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Floral designer, educator, author-blogger and visionary, Alicia Schwede

If you’re at all active in the online universe, and if you’re a florist or simply passionate about good design, you probably already know about today’s talented guest, Alicia Schwede, creator of the popular FLIRTY FLEURS blog.  Alicia has more than a decade of floral design to her credit, beginning with her first wedding clients in the Bay Area, and later, her Denver-based studio Bella Fiori.  

In the past year, Alicia migrated from Colorado back to Northern California’s wine country, where she created the florals for many happy bridal parties this past wedding season. And now, due to life’s unexpected turns, she is here in the Pacific Northwest. 

The life of a studio designer is a lot like the life of a writer. You are pretty mobile, and you can take your talents with you when you relocate. That’s exactly what happened this fall, when Alicia followed her husband Chad for a work-related move. We met in person when she surprised me by showing up in a workshop I taught last month.  

Since then, we’ve had several great discussions about floral design and the state of the business. I’m excited to share our most recent conversation with you in today’s podcast. Learn more about Alicia, about her career as a floral designer, and what inspired her to launch FlirtyFleurs.com, an online community for floral designers to gain ideas and inspiration from each other.  

In this podcast, we also discuss her beautiful book, Bella Bouquets, which is a compendium of more than 100 wedding bouquets, arranged by color theme, which is quite the perfect way to organize flowers. 

I was struck by this passage from the foreword to Bella Bouquets:

” . . . I still stop dead in my tracks when I spy a perfect peony, a gorgeous garden rose or the sweetest sweet pea at the market,” Alicia writes.  “I find great pleasure in sharing my love and affection toward flowers. This book, and the blog Flirtyfleurs.com are just a few ways for me to share and connect with others while exploring the flower path ahead.”

To me, that flower path is right here, under our noses. It’s not on another continent, especially when locally-grown and seasonal botanicals are available to designers and flower lovers. A big believer in locally-grown blooms — and it’s no wonder, since she has many ties to California floral sources — Alicia shared four of her favorite American-grown arrangements for you to see here. “How funny is that?” she wrote in her email message accompanying these images. “Four bouquets representing three different states!” 

Anemones are grown by Stevens & Son in Arvada, CO (designed in CO)

Tulips bouquet – all tulips and daffodils from Pike Place Market;
Washington grown (designed in WA)

Bella Fiori Garden – from Alicia’s garden, all of it!

Bella Fiori Dahlias – mostly from Alicia’s garden, Dahlias are CA grown (designed while in CA)

If you're interested in learning more about Alicia and Flirtyfleurs, be sure to subscribe to her free 
newsletter. You'll also find details and registration information on Alicia's "Bridal Bouquet Workshop," 
which I'm hosting at my event space in Seattle's Pioneer Square on Feb. 1, 2014. 

Thank you  for joining me in this episode of the SLOW FLOWERS Podcast with Debra Prinzing. Because of your support as a listener, there have been more than 3,500 downloads since July – and I thank you for taking the time to join to my conversations with flower farmers, florists and other notable floral experts.

If you like what you hear, please consider logging onto Itunes and posting a listener review.

Thank you, Alicia, for such inspiration! Until next week please join me in putting more American grown flowers on the table, one vase at a time. 

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

Embrace the season and join this creative and spirited SLOW FLOWERS Workshop

Long-needled lady pine boughs, glossy holly with golden berries, lichen-covered branches – a stunning Holiday arrangement for the season. 

The HOLIDAY CENTERPIECE AND ARRANGEMENT BAR

A Hands-On Design Workshop
with Debra Prinzing, Whitney White and Erica Knowles
Friday, Dec. 6th (6-8 pm) or Saturday, Dec. 7th (10 am-Noon)

As Seen in the December 2013 issue of Better Homes & Gardens

Bring Nature Home for the Holidays!

Aromatic conifers, glossy camellia and magnolia foliage, enticing rose hips and berries,
plus winter blooms, garden roses, beautiful fruit, colorful branches — and more!

In this make-and-take class, you’ll learn how to create a fresh, beautiful, nature-inspired centerpiece for the holiday season. All instruction, supplies and plants are included. Bring your project home and enjoy it for the holidays!

Lush Magnolia leaves, glossy boxwood and beautiful amaryllis blooms.

Sparkling beverages and tasty refreshments will be served.

Cost: $95 per person or take advantage of our “bring a friend” special, 2-for-$145

Location: 95 Yesler Collective, 95 Yesler – 3rd floor, Pioneer Square (Seattle, WA)

Copies of Debra’s books “Slow Flowers” and “The 50 Mile Bouquet” will be available
for purchase and she will be happy to personally inscribe them for you.

