Slow Flowers will Commission at least FIVE Floral Couture Looks for our 2019 American Flowers Week Collection.
We’re soliciting proposals from farmer-florist creative teams for this campaign. Consideration will be made for geographic diversity, and for botanical elements not previously featured.
View our past American Flowers Week Collections here:
2016: Passionflower Events Floral Fro
2017: Four Floral Couture Looks
2017: Bonus Look from Babylon Floral
2018: Five Floral Couture Looks
All Floral Couture Looks Must be Completed and Photographed No Later than April 1, 2019 to meet Florists’ Review publishing deadlines.
Each Team’s Lead Designer and Lead Flower Farmer will receive a 1-year Premium Membership in Slow Flowers and be featured in American Flowers Week 2019 Promotional and Editorial Campaigns in lieu of financial compensation.
American Flowers Week’s botanical art by Ellen Hoverkamp.
Last October, I spent time in Connecticut with my friends Ellen Hoverkamp and Michael Russo and Trout Lily Farm, which Michael owns with Raymond Lennox. It was a lovely evening and we hosted a Slow Flowers Meet-Up of members in the New England area. I also interviewed Michael for the Slow Flowers Podcast and you can listen to that Episode here.
It was literally days before the first frost in Connecticut, USDA Zone 6b (average minimum temperatures from -5 to 0 degrees F). On October 29th, I sent Ellen this email:
. . . the more I think about it, the more excited I am to think it’s possible to commission you to create a red-white-and-blue floral piece for our American Flowers Week 2018 campaign graphics! Is it too late in the season to glean anything herbaceous from Connecticut?
Two days later, on October 31st, this amazing friend, artist and visionary, translated my vague request into this work of art:
We’re so thrilled that artist Ellen Hoverkamp created a one-of-a-kind American Flowers Week botanical work for our 2018 campaign!
We’ve used this piece of red-white-and-blue floral art in social media and in print. You can read more about Ellen Hoverkamp in this recent profile I wrote about her for Florists’ Review’s June issue, entitled Botanical_Still_Life.
Last week, on June 28, the first day of American Flowers Week, Ellen posted her beautiful imagery on social media. I was thrilled to see it shared with so many. But then, she wowed the Slow Flowers Community with yet another gift.
For the next six days, through today, July 4th, Ellen has created a new work of red-white-and-blue floral art to commemorate American Flowers Week. If you’re not following her on Instagram, you must find her now! @garden_images
Here are the daily pieces that Ellen has created as a gift to #americanflowersweek and the #slowflowers community!
Day Two
Happy #americanflowersweek Day 2! #slowflowers #stillife #tromploeil #ellenhoverkamp #scannerphotography
Day Three
Happy American Flowers week, Day 3! Thank you @butternutgardensflowers for providing the floral ingredients for this image. #americanflowersweek #slowflowers #redwhiteandblue #butternutgardens #flowers #farmerflorist #scannerphotography #ellenhoverkamp
Happy 4th of July, which is also the last day of #americanflowersweek My work is made possible through the efforts and kindness of local flower growers. I thank you, my flatbed scanner thanks you! #slowflowers #americangrownflowers #troutlilyfarmllc #butternutgardensflowers #fourrootfarm #riverviewfarms #bilateralsymmetry #mosaicart #botanical #photography #scannerphotography #ellenhoverkamp
Want More?
If you’re as enchanted as I am with Ellen’s artistry, visit her web site here. You can order fine art archival prints of her botanical compositions, as well as other lovely pieces, such as her hand-made silk scarves, note cards and more.
Thank you, Ellen, from the bottom of my heart! You are a Slow Flowers Hero!
Launched in 2015, it’s the Original American-Grown Floral Holiday
In our fourth year, American Flowers Week has a lot to celebrate and I want to make sure you join in the many activities and take advantage of the resources available to help you promote local and seasonal flowers in your market!
We’ve gained significant momentum, having generated more than 5 million impressions across social media platforms in the past 365 days!
Everyone involved in flower farming and floral design is encouraged to highlight America’s flowers with the #americanflowersweek hashtag to draw attention to the campaign.
