Tag Archives: Scabiosa

my world is full…of flowers

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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.

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the Valentine’s day haze of 2012

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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!