magic at cairnwood

Posted on September 3, 2012 by Ann

I spent the day helping Peicha Chang of falls flowers, and my what a lovely day it was. We set up for a wedding at Cairnwood, a magical place that beckons you to “experience the grandeur of the Gilded Age.”

This country estate in Bryn Athyn, 16 miles from center city Philadelphia, was constructed in 1895 and has been designated a National Historic Landmark. Looks like a great place to get married!

mason jars filled with blooms cap the end of every other row

rustic chandelier is hung in the gnarled conifer, with roses in place of candles

Inside the estate, we had 14 tables to cover with centerpiece “collections” in three different rooms, a mantle to hang with vintage bottles filled with buds, a cake cupboard to strew with loose flowers, and a greeting table to bedeck with more vintage bottles filled with blooms. The palette features grays and creams and peachy pinks, which echo the colors in some of the rooms of Cairnwood.

Peicha’s centerpiece collections include the clever use of succulents as table number holders

the mantle, covered with old pictures, is hung with vintage bottles filled with buds

a glimpse of the bride

Juliet roses, peachy stock, white anemones, brunia and succulents on display

I couldn’t help myself, while taking pictures of the bouquets wrapped and ready to go, I had to capture the bridesmaid’s room. People are so interesting.

bridesmaids getting ready

awaiting fresh cakes

groomsman with boutonniere

I am feeling a little like a maidservant in Downton Abbey at this point, trying to be silent and unobtrusive and graceful. Peicha infuses the day with positivity and humor.

On our way out, we discover a great photo op…the very gorgeous bride and groom! Best wishes to you both for a beautiful life together.

Bridal bouquet designed by Peicha

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my world is full…of flowers

Posted on April 14, 2012 by Ann

I started my day making a birthday arrangement for a friend of the family named Pat, who is my stepmom’s dear friend and probably the hardest working person I know. She’s in the restaurant biz, and owns a cute restaurant in Downingtown called The Blue Cafe together with her husband Paul. Go there, the food is great! Pat is the kind of person who will literally hug the stuffing out of you, whose perkiness precedes her, and despite having been through some tough times, always manages to see the positive in everything and everyone. Julie picked up most of the flowers and I put them together – quite a cheerful mix, just like Pat herself! Happy Birthday Pat.

pat's bday arrangement: bubblegum roses, freesia, pom pom mums, protea, billy balls, boston fern and aucuba (from the garden)

Then I scooted off to falls flowers for my weekly dose of apprenticing. The materials Peicha selects for her shop are really exquisite, and there’s always something I’ve never seen or worked with before to choose from…which makes designing pure heaven!

fuschia boronia

Meet Boronia heterophylla, as I did for the first time today. A shrub native to Australia cultivated for the cut flower trade, boronia has fairly long stems of vibrant pink flowers and a fruity, tea-like fragrance. It really pops! Now, here’s another delicious dish of a flower – and don’t be afraid of it’s Latin name – Scabiosa. They can range in color from white to light lavender, to blue, to purple, to deep maroon. How very romantic.

Scabiosa, or Pincushion flower if you can't take this beautiful flower being called 'scabby'

'Free Spirit' Rose - couldn't you dive right in?

My thirst for loveliness partially quenched, I set to making a few arrangements that had been phoned in. This one was the April representative for a customer’s ‘year of flowers,’ something I think everyone should do! Wouldn’t that make a lovely mother’s day gift: a year of flowers?

hobnail vase with scabiosa, french lavender, white roses, veronica, purple clematis vine

Next up, a birthday arrangement for a customer whose only specification was they wanted it to be “WOW.” My interpretation of wow included the use of protea, orange ornithogalum, boronia, ranunculus, Free Spirit roses, and hypericum.

'wow' design

wow detail

: wow detail 2

And finally, some little jars of delight, using leftover materials from the cooler. These were freebies – visual inspiration for a 2nd grade class as they create shapes and forms using clay. Little bit of this, little bit of that…

jars of fun for 2nd grade class

Thanks for letting me have full creative license today, Peicha! I had a blast. I never thought I’d put pink, orange, bright green and yellow together in one design, but I actually did it twice in one day…and I may do even do it again someday.

baby bud vase arrangements

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Ann

Last week at falls flowers, Peicha gave me the go-ahead to design some mini arrangements for a baby shower. The baby on the way is a boy! So mom opted for all blues and yellows. I had a blast doing these! I used a huge variety of material including but not limited to: muscari, acacia, freesia, fritillaria, delphinium, seeded eucalyptus, cineraria, scabiosa seedpods, and dusty miller.

