american flowers week ~ June 28 to July 4 ~ Celebrating American Grown Flowers in all 50 States

A floral wrap jacket with two sources of inspiration

Design by Nan Matteson, Queen City Flower Farm
Cincinnati, Ohio
Linda Spradlin, In the Garden Flower Farm
Seven Mile, Ohio
Photography by Jill Bader @jillmbader

“The urge to grow can take root anywhere,” says Nan Matteson of Queen City Flower Farm, a devoted city gardener. “Pick your city. If you’re walking down the street you might get a glimpse of a private garden, seen from an alley or through a gateway.”

The idea of a pocket garden led Nan Matteson and fellow grower Linda Spralin of In the Garden Flower Farm to create a wrap jacket with two inspirations — a shawl collar composed of dried botanicals to suggest a 1920s fur-collared woman’s coat and a 19th century Japanese firefighter kimono, often, traditionally, only a plain garment with a decorative textile lining.

The coat, sewn by Nan from a pattern she adapted, has a sky blue lining against which a spring flower garden is displayed — a secret border rooted in small, moss-covered bags that provide a water source at the hemline. “I just love the whole concept of a guardian inside the fireman’s coat, providing protection even if you didn’t know it was there,” she says, smiling. Similarly, the flower-lined garment illustrates how much our gardens can provide a sense of comfort and protection — even if we’re the only ones who see them.  

DESIGN + CONCEPT:
Nan Matteson, @queencityflowerfarm and Linda Spradlin, @inthegardenflowerfarm 

FLOWER SOURCES:
Collar: Dried amaranthus, craspedia, love-in-the-mist, celosia (plume and crested) scabiosa, gomphrena, spirea, dock, foraged grasses.
Secret Garden: redbud, tulip, bluebell, daffodil, hyacinth, hellebore, columbine, moss. All flowers grown by the designers.

MODEL: Carmen Sanders @Carmen.sanders3

VENUE: Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio, @cincyartmuseum