Flower Duet Floral Design Classes for 2017 Schedule

Focus On Locally Sourced and American Grown Flowers & Greens

By Kit Wertz

Flower Duet’s focus for 2017 Flo­ral Design Class­es will be on Amer­i­can Grown and Cal­i­for­nia Grown Flow­ers. Design tech­niques will cov­er cur­rent trends from full “field to vase” gar­den looks to clean lined elegance.

Embracing our Local Flower Farmers

It’s been a won­der­ful year where Casey and I have real­ly embraced our local­ly grown flower farm resources.

Cal­i­for­nia grown Pro­tea will be a fea­ture flower in July’s flo­ral design class. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Our year began when I spoke at the San Fran­cis­co Flower & Gar­den Show and gave three on stage flo­ral demon­stra­tions fea­tur­ing Amer­i­can Grown Flow­ers. In April, we were the fea­tured flo­ral design­ers for Amer­i­can Grown Flow­ers Field to Vase Din­ner  (F2V) at The Flower Fields in Carls­bad. We are mem­bers of SlowFlowers.com, a nation­wide online direc­to­ry to florists, shops, and stu­dios who design with Amer­i­can-grown flowers.

As a result of this past year of eye-open­ing expe­ri­ences to the fan­tas­tic vari­ety of blooms and greens we can source from our own state of Cal­i­for­nia, Casey and I will devote many of next year’s flo­ral design class­es to sup­port our local flower grow­ers and Amer­i­can flower farms.

This year we will offer more month­ly flower arrang­ing class­es at our stu­dio in Tor­rance as well as our exclu­sive tours of the Los Ange­les Flo­ral Dis­trict on Sat­ur­day morn­ings and are excit­ed to announce more Wednes­day evening Wed­ding Flo­ral Design Class­es through­out 2017.

We’ll offer a month­ly series of class­es. These will con­cen­trate on three areas of wed­ding flow­ers: bou­quets, cen­ter­pieces and per­son­al flow­ers. These class­es are geared toward those who want to increase their aware­ness of wed­ding flow­ers and work with tricky wed­ding tech­niques. It can be use­ful for casu­al flower arrangers who want to round out their flo­ral skills.

All of our class­es will be taught by Kit Wertz or Casey Schwartz, the sis­ter design team and own­ers of Flower Duet.

Pink Ranun­cu­lus will be a local­ly grown fea­ture flower for our March class.  Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Flower Duet’s 2017 Floral Workshops

Jan­u­ary 14, 2017 — Win­ter Whites
Jan­u­ary 25, 2017 — Wed­ding Bou­quet & Boutonniere
Feb­ru­ary 11, 2017 — Field to Vase Tempt­ing Tulips (Cal­i­for­nia Grown)
Feb­ru­ary 22, 2017 — Cen­ter­pieces & Table Accents
March 25, 2017 — Gar­den Inspired Rav­ing Ranun­cu­lus (Cal­i­for­nia Grown)
April 12, 2017 — Wed­ding Bou­quet & Bou­ton­niere (Amer­i­can Grown)
April 22, 2017 — Field to Vase with Sweet Peas
May 3, 2017 — Cen­ter­pieces & Table Accents
May 20, 2017 — Potent Peonies (Amer­i­can Grown)
June 17, 2017 — Field to Vase with Ros­es (Amer­i­can Grown)
June 21, 2017 — Wed­ding Bou­quet & Boutonniere
July 12, 2017 — Cen­ter­pieces & Table Accents (Amer­i­can Grown)
July 15, 2017 — Pro­lif­ic Pro­teas (Cal­i­for­nia Grown)
August 19, 2017 — Field to Vase with Dahlias (Cal­i­for­nia Grown)
Sep­tem­ber 16, 2017 — Hap­py Hydrangeas
Sep­tem­ber 20, 2017 — Wed­ding Bou­quet & Boutonniere
Octo­ber 14, 2017 — Dec­o­ra­tive Pump­kin Flo­ral Crafts (Cal­i­for­nia Grown)
Octo­ber 25, 2017 — Cen­ter­pieces & Table Accents
Octo­ber 30, 2017 — Dia de los Muer­tos Flow­ers (Amer­i­can Grown)
Novem­ber 18, 2017 — Hol­i­day Tablescape Flo­ral Skills
Decem­ber 9, 2017 — Hand-made Wreaths & Gar­lands (Amer­i­can Grown)

Amer­i­can-grown ros­es and callas will be fea­tured in our rose class in June. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Learn more about all of our flo­ral design class­es and work­shops for 2017 on our work­shop page. More class­es will be added through­out the year. Keep in touch to find out about guest appear­ances in Los Ange­les and beyond! We will also be teach­ing The Art of Flo­ral Design Work­shops for our 10th year at The Hunt­ing­ton Library, Art Col­lec­tions, and Botan­i­cal Gar­den!

