase Dinner in Detroit last October as one of The Flower House designers, she knew what was in store for the huge installation and she, too, is a Slowflowers.com member and past guest of this podcast. The final volunteer was Faye’s younger sister Emma Zierer.

The entire installation was magical and huge congrats to Faye, Suzy, Susan and Emma, as well as to my friend Kathleen Williford, special events manager for the Field to Vase Dinner Tour for producing the evening’s look and feel. Please enjoy these beautiful images shot by Amy Kumler.

Love this image of Faye and Klara (c) by Amy Kumler

Before we get started with the interview, let me give you a little background on Faye Krause:

Faye founded Flora Organica Designs in 2005, although her history with flowers extends back to before she was born. The story goes…. when her mother was pregnant with her, her parents were starting their farm and deciding what they would plant. They decided that if the baby was a boy it would be potatoes and if the baby was a girl it would be flowers.  Flowers it was!

Seasonal design work by Faye Krause of Flora Organica Designs (c) Faye Krause

Faye has cultivated a love of flowers her whole life, creating posies and wreaths from the time she could walk. The turning point for her came while traveling Europe and realizing that when she was away from flowers part of her was missing, and thus Flora Organica Designs was created  When not designing, Faye  enjoys spending time in the garden with her husband and their baby girl.

Faye’s work has been featured on such blogs as Style Me Pretty, Green Wedding Shoes, Green Bride Guide, and Munaluchi.

More of Faye’s designs (c) Faye Krause

Flora Organica Designs is a  floral studio dedicated to creating exquisite floral design for weddings and events.  Each event is one of a kind and Faye and her team work with clients to create florals unique and amazingly beautiful. Flora Organica Designs uses  locally grown blooms whenever possible. Faye believes in knowing where the flowers she selects are grown and how they were grown.

Event flowers and bridal flowers designed by Faye Krause of Flora Orgnanica Designs (c) Faye Krause

Many of the blooms with which works  are sourced directly from Andreas and Lisa Zierer, Faye’s parents, who grow organic food, flowers and plants at their nursery, Flora Organica in McKinleyville, California. She also relies on and works closely with several sources  from across California and the country to find the most exquisite blooms for her designs.

Spring centerpiece, with wisteria, tulips, azalea and hawthorne by Flora Organica Designs

Faye used rhododendrons in an inventive ombre here! (c) Faye Krause

More goodness from Flora Organica Designs (c) Faye Krause

Shop Faye Marie preserved organic floral products on Etsy

Find Flora Organica Designs on Facebook

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See Flora Organica Designs on Pinterest

Connect with Flora Organica Designs on Google+

Thanks for joining today’s podcast.

The Slow Flowers Podcast has been downloaded more than 89,000 times by listeners like you. THANK YOU to each one of you for downloading, listening, commenting and sharing. It means so much.

Until next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more American grown flowers on the table, one vase at a time. And If you like what you hear, please consider logging onto Itunes and posting a listener review.

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.

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

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 30th, 2016 at 6:36 am and is filed under American Grown, Blog Posts, Creativity, Entertainment, floral design, Flower Farming, General, Playfulness, Podcast Episodes, SLOW FLOWERS Podcast, Slowflowers.com the Directory of American Flowers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.