Thanks to celebri­ties like Mandy Moore who was mar­ried in a Los Ange­les back­yard sur­round­ed by pam­pas grass plumes sprout­ing from the ground, many florists are being asked to cre­ate “flo­ral floor dis­plays” for wed­ding cer­e­monies and receptions.

Kit wrote about this botan­i­cal trend for the fall 2019 issue of  Bloomin’ News, a mag­a­zine for the flo­ral trade pub­lished by the Orig­i­nal Los Ange­les Flower Market.

Here is anoth­er “floor dec­o­ra­tion” we designed for a wed­ding cer­e­mo­ny with plumes of bleached pam­pas grass insert­ed into long soaked Oasis raque­ttes that were cov­ered in a vari­ety of green­ery includ­ing Israeli Ruscus.

Dried and bleached pam­pas grass floor dec­o­ra­tion by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Tips on Making Your Own Floor Décor

For trans­port­ing from your stu­dio to the venue, cre­ate the base at the venue (attach raque­stes to wood sup­ports) and cov­er with greenery.

At the venue, insert tall stems so they are fresh and straight!

Read this arti­cle about “wed­ding flo­ral cer­e­mo­ny cir­cles” on the Oasis web­site for more hands-on tips.

NOTE:: Pam­pas grass is not wel­come at all venues — espe­cial­ly in Cal­i­for­nia due to its inva­sive plant sta­tus. Using dried and bleached ver­sions do not have seeds that can germinate.

Free Floral Design Class :: Teeny Tiny Bouquets

This is part of our ongo­ing Flower Arrang­ing Fri­day series you can sub­scribe to for a low month­ly fee! You’ll receive down­loads of the sup­plies used in each class, step-by-step video instruc­tion and lots of tips along the way!

A Full Bouquet of Lessons one Stem-At-A-Time

Our Flower Arrang­ing Fri­days series is a per­fect­ly-sized approach to learn­ing the art of flo­ral design. With each mini-class, we’ll show you a tru­ly use­ful flo­ral design tech­nique in a cur­rent event flo­ral design style. This class series will keep you won­der­ing what we’ll show you next!

As part of each class, you’ll receive: 
1. A down­load­able PDF list of sup­plies includ­ing the flower recipe.

2. Easy-to-fol­low mini video lessons so you’ll nev­er have to rewind the video to see a step again.

3. Tips and florist secrets to help you be a suc­cess­ful flo­ral arranger!

OMG…The Slow Flow­ers Sum­mit is going to be at Filoli next sum­mer! How awe­some is that? I thought it was darn cool that is was in my old home­town of Wash­ing­ton D.C. in 2018 when Casey and I were pre­sen­ters for the flower gath­er­ing. But now, it’s going to be on a super love­ly gar­den-infused his­tor­i­ca man­sion prop­er­ty in love­ly Wood­side, California.

I took my mom there on our way to a the Amer­i­can Grown Flow­ers Field to Vase Din­ner in Sono­ma in 2016. We had a fab­u­lous time in Half Moon Bay and then took a short dri­ve back over the moun­tains to tour Filoli.

There are amaz­ing gar­dens, a yum­my cafe and flower class­es there all-year-long. One of our friends teach­es there, too!

From Debra Prinz­ing, founder of Slow Flow­ers and the Slow Flow­ers Sum­mit Series:

We’re thrilled that Susan Mcleary will join the Slow Flow­ers Sum­mit 2020 with two presentations!

On Sun­day, June 28, 2020 — dur­ing our FLORAL TAKEOVER of Filoli His­toric House & Gar­den, Sue will lead us off with a demon­stra­tion as she designs a large-scale, foam-free, botan­i­cal sculp­ture. Learn her phi­los­o­phy, tech­niques, mechan­ics and aes­thet­ics as she cre­ates in real time! Then, you’ll be set free with teams of oth­er Slow Flow­ers Sum­mit atten­dees to design and adorn the rooms of the House with your own sea­son­al arrange­ments and flo­ral ele­ments. Sue and the oth­er instruc­tors will all be on hand to coach you!

