Sunday, November 20 – 1pm to 3pm

Join me on a Sunday afternoon this fall to create your own Pumpkin Floral Arrangement! Perfect way to spend the afternoon and create a piece that you can use on your table for Thanksgiving!
We will work with pumpkins as our vessel – and here’s a hint, we won’t be using floral foam in this design! We’ll fill our pumkins with a selection of fall flowers and foliages. It’ll be fun + cute and a total hit with your Thanksgiving guests!
The pumkins, flowers and foliages will all be provided, all you need to bring is a pair of your favorite clippers to cut your flowers.

Date: Sunday, November 20, 2016
Location: Floressence Design Studio, 5628 Airport Way S #240, Seattle, WA 98108
Time: 1:00 to 3pm
Investment: $150.00 per person
Register: HERE

Our friend Joost of Florabundance Wholesale recently traveled to Holland to see the trade shows – IFTF and FloraHolland. He shared some photos of the flowers he viewed on display and we thought we’d share them with all of you –

Ashley by Alexandra Roses

Amaryllis

Anemones

Carnations

Ashley Garden Roses

Ranunculus

Buttercup Garden Roses

Sunstream Euphorbia

Hydrangea

Japanese Lisianthus

Lisianthus

Lisianthus

Midsummer Garden Roses

Ranunculus

Ranunculus

Shine On Garden Roses

Spray Roses

Bella Bouquets Book

Bella Bouquets Book is on sale for this week only – $10.00 per copy!

Normally $24.95 per copy. Bella Bouquets makes a great gift for the flower lover!
Perfect peonies, gorgeous garden roses and sweetest sweet peas are a few of the flowers shown on these pages, affectionately designed into a variety of bridal & bridesmaids bouquets.
Bella Bouquets showcases vibrant full-color photographs of over 100 stylish bouquets. Offering a wide variety of designs including elegant, modern, rustic, traditional, dramatic & romantic. Bella Bouquets is a 120 page hardcover book measuring 8.5″ x 8.5″

Sharing some lovely floral inspiration with all of you today! These beauties were designed by Brooklyn based Julia Testa Design –

Your name: Rachel Cho
Your Business name: Rachel Cho Floral Design
Your Location: West Chelsea, Manhattan

How did you start your business?
I grew up in the flower business in a local flower shop that my mother started in the Bronx, in New York City. When I was a little girl I had to work on the weekends and every holiday to help out with the family business. After graduating college with a degree in Biology, I decided med school was not for me and started working in various industries, including fashion. In 2005, I decided to go back to the flower shop to start a flower business of my own, a luxury, “high fashion” flower brand. I was very fortunate to gain a lot of exposure early on, doing a lot of events for MoMA, gaining high-profile accounts such as the New York Yankees, and building a great wedding portfolio with highly positive reviews. Fast-forward to 2016: I’ve built great partnerships and a book of business that affords a 3500 square foot design studio in West Chelsea, in Manhattan. I’ve enlisted my husband, who left his corporate career to go into business with me in 2015, and now we co-own and run the company together. We have a handful managing the business together as well as 2 kids under 2 years old!

How many years have you been in business?
I am approaching my 12-year mark, which will be at the start of 2017.

What is your design aesthetic?
My design aesthetic is contemporary, modern, and fresh. We use luxurious, seasonal blooms that come from near and far in a highly curated, thoughtful style. I focus on textures, and always try to bring out a bloom’s inherent shape and form. My designs are clean, with a slight whimsical flair.

How do you create your style and where do you draw your inspiration?
My style has always been to combine various textures and interesting color palettes (whether it be a monochromatic design, or a mix of various colors, brought together in a harmonious way). My inspiration can be drawn from anything! From a customer’s emotional backstory, to a beautiful flower variety we have on-hand whose unique color or texture I’d like to bring out, I find that I create an arrangement by really thinking about who or what the arrangement is for.

