The Native Bouquet Blog

On Making Of the Tussie Mussies

My obsession with the Language of Flowers and Objects is a nightmare endeavor of my own making for these sweet, tussie mussie, speaking bouquets…. but I adore them. No artist really knows what will appeal until a spark of creativity with an idea comes along; so a floriographist I have become. The tussie mussies seem like a simple, effortless, assortment of flowers quickly tied together however, they are not as easy as it sounds. There are always several components and mechanics of creative thinking in any genre besides flowers, and a puzzle to solve. These just have more steps. The […]

Winter Aromatherapy Wreathpourri

The holidays are gone and so are most of the decorations except…your door wreath. If you are about ready to dispose of your falling needle wreath; don’t. Instead, honor the branches the tree so graciously gave by creating a lovely sachet of ‘wreathpourri’. Natural winter aromatherapy is always the easiest to create as usually everything you need is free and on site; with contributions from a short morning walk. From the 17th century on, potpourri has been crafted only from forest, garden, and kitchen ingredients of the season and on hand. There was no store to buy premade packages from […]

Sustainable Flower And Garden Conference

Recently I was one of the guest, keynote speakers at the State University of NY at Farmingdale in Long Island. It was a conference I was so honored to speak because I never thought I would see one of its kind on the subject of my passions & work-agriculture that saves the environment and its inhabitants, local farming, history of flowers, and-my US grown flowers to centerpiece movement. The event is called The Sustainable Garden Conference which benefits their Sustainable Garden Dept. of Urban Horticulture & Design program; however I saw the real benefit as what it brought to all […]

Martha Stewart’s American Made Awards-Some Good & Bad Things?

Hi Casey-this one’s for you and California Cut Flower Commission and Debra at Slowflowers! **Dear friends, A little background on this post. Martha Stewart has initiated a new program whereby she is giving various US companies an American Made award. This is a super idea, however there is debate as to her criteria with one of the latest awards given to online startup BloomNation who promote local florists online directly to consumers with a tagline of “American Made”. The debate stems from the fact of American Made what? There are few to no American grown flowers or products offered by […]

Make A Shamrock Corsage For St. Patrick’s Day

The Shamrock Corsage & Shamrock Leaves My latest craze and new corsage or lapel. Fresh, shiny, and long lasting galax leaves are an old fashioned leaf traditionally used surrounding a Victorian, violet nosegay. Make your own shamrocks for pennies with my ‘how to make a shamrock’ on Pinterest. Or….if you can’t be bothered just call-I’ll make it . 🙂 […]

2014 Sochi Olympic Flower Bouquets Speak A Russian Language Of Flowers-From South America.

I always anticipate seeing the nearly 4500 Olympic ceremony bouquets as they usually incorporate meaning and significance by choosing flowers according to some tradition and culture of the host country. The 2012 Olympics in Great Britain took it a sustainable step further by requiring all the flowers be grown and locally designed in the UK, all packaging be recyclable, and all the plants had to be reused. A task for sure, as sadly like our American Beauty rose is scarce and no longer American; 90% of flowers sold today are imported and there were minimal English roses being grown any […]

Autumn Decorating With Bittersweet Vine

Everyone loves what has been named bittersweet for autumn decorating. Surprisingly, it is not the original bittersweet botanically; but yet a Solanum genus of Nightshade was first designated as such; which is not a cousin, relative, or even lookalike. Through the centuries names get coined or interpreted and now to us what we know as bittersweet is just bittersweet, botanically incorrect or not. Next to pumpkins and maple trees, there is no match for the display it puts on a front door, or beautiful country table. It rambles, it diverts, and it goes around and out west. It is […]

Save Your Flowers-Easy Victorian Flower Pressing

Now that your garden is in full glory it’s time for autumn, and soon they will be gone. This lament has been going on for 100’s of years but no generation has done more for celebrating nature than the Victorians. They were enamored with it, obsessed over it, and came up with ingenious ideas to save it. Pressing is the easiest, the quickest, and most cost effective idea; and all my phone books and catalogs are always in use. Instead of lamenting “…oh no…another phone book” reuse and collect them instead. Pressing is a very eco-minded craft. As one who […]