Sunset Magazine hosts American Grown Flowers Field to Vase Dinner at new Test Gardens in Sonoma

Flower Duet Attends; Homestead Collective Designs

By Kit Wertz

Kit and Casey of Flower Duet pose in front of the Sun­set Mag­a­zine’s suc­cu­lent sign at the entrance to their test gar­dens at Cor­ner­stone Sono­ma. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

The Amer­i­can Grown Field to Vase Din­ner tour, designed to place sea­son­al local­ly grown and sus­tain­able Amer­i­can Grown flow­ers at the cen­ter of the table, returned to Cal­i­for­nia last month at Sun­set Mag­a­zine’s new test gar­dens in Sono­ma. In atten­dance were top rep­re­sen­ta­tives and own­ers of Cal­i­for­nia flower farm­ers and flo­ral ven­dors as well as the doyenne of the “Slow Flower” move­ment, Debra Prinz­ing. The din­ner also fea­tured local­ly grown food, dis­tilled spir­its, and wine and was served by a farm-to-table chef.

Flower Duet had the hon­or of being the fea­tured florist for the April din­ner held at The Flower Fields in Carls­bad. In Sono­ma, Casey and I were intro­duced at the din­ner as VIP guests and alum­ni design­ers of the tour. We were pleased to bring our mom along as our guest and expose her to the won­der­ful flower world sur­round­ing this exquis­ite din­ner event.

The site of this fall din­ner was the Sun­set Test Gar­dens at Cor­ner­stone Sono­ma, a wine coun­try mar­ket­place fea­tur­ing a col­lec­tion of world-class shop­ping, bou­tique winer­ies and tast­ing rooms, arti­sanal foods, art-inspired gar­dens and live music. The Sun­set Test Gar­dens span a quar­ter acre, where they can exper­i­ment and share learn­ings with their read­ers. Designed by Home­stead Design Col­lec­tive, the test gar­dens are divid­ed into rooms: the Cock­tail Gar­den, the Farm Gar­den, the Gath­er­ing Space, the Back­yard Orchard, and the Flower Room. The Sun­set Test Gar­dens are sep­a­rate from the Cor­ner­stone Gar­dens, but adja­cent to each oth­er. Entrance to the mar­ket­place and Sun­set’s gar­dens is free and open to the public.

Before the F2V din­ner on the grounds of Cor­ner­stone in the Tyge Williams Barn, guests were treat­ed to a tour of all five gar­den rooms. Fea­tured flo­ral design­er, Alethea Haram­po­lis designed beau­ti­ful flo­ral arrange­ments from blooms found in Sun­set Magazine’s Flower Room, as well as from Cer­ti­fied Amer­i­can Grown flower farms.

Johan­na Sil­ver (left), Sun­set Gar­den Edi­tor talks about the Test Gar­dens at Cor­ner­stone Sono­ma with Ste­fani Bit­tner (right) of Home­stead Design Col­lec­tive who helped design the gar­dens with co-founder Alethea Haram­po­lis. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Kit (in white jack­et) with Casey (in mint jack­et) and our mom lis­tened to Johan­na Sil­ver of Sun­set Mag­a­zine and Ste­fani Bit­tner of Home­stead Design Col­lec­tive dur­ing the tour por­tion of the din­ner. (Pho­to cred­it: Amer­i­can Grown Flowers)

Basil blooms over cus­tom-designed trel­lis­es in the Sun­set Mag­a­zine Test Gar­dens at Cor­ner­stone Sono­ma. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Each gar­den room has an expla­na­tion as to the goal for the space — a design col­lab­o­ra­tion between Sun­set Mag­a­zine and Home­stead Design Col­lec­tive. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Late sea­son Echi­nacea (Cone­flower) in the Flower Room dis­play their beau­ty with and with­out petals. These are won­der­ful addi­tions to any fall design and pair well with herbs in a flo­ral design. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Snap­drag­ons and Del­phini­um are heavy from rain in the Flower Room at the test gar­den. All flow­ers in the space were plant­ed with fea­tured florist Alethea Haram­po­lis input on which flow­ers worked well for her design aes­thet­ic which also includ­ed many vari­eties of scent­ed gera­ni­ums. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Din­ner par­tic­i­pants walk through the Flower Room after the tour pri­or to din­ner ser­vice. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Hops grow on the trel­lis mark­ing the entrance to the Cock­tail room in Sun­set’s Test Gar­dens. Pho­to by Casey Schwartz

