Valentines Day

Happy Love Day. 

This arrangement is dedicated to love in all forms. 

Friends, lovers, siblings, mothers, boyfriends, nephews, cats. 

Valentines day, is not one to sit home, drowning your sorrows if you don't have a special someone. 

Chances are... You're just looking for that special someone in the wrong places. 

This weekend, instead of being bitter, try celebrating ALL love. 

Call your grandparents. 

Listen to the music that inspires you and take yourself on a date. 

Give a random person flowers. 

Tell your mom you love her. 

Because we all deserve to be reminded. 

LOVE REALLY IS EVERYWHERE.

So take a second to celebrate it. 

Take back valentines day from hallmark and pick a flower on the side of the road instead. 

Smooch on the cheeks and the noses. 

Make cookies because you can.

Above all else. 

Love. 

My Mother

Some people scratch their heads when I tell them that I want to be a flower grower and florist. When they do, I always chuckle and think to myself... 'clearly they don't know my mother'.

If they did know my mother Dru, they too, would be aching for a few beds to plant delicious flower seeds and searching Craigslist endlessly for a few acres or a barn to test out the "farmer lifestyle" for a while. 

 You see:

My mother makes farming look incredibly romantic. With her soft windblown hair, bright blue eyes, innocent smile and calloused hands, she makes even the toughest farmers crumble like the softest soil in pure adoration. 

Even goats, the most stubborn of the farm animals, follow her in awe as she leads them confidently across the farm. 

She is a goddess in farmer form, and is known to many-a-future-farmer enthusiast as one of the pioneers of organic farming. She, along with a few others helped to start one of the first campus gardens in the United States, and in the 1980's went against the conventional grain and began a sustainable and organic farm in Northern California. Full Belly is now one of the leading examples of a profitable and ecologically conscious farm. 

If that doesn't sound exhausting enough...

While working full time to create one of the most fertile farms in California, my mother and father also raised four adorably-blonde-energetic-screaming children. 

So, when I say that I grew up with the flowers that I now dream about arranging is an understatement. When I was young, my sweet mother would spend hours picking buckets filled with florals to arrange for countless orders and farmers markets. While she worked, her hands a blur of clippers and blooms, I napped in the back of trucks and in boxes, exhausted from my days of difficult exploring.  

As I got older, I began to stop sleeping (as much) in the back of the market trucks, and started sharing in my mothers enthusiasm for arranging flowers at various community events and farmers markets. To this day, there is no one I have more fun designing with, than her.

My mother is one of the main reasons I have gained experience with flowers, and want to pursue a career in this industry. 

While she gives off the elegant farming vibe, she is also the first to remind me that my dream will not come easy, and it will not be as "picturesque" as many people believe farming to be. 

My mother has managed to grow some of the most unique, colorful and gorgeous flowers on the land that my farming family owns, She has also somehow managed to make a place so abundant and beautiful that us four still-sometimes-screaming-now-adorable-adults want to return back to, to start our own journeys among the fields. 

I love my mom so deeply.

She truly is my most precious flower fairy.

My mother in the center of an issue of National Geographic

My mother with her beautiful blooms

Napping with the snapdragons

My favorite

Learning A New Language

With Valentines day coming up, the florists that I routinely stalk have been posting pictures excitedly of their newest creations, their valentines day plans and their busy work shops. It makes me so envious of their days filled with petals and blooms! 

Alas

My days are currently being filled with slushy snow, power-outtages and homework.

 

I can't wait until my Valentines Day becomes a day filled to the brim with delivering flowers to lovers, friends and strangers. I can not wait until I have a work place of my own to spend long days cutting, clipping, designing and dreaming up combinations of flowers to express a certain sentiment. 

You see:

Flowers have meanings. Not just in the way that they smell, make you feel or in the unique colors. 

But something more...

Since the Victorian era, flowers have been given individual words or phrases to express different stories or sentiments. Reading the book "The Language of the Flowers" was one of my first experiences with this idea that a bouquet could actually translate feelings and a story of sorrow, love, or unbridled passion.