Pre-registration required:

The Holiday Arrangement & Centerpiece Bar 

Friday December 6, 2013 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM PST  

The Holiday Arrangement & Centerpiece Bar 

Saturday December 7, 2013 from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM PST

The beautiful cover of Better Homes & Gardens’ December 2013 issue. My “Winter Greens” article and designs appear on pages 58-64.

In the December 2013 issue of Better Homes & Gardens, on newsstands this week, you’ll find a Winter Greenery-inspired story that I produced with photographer Laurie Black. We created this story nearly 3 years ago, and while often there’s no rhyme or reason as to why a piece takes so long to see the light of day, I’m thrilled you can see it now!

This story features four “regionally-inspired” centerpiece designs with flowers, foliage and branches that you might find in Southern California, the Midwest, the South and the Northeast. The fifth idea, a Northwest-style centerpiece, didn’t make it to the pages – but I’ll share those images (mine, not Laurie’s) below.

I owe a huge thanks to editor-in-chief Gayle Goodson Butler for deciding to share my beautiful wintry bouquets with BH&G’s readers in time for their own holiday design projects. I’m also grateful to the magazine’s garden and outdoor living team, including deputy editor Eric Liskey (who originally commissioned the story) and senior associate editor Jane McKeon (who shephered it through the editing process). It takes a village to bring a great idea to the pages of a magazine! 

Due to space constraints, like many BH&G articles, there isn’t much real estate on those pages for text – photography rules! So here is the original article as I wrote it – and a few bonus photographs!

Filled with holiday cheer

Wintry centerpieces inspired by what grows in your own backyard

All the California-grown elements to this bouquet come from Wild Ridge Organics in Salinas, Calif. The awesome retro-vase is from Bauer Pottery in Los Angeles.

Decorating with cedar sprays and pine boughs is a cherished holiday tradition for many of us. But this year, why not branch out? Use familiar greenery that reflects your part of the country — the forests, fields, mountains or beaches — to create uniquely local and lush holiday centerpieces. Choose a regionally-inspired vessel and add seasonal foliage, branches and berries paired with blooming plants or forced bulbs. The holiday arrangement will last for a few weeks on your dining table or fireplace mantle. Naturally beautiful, of course.

California Cool

The turquoise glaze of a made-in-California Bauer Pottery vase enhances a blue-green and yellow bouquet. The floral ingredients, all native to Australia and South African but grown in California, are thoroughly adapted to Southwest gardens and bloom from October through May. Seeded eucalyptus and velvety sprays of silver tree (Leucadendron argenteum) serve as foliage, while the arrangement’s drama comes from Banksia and pincushion flowers (Leucospermum sp.).

Pine boughs, yellow-berried holly and lichen-covered branches are New England-inspired, gathered into a reclaimed sap bucket.

Northeast Accent

A painted sap bucket seems fitting for this New England-themed winter arrangement, its weathered patina contrasting with the gold berries of the English holly. Long-needled pine boughs cascade over the bucket’s rim while lichen-covered twigs, cut from a deciduous tree, lend height to the design. This elegant arrangement shows how easy it is to combine just three ingredients for impact. 

Midwest Spin

Reminiscent of winter at a woodland lodge, a woven pine needle basket is deep enough to hold a nest of fir branches. For texture and color, we chose pussy willows and huckleberry branches, plants typically found growing along streambeds in Minnesota or Montana. 

Southern Charms

A classical urn may typically be found outside in the garden, but it has come indoors for the holidays. The vessel contains a thoroughly Southern-themed arrangement. Common boxwood branches create the soft foundation for shiny magnolia boughs.

A Midwest-themed arrangement in a woven basket, with textural touches from twigs and pussywillow branches.

We added several lovely amaryllis stems (cut from a potted plant). The buds should look fresh and continue to open for more than a week.

Design tips:

1. Take a walk outdoors: Observe nature and your own backyard to find unexpected ingredients for holiday decorating. When removing branches from the landscape, cut from the back side of a tree or shrub, or take random cuts, so as not to denude your plants. Use sharp, clean pruners. Store branches in a bucket of tepid water until you are ready to arrange them.

2. Choose plants for their design attributes. To create a balanced holiday arrangement, include at least one ingredient that cascades or drapes. Select at least one tall, upright ingredient. And choose at least one dramatic element that gives the design its focal point.

3. Convert interesting vessels a watertight vase. Line containers that have a drainage hole with a slightly smaller plastic bowl. For wood planter boxes, make a waterproof liner with a double layer of thick, plastic sheeting, secured  to the inner edge with staples. Double-check for leaks before placing on furniture or a counter.