Blooms designed by Alethea Haram­po­lis for the Sun­set host­ed din­ner in Sono­ma. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Here is my name card for the din­ner and place set­ting! It was so nice to be at the din­ner as a guest after being one of the fea­tured design­ers with my sis­ter back in April ear­li­er this year. Both white wine and red wine were offered with din­ner to pair with the fish course and pork course. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

All Field to Vase din­ners fea­ture flow­ers and green­ery that is local­ly grown near or on the prop­er­ty where the din­ner is held. The food served, such as this sal­ad course fea­tur­ing care­ful­ly pre­pared mush­rooms and radish chips, is also local­ly sourced pro­duce. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Here is one of the gar­den-inspired bou­quets designed by fea­tured florist Alethea Haram­po­lis, co-own­er of Home­stead Design Col­lec­tive. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

At the con­clu­sion of din­ner, Kit and Casey chat­ted with Sun­set Mag­a­zine’s Gar­den Edi­tor, Johan­na Sil­ver. Pho­to by Casey Schwartz.

All guests received good­ie bags filled with seeds, pre­mi­um flo­ral shears and mate­ri­als pro­mot­ed by the spon­sors who made the evening pos­si­ble by donat­ing their time and tal­ents to the cause of sup­port­ing Amer­i­can farm­ers and food pro­duc­ers. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Stargazer Barn Among Top Quality Sponsors for Dinner

Pic­tured are Stargaz­er Barn Tulip and Iris bou­quet give­aways at the Amer­i­can Grown Field to Vase din­ner in Sono­ma in Octo­ber. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Stargaz­er Barn is a flower ven­dor in North­ern Cal­i­for­nia that grows lilies, iris and tulips. In addi­tion to flow­ers, there is a small vine­yard on the prop­er­ty where wine­mak­er Wil Franklin makes small-batch wines. Stargaz­er Barn offers Gift Col­lec­tions which com­bine wine and flow­ers! What’s more to love?

These are great gift ideas for the hol­i­days and for any spe­cial occa­sion. Amer­i­can Grown flow­ers and wine in a pret­ty box.

We received these won­der­ful bou­quets of tulips and Iris­es at the din­ner at Cor­ner­stone Sono­ma. The flow­ers did real­ly well on our 7‑hour car dri­ve back to Los Ange­les and last­ed very well for about a week at home! It was so amaz­ing to have spring tulips and iris­es in a kalei­do­scope of colors.

Here is a fun pro­mo video from Stargaz­er Barn:

Oth­er deli­cious treats dur­ing the evening includ­ed a cock­tail, “Sono­ma Wild­flower,” craft­ed by Pro­hi­bi­tion Spir­its and wine tast­ings pro­vid­ed by Dry Creek Win­ery. Chef Kyle Kuk­lews­ki of Ramekins Culi­nary School, Spe­cial Events, and Inn cre­at­ed an amaz­ing din­ner with local­ly sourced Sono­ma faire. Appe­tiz­ers includ­ed Arti­san Cheese and Char­cu­terie, and 5^th Street Farm Root Veg­etable Chips. Grilled veg­eta­bles were served fam­i­ly-style along with grilled salmon and Niman ranch bacon-wrapped pork ten­der­loins with apri­cot mostar­da. Dessert was a scrump­tious pump­kin mousse served with a but­ter cran­ber­ry short­bread and topped with bour­bon and pecan-infused caramel.

This Sun­day is the last Field to Vase Din­ner for 2016 and takes place at Hol­land Amer­i­can Flow­ers in Wood­land, WA.  Tick­ets are going FAST, save your seat today!

A Visit to an Epic Historic Estate on San Francisco’s Peninsula

Filoli: A Historic Treasure of Flowers, Gardens, and Artwork

By Kit Wertz

Filoli, a Nation­al His­toric Trust Site, is filled with flow­ers, sculp­tures, art­work, and more! Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

On my most recent trip to San Fran­cis­co for Flower Duet, I took my moth­er to a Nation­al His­toric Trust Site called Filoli, a well-pre­served estate from the ear­ly 20th Cen­tu­ry on San Fran­cis­co’s Peninsula.