On Mon­day, June 29, 2020 — Sue will kick off a full day of inspir­ing ses­sions with her Keynote pre­sen­ta­tion: “The Cre­ative Jour­ney: Find­ing Your Artis­tic Voice, Truth and Expres­sion,“an illus­trat­ed lec­ture and flo­ral design demonstration.

If you’re seek­ing to recharge and refresh your own approach to cre­ativ­i­ty, you’ll want to be in the front row at this visu­al­ly-engag­ing presentation!

The Slow Flow­ers Sum­mit takes place dur­ing Amer­i­can Flow­ers Week.

Flower Book Recommendation :: The Posy Book by Teresa Sabankaya

Review By Kit Wertz

I am for­tu­nate to have met Tere­sa Sabankaya twice in per­son through the Slow Flow­ers fam­i­ly. I saw her speak at the Inau­gur­al Slow Flow­ers Sum­mit in Seat­tle in 2017. She gave a demon­stra­tion about mak­ing flower posies with mean­ing and talked about her book in progress. I was delight­ed to see this book pub­lished this year and now I see it at my local book stores and gar­den gift shops. The Posy Book: Gar­den-Inspired Bou­quets That Tell a Sto­ry is love­ly just like Tere­sa. Her pho­tos, her ideas and her words will do more than just inspire you. It will move you.

Casey and I have taught “flow­ers with mean­ing class­es” since 1999 and it is fun every time for peo­ple to learn that flow­ers can act as a mes­sage vehi­cle to tell some­one you love them, you’re sor­ry or that you just think they are wonderful.

I KNOW you will love this book if you love flow­ers and you love shar­ing flow­ers with friends, fam­i­ly and your neighbors!

From the Author’s Website:

Inspired by the Vic­to­ri­an-era lan­guage of flow­ers, a posy is a small, round bou­quet of flow­ers, herbs, and plants meant to con­vey a mes­sage, such as dahlias for grat­i­tude, sun­flow­ers for ado­ra­tion, or thyme for brav­ery. These flo­ral poems have become Tere­sa Sabankaya’s sig­na­ture. Brides want them for their wed­dings, but a posy is a love­ly gift any time of year, and one that read­ers can eas­i­ly put togeth­er from their gar­den or with blooms from their local florist. In The Posy Book, Sabankaya shares step-by-step instruc­tions, flo­ral recipes for more than 20 posies, and ideas for sea­son­al vari­a­tions. A mod­ern flo­ral dic­tio­nary, with 12 orig­i­nal paint­ings by cel­e­brat­ed illus­tra­tor Maryjo Koch, will help read­ers craft their own posies filled with per­son­al meaning.

Flower Tool :: Ribbon

I know this seems like this is a “No-Duh” type of rec­om­men­da­tion, but I want to express the best type of rib­bon to use for tying bou­quets like the hand-tied posies that are in The Posy Book I review above. The two we use the most are Gros­grain rib­bon and Dou­ble-Faced Satin Rib­bon. See below an excel­lent resource — May Arts Rib­bon Company.

Gros­grain Ribbon

May Arts’ woven GN series gros­grain is a woven Peter­sham-esque gros­grain. Because it lacks the tra­di­tion­al thick edg­ing of an Amer­i­can style gros­grain, it is soft­er and more sup­ple. The weight and pli­a­bil­i­ty of the rib­bon makes it ver­sa­tile for every­thing from gift wrap to sewing to scrapbooking.

Dou­ble Faced Reversible Satin Ribbon

All Lus­ter Dou­ble Faced Satin Rib­bons are ~ 1.5″ (36MM). Non-Lus­ter dou­ble faced satin rib­bons are 1.5″ (38.1MM).  Tie ele­gant bows on wrapped pack­ages, wed­ding bou­quets and gift bas­kets, embell­ish scrap­book pages and sew on cloth­ing or use on home decor items.