We had the happy luxury of jamming tea tins full of blooms in fluorescent shades on Friday. Exotics like long stemmed Rothschild lilies, Icelandic poppies and parrot tulips mixed well with old-timey bee-balm, begonias and geranium on the Shanghai Terrace at the Pennisula where our spectacular bride greeted guests for cocktails on the eve of …
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We are living the dream of starting our own flower farm this year. We’ve been growing flowers for ourselves at the Chicago Honey Co-op for a while but this is a whole new scale. Successful farming necessitates super-human amounts of savvy, physical endurance and years of dedication, but our primary aim is just to make …
It’s suddenly Spring. I, like many Chicagoans, am stumbling around pasty and shell-shocked, blinded by this gigantic alien orb in the sky. This handful of garden greens heralds as a kind of victory flag over this intensive winter. I’ve heard of massive defections from Chicago due to last winter and I’m fine with it. Fare …
Somedays in this industry I like to think of myself as a tummler. According to Every Goy’s Guide to Common Jewish Expressions, a tummler, (TOOM-ler) is someone who is maker of fun, commotion, tumult. Particularly someone who’s always making jokes- that can get the party started. Also, someone hired professionally at a resort in the Borscht Belt to …
In April, I had the honor of presenting a talk and teaching a class for the Charleston Garden Club. The oldest garden club in the U.S., it is also the largest in the world. We had just enough time to visit the famous sweet grass basket makers of Charleston. Brought to Charleston (which was settled in …
New kids in town, MatchMade Events chose us to purvey the flowers for their clever Robin Hood concept shoot at the stunning Bishop’s Hall bed and breakfast in Oak Park last fall. I went for a druidic vibe for the bouquet with cascading ferns and cyclamen. Photo by the brilliant Chad Husar. Cafe au lait …
Here are some stars from a recent perfume event calling for blackberry and orange blossom fragrance and hues. Saint Tropez French tulips, ranunculus and red hellebores with Ice Follies and Avalanche daffodils which are officially the best smelling flowers of all time. This time of year there is much darkness, jump cut between …
Had a dreamy vacation to gorgeous New Orleans last week. Every inch of the city is perfect! This, my first visit back since the storm was also heartbreaking, to see the Jewel of Mississippi at eye level and remember what we all saw from above those many, horrible days in 2005. New Orleans has always …
Orange-Red has long been a fixation of mine, it began with my best friend’s style icon grandmother, “Bama” and her orange-red lipstick, worn slightly askew with chunky gold jewelry. It always feels old fashioned and new at the same time, like these timeless showstoppers, african violets, gladiolas and carnations. There is something defiant and fiery …
This month we were finally good and swamped with holiday decorating and events, which I have been wierdy exempt from for the past 10 years in the business. It was something I have been wishing for forever; red gold and green- what could be better?? After wrestling with a massive, rogue tartan bow in 1 …