9 Ways to Participate in American Flowers Week
Several Maryland flower farms teamed up with Kelly Shore of Petals by the Shore to host a flower crown workshop during American Flowers Week 2017. She’s holding her second Flower Crown Party for 2018!
I created American Flowers Week in 2015 as a community-focused floral holiday that allows and encourages participation from everyone in the floral industry — from flower seed and bulb producers to growers; from designers to retailers; from cutting garden enthusiasts to artists.
There are as many great opportunities to get involved as there are people and flowers! Click the link below to read about 9 Ways you can Participate, including creative and community-minded ideas from Slow Flowers farmers and florists around the U.S.!
Use American Flowers Week’s badges and graphics in your marketing. Click here for a link to download.
The logos and social media-formatted badges are free for you to download and include in your own camapigns and promotions.
A special thanks to our amazing team member, designer Jenny Diaz, for her contribution over the past three years. We love the look and vibe of the branding you’ve created, Jenny!
As a special branding bonus for 2018, I’m thrilled to share this beautiful red-white-and-blue botanical composition that we commissioned from Connecticut-based artist Ellen Hoverkamp.
Ellen’s work, which is termed “scanner photography,” utilizes freshly-picked flowers, foliage and other gifts from nature as her raw material. When composed into a botanical still-life and then scanned, the resulting digital image can be printed on archival, museum-grade paper for framing, or printed for other products, such as note cards or Ellen’s beautiful silk scarves.
Grab your June 2018 copy of Florists’ Review to see the 12-page spread about American Flowers Week’s floral fashions. You can return to AmericanFlowersWeek.com to read more about individual looks, the flower farmers’ and floral designers’ stories, and more beautiful photos throughout June, leading up to theJune 28-July 4 #americanflowersweek Celebration.
Thank you to everyone who donated flowers, design time, photography and styling. The impressive dream team behind these looks are not only talented but passionate about promoting American-grown flowers through their creativity!
I can’t tell you how much it means to this cause — to elevate the public’s awareness and to engage the industry to CARE about domestic floral agriculture and sustainable, mindful floral design.
These are the people who created our “Collection” of five floral fashion narratives for 2018 American Flowers Week. Let’s Congratulate Them!!
PEONY LOOK
Floral Palette: Peony flowers and petals, Scenic Place Peonies(Homer, Alaska) @scenicplacepeonies
Homegrown Blooms appears in the June 2018 issue of Super Floral Magazine.
I’m so excited to share the stories of grocery stores around the country who are participating in and promoting American Flowers Week, bringing their customers a new reason to purchase bouquets and bunches of local blooms!
“Homegrown Blooms, Coast to Coast” highlights some of the ways that groceries and supermarkets of all sizes are bringing the message of local, seasonal and sustainable flowers to their shoppers.
We have the most creative staff and for us, it was the joy of creating something to display during American Flowers Week and share with our customers — Denise Johnson, T&C Bainbridge Island
We’ve been planning and designing the 2018 Floral Fashion Collection for months — and it will be unveiled this week in the June issue of Florists’ Review!
For the third year in a row, American Flowers Week has commissioned fashion-inspired looks featuring local, seasonal and domestic florals.
For 2018, we have five fashion looks to unveil. It is amazing what the talented flower farmers and floral designers have conjured up this year and I’m so excited to be able to announce the participants and give you a preview of their creativity here.
Grab your June 2018 copy of Florists’ Review to read more and see a full 12-page spread about American Flowers Week’s floral fashions. I’ll be sharing individual stories and more beautiful photos throughout June, leading up to the June 28-July 4 #americanflowersweek Celebration.
Thank you to everyone who donated flowers, design time, photography and styling. The impressive dream team behind these looks are not only talented but passionate about promoting American-grown flowers through their creativity!
Let’s celebrate the five floral fashion narratives created for 2018 American Flowers Week. I can’t tell you how much it means to this cause — to elevate the public’s awareness and to engage the industry to CARE about domestic floral agriculture and sustainable, mindful floral design.
FIELD TO FASHION In its fourth year, American Flowers Week celebrates U.S.-grown (and foraged) botanicals with five fresh, inspiring and hand-crafted couture looks.