It was so fun working on such a small scale, I hope I get to do something like this again.

wrist corsages

Posted on March 18, 2012 by Ann

At falls flowers this week, I got a lesson in making wrist corsages. There are a few different styles and ways of doing it, but as the request was for almost 40 simple white roses for a sorority gathering, we went with the simplest and fastest method – GLUE. Gluing saves time when you have a bulk order, because the alternative is wiring and taping – a lesson I hope to get one day, too. And this glue is like no other I’ve worked with – Oasis Florist Adhesive. It’s a “fast-drying and waterproof liquid adhesive formulated for use with fresh flowers.” It won’t brown fresh flower petals, and it will hold up in cold storage. In other words, it’s a must-have for all you budding floral designers out there!

In making the wrist corsages, Peicha and I start by using well-hydrated roses, removing their sepals (the small spiky leaves at the base) and then trimming the stem down to near nothingness. Shave the stem down with a knife so it’s as flat as possible. Add a tiny blob of glue to both the bottom of the rose and the Elastic Wrist Corsage Band, making sure to spread the glue evenly. Let the glue set for about 30 seconds and then carefully press the rose onto the band’s flat metal plate. Earlier, we removed the little metal prongs that would normally fold over and enclose a bunch of wired flowers. As with any glue, it’s better not to touch it with your fingers or you’ll be trying to get it off all day – this is especially true with this glue, though scrubbing with Lava soap does get it off pretty well. Also – when working with this glue PLEASE choose a well-ventilated spot and take breaks to venture out into the fresh air or you will get silly like I did.

As far as wrist corsages go, I think there are a lot of possibilities out there on what you could do, and I think they are a great alternative for prom season. Remember your date awkwardly trying to pin a corsage on your chest? This is so much easier. And a wrist corsage doesn’t get in the way during the slow dance! I really think we should all wear flowers a little more often, don’t you?

floral offerings from falls flowers

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Ann

Walking into falls flowers last week, I was greeted by many hues, shapes, sizes and textures, all standing at perfect attention in their containers filled with fresh clear water. No flower food is needed for the display, because we change the water and cut fresh stems fairly regularly.

selection of goodies

So you want to dive in a little closer??? The first thing I noticed was this pincushion Protea – totally out of this world! Also known as Leucospermum cordifolium, the alien flower heads probably come alive at night and party at the shop. They probably like to dance to Bjork.

pincushion Protea

Eager to join the party are the orange Ornithogalum, or Sun Stars, a perennial bulb native to S. Africa.

Orange Ornithogalum starting to bloom

But during the day, the shop is mostly quiet. The flowers stop their dancing and become still enough for us to admire them. In fact, Peicha and I were talking about the cycles of life and death, when a few calls came in for sympathy arrangements. I think it’s nice to send flowers to someone when their loved one dies. It is a vase of life right before you, to remind you: we are not here long, but while we’re here we’ll do our best and brightest work. I chose the flowers and Peicha made the arrangements. We were very in tune on this day.

arrangement using: Finesse roses, hyacinth, pincushion protea, scabiosa seed pod, astrantia

arrangement using: eryngium (thistle), agapanthus (purple) white kale, white hyacinth, blue lace flower, tweedia (light blue)

sympathy arrangements ready for delivery (pussy willow added to the blue/white one!)

And then I got to deliver these. Neither recipient was home, so I left them with doormen or got instructions directly from the client about where they wanted them left. Funny thing, talking about cycles of life, I drove past the house I grew up in as a little girl getting to one of the deliveries!