 Red roses are just one of many choices you can make in expressing your devotion to someone this valentines day season. But what about using daffodils, which according to many old books and texts mean "you're the only one" Or, instead of getting white carnations... how about buying an orchid (which means refined beauty) for your special someone? 

Below is just one of the many lists that can be found with names, and meanings of certain flowers. Many lists and books are much more in-depth and provide a greater variety of plants and flowers. 

Although some flowers have multiple meanings, each flower is unique in its own way and deserves attention, much like the one you care deeply about. 

Xoxo

AMBROSIA - Your Love is Reciprocated
AMARYLLIS - Pride, Pastoral Poetry
ANEMONE - Forsaken
ARBUTUS - Thee Only Do I Love
ASTER - Symbol of Love, Daintiness
AZALEA - Take Care of Yourself for Me, Temperance, Fragile Passion
BACHELOR BUTTON - Single Blessedness
BEGONIA - Beware
BLUEBELL - Humility

CACIA - Concealed Love, Beauty in Retirement, Chaste Love

CAMELLIA (PINK) - Wishing for you
CAMELLIA (RED) - You're a Flame in My Heart
CAMELLIA (WHITE) - You're Desirable
CARNATION (GENERAL) - Fascination, Woman Love
CARNATION (PINK) - I'll Never Forget You
CARNATION (RED) - My Heart Aches For You, Admiration
CARNATION (PURPLE) - Capriciousness
CARNATION (SOLID COLOR) - Yes
CARNATION (STRIPED) - No, Refusal, Sorry I Can't Be With You
CARNATION (WHITE) - Sweet and Lovely, Innocence, Woman's Good Luck Gift
CARNATION (YELLOW) - You Have Disappointed Me, Rejection
CHRYSANTHEMUM (GENERAL) - You're a Wonderful Friend, Cheerfulness
CHRYSANTHEMUM (WHITE) - Truth
CHRYSANTHEMUM (YELLOW) - Slighted Love
CROCUS - Cheerfulness
DAFFODIL - Regard, Unrequited Love, You're the Only One
DAISY - Innocence, Loyal Love, I'll Never Tell, Purity
DANDELION - Faithfulness, Happiness
FORGET-ME-NOT - True Love, Memories
GARDENIA - You're Lovely, Secret Love
GERANIUM - Stupidity, Folly
GLADIOLA - Give Me a Break, I'm Really Sincere, Flower of the Gladiators
GLOXINIA - Love at First Sight
HEATHER (LAVENDER) - Admiration, Solitude
HEATHER (WHITE) - Protection, Wishes Will Come True
HOLLY - Defense, Domestic Happiness
HYACINTH (GENERAL) - Games and Sports, Rashness, Flower Dedicated to Apollo
HYACINTH (BLUE) - Constancy
HYACINTH (PURPLE) - I am Sorry, Please Forgive Me, Sorrow
HYACINTH (RED OR PINK) - Play
HYACINTH (WHITE) - Loveliness, I'll Pray for You
HYACINTH (YELLOW) - Jealousy
HYDRANGEA - Thank You for Understanding, Frigidity, Heartlessness
IRIS - Fleur-de-lis, Your Friendship Means so Much to Me, Faith, Wisdom and Valor
JONQUIL - Love Me, Sympathy, Desire for Affection Returned
LARKSPUR (PINK) - Fickleness
LILY (WHITE) - Virginity, Purity, Majesty, It's Heavenly to be with You
LILY (YELLOW) - I'm Walking on Air, False and Gay
LILY (CALLA) - Beauty
LILY (DAY) - Coquetry, Chinese Emblem for Mother
LILY (EUCHARIS) - Maiden Charms
LILY (TIGER) - Wealth, Pride
LILY OF THE VALLEY - Sweetness, Humility, You've Made My Life Complete
MAGNOLIA - Nobility
MARIGOLD - Cruelty, Grief, Jealousy
MISTLETOE - Kiss me, Affection, To Surmount Difficulties, Sacred Plant of India