PEONY LOOK
Floral Palette: Peony flowers and petals, Scenic Place Peonies(Homer, Alaska) @scenicplacepeonies
Arranged with all-local Pacific Northwest blooms, I love this sweet centerpiece that I made at a design workshop with Tammy Myers of First and Bloom last summer (c) Missy Palacol Photography
A perfect patriotic floral combo! (c) Missy Palacol Photography
Maybe the palette seems a little cheezy to you, but ever since I created American Flowers Week in 2015, I have been on the lookout for fantastic ingredients that add up to beautiful (and anything but cheezy) Red-White-and-Blue floral arrangements and bouquets.
Nothing says “proud” and “homegrown” better than recreating our American flag’s true colors in a vase, right?
Another view and a snap of me with my American Flowers Week-inspired beauties (c) Missy Palacol Photography
That fun, al fresco-style event took place a month or so after American Flowers Week (June 28-July 4) but clearly the stars and stripes were top-of-mind because I didn’t hesitate about the palette when Tammy offered me an entire rainbow of botanicals from which to choose.
MORE RED-WHITE-AND-BLUE FLORALS
I’ve been playing with reds & maroons, whites & creams, blues & indigos — across the botanical spectrum — for the past three years, and now I’m really getting excited about our next American Flowers Week campaign. It’s coming up in just five weeks, so I hope these images inspire you to create your own Independence Day bouquets. Please share them at our Slow Flowers Community Page on Facebook!
All-American flowers, grown in Oregon at Charles Little & Co.
A child’s table, painted delphinium blue by a vintage dealer, is my perfect podium for this bouquet.
A July 4, 2015 Mason jar bouquet featuring ‘Checkers,’ a favorite dahlia from Jello Mold Farm.
Enjoy these glorious red-white-and-blue flowers, picked just in time for American Flowers Week.
California Pajarosa roses adorn the tutu, bodice and headpiece designed by Teresa Sabankaya for American Flowers Week 2017.
Floral Palette: California-grown hybrid tea roses, garden roses and spray roses and their seasonal companions Designer: Teresa Sabankaya, Bonny Doon Garden Co., (Santa Cruz, CA) www.bonnydoongardenco.com, @bonnydoongarden
Floral ingredients supplied by California Pajarosa, Watsonville, CA, and Bonny Doon Garden Co., Santa Cruz, CA
Teresa Sabankaya in the Bonny Doon Garden Co. cutting garden.
Teresa Sabankaya launched her floral business Bonny Doon Garden Co. by selling single stems, bunches and bouquets from a kiosk in downtown Santa Cruz, Calif. She often stocked the tiny shop with cuttings from her vast residential garden in the nearby hamlet of Bonny Doon, called Shangri-La by locals for its remote and stunning natural beauty.
As author Amy Stewart wrote in her groundbreaking book Flower Confidential, “Teresa Sabankaya has the kind of flower shop that you would dream about opening, if you are the kind of person who dreams of opening a flower shop . . . (it) fit with my idea of how floral commerce must work — you’d grow some flowers in your garden, you’d buy some from a farmer down the road, and you’d put them in buckets and sell them to your neighbors.”
A decade after being profiled by Stewart, Teresa is still designing and selling her signature garden-style florals throughout the greater Santa Cruz area, although today Bonny Doon Garden Co. is housed inside the coastal city’s New Leaf Community Market. As a Veriflora Certified Retail Florist, the shop assures customers the product they buy is grown in a sustainable manner, including from domestic flower farms.
“We source mainly from local organic and sustainable flower farms, thus assuring you a very fresh product,” Teresa explains on her web site’s home page. “We love to incorporate materials from our own cutting garden in Bonny Doon, too, while using the surrounding woods, meadows and vineyards as our inspiration.”
The 11-acre Sabankaya grounds are often home to styled shoots, attracting private design students and photographers alike. It serves as the ideal setting for Teresa’s American Flowers Week creation, a wearable rose tutu and headpiece to accompany her model’s pink satin corset.