Tweedia. You're blue, and your leaves are soft to the touch. I love you.

the Valentine’s day haze of 2012

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Ann

I close my eyes and see…flowers. Soft pink tulips tinged with veins of green, the cheery pom-poms of chartreuse snowball viburnums, light lavender sweet peas so papery thin, luscious flesh-colored stock that exudes a sweet-spicy scent, a stab of bright blue-purple delphinium, and roses upon roses…roses the color of a wild sunset or a rosy tangerine, roses the color of peaches edged with soft green, lipstick red roses, and Deja Vu roses standing at attention on their 3-ft long stems, a clear concise yellow that says, Hello You.

check out the scabiosa seedpod amidst the garden roses, tulips, viburnum, and rice flower

peachy green roses, astrantia, calla lily, viburnum, seeded eucalyptus mmm

Yesterday turned out to be one of my favorite days of all time, and I’m not much into Valentine’s Day. Well that was BF…Before Flowers. I went into the shop on Monday to help prep the roses (oh yeah, like 700 of them!) and to get some bouquet-making lessons from my beautiful boss lady Peicha. I left with a price list to study and a sour ball of nervousness percolating in my stomach. Would I be able to arrange quickly and confidently and add up prices in my head at the same time? Would I choose the right “color stories?” Would the stress of a lot of retail interaction be too much for me? (The needy masses hungry for brilliant arrangements queuing up to watch me fail.)

wake up and smell the roses!

Valentine’s Day 2012 arrived with the Tarot Card of Death in an email. I don’t know why I subject myself to these emails that are supposed to tell me how my day will go. Like somehow getting the Knave of Wands randomly generated by a computer means I’ll have an adventurous day. But the Death Card…uh oh…how is that interpreted at 7am? Maybe I’ll impale myself with a rose and die…or get in a car accident on that Big Road called City Ave…or simply die of shame. I dressed in what my brother calls my ‘riding boots’ and a bright red blazer (Anthro of course) and hoped that this geranium red would give me some kind of confidence.

smooches from emily!

When I arrived the ladies were in full swing, in fact Peicha had been there since the crack of the ass of dawn, making the pre-ordered bouquets and arrangements (in vases.) She was feeling ‘ahead of the game.’ Dear Emily, an ever-bubbling font of positivity, set our mood to Happy. Go Team Falls Flowers! Give me an R…O…S…E! We set into motion together, taking orders from customers, creating bouquets, answering the phone, tying ribbons around the pink tissue that gets wrapped around all the bouquets, and saying “Here you go. These are your flowers, your Valentine will be so pleased.”

flesh pink stock, rice flower, beigey garden rose, viburnum, lisianthus

Earlier in the day, I took a phone order from a gent who was on business out West. He and his family live right down the street from Falls Flowers. He was scared he wasn’t going to get his order in on time, and wanted 4 arrangements (in vases): 2 for his little girls, one for his wife, and one for his mom. AW. Peicha let me choose all the flowers for these, and I had a ball doing it.

3 vday arrangements for lucky ladies down the block

grandma's arrangement: tangerine roses, hot pink hyacinth, brunia, waxflower, hypericum berry, frilly orange tulips

And at the end of the day, after all the madness and yes, making a few mistakes here and there and having to use a calculator as I chose blooms, I got to deliver the 4 completed arrangements with Peicha’s husband Mark, who god love him was out all day delivering our product all over tarnation. The door opens, and a little girl holding a Hello Kitty doll answers. There we are, with flowers popping out of our heads, what must we look like to her? Her face lights up. Delivery for Lila! I say. Mom/Wife comes to the door to see what the ruckus is. HER face lights up. We enter, placing the arrangements around the room, and Grandmom/Mom sees the goods and HER face lights up. I say that Dave/Daddy wanted all of his Valentines to have a very special day and that’s why we made each of you your own special arrangement. Shock and awe. This guy just racked up points that will last him all year. As we’re leaving, little Lila says, “Hello Kitty says Goodbye!” And that’s the end of Valentine’s Day.

me with RED ROSES mixed with waxflower bouquet...POW! photo courtesy FF and emily

Or is it? After spending the day in nonstop motion, working in tandem with 2 very talented and delightful creatures, and using my head heart and hands, I feel fulfilled on so many levels. But a little sad, because where is MY Valentine? Who loves ME enough to give me flowers? When I get home (well my parent’s house because that’s where I’m staying right now) my 2-yr old niece is there for dinner. She is all smiles, sitting in her big girl chair and gobbling up her dinner. We jokingly eat each leaf of the salad separately pretending to be Peter Rabbit. Fun. And after dinner, a very special surprise for Auntie Ann. My very own Valentine with dragonflies, frogs, caterpillars and lady bugs made especially for me by niece. She gives me big hugs and giggly Eskimo kisses to top it all off. L…O…V…E!

heaven scent

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Ann

Another Thursday spent at Falls Flowers with Peicha Chang. We processed flowers for display, did some arranging, and even talked about the meaning of life. Guess what, there is none! No but really, I’m here at the shop because I’m trying to bring some meaning to my life by learning new things. That, and the aromatherapy! This Stock flower was super fragrant…and smelled exactly like cloves. The white variety was much stronger smelling than the lavender one.