I loved making this Southern-themed bouquet, with evergreen magnolia foliage, boxwood and amaryllis clipped from a potted potted plant.

4. Stabilize woody stems. Place a pin- or cage-style flower frog inside the container to hold branch stems. Or, form a 12-inch length of chicken wire into a loose ball. Insert it inside a container to hold stems in place as your arrangement takes shape.

5. Keep water fresh. Your arrangement will last up to three weeks if it doesn’t dry out. Refresh water every few days. An easy trick is to place the arrangement in your kitchen sink, positioning the faucet or spray nozzle inside the edge. Turn on the water and allow it to gently fill the vase. As it begins to overflow, fresh water will displace the older water. Make sure to dry off the exterior of your vase before displaying it again.

Here’s what you missed! I took these photos while we were producing this story at the home of photographer Laurie Black and her husband Mark King. My friend Nancy Finnerty styled the tabletop for us. It’s such a pretty scene that I had to share.

Here I am, all bundled up, working on Laurie & Mark’s screened-in porch.

The table is set for a Northwest style gathering.

Adorn your table with local greenery

Bring the bounty of nature indoors to create winter-themed centerpieces for your holiday table. The evergreens that decorate this Sunday brunch repeat the majestic trees seen outside, making a visual connection with the landscape.

Closeup of the tabletop with a wooden box filled with Northwest greenery.

From the Northwest

Convert a rustic wood planter box into a low, conversation-friendly centerpiece. First, arrange conifer branches, such as Western red cedar (used here), or sprays of juniper or hemlock, positioning them to drape over the box’s edge. For a creamy-white touch, we added flowers from the winter-blooming lily-of-the-valley shrub (Pieris japonica); red-twig dogwood branches, arranged in irregular clusters, provide a graphic accent. 

Another version of Northwest’s natural goodness – straight from the garden, farm and forest.

A (LOVING) CUP FULL OF AUTUMN

The last flowers of summer, not to mention those like me who love them, are often reluctant to disappear come fall. That was the case with these beautiful Cafe au Lait dahlias.

Love the detail on this trophy, which my friend Kathryn Renner urged me to acquire.

Ingredients:

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“Enter a rare world of beauty and intricacy,” promises the press release for “Seeing Flowers,”  a remarkable new book featuring the highly detailed, almost transparent flower photographs of Robert Llewellyn. Using a unique photo process that includes stitching together large macro photographs, the visual artist reveals floral details that few of us have ever noticed: The amazing architecture of stamens and pistils; the subtle shadings on a petal; the secret recesses of nectar tubes.

I learned much more about the secret life of flowers in today’s podcast interview with Teri Dunn Chace, the writer with whom Robert Llewellyn collaborated. A longtime horticultural writer and formerly on the staff of Horticulture magazine, Teri blends literary and scientific sources for her essays about 343 popular flowers.

These are blooms beloved by gardeners and floral designers alike and together Robert and Teri portray flowers as you have never before seen them. They gave me a deeper appreciation of how and why flowers have become so embedded in human culture.

In preparing for my podcast interview with Teri, I went back and spent some time with Robert’s earlier book, Seeing Trees, with writer Nancy Ross Hugo. When that book was released in 2011, I was blown away by the detailed process he goes through to capture the essence of leaves, seeds, pods and other tree parts. Each subject is photographed up to 50 times at various distances and the final work is a composite of the sharpest areas of each individual image. The resulting photographs are of stunning hyper-real clarity, as if Robert has found a way to circumvent the limitations of the human eye through his lens. When Seeing Trees was released, publisher Timber Books created a video of the process.

Please enjoy this conversation with author Teri Chace, and add Seeing Flowers to your library reference shelf. Our conversation is a whirlwind tour of flowers, literature and garden writing. You’ll enjoy the ride.

Jaunty blooms of chicory, or Cichorium intybus, open for only a few hours a day. Then the color of the ray flowers rapidly drains away, fading to white. Its dried, ground roots can be used as a coffee substitute. 

During my interview with Teri, we read aloud three literary pieces from Seeing Flowers. Here they are for you to read again, interspersed with a few of Robert’s images:

“The rose is a rose,

And always was a rose.

But now the theory goes

That the apple’s a rose

And the pear is, and so’s

The plum, I suppose.

The dear only knows

What will next prove a rose.

You, of course, are a rose —

But were always a rose.”