With her model (and daughter) Antalia Sabankaya as her muse, Teresa selected an intense, fiesta-hued palette with roses dominating her design. The pristine hybrids, sprays and garden roses are more local than most, having been raised in sheltering greenhouses just miles away in Watsonville, where friend and flower farmer Paul Furman runs California Pajarosa Roses.
“I absolutely love his product,” Teresa raves. Her enthusiasm and commitment to green practices in her business are in alignment with the second-generation rose farmer’s decision to pursue Veriflora Certification for California Pajarosa.
“I am so impressed that Paul went through the process of switching from conventional growing to a sustainable method that allowed the farm to also become Veriflora Certified,” she says. “It can be an expensive process for growers and it’s not easy.”
While planning the rose-infused wearable floral fashion shoot for American Flowers Week, Teresa zeroed in on one of her favorites grown at Pajarosa: the ‘Alhambra’ rose. “That was my star rose,” she says. “It almost looks like a garden rose with its high petal count and the petals range from pinky peach to orange to fuchsia on the outer petals.”
Teresa wanted to design a flattering floral tutu that accentuated Antalia’s fitted pink satin corset. She researched magazines and Pinterest boards for inspiration and found a tutu made from silk flowers that got her thinking about constructing a tutu that wouldn’t collapse under the weight of real roses.
“While tulle fabric wouldn’t have worked, I found a gold mesh product from Oasis and began playing around with it,” Teresa says. She used 24-inch lengths of the mesh to shape “petals,” layering them to form a “flower” skirt. Matching gold Oasis flat wire woven through the mesh grid serves as a “belt” that fastens to Antalia’s waist.
The design begins with a tight pavé rose pattern to accentuate the tutu’s waistline. Teresa attached botanical elements with a combination of glue and gold wire, the tails of which are like little tendrils dangling from the skirt.
“The metal mesh itself isn’t that strong, but the wire edges of each petal hold their shape,” the designer explains. “As I folded the pieces, they formed a pouf here and a tip there to create the petal look I wanted.”
Teresa realized she didn’t want to complete cover the mesh with flowers, but instead allow the material to be the tulle-like element of her design. “I put something lacy toward the tips of each petal, pieris and jasmine from my garden that supplements Paul’s roses for a lacy, frilly look.”
The corresponding headpiece relates to the skirt with one distinct difference. “We had been cutting tree peonies from my garden to sell at the shop and the intense color was a perfect complement to Paul’s roses,” Teresa says. “I knew I had to add one to the headpiece.”
With the backdrop of her property’s Mediterranean-style architecture and its lush, secret garden to showcase her all-local floral couture, Teresa’s imagination plays out in the third dimension, made more special because she collaborated with family and longtime floral industry colleagues to celebrate American Flowers Week. “I want people to look at this picture, to look at those flowers, and feel the way I feel when I get to design with them,” she says.
Resources:
Model: Antalia Sabankaya
Makeup: Zachary Winer
Hair: Carly Vollers
Photography: John Kaemmerling Photography
Location: Sabankaya family garden, Bonny Doon, CA
Originally published in FLORISTS’ REVIEW | JUNE 2017 | floristsreview.com
Romantic and mysterious, the floral cape designed by Tara Folker of Splints & Daisies features all-American grown botanicals from Stargazer Barn in Arcata, California. (c) With Love and Embers
Floral Palette: Bulb flowers, including Irises, tulips and callas; Foliages, including ornamental cabbage, sword fern and wild huckleberry.
Floral ingredients supplied by Stargazer Barn, Arcata, California Designer: Tara Folker, Splints & Daisies, Lancaster, Pennsylvania; splintsanddaisies.com @splintsanddaisies
Floral designer and artist Tara Folker
Tara Folker has been designing flowers for nearly two decades, having opened her own dried florals and woven basketry business when she was 19. Coming from a family of artists on her mother and grandmother’s side and of plant lovers on her father’s side, Tara concludes, “Things mixed for me, and I ended up in artistic florals.”
While she doesn’t describe herself as a fashion designer, Tara has produced a number of wearable floral garments for styled shoots. “I call it my playtime because it’s when I can actually do what I want to do. As anyone in the wedding industry knows, you don’t always get that. With styled shoots, I’m going to do what I love.”
