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 Roses1/11 – another arrangement that I designed while at Florabundance Design Days1/29 – Visiting Angie of Posh Florals in Dallas, Texas1/29 – Visting Avant Garden in Dallas, Texas1/30 – 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 & Boutonnieres2/25 – 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 me3/28 – 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 Holland4/24 – Joost and Els at the Black Tulip Museum4/25 – I find Aalsmeer flower auction in Holland to be absolutely mesmerizing, carts of flowers scooting off in all directions4/25 – 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 Ariella5/2 – 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 Thyme5/23 – 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 roses5/23 – The beautiful spread of flowers at Seattle Wholesale Growers Market for the workshop with Ariella Chezar5/23 – Ariella’s finished compote design5/25 – 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 Market7/16 – 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 hoophouse7/18 – my petite design from the demonstration7/22 – Laura Dowling with Danielle at Seattle Wholesale Growers Market7/25 – 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 Lane7/26 – 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 patch7/28 – 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, Colorado8/13 – 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 Colorado8/25 – 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 Barn9/13 – deadheading in the dahlia patch, the wild rabbits beg for some of the blooms9/13 – 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 Seattle9/19 – 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 sale10/17 – 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 girlfriends10/20 – 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 Persimmons11/8 – Chad and my dad harvesting more persimmons – they are so tasty and they look gorgeous in arrangements11/9 – Harvest at my parents place in California – lemons, persimmons, and privet berries11/11 – 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.