Me sniffing some stock ... mm mmm!

Stock, or Matthiola incana - Lavender and White - so fragrant!

We started by processing some MUMS, first removing most of their foliage and cutting them at a 45 degree angle (so their stems don’t butt up against the bottom of the container – for maximum drinking potential.)

remove the mum's net gently, up and over

These big chartreuse babies are Spider Mums and like other blooms with fat heads, they come with their own mini nets to secure and protect them. DON’T JUST TEAR THE NETS OFF WILLY NILLY. I learned that taking the nets off should be the last step before you set them into their container, and don’t rush it. BE GENTLE – just peel the net up and over the bloom so your mum isn’t decapitated and the petals remain intact.

Chrysanthemum aka 'spider mum' free of net - POW!

When these huge Chrysanthemums are set free of their nets they span 4-6″ across and put on quite a show! They are a really intense green, so green and so big that rather than being considered “neutral,” like most other greens, they count as their own color family. When creating a bouquet or arrangement, Peicha says to choose 2 color families to work with, and you can add neutral greens like this Grevillea to the mix.

Grevillea for greens

Interestingly enough, WHITE is NOT a neutral color in arranging. I learned this the hard way in a lesson towards the end of the day when I created my own bouquet…uh oh…no picture means it wasn’t too great! If you’re using whites, Peicha says choose only one other color family. I used the green mums, some pinky-yellows, some deep rosy reds, AND white…too much! But I’m learning, I’m learning. I think I just couldn’t resist using the Queen Anne’s lace, because though it’s a European introduction and considered a weed by many, it’s a wildflower at the very top of my list. I love it’s lacy umbels of green and white – these had just come in and were so tight (come back later when they’re fully opened!)

Queen Anne's Lace, or Daucus carota (Wild Carrot) - lovely lacy umbels

Speaking of WHITE and FILLER…there is a scourge sweeping across the nation as we speak. This plant is the go-to airy fairy filler of most florists, and you’ll see a LOT of it at Valentine’s Day. Yes, it’s Baby’s Breath or Gypsophila, and it may be pretty, but when it’s the only filler ever used it loses it’s charm, doesn’t it? Peicha “doesn’t do Baby’s Breath,” but she also doesn’t rule it out entirely. She does caution clients against using it for events for a pretty specific reason (aside from the fact that it’s boring.) And here it is: do you know WHY it’s called Baby’s Breath? Because it SMELLS like baby’s breath. Sweet, milky, powdery, and slightly rotten! Not my cup of tea, for sure, and probably not something you want to smell at your wedding.

you won't see anything like THIS come out of Falls Flowers

Instead of Baby’s Breath, Peicha prefers the lemon pledge scent of the Waxflower, a lovely shrub from the Myrtle family endemic to Western Australia. And I can see why: it’s darling bell-like waxy flowers are borne on woody stems so brittle one can simply break them off between your fingers (translation: quick and easy for the florist to use.) That, combined with it’s needle-like dark green leaves, and clean, citrusy scent make the Waxflower a much better choice for filler. Expect to see a lot of this used during Valentine’s Day – only 2 weeks away!

Waxflower, or Chamalaucium uncinatum - GREAT choice for filler smells citrusy

Okay, want to see how it’s done? Check out what Peicha did here for this bright and cheerful birthday arrangement. Oh it happened pretty quickly, her hands darting in and out of the display vases, measuring the stems against the container, and knifing the stems down to size so fast I couldn’t even capture the process. The final result, a delight in reds and yellows, is here:

Birthday arrangement by Peicha

Birthday arrangement: Ranunculus, Roses, Mums, Dusty Miller, Salaal

That’s it for now, from my messy mind. More this week – we have a wedding on Saturday!

bloomin’ fun

Posted on January 21, 2012 by Ann

My first day at Falls Flowers – Jan 19th, 2012…a quiet Thursday in East Falls. I started by processing flowers that had been hydrating; and I learned a lot today! For example, when flowers first arrive, they should hydrate for an hour minimum – if you don’t, their little heads could droop beyond rescue. Some flowers are more prone to wilting than others; but initial hydration is a big must for everything.