When Bill Prescott, Stargazer Barn, offered to provide the flowers and foliage for Tara’s American Flowers Week concept, the timing was perfect. Tara and her team photographed in early January when not much local product was available on the East Coast.
She treasured the chance to select from Stargazer’s greenhouses and fields in Northern California: Fancy and standard tulips, ‘White Versailles’ Freesias, ‘Telsar’ Irises, ‘Cantor’ callas and all sorts of greenery, such as white and purple ornamental cabbage, sword ferns and lacy sweet huckleberry. The color palette: purples, peaches, white and green – quiet and moody for the season.
I had never seen the huck before, but it looked fun. Plus, I loved that the sword ferns were harvested from the Redwoods just a few days before the shoot.
Tara is comfortable with designing in real time, on location, rather than committing to a sketch or recipe in advance. She took as her muse Ashley Garner, the beautiful, edgy model, and the raw warehouse space at Hingework, a Lancaster event studio with large windows, white brick walls and a contemporary/industrial vibe.
The designer imagined a semitransparent floral cape that would showcase all of the fresh flowering bulbs, draping fluidly from the model’s form. “I didn’t want to do a dress or a skirt again, but I wanted to create something wearable that was new to me, too, so that I could feel satisfied with the design.”
Ashley’s style – juxtaposed against the soft, romantic, feminine florals – emoted an almost fantasylike narrative. A black leotard and leggings allowed Ashley’s body form to be another organic element while the makeup accentuated her eyes and lips. Of course, the model’s bare head also became part of Tara’s overall vision.
Tara envisioned a short shrug or capelet with sleeves, but while building the underpinnings with chicken wire, she realized sleeves would restrict Ashley’s movement and feel stiff. For a tall, lanky model, that just didn’t make sense.
“In the end, the chicken wire is almost like a scarf that lays across her shoulders. With not much of a base, the flowers themselves became the garment,” Tara says. “The flowers were tied onto the wire that I did use, and it really hugged her shoulders.”
RESOURCES Model: Ashley Garner Makeup: Stefani Burket, Bonafide Ginger, Lancaster, Pennsylvania Photography: Jillian and Ryan McGrath, With Love & Embers, Hummelstown, Pennsylvania Location: Hingework, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Originally published in FLORISTS’ REVIEW | JUNE 2017 | floristsreview.com
Riz Reyes of RHR Horticulture’s botanical tapestry for American Flowers Week 2017 (c) Mary Grace Long Photography
Floral Palette: A medley of flowers and foliage from the landscape, hothouse and nature Designer: Rizaniño “Riz” Reyes, RHR Horticulture, Seattle, WA @rhrhorticulture
Rizaniño “Riz” Reyes, guest designer for American Flowers Week 2017
Riz Reyes is a garden and floral designer whose creations have won gold medal and people’s choice awards at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show, all achieved while he also worked as a horticulture manager at public and private landscapes in Seattle.
Riz considers Portland, Ore., floral designer Françoise Weeks one of his mentors, and he is influenced by the work of Belgian floral artist Daniel Ost and British designer Zite Elze, the artistic inspiration for this piece.
Asked to create a woodland-inspired menswear look for American Flowers Week 2017, Riz’s response was highly personal.
The whole concept of men and flowers is intriguing to me because it touches on my background and the journey I took to get into horticulture, floriculture, plants and flowers. For me, there was always that stigma of little boys and flowers not being a favored thing.
“I especially like working with things that are textural. A lot of the materials and natural elements that I use and the range of colors that I like are inspired by the Pacific Northwest and its ferns, moss and lichen,” he says.
Riz began with the Market’s availability list to choose an array of small succulents such as Aeonium, Sempervivum and Echeveria; Phalaenopsis orchids; spray roses; hellebores; globe thistles (Echinops); Pieris japonica; the metallic blue fruit and buds of Viburnum tinus; sprays of Grevillea blossoms and G. ‘Ivanhoe’ foliage; Leucadendron foliage; the mosslike textures of the crested Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica ‘Cristata’) and Dianthus ‘Green Trick’; the fascinating marble vine (Diplocyclos palmatus); buds of larkspur (Delphinium hybrid); and the immature fruits of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera). He also foraged for lichen, small pods and ferns from nature.