What are the trends, flowers & colors that are unique to your region?
There are various trends that make designing with flowers so exciting. In New York, people love monochromatic tones such as a chic, simple all-white arrangement. Our signature arrangement, the White on Black, is always very popular. Using all white tones with various flower varieties, the White on Black is highly textured and gorgeously juxtaposed by its black vessel. Another trend that is so fun to work with is the new craze for garden-y, organic compositions that use a variety of interesting greenery, berries, and wildflowers. The challenge with this kind of composition is balancing full-face blooms with linear flowers, but when all is composed in harmony, you get a beautiful mix that has a lot of dimension. Flower trends have definitely evolved over the years from tight, compact, round shapes to organic and overflowing designs that look like they were freshly picked from a garden.

Are you a retail shop, studio/warehouse or home based?
We are an appointment-only design studio. We’re located on the 2nd floor of the historic Terminal Stores Building, which used to be known as the Tunnel, and was a popular New York nightclub in the 80s and 90s. Our studio is a large industrial space with 3 walk-in coolers and a working freight elevator that loads right into our studio. We welcome any walk-ins to stop by but most people order by phone or online.

Do you offer any services in addition to floral designs?
We try to meet any requests that our designer hands and designer know-how are capable of! We’ve customized large-scale moss letters for a company logo and have installed extensive succulent and air plant wall displays. We have regular standing orders for terrariums and orchids. In addition to having the capacity for plant installations of various scales, we also provide plant maintenance services for corporate and private accounts.

What tool in your toolbox can’t you live without?
My ARS curved floral knife! I also can’t live without my ARS pocket shears and ARS scissors. The trick to labeling your tools is writing your name with nail polish! Sharpies, markers, or anything else will rub off.

What’s your favorite flower?
Roses. They are always my go-to. I’m always amazed by their diversity of color, shape, and scent. I absolutely love every kind of flower, but I do start to get bored (thankfully!) when the season of a particular kind of flower is coming to an end. I of course love the fan-favorites such as peonies, dahlias, anemones, ranunculus, etc. I adore some of the lesser-known varieties such as fritillaria, nerine, hellebore, poppies, and sweet peas. Roses are year- round but I never ever get sick of them.

Contact information:
www.rachelchoflowers.com
633 West 27th Street Floor 2
New York, NY 10001
212.877.2877

How cool is this display by Simply Georgeous Occasions of Australia?!

Your name: Kay Studer & Susan Studer King
Your Business name: Buckeye Blooms
Your Location: Lima, Ohio

Susan and Kay

How did you start your business?

Susan: The idea to start a flower farm in Ohio was actually conceived while my husband and I were living in Ecuador as Peace Corps Volunteers. As we neared the end of our two-year service we started contemplating our next move. It was around that same time that my mom was retiring from Ohio State Extension where she worked for years in the Horticulture and Master Gardener programs. It was a period of transition for both of us, so it was the perfect time to think creatively about what we wanted to do “next.” For me, I wanted to live more simply and sustainably. I left a high stress job to serve in the Peace Corps and knew I didn’t want to go back to that field or lifestyle. So we moved back to Ohio and started Buckeye Blooms on the family farm where I grew up—and where my mom grew up too. For me, it was a great transition to living in the States again after such a challenging, yet rewarding and ultimately transformative experience working in Ecuador. (It was there that I saw firsthand the social, economic, environmental and health impacts of the commercial rose industry. I knew we could provide a product that was fresher, more fragrant and even more beautiful than what you could get at traditional florist shops (and without all the terrible toxins that pollute rivers and poison people—primarily women—in South America). But I suppose some of the seeds for the business were planted even earlier than that, when my mom grew and designed the flowers for my wedding—all the way back in 2000.

Kay: The farm where our business is based has been in my family for several generations. I was actually born in the farmhouse and have lived here my entire life. This farm is in my blood. I’d rather be on the seat of a tractor than in a seat at the beauty shop, that’s for sure! We grow corn and soybeans on much of the land and dedicate approximately one acre to flower production. We also have a large established perennial garden and windbreaks that provide great cutting material for our designs. Our design studio is in what once was the milking parlor of the barn. The bulk of our work is for weddings throughout Western and parts of Central Ohio.