Robert Frost, “The Rose Family,” 1928 

The cup in the center of a daffodil is called a corona. Some are short, like a shallow bowl, while others are longer, more like a trumpet. Some have frilly edges, and some are rimmed with a contrasting color.

“Why do two colors, put one next to the other, sing?

Can one really explain this? No. Just as one can

never learn how to paint.”

Pablo Picasso, Arts de Frances, 1946 

Look past the blue petals of viper’s bugloss, Echium vulgare, and you’ll see that the flowers also feature red stamen filaments and blue pollen. These help them to stand out in form as well as color to pollinators – and to us.

“Ice cream on green cones

white hydrangeas in full bloom

cool the summer day”

Haiku by CDSinex, 2011 

Teri Dunn Chace, author of “Seeing Flowers” 

Robert Llewellyn, photographer of “Seeing Flowers”

ENTER TO WIN: Timber Press is celebrating the publication of Seeing Flowers with an online promotion offering a one-of-a-kind prize. You can enter to win a fine gallery quality print of a photograph from this book. Take a peek at the gorgeous print and the contest details here.  NOTE: the Contest Entry Deadline is this Friday, November 15th.

Thanks for joining me in this episode of the SLOW FLOWERS Podcast with Debra Prinzing. Because of your support as a listener, we’ve had more than 2,650 downloads since July – and I thank you for taking the time to join to my conversations with flower farmers, florists and other notable floral experts.

If you like what you hear, please consider logging onto Itunes and posting a listener review.

Until next week please join me in putting more American grown flowers on the table, one vase at a time. 

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

VINTAGE PATINA

Oh how I love the way hydrangeas respond to cool weather as fall settles in!

Sea Oats (Chasmanthium latifolium) are like little sparklers emerging from the hydrangea mound.

Ingredients:

This was the very first arrangement I designed in early November 2011 when I dreamed up the bouquet-a-week-for-a-year project.

Eco-technique

A BONUS BOUQUET: Using some of the same elements, here’s a bouquet I made this week, November 2013. It employs the same weathered urn, hydrangeas, a lacy form of Dusty Miller, rose hips, feverfew sprays and a few Cafe au Lait dahlias. This is a favorite style to which I continue returning. Love it!

An autumn arrangement glows on a table by my front door.

TARNISHED AND TEXTURED

Super-popular tillandsias, especially this ghostly-white species, makes for an interesting fall centerpiece.

There’s a pleasing asymmetrical balance created by using this tillandsia on the right side of the design, as it echoes the urn’s curved handle on the left.

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My visit to Ft. Worth this month gave me a wonderful chance to reconnect with flower farmer Cynthia Alexander.

Cynthia Alexander, flower farmer and owner of Quarry Flower Farm.

You could call Cynthia Alexander, a “chapter two” flower farmer. A passionate gardener, Cynthia has spent the past several years reinventing herself from a real estate attorney into someone whose relationship with land is exemplified in a completely different way! 

Over the past few years, Cynthia and her husband Bob have been transitioning from the city to the land. Quarry Flower Farm, their 120-acre farm, is located in Celina, Texas, about 40 minutes outside of the Dallas-Ft. Worth urban center. 

Earlier this month, I traveled to the Ft. Worth Garden Club to lecture about the “Slow Flowers” movement and to lead a workshop for members of the Garden Club’s floral design group. This was my second visit to the Dallas Ft-Worth area to talk about LOCAL flowers and in both cases, my “credibility” was enhanced thanks to Cynthia.

She is a native Texan whose goal is spreading beauty through organic agriculture and the practice of good land stewardship.  Her repertoire of ingredients is impressive!

At Quarry Flower Farm, Cynthia grows native Texas shrubs and trees, as well as perennials, annuals, grasses, bulbs, vines and herbs. Her fascination with botanical elements means she has an incredibly diverse list of ingredients for floral fans, everyone from hot floral designers to farm-to-table caterers.

The botanical bounty that came from Cynthia’s harvest was mind-boggling!

Here is the extensive list of flowers, foliage, herbs, branches and ornamental grasses she provided for the Ft. Worth workshop: 

Amaranthus ‘Red Hopi’

Artemisia 

Aster

Beautyberry

Black Bamboo

Bois D’Arc apples

Broomcorn

Cardoon

Celosia 

Chinaberry foliage, yellow berry

Cotinus

Cotton Bolls

Crepe Myrtle

Dianthus

Elm Winged branches

Garden Roses

Geranium scented

Gomphrena ‘Fireworks’

Hibiscus ‘Jamaican Red’

Juniper silver berry

Lambs ears

Lantana 

Liatris

Love In A Puff vine, pod

Magnolia

Marigold

Myrtle branches

Peppers

Perilla green

Persimmon branches

Pittosporum 

Poke

Privet 

Purple Hyacinth Bean pods

Pyracantha orange berry

Rattanvine

Rosehips

Rush

Sage

Salvia Leucantha

Sansieveria 

Sedum 

Sunflower Maximillian

Tritonia

Vinca 

Yellow wildflower

Zinnia 

 

Cynthia’s design talents were evident when we met in 2012 at a field-to-vase workshop I taught at the Dallas Arboretum.