Behind-the-scenes at our photo shoot with model Alexander Brooks, photographer Mary Grace Long, designer Riz Reyes and make-up artist Yessie Libby. Photographed, January 2017.
“I had never done anything of this magnitude,” he admits. Working with a mannequin torso was essential to give shape to the vest and a corresponding jacket as he added botanical elements. Riz first applied two coats of adhesive spray to the vest to get a sticky surface for attaching the textural “embroidery” of flowers, plants, foliages, pods and lichen.
At the same time, he used liquid floral adhesive to attach individual pieces, balancing shapes, colors and varieties, to create an overall pattern. The textilelike design is reminiscent of a Persian rug or antique tapestry in its depth and detail.
To Riz, it was important to collaborate with the model and photographer and to develop a level of trust with both.“Never, in my wildest dreams, did I think I would be able to work in this dynamic. There is this profile of a guy being the giver of flowers. So for me, the grand takeaway from this experience – and hopefully, it will come true – is to dispel the assumption that men and flowers don’t exist together.”
RESOURCES Model:Alexander Brooks Makeup:Yessie Libby, Yessie Makeup Artistry, Seattle, Wash. Photography:Mary Grace Long, Mary Grace Long Photography, Seattle, Wash. Location: Mary Grace Long Studio and Discovery Park, Seattle, Wash.
Originally published in FLORISTS’ REVIEW | JUNE 2017
floristsreview.com
Artist Ellen Hoverkamp created a one-of-a-kind American Flowers Week botanical work for our 2018 campaign!
Ellen Hoverkamp
I’m so thrilled to share this beautiful red-white-and-blue botanical composition that we commissioned from Connecticut-based artist Ellen Hoverkamp.
I’ve known Ellen for a number of years through the Garden Writers’ Association and we first me virtually when I reviewed the award-winning book she created with Ken Druse called Natural Companions (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2012) for an article in the Los Angeles Times.
Recently, I spent the day with Ellen. She served as my local chauffeur and host when I traveled East for the Connecticut Slow Flowers Meet-Up. That event took place in early October at Trout Lily Farm, which is owned by Michael Russo and Raymond Lennox. Learn more about Trout Lily Farm in my recent interview with Michael for the Slow Flowers Podcast.
As it turns out, Ellen and Michael go way back as friends and fellow art students in both high school and college. Ellen’s work, which is termed “scanner photography,” utilizes freshly-picked flowers, foliage and other gifts from nature as her raw material. When composed into a botanical still-life and then scanned, the resulting digital image can be printed on archival, museum-grade paper for framing, or printed for other products, such as note cards or Ellen’s beautiful silk scarves.
After reuniting with Ellen and seeing her beautiful work again up close, it occurred to me that I wanted to commission a piece in which she created a red-white-and-blue floral portrait for American Flowers Week 2018.
Given the season in New England, it was possibly the last moment when I could have requested that Ellen create a piece for us! Fortunately, Michael and Raymond still had a few dahlias and other goodies on their flower farm for her to clip and incorporate into her floral portrait. Plus, Ellen told me that she also had several cuttings being stored in her refrigerator for (it seems) just this purpose.
I hope you love this gift from the garden — as interpreted by such a talented artist — as much as I do! The graphic branding, which Jenny Diaz created by adding our American Flowers Week typography, will be used in a number of ways to promote next year’s week-long campaign.
HOW SHE DOES IT
Here’s more about Ellen and how she developed this method and style for her work. The text from our Q&A comes from a 2015 article I wrote about her for Garden Design magazine.
Ellen Hoverkamp first started composing images from nature using an early model flatbed photo scanner in 1997, she didn’t even own a camera. Nor did she know the names of most of the plants she used. “It was all about form and color for me.”