Jason Bowers Photography

Jason Bowers Photography

Jason Bowers Photography

How many years have you been in business?
 Since 2009

What is your design aesthetic?
Our signature style is a “fresh from the garden” aesthetic that is very organic, textural and nontraditional. We love combining multiple types of uncommon foliages into our designs to give it lots of volume and texture. We often use unusual or repurposed vessels for our designs, like silver teapots, milk glass compotes and antique sewing machine drawers. We also love collecting vintage Ohio pottery, especially McCoy. (We *might* have a collection problem!)

Jason Bowers Photography

How do you create your style and where do you draw your inspiration?
We try to use seasonal material for all of our designs and always try to buy from other Ohio flower farms if we don’t have enough of our own flowers or the right colors, etc. We love the community that is being built around local, seasonal flowers.

What are the trends, flowers & colors that are unique to your region?

Lush, organic garden-inspired bouquets: Brides are moving away from “roundy moundy” tight European designs and looking for big, lush, textural, foraged bouquet shapes that are wider, and less round (a trend we love!). Vintage, rustic and country-chic themes are still pretty popular in this region.

Color & flower trends: The last few years have been dominated by blush and champagne hues. Last year, there were more deep wine and marsala color palettes mixed in the blush. The clients we’ve met with so far that are planning 2017 weddings are leaning toward lots of cool grays–whether it is blush and gray or navy and gray or purple and gray. Gray is the new green for accent flowers and foliage. We grow and use lots of Dusty Miller ‘New Look’ (the wide leaf variety) which is great in bouquets–sounds like we’ll be using it a lot next year!

Last year we received quite a few requests for seeded eucalyptus and succulents incorporated into bouquets. In general, however, we have found that brides in our area are less concerned about flower types and more concerned about flower colors. This works well for us, since we grow a lot of flower most average consumers can’t identify anyway. We are able to incorporate lots of unusual seasonal blooms within the couple’s color palette and make really unique bouquets that are unlike anything they’ve ever seen.

Are you a retail shop, studio/warehouse or home based?
Our design studio is located on the farm where we grow our flowers.

Do you offer any services in addition to floral designs?
We also offer “Flower Parties” at the farm where we provide buckets of fresh cut flowers, vases and a brief tutorial on floral design to groups of 4-8. The guests make their own bouquets to take home. Everyone loves them!

Photo by Mandy Ford Photography

Photo by Mandy Ford Photography

What tool in your toolbox can’t you live without?
This is totally unglamorous, but we’d have to say our fabric scissors, or “ribbon” scissors, as we call them. We’re usually fighting over the best pair when it comes to doing the ribbon finishes on bridal bouquets and boutonnieres. Any other scissor just won’t do, as it will just fray the fabric and frustrate us!

Photo by Mandy Ford Photography

What’s your favorite flower?
Susan: I have so many! But I’m a serious sucker for peonies.

Kay: My favorite flower is narcissus. Our farm is located in an area that was settled by Welsh immigrants, whose national flower is the daffodil. I have thousands of daffodils planted all over the farm. It is not uncommon to have ladies from the local Welsh church call to ask if they can come to see at all the daffodils in the spring.

Connection Photography

Contact information:
Website: www.buckeyeblooms.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/BuckeyeBlooms
Instagram: http://instagram.com/buckeyeblooms
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/buckeyeblooms/

Hello friends!

We are about to go on holiday vacation over here at flirty fleurs and wanted to pop up a quick holiday note up on here!
We’ll be back here on Monday, January 2, 2017.

Until then a few things to note.

I do have a few floral design classes scheduled in Seattle:

Bridal Bouquet Designing & Pricing Class – January 22, 2017 – Register

The Boutonniere and Corsage Workshop – January 29, 2017 – Register

Designing Elevated Centerpieces – February 5, 2017 – Register

I’ve also scheduled an online class. I typically schedule this one only once per year – and this year I’ve decided to schedule it in January:
Social Media Online Class – January 16, 2017 – Register

I’m sure I’ll still be posting on instagram (https://www.instagram.com/flirtyfleurs/) while the blog is on holiday break – so come get your flower fix over there