Cynthia first came to my rescue in February 2012 when I taught an eco-floral design course at the Dallas Arboretum. I had contacted her through the ASCFG directory, asking for help. Cynthia showed up with a bevy of flowering bulb varieties and spring branches – much to the delight of the Dallas floral design students. After all, it was FEBRUARY, for goodness sake’s. She saved the day!

The same thing happened when I encouraged the Ft. Worth Garden Club to source LOCAL Texas leaves, branches and flowers from a real flower farmer. Cynthia is a gem. And you’ll find her personal story fascinating.

I mean really….how many people leave a successful, 30-year career as an attorney in order to dig in the dirt and grow cut flowers? For that reason alone, I adore this gifted woman. Enjoy our conversation and listen for all of Cynthia’s advice about her second career – as a cut flower farmer. 

The farmhouse at Quarry Flower Farm.

Cynthia hosts garden club tours, bridal parties and U-pick guests by appointment during the spring growing season. Check her web site for details.

Other Resources mentioned in our interview:

The Flower Farmer: An Organic Grower’s Guide to Raising and Selling Cut Flowers (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008), by Lynn Byczynski 

Cynthia mentioned that her inspiration began by spending time with Pamela and Frank Arnosky, owners of Texas Specialty Cut Flowers. The Arnoskys have also written an important resource, as well, Local Color: Growing Specialty Cut Flowers.

Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers is a membership association of flower farmers in every state. The ASCFG has many wonderful resources for beginning and established flower farmers. 

Thanks for joining me in this episode of SLOW FLOWERS. Because of your support as a listener, we’ve reached nearly 2,000 downloads since July – and I thank you for taking the time to join to my conversations with flower farmers, florists and other notable floral experts.

If you like what you hear, please consider logging onto Itunes and posting a listener review.

Until next week please join me in putting more American grown flowers on the table, one vase at a time. 

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

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Meet Lane DeVries, CEO of The Sun Valley Group, America’s largest cut flower farm, and Chairman of the California Cut Flower Commission.

American Flower Farming Update with Lane DeVries, Chairman of the California Cut Flower Commission (Episode 112)

Today’s interview is with Lane DeVries, a fourth generation flower farmer who grew up in his family’s business in Holland until he came to the US in 1983, at the age of 23.

I’ve gotten to know Lane in the past few years while partnering with him on projects for the California Cut Flower Commission, the advocacy agency that promotes that state’s 225 flower farms. His farm, The Sun Valley Group, based in Arcata and Oxnard, is the state’s largest (in fact, it’s the country’s largest).

Lane and I recently met in Portland, at the Field-to-Vase Dinner, a very special gathering of flower farmers, florists, flower retailers and wholesalers and the media, held on October 8th.

I co-hosted the event with the CCFC and our goal was to convene floral industry leaders to discuss new initiatives in the American Grown Flower Movement.

The underlying message: partnering with your would-be competitors is a good idea when it comes to changing how consumers connect with domestic flowers.

Lane takes time to meet flower consumers as often as possible. He recently made an appearance at New Seasons Market in Portland, Oregon.

My podcast interview with Lane took place via Skype, a few days after that dinner. Please enjoy our conversation and meet a man who lives and breathes cut flowers. I love that Lane, in spite of all of his professional success, continues to eagerly seek out the next new thing. He sees old flowers in a new way and improves on customer favorites with new hybridizing methods.

He is a visionary and I credit Lane with his amazing leadership moving his own flower farming community into an important dialogue about American grown flowers.

The next time you see a blue-and-yellow license plate-style CA-Grown label on a bouquet of flowers at the supermarket, you’ll have people like Lane DeVries to thank.

Highlights of Lane’s long career in the U.S. cut flower industry are chronicled in Amy Stewart’s 2007 book, Flower Confidential: The Good, The Bad, and the Beautiful – and you can read an excerpt of that story here, courtesy of Amy and Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill (c) 2007 and 2008. All Rights Reserved. 

(Photos (c) Linda Blue, courtesy of the California Cut Flower Commission)