This estate fea­tures a 16–acre for­mal Gar­den, a his­toric House, nature hikes, art exhibits, and edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties includ­ing flo­ral design.

Filoli was built for Mr. and Mrs. William Bow­ers Bourn, promi­nent San Fran­cis­cans whose chief source of wealth was the Empire Mine, a hard-rock gold mine in Grass Val­ley, California.

The front court­yard entrance to Filoli. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Mr. Bourn arrived at the unusu­al name Filoli by com­bin­ing the first two let­ters from the key­words of his cre­do: “Fight for a just cause; Love your fel­low man; Live a good life.” Words that we should all strive to live by today!

Com­plet­ed in 1917 and locat­ed in the north­ern San­ta Cruz moun­tains in Wood­side, Cal­i­for­nia, Filoli is an exam­ple of the Gold­en Age of Amer­i­can gar­den design and coun­try house architecture.

Flo­ral designs for the House at Filoli are cre­at­ed by vol­un­teers and replaced week­ly. Flow­ers are sourced from the prop­er­ty’s cut­ting gar­den. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

From Filoli’s Website:

Opened to the pub­lic in 1976 as a site of the Nation­al Trust for His­toric Preser­va­tion, Filoli fea­tures a 36,000 sq. ft. home and a 16–acre Eng­lish Renais­sance Gar­den. In addi­tion, Filoli’s prop­er­ty includes a 6.8 acre Gentlemen’s Her­itage Orchard and a trail sys­tem that trans­vers­es five dif­fer­ent ecosys­tems for docent–guided nature hikes and vis­its to the Sal­ly MacBride Nature Cen­ter. Filoli is rec­og­nized as one of the finest remain­ing coun­try estates of the ear­ly 20th cen­tu­ry and is a cher­ished resource for the com­mu­ni­ty valu­ing edu­ca­tion, vol­un­teerism and diversity.

Filoli’s Din­ing Room Changes with the Sea­son. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Filoli Fam­i­ly Room. All the rooms on dis­play fea­ture fresh flo­ral designs. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Each flo­ral design inside the house at Filoli is designed by a vol­un­teer from flow­ers grown on the prop­er­ty. Zin­nias were in sea­son dur­ing our vis­it. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Today, Filoli offers a pletho­ra of edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties includ­ing a Home Flo­ral Design Cer­tifi­cate Pro­gram. Stu­dents gain an under­stand­ing of flower arrang­ing through hands-on instruc­tion with cours­es in tech­niques, col­or the­o­ry, arrange­ment shapes and how to make designs in dif­fer­ent vas­es and con­tain­ers and spe­cial occa­sion arrange­ments. A Cer­tifi­cate of Com­ple­tion is giv­en to all stu­dents com­plet­ing all required class­es and three elec­tive class­es of their choosing.

Stu­dents who receive their Cer­tifi­cate of Com­ple­tion are qual­i­fied to vol­un­teer on the Friends of Filoli Flo­ral Design Com­mit­tee and may apply to become a House Flower Arranger. I have become friends with one of the design­ers, Kather­ine Glazier, who teach­es many of the flower arrang­ing cours­es at Filoli and Casey and I were so delight­ed to share din­ner with her at the Field to Vase Sun­set din­ner in Sono­ma. So, if you are look­ing to take a great class up at Filoli soon, make sure you look into class­es taught by Kather­ine Glazier!

The back view of the house at Filoli. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

A gar­den pot on the grounds of Filoli. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Yew allée at Filoli. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Lichen on a branch near the for­mer ten­nis court at Filoli. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

My moth­er joined me on my trip to Sono­ma which includ­ed a side trip to Filoli. Here she is enjoy­ing the gar­dens between light rain show­ers. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Knot gar­dens are tra­di­tion­al­ly made with herbs and this one at Filoli is just that! Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Here I am enjoy­ing the beau­ti­ful gar­dens at Filoli!

Floral Arranging Guest Speaking and Demonstrations

by Casey Schwartz

Kit host­ed a group at our stu­dio for a fun evening of flow­ers, wine, and appetizers!

Casey shows a guest at the South Coast Botan­ic Gar­den’s 53rd Annu­al Meet­ing and Foun­da­tion Din­ner how to make a flo­ral fas­ci­na­tor. Pho­to by Kristi­na Lee Photography

Kit and I are often asked to speak at gar­den clubs and for pri­vate groups. We offer a vari­ety of ways to bring flower arrang­ing skills to all inter­est lev­els and abil­i­ties. From Girl Scout troops to the Long Beach Gar­den Club, we cater to each group’s pas­sion for flowers.