One of my recent floral arrangements, inspired by winter-

Hello 2017!
Here we are again .. the beginning of another new year.
I’ve never been one to set New Year’s resolutions, how about you? Instead I like to focus on goals on a monthly basis, maybe it’s easier to tackle? Maybe it’s easier to predict what will happen in one month, but much more difficult to predict what will happen in a full year?!
Well, I do have one goal set for January and it looks like it’ll happen just fine – I have a Rose Study scheduled for next Monday, January 9th! Rose Studies are the favorite posts for Flirty Fleurs readers and I’m happy to be starting out the new year with a really great one!
**Pink Garden Roses with Alexandra Farms!!**

David Austin “Miranda” on Day 3
Grown by Alexandra Farms

I’m headed to Santa Barbara, California this coming weekend – excited to be attending the 5th Annual Florabundance Design Days! Hard to believe this is already the 5th annual conference! I’ll be posting away on Instagram and Facebook while there and will plan on putting up a blog post upon my return.

Tomorrow I have a fun post scheduled for all of you, I put together a Reflect on 2016 & Set Goals for 2017 feature. Oh and on Thursday a fun post with pictures of my flower filled days from 2016.
Michelle will continue to be with us on Wednesday and she is having fun with the Wedding Wednesday posts – I know I enjoy seeing what she finds each week!

So my dear flower friends, I do wish all of you a very good 2017. May it be filled with lots of pretty flowers and super cool clients.

xo,
Alicia

Hello flower friends!
Well, it is that time of year, that inevitable time when we reflect on the previous year and set goals for the upcoming year. So here we go – print this out or save a copy of it to your computer, do some pondering and jot down some thoughts about 2016 and set your goals for 2017:

Accomplishments I am most proud of from 2016:

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The 3 Best Lessons that I learned in 2016:

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The 3 Smartest Decisions that I made in 2016 are:

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The 3 Biggest Risks that I took in 2016 were:

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The 3 Biggest challenges I faced in 2016 were:

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Upon Reflection, if I could re-do 3 things from 2016, what would they be?
(What would you do differently?)

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Jot down 3 things I’d like to do more of in 2017:

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What 3 things do I need to do less of in 2017?

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When I think of 2017 the 3 words that come to mind are…?:

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What are my 3 biggest goals for 2017:

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This is one long blog post, but I promise it is filled with lots of pretty flower photographs!

1/9 Enjoying a beach moment in Santa Barbara – Florabundance Design Days is about to begin, always a great way to start a new year!

1/11 – At Florabundance Design Days designing an arrangement with David Austin Roses

1/11 – another arrangement that I designed while at Florabundance Design Days

1/29 – Visiting Angie of Posh Florals in Dallas, Texas

1/29 – Visting Avant Garden in Dallas, Texas

1/30 – Attending Create + Cultivate with my friend Alex of Exquisite Events (of Chicago)

2/21 – Go, Go Flower Power! Actually a snapshot from one of my floral design classes – Corsages & Boutonnieres

2/25 – have I mentioned my obsession with Hellebores?! Yes, I adore them! Here’s a selection of beauties from my own garden.

3/6 – All loaded up and ready to drive to Seattle – this is how my car looks on the morning of a design class!

3/6 – my friend Amanda of Alluring Blooms flew in from Wisconsin to attend my Hellebore Centerpiece class. (photo by Riz Reyes)

3/6 – one of the gorgeous arrangements that Amanda designed while visiting me

3/28 – The hellebores keep blooming! Another snapshot from my garden collection of this magnificent flower.

4/29 – The full crew who attended Florabundance Design Days – Holland Edition! Yes, the trip was SO amazing! We were blessed to experience so many wonderful flower sites with a super cool group of people!

4/24 – Fantastic display of Daffodils at Keukenhof in Holland

4/24 – Joost and Els at the Black Tulip Museum

4/25 – I find Aalsmeer flower auction in Holland to be absolutely mesmerizing, carts of flowers scooting off in all directions

4/25 – Spent the day in a greenhouse designing with Ariella, yes it was as special as it sounds!

4/26 – My friend Shawn of Flower Bar (Idaho) with an arrangement that she designed during our design session with Ariella

5/2 – Chad and I visited Schreiner’s Iris Gardens in Salem, Oregon as we drove south to California. We had great timing as all the Irises were in full bloom!