you won't find these flowers in most shops, feast your eyes

The proprietor, Peicha Chang, gets her flowers from a variety of Philly vendors, who get their stuff from NYC or local growers when possible, and the NYC flowers come from Holland, Japan, South America, and beyond. For Christmas and Easter, she’ll go up to the NYC flower market herself. I guess there’s no way around being slightly uncomfortable at the environmental impact shipping flowers all over the world has, and if there were a way to stock only locally grown flowers, she would be doing this, but for the kind of variety she wants it’s just impossible. Not sure how I feel about this part of the industry, as flowers are not a ‘necessity,’ really. It would at least be nice to know if the farms that are growing your flowers are growing them sustainably, not just for the soil’s sake but for the workers and their exposure to chemicals. More on this later as I dig deeper.

gloriosa lily - exotic and toxic

Meet the Gloriosa lily. This gorgeous lily is actually a climbing vine, and looks as if she’s throwing her petals back from the exertion of the journey.

And hello to you, French Ranunculus. I have never seen the likes of you before.

french ranunculus (but grown in Holland)

My other favorite of the day is the Astrantia, a cut flower I believe she said was Dutch grown but I’ve seen growing quite happily in gardens in the Northeast. The stems have a purplish tinge to them and so do the leaves and as you gaze at this plant’s structure you may be reminded of Queen Anne’s Lace, or Fennel, or Dill…all members of the Carrot Family. Oh, I love you Starflower.

astrantia (A. major) member of carrot family, starflower. LOVE

Now for some how-to, so I can remember what the heck I did: in processing flowers, the key is to remove any leaves/thorns that will be sitting in water. It’s important from a ‘rot’ standpoint but also super important when you’re in a busy floral shop to be able to pull a stem easily from it’s container without it tangling up in others. This is something I hadn’t really thought of before. Removing 2/3 of the lower leaves also creates a cleaner visual impact, something that most people don’t do when they bring a bouquet home from the grocery store, and it makes all the difference in the world to me. After removing the leaves, I cut the stems at a 45 degree angle for maximum drinking potential. Some of the woody stems (Quince) are also cut vertically to create more surface area for the water to climb. I mostly used pruners, but lots of floral pros use knives to trim thorns off of roses and cut the stems. There is an art to it, for sure. Check out the quick video of my first KNIFE LESSON!

I then changed the water out of all the containers on display, which she does once or twice a week or when the water starts to look cloudy. Flowering branches like Quince make the water cloudy more quickly. Vases are washed once a week on Saturdays. We cleaned out the walk in fridge together (keeps below 40deg F,) discarding flowers that were past their prime. At this point Peicha began making little sad noises for each of the flowers she had to toss. To her, flowers are not just “product.” These are living items she chooses carefully and spends a lot of effort trying to preserve for as long as possible. Meanwhile, I was saying things like “off with their heads,” and cutting them up into smaller pieces for the compost pile. (All of her vegetable matter waste goes to a local grower for composting…more on this later as I get more details.)

i was in heaven making little labels for everything

One of the areas I really need to learn more on is vase expectancy! When I made labels for the display items, we put the number of days you could expect the flower to thrive after bringing it home. Some were 3, others were 14, others were ∞ because they were dried (Protea, Everlasting, etc.) She just rattled off the numbers! This is a very important piece of the puzzle I’d like to learn.

the master makes a quick bouquet, showing me how to hold stems vertically so they spiral together naturally

The quick bouquet lesson at the very end of the day was probably the most fun to watch for me, because Peicha’s experience really shined. I like to think I have some skill with flowers, and I may have more than the average person, but when you see a master working, you’ll be blown away. She confidently chose an array of materials for two different bouquets, but I only took a pic of the second one. She used the South African Leucodendron as her base, following by the flaming Gloriosa Lily, ‘Gold Rush’ Roses, some Billyballs, and even a few evergreens which I thought really made it work (salvaged from the holiday buckets in the fridge.) She likes to work with odd numbers as they’re “more dynamic,” but if you have to go even use 2…or 6 I think she said. In the end she was holding a $40-$50 bouquet of unusual and beautiful flowers. I have so much to learn!

I’ll leave you with this plum beauty, the showy Anemone grown from a tuber…

anemone (A. coronaria) - dive into pure plum! grown in Holland

roots to blooms

adventures in eco-friendly floral design, gardening, nature & photography

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