Designing With Locally Grown Flowers

At the beginning of my flower farming business, I was lucky enough to attend several workshops on the art of designing with flowers. Specifically, Team Flower hosted a conference with demonstrations from florists renowned around the world. I learned so much about pairing different colors and textures, lines and movements using some of the most ubiquitous flowers in the industry. The problem? Most of those flowers are imported and their prices are rising. As florists turn to find locally sourced flowers, they're finding a different set of flowers readily available. Recipes and ratios are being challenged and their design style is evolving.

I was also INCREDIBLY lucky to source flowers for Shane Connolly, Royal Florist to His Majesty, the King of England - whose brilliant designs for the Dallas Museum of Art were sourced exclusively from North Texas farmers. Watching him design with flowers I grew was a light-bulb moment and the highlight of my flower career.

Here's a few things to keep in mind if you're transitioning to designing with local flowers versus mostly imported ones.

1. Use more of the same flower. Often, if a flower grows well in a particular region, we'll grow many different varieties of the same species. This means that a lot of variety in color, shape, and even texture can be accomplished using the same flower. The arrangement above features mostly snapdragons, with a few dianthus tucked deep, bupluerum on the edges and a coral charm peony popped in for surprise. But various sized and color snapdragons fill the arrangement. It is a 4 ingredient design.

   
   

2. Find the local substitute. Instead of a rose, try a spring ranunculus or a summer lisianthus. The general public often never even realizes these flowers aren't roses. Instead of out-of-season delphinium, embrace gladiolus in early summer for that tall spiral look. Often time, if you converse with your local farmer about the type of flower you need, they'll be able to point you in the right direction. Bonus points: your designs can keep their signature style while adding even more originality.

   

   
   

3. Elevate the humble. What surprised me about watching Shane Connolly present at the Dallas Museum of Art is how he took the humble daffodil and sang its praises, creating a whole vignette of daffodils in elevated vessels to the oohh's and ahhh's of the whole audience. As floral professionals, we hold more power than we realize in both educating and influencing our customers to see the beauty in the simplest flowers like rudbeckia, zinnias and gomphrena. Locally grown flowers are often humble on their own but can be powerfully transformed in the deft hands of designers.

   
   

   

   
   

4. Reach out for help. There are amazing designers (like Shane) who have been designing entirely with local flowers for many years. Perhaps take a refresher course or workshop or simply follow them on social media for inspiration. Below are some of my favorites.

• Ellen Frost runs a brick-and-mortar florist shop in Baltimore, MD and sources entirely from local flower farms. She has amazing resources in her newsletters!

  
  

• Jennie Love from Loven Fresh Flowers has years of experience doing full-service up-scale weddings for the Philadelphia elite using ALL flowers grown on her farm. Her designs are a stunning lesson in seasonal design. Best of all, she offers full in-person design workshops.

  
  

• Adam and Jenn of Pepperharrow farm completely understand the intersection of design and local flowers. They have an online centerpiece course that uses only flowers grown right outside their studio.

  
  

• Shane Connolly of course, for me, the ultimate place to find ideas and inspiration for seasonal design is from the designer who created the famed tree-lined aisle for the Princess of Wale's wedding. His instagram account is always a treasure box!

Lastly, although not entirely locally based, Team Flower has an excellent resource for using substitutions in your flower designs. This is a handy guide when looking at what your local farmer may be offering and what you typically use in your styles.

Sourcing local and in season flowers may be a new design challenge for florists who are used to only import flowers, but quality and style doesn't have to suffer (neither does your bottom-line). Often local, in-season flowers are fresher, of higher quality, and last longer than their import counterparts. There's never been a better time to start designing with local flowers!

Happy Designing!

Sarah Jo