5/5 – Garden Valley Roses in Petaluma, California in full bloom.

5/8 – Rhododendron Show at Mendocino Botanical Gardens.

5/18 – I had the pleasure of presenting at the Tacoma Garden Club. I tried my hand at a parallel design.

5/23 – Ariella Chezar is in town to give a demonstration at Seattle Wholesale Growers Market. Prior to the workshop a small group of us went on tour of the flower farms in preparation for the workshop. Getting a photo of everyone was pretty much impossible as everyone moves in opposite directions! On tour were Steve Moore, Dawn of All My Thyme Roses, Molly of SWGM, Diane of Jello Mold, Ariella Chezar and myself. It sure was a fun day!

5/23 – Ariella Chezar with an arm load of roses from All My Thyme

5/23 – Diane was trying to make Dawn smell a rose and Dawn refused! The funny part is that it is Dawn’s Rose Farm! I was laughing so hard that I could barely take the photo!

5/23 – Steve getting a photo of one of the roses

5/23 – The beautiful spread of flowers at Seattle Wholesale Growers Market for the workshop with Ariella Chezar

5/23 – Ariella’s finished compote design

5/25 – After Ariella’s workshop I played around with the leftover flowers and came up with this design. Love the dancing columbines.

6/12 – Organized a photoshoot with Becca Jones Photography at Bella Luna Farms in Snohomish, Washington.

6/12 – the long table was set with an arrangement that rand down the center.

6/12 – The welcome table to the event.

6/12 – THIS bouquet was a dream come true. The Koko Lokos are from my cutting garden.

7/14 – Johann posing with all the dahlias at Seattle Wholesale Growers Market

7/16 – Chad & I visited Butchart Gardens in Victoria, Canada. *I highly recommend visiting here*

7/16 – Butchart Gardens is absolutely breathtaking.

7/18 – Farm tour day at Jello Mold farm organized by Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, I lead a floral design demonstration.

7/18 – Dennis making us all laugh!

7/18 – hanging out with Debra Prizing in the Cafe Au Lait Dahlia hoophouse

7/18 – my petite design from the demonstration

7/22 – Laura Dowling with Danielle at Seattle Wholesale Growers Market

7/25 – Laura Dowling and Georgianna Lane were working on a photoshoot. I can’t show what the design was, so I’ll show ya an undercover peek at them at work

7/25 – fantastic lunch with Dawn of All My Thyme, Debra Prinzing, myself, Laura Dowling, and Georgianna Lane

7/26 – my dahlia patch is in full bloom — it’s so beautiful and I spend most evenings here keeping the plants tidy.

7/27 – Amy of Gather came by to check out the dahlia patch

7/28 – all the varieties of dahlias that I’m growing, such a range in size!!

8/3 – Third annual Dahlia Wall at Seattle Wholesale Growers Market. Johann got his picture taken with it!

8/6 – Bridal bouquet for on of the sweet brides I worked with this season.

8/12 – Headed to Colorado! Working with Robyn of Bare Root Flora on the Field to Vase dinner in Boulder!

8/13 – Field to Vase Dinner in Boulder, Colorado

8/13 – The table that just keeps going and going! Robyn and I opted for an ombre look down the table.

8/16 – Treasure in the trunk!
Headed to my Colorado workshop with all these beautiful roses from Alexandra Farms.

8/16 – the ladies who attended my workshop in Colorado

8/25 – total geek moment, one of my dahlias (peaches ‘n cream) was featured on Real Simple’s instagram feed!

9/1 – Amy of Gather and I experimented with making flower necklaces. It’s really rather fun to create them!

9/4 – my friend, Melanie, needed some extra hands for a large wedding setup. What got me was how unglamorous our glamours floral designer life can be some days! Step carefully in the alley…

9/10 – Arch and Chuppah Class at my home! Here’s three of the four designs we created.

9/10 – Katie flew up from Southern California for the Arch & Chuppah class. She enjoyed visiting the dahlia patch.

9/10 – Our autumn inspired floral chuppah from the flirty fleurs workshop.