MONKSHOOD - Beware, A Deadly Foe is Near
NARCISSUS - Egotism, Formality, Stay as Sweet as You Are
NASTURTIUM - Conquest, Victory in Battle
OLEANDER - Caution
ORANGE BLOSSOM - Innocence, Eternal Love, Marriage and Fruitfulness
ORCHID - Love, Beauty, Refinement, Beautiful Lady
PEONY - Shame, Happy Life, Happy Marriage
PETUNIA - Resentment, Anger, Your Presence Sooths Me
POPPY (GENERAL) - Eternal Sleep, Oblivion, Imagination
POPPY (RED) - Pleasure
POPPY (WHITE) - Consolation
POPPY (YELLOW) - Wealth, Success
PRIMROSE - I Can't Live Without You
PRIMROSE (EVENING) - Inconstancy
ROSE (BRIDAL) - Happy Love
ROSE (DARK CRIMSON) - Mourning
ROSE (HIBISCUS) - Delicate Beauty
ROSE (LEAF) - You May Hope
ROSE (PINK) - Perfect Happiness, Please Believe Me
ROSE (RED) - Love, I Love You
ROSE (TEA) - I'll Remember Always
ROSE (THORNLESS) - Love at First Sight
ROSE (WHITE) - Innocence and Purity, I am Worthy of You, Secrecy and Silence
ROSE (YELLOW) - Decrease of Love, Jealousy, Try to Care
ROSEBUD - Beauty and Youth, A Heart Innocent of Love
ROSEBUD (RED) - Pure and Lovely
ROSEBUD (WHITE) - Girlhood
ROSES (Bouquet of Mature Blooms) - Gratitude
ROSES (Single Full Bloom) - I Love You, I Still Love You
SNAPDRAGON - Deception, Gracious Lady
SPIDER FLOWER - Elope with Me
STOCK - Bonds of Affection, Promptness, You'll Always Be Beautiful to Me
SWEETPEA - Good-bye, Departure, Blissful Pleasure, Thank You for a Lovely Time
TULIP (GENERAL) - Perfect Lover, Frame, Flower Emblem of Holland
TULIP (RED) - Believe Me, Declaration of Love
TULIP (VARIEGATED) - Beautiful Eyes
TULIP (YELLOW) - There's Sunshine in Your Smile
VIOLET - Modesty
VIOLET (BLUE) - Watchfulness, Faithfulness, I'll Always Be True
VIOLET (WHITE) - Let's Take a Chance
ZINNIA (MAGENTA) - Lasting Affection
ZINNIA (MIXED) - Thinking (or In Memory) of an Absent Friend
ZINNIA (SCARLET) - Constancy
ZINNIA (WHITE) - Goodness
ZINNIA (YELLOW) - Daily Remembrance

Holiday Wreaths

When I was a young girl, my mother and her friends would get together in the winter to create wonderful wreath masterpieces as us children ran around the farm, muddy, naked and laughing. As young farmers all interested in making profit as well as beauty, this group of women found the perfect outlet in creating holiday wreaths to sell at farmers markets. The "Wreath Room" on our farm is to this day, one of my favorite spots to create. Filled to the brim with memories, and hanging flowers, it craves for your imagination to be set free for a couple of hours. This December, I worked on a few holiday wreath pieces to give away, as well as to decorate my parents house. There is nothing quite like exploring a chilly farm, searching for the right ingredients to incorporate into a holiday hanging. I used frost-bitten citrus, sweet rosemary, mistletoe, berries, and countless other ingredients to make one of the most massive wreaths ever. While I don't believe that wreaths should just be a seasonal product, (just two weeks ago I made a wreath for my roommates door) it was fun to crank up the Christmas tunes, and share some some sweet moments with my mother as we created beauty in the holiday season.

The Wreath Room