For three years, Kit has been the guest flo­ral demon­stra­tor for “A Day in the Gar­den” at the Ban­ning Muse­um and Casey speaks at a dif­fer­ent gar­den club in the Los Ange­les area about once a month.

Enlist a group of vol­un­teers to help you with the mak­ing and trans­port­ing of flow­ers for your event. Per­haps your mom’s local gar­den club can lend a hand? They have years of expe­ri­ence and exper­tise to offer!

We also cater to pri­vate groups and host them at our stu­dio with a cus­tom class cur­ricu­lum. Over the sum­mer, Kit taught a group of pro­fes­sion­al hair­dressers how to cre­ate live flo­ral hair wreaths and how to wire accent flow­ers in order to keep them fresh in their clien­t’s hairstyle.

We bring all the sup­plies to your group. Here is a set­up in a meet­ing room at the JW Mar­riott at LALive near the Sta­ples Cen­ter. Pho­to by Kit Wertz

Whether your group wants to offer a perk for its employ­ees or a new take on an old top­ic, Kit and Casey work close­ly with your group to cus­tomize a hands-on class, work­shop, or live demon­stra­tion with raf­fle options!

So, if you are look­ing for a fun way to spend a morn­ing, after­noon, or evening with friends, con­tact Flower Duet and we’ll offer you a new flower skill you can take to the next level!

A mom and daugh­ter leave with left­over flow­ers after Kit’s fall flo­ral design lec­ture and demon­stra­tion at The Ban­ning Muse­um in Sep­tem­ber. The daugh­ter was going to apply what she learned in the demo to fin­ish her Girl Scout Flower Badge! Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Book Recommendation: Foraged Flora

Foraged Flora: A Year of Gathering and Arranging Wild Plants and Flowers

by Loue­sa Roe­buck and Sarah Lonsdale

From Ama­zon:

Road­side fen­nel, flow­er­ing fruit trees, gar­den ros­es, tiny vio­lets; ingre­di­ents both com­mon and unusu­al, hum­ble and showy, For­aged Flo­ra is a new vision for flow­ers and arrang­ing. It encour­ages you to train your eye to the beau­ty that sur­rounds you, attune your sens­es to the sea­son­al­i­ty and local­i­ty of flow­ers and plants, and to embrace the beau­ty in each stage of life, from first bud to with­er­ing seedpod.

Orga­nized by month, each chap­ter in this visu­al­ly arrest­ing and inspir­ing book focus­es on large and small arrange­ments cre­at­ed from the flow­ers and plants avail­able dur­ing that time peri­od and in that place, all for­aged or gleaned near­by. The authors reflect on sur­pris­ing and beau­ti­ful pair­ings, the impor­tance of scale, the scarci­ty or abun­dance of raw mate­ri­als, and the envi­ron­men­tal fac­tors that con­tribute to that availability.

Whether pick­ing a small ten­dril of fra­grant jas­mine, col­lect­ing over­sized branch­es of flow­er­ing quince, or mak­ing a gar­land of bay lau­rel, For­aged Flo­ra is an invi­ta­tion to seek out the beau­ty of the nat­ur­al world.

Floral Tools: Grapevine Wreath Forms

Grapevine wreath forms are a fan­tas­tic choice for fall wreaths that can be adapt­ed into hol­i­day wreaths eas­i­ly by chang­ing out flo­ral accents.

• Grapevine wreath forms can be cov­ered com­plete­ly with green­ery or just accent­ed on 1/3 of the wreath in an upper or low­er cor­ner to accen­tu­ate a hol­i­day season.
• These wreath forms are nat­ur­al but can be re-used for many years. Apply mate­ri­als using flo­ral wire instead of hot glue to make it easy to change out decorations.
• Attach a small-scale flo­ral foam igloo or cage to add fresh flow­ers to the wreath.
• Wrap with rib­bon for a more vibrant and fes­tive look!

Where to Pur­chase: At local craft stores like Michaels or Joann.

Here is a link to a Pin­ter­est Board we cre­at­ed to give you some unique ideas on how to dec­o­rate a grapevine wreath form for this fall and hol­i­day season!

See this grapevine wreath and more exam­ples on our Pin­ter­est board.