Fast-forward to 2005 and Hoverkamp’s evocative and artful assemblages of botanicals and edibles have been profiled in The New York Times. They’ve since been exhibited in museums and graced covers of books (Natural Companions) and periodicals (Organic Gardening and Sweet Paul). She arranges flowers, pods, branches, vines, gourds and roots as vivid still-lifes against striking black backdrops. If Hoverkamp had been born three or four centuries ago, she would have been a Dutch master painter. “I love the hyper-real details of my images,” she says.
Hoverkamp relies on cuttings from public gardens, nurseries and private landscapes to create her pieces. “I scan what other people grow,” she jokes. “I’m forever grateful to the people and places that supply me with plants. The mission of my work is to bring attention to the efforts of gardeners and to the beauty of nature.”
WHAT TO READ
“I created 144 botanical images for Natural Companions: The Garden Lover’s Guide to Plant Combinations (Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 2012), with author / photographer, Ken Druse. He provided plants for 66 of my scanner photographs. Sometimes I worked at his place in New Jersey; occasionally, cuttings were shipped to my studio. Once, Ken delivered plants to me at a parking lot. He would provide lists of Latin plant names for sampling at particular private gardens. That year, the growing season seemed to be about 3 weeks off schedule in CT. I would see all sorts of beautiful floral material that wasn’t on Ken’s list prompting him to say, “Pick whatever turns you on and we’ll figure it out.” I will forever be proud of our collaboration.
SUMMER FLOWER COMBINATIONS TO PHOTOGRAPH
“My most favorite (and also the most challenging) flowers for scanning are peonies from private gardens. I love this composition of Sandi Blaze’s peonies with beauty bush and ninebark, picked from her cottage style gardens, dubbed, “Pixie Perennials” (pixieperennials.com) in Wilton, Conn. An image I composed at Jennifer Brown’s garden, in Greenwich, CT, shows the beautiful diversity of peony forms and petal colors.”
SUMMER VEGETABLE COMBINATIONS TO PHOTOGRAPH
“I used edibles for my art long before the popularity of the farm-to-table initiative. I’ve always liked combining organic vegetables with ornamental floral material. I collect the vast majority of edibles at Trout Lily Farm (trout-lily-farm.com) in North Guilford, Conn. They are grown by my longstanding dear friend Michael Russo, vegetable and flower farmer and floral designer. Michael has collaborated with me and sustained my work since the early days. He has expanded his gardens at Trout Lily Farm offering me more variety – and his farm stand customers reap the benefits, as well. The cool thing is that I can set up my scanner in his barn and work directly from the garden.”
FAVORITE PUBLIC GARDENS
“I love the Northeast’s many public gardens. I have had two solo exhibitions in the Alice Milton Gallery at Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, Mass. (towerhillbg.org) and I was their first Artist in Residence. On August 22nd, I’ll be teaching ‘APPetizing Edibles,” an introduction to imaging food using a flatbed scanner and to editing scans using mobile-device photo apps. On September 10th, Trout Lily Farm and I will be vendors in the marketplace as part of “Gardener’s Day 2015: A Celebration of Plants” at Blithewold Mansion, Gardens and Arboretum in Bristol, Rhode Island (blithewold.org). The personable team of gardening enthusiasts and horticultural professionals guide and welcome visitors to the lovely grounds of this historical estate.”
FAVORITE NURSERY
“I consider Broken Arrow Nursery (brokenarrownursery.com), growers of rare and unusual plants in Hamden, Conn., a favorite destination. The Jaynes family and their knowledgeable staff are longstanding contributors of cuttings, and have provided great information and general support for my work.”
FAVORITE GARDEN ACCESSORIES
“I love using Florian pruners (florianpruners.com). They are handy, dependable and made in the U.S.A. I wear Foxgloves (foxglovesinc.com), which made of soft Lycra fabric and are perfect for flower picking. They were created by my friend Harriet Zbikowski, a landscape architect and professional horticulturist.
NOTE: Ellen’s American Flowers Week 2018 piece will be available to order as a print early next year — and we’ll share the link to her online order page soon. For now, you can peruse her catalog of botanical images, prints, cards and scarves — HERE.
AMERICAN FLOWERS WEEK
Click Here to Download Coloring Sheets featuring each State Flower