9/11 – Fantastic display of Dahlia Barns’ dahlia varieties.

9/11 – My uncle and I went for a drive to North Bend, WA to visit the Dahlia Barn

9/13 – deadheading in the dahlia patch, the wild rabbits beg for some of the blooms

9/13 – The dahlias are blooming like crazy! I took my first load of dahlias to Seattle Wholesale Growers Market. After years of buying all flowers from markets, this was the first time I sold flowers TO the market!

9/14 – Taught a Floral Design Class at Ravenna Gardens in Seattle

9/19 – How cool is this?! Flirty Fleurs has its own flower collection with Longfield Gardens!! Shown here are some of my favorite tulips to design with!

10/13 – Visting Massachusetts – admiring all the mum plants for sale

10/17 – Visited Terrain in Westport, CT – this place is amazing! I highly recommend visiting here if you are ever in the area!!

10/18 – Attended a talk on “in the company of women” with a great group of girlfriends

10/20 – time to start digging up the dahlias and divide the tubers before storing for winter. Simply amazing how one tiny tuber turns into this cluster in the 6 months it is in the ground!

10/24 – Gordons Farm in Skagit Valley — getting in the fall spirit!

10/29 – one of my arrangements, almost all flowers from my garden. This arrangement was one of my most popular ones ever on instagram.

11/5 – Handful of Persimmons

11/8 – Chad and my dad harvesting more persimmons – they are so tasty and they look gorgeous in arrangements

11/9 – Harvest at my parents place in California – lemons, persimmons, and privet berries

11/11 – made this arrangement for my mom. autumn colors are her favorite.

12/8 – back home and trying to wrap my mind around it being December already!

12/18 – design time with Keita and Shannon, getting into the Christmas spirit.

12/24 – Looks like it’ll be a white Christmas in Washington.

I’m excited to announce our next class specifically for Floral Designers looking to increase the online presence of their Floral Design Business. This e-course will be held online via a private, password protected forum. Class assignments will be posted weekly with hints, tricks and feedback from myself and other class participants. The class lasts for 3 weeks, and the forum will remain active for an additional 4 weeks should you need to access any of the information while working on your newly implemented marketing plans and to connect with other class participants.

Class Starts: January 16, 2017
Class Ends: February 3, 2017
Investment: $299
Sign Up Here

What we will cover in class:
*Week 1 – Critique of your current website and blog with suggestions on how to improve
*Week 2 – All about Instagram!!
*Week 3 – In-depth look at using Facebook for your business. We’ll also cover Pinterest & Twitter this week.

FAQs:
*There will be no refunds or transfers once you have registered & paid for this class.
*Information from this class will not be shared with others outside of this class. Immediate cancellation of your membership will be enforced if you are caught distributing information.
*As the saying goes “what you put into it, is what you get out of it”, full participation is the best way to gain the most success possible.

The Roses on Day 5
Princess Kishi, Romantic Antike, Mariatheresia, Carey, Pink O’hara
Capability, Mayra’s Rose, Ashley, Miranda

Day 6
The 6 Medium Pink Roses
Ashley, Carey, Miranda
Mayra’s Rose, Mariatheresia, and Pink O’hara

Day 6
Princess Kishi, Romantic Antike, Ashley, Carey, Capability, Mayra’s Rose, Mariatheresia, Pink O’hara, Miranda

The Roses on Day 6

The Roses on Day 12

Ashley
On Day 3

David Austin Capability
On Day 5

David Austin Carey
On Day 5

Mariatheresia
On Day 3

Mayra’s Rose
On Day 3

David Austin Miranda
On Day 3

Pink O’Hara
On Day 5

Princess Kishi
On Day 5

Romantic Antike
On Day 3

Details about all the roses in this study:
-The Roses were never placed in the cooler once I received them!
-The Roses were set out in the house for the course of the rose study.
-I did not use quick dip, flower food or crowning glory, or any other “helpers”. Just freshly cut stems placed in clear water.

A HUGE Thank You to Alexandra Farms for providing the roses for this Rose Study! Alexandra Roses are available thru your local wholesalers.