As a professional I know the type of questions to ask so I can find out what she likes and doesn’t like. As the conversation goes a long I start to get a feel of what she wants and I can start to make suggestions. Some people are able to visualize the ideas that we discuss and some need to see it. We usually have flowers on hand but not always the colors or styles of what they want, but we can “play” with all of the props.

We have a table set up and can build on that with everything from, glass ware, silver, pedestals, stands, branches even barn wood boxes. The possibilities are limitless and the process is fun. At the end of this process, everyone is excited and can’t wait to see it, sometimes we set up a time to have them come back to see a sample.

Thursday, May 13th

We were all so glad the sun finally reappeared today & warmed us up after this week’s chilly, damp weather. We were working on lots of arrangements for this weekend’s weddings & the 12th annual show at Steve Snyder’s sculpture garden in Point Pleasant. All the gorgeous roses and peonies filling our galvanized metal buckets were opening and relaxing in the sun outside our barn studio. Inside we were designing handheld bridal bouquets, so fresh & pretty in whites & pastel blues & greens. We were also assembling table centerpieces glowing with luscious, deep colors of peach, burgundy, & cobalt blue (an unusual and stunning combination). We kept venturing out into our gardens around the barn & house to clip a bit of this & a bit of that— the fresh chartreuse foliage from our mock orange shrubs, or sprigs from our deutzia bushes laden with delicate little white bell-shaped blossoms. A delivery of about a dozen magnificent, graceful white orchid plants in full bloom arrived in the afternoon; we’ll pot them & dress up their bases with moss tomorrow. On the wackier side, we’ve also started on some fun balls we’re completely covering with bright flowers & foliage to be suspended by ribbons & dangled outdoors at the sculpture garden show.

Wednesday, May 12th

Today was so cold & overcast—a good time to go shopping! We drove to a couple of wholesale flower outlets & were delighted by what we found, including stock so deeply colored in shades of lavender & purple that it looks like velvet, as well as neon yellow gerbera daisies and golden sunflowers. Plus 8 topiaries of scented geranium that were 4 feet tall & way overgrown—quick work with our clippers back home instantly transformed them into spheres of lemon-scented variegated greenery. We cut from our garden dainty white chamomile, & pink & burgundy Sweet William, all fresh in the field. It was invigorating to be out cutting the first flowers of the season! Roosters were crowing & farm dogs were barking off in the distance as we made our way down the rows. The bottoms of our jeans sure were wet & our shoes sure were muddy, but we were happy as larks. We hope the temperature will warm up tomorrow so our roses & peonies will begin to open & be ready for arranging.

Tuesday, May 11th

We were wearing turtlenecks, fleece, & wool jackets working in the barn studio today—hard to believe how cold May is right now. We had dozens of long florist’s boxes delivered, so we set to work opening them all up, unpacking all sorts of flowers for this weekend’s events, & “processing” them (meaning stripping their lower leaves, removing rose thorns, & giving their stem ends fresh cuts) before placing them into buckets of warm water. Many are tightly furled & will need to be hydrated & warmed before they relax & open. We’re reviewing our notes taken when we met earlier with clients to make sure all our details are in order as we refine our concepts for many different kinds of arrangements They range from bridal party bouquets, corsages, & boutonnieres, to accent vases for cocktail tables, to centerpieces for dinner tables, to massive urns filled with flowers to set on top of stone walls or steps for outdoor estate weddings. It’s exciting to have the barn filled to bursting with blooms of so many colors, shapes, & textures — all waiting for their opportunity to make a special event as beautiful as it can be!

I would like to use a lot of our flowers for our Open Studio tour and for the bridal food tasting at Hollyhedge Estates in New Hope, Pa. on April 18th 2010. I was just talking to Fred at Max Hanson Catering and told him that we could help decorate the food tables for an art opening called Icons of Costume at the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown Pa. Although we have to buy most of our flowers, it’s so nice to walk outside and pick them fresh. We’ve planted our sweet peas and soon to plant the cosmos and sun flowers. So much to do, and it feels so good doing it.

We spent many hours’ dead heading all of the hydrangea bushes; some of them are looking more like trees than bushes. Our green viburnum bushes are loaded with buds, it’s fabulous how we get a bigger harvest each year. I’m trying to save the hellabores for our open studio tour, but they are in full bloom, however they do last a long time in the garden. Every year our vitex trees look like they didn’t make it through the winter, and we have almost cut them down in past years, but now we know that they are the last to show any signs of sprouting.

Last year Jerry Fritz from Linden Hill Gardens planted a garden for us with new varieties of blooming bushes. We’re excited to use the mock orange with the lime green foliage. We’re crazy about our deutzia plants and last year planted ten more with a few new varieties. We’ll soon be able to use these flowers with the May weddings coming up.