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A Bucket Shop

On my bucket list-a bucket shop all my own.  I have always wanted one.  The year I spent living in New York City in the mid eighties-my favorite part was the small markets, and beautiful bucket shops.  Every where you could find the and most breathtaking cut flowers, flowering stems and twigs imaginable, many of which were displayed on the street in buckets. My hands down favorite- oak branches studded with freshly set green acorns.  Those stems made the hair on the back of my neck stand up; I have never seen them available since.  What is available in cut flowers in New York City-the sky is the limit.  But I am happy with any bouquet of flowers; fresh flowers are irresistable.  Just about anything that grows is beautiful-can you think of a flower you just don’t like?  Living color-like no other color.  The idea of selecting and offering beautiful and striking cut flowers has been in the back of my mind for years.  I do flowers occasionally for parties and special events, but I am not a florist.  I am so sorry to say that Detroit Garden Works does not own a fresh flower cooler.     

I attended a national peony convention some 35 years ago.  I was very interested in how the exhibitors managed to bring so many cut stems of penies great distances to the show. Growers who exhibit their blooms in competition have this down pat.  A bud showing good color, and a marshmallow soft texture when squeezed, is good to cut.  Bag the buds in a baggie with the stems out, and store them dry, in the refrigerator. Bring them out 24 hours ahead of when you need them.  I was amazed that this works, but it does.  Years ago when I had hundreds of peonies, I would store stems in the fridge, just to extend my bloom season a little.  Some exhibitors brought hundreds and hundreds of buds packed in coolers-hoping that 1 or 3 or 7 would be perfect examples of a given cultivar, and win a ribbon.   

Fabulous cut flowers need not be from my zone.  Sweet peas-how I long to have them in my life.  It is doubtful I will ever grow a decent sweet pea, but they are available, at certain times of the year, as cut flowers.  Sweet they are.  And as if the color and shape wasn’t enough, the fragrance is divine.    

 A bucket shop-not so much in my future.  We are in a way out of the way location; the shop in its first life-a machine shop in an industrial location. My fresh cuts would languish, unclaimed.  I probably would have to take most of them home.  A bucket shop needs shoppers non stop.  The most successful florist in my town, and maybe nation wide-Kroger grocery store.  This makes perfect sense.  Everyone needs to shop for food regularly.  Weekly-maybe more often.  Selecting a bunch of fresh flowers for the grocery cart-easy.  The best part of the flowers at a very successful florist is that turnover means the flowers are more likely to be really fresh.  The downside?  It is less likely you will see the more unusual flowers.  Not that I hold one grudge against carnations and chrysanthemums- even the most ordinary species is still a fresh flower.  

My idea of a bucket shop took a different turn.  In Atlanta this winter, I made it my business to source beautifully made faux flowers.  Every picture you have seen thus far and will see-fake.  Including these daffodil stems.  Are they not the best looking plastic and polyester flowers?  The peonies are amazingly realistic.  Are they a substitute for a real peony-of course not.  But fake flowers have their place. 

Though I have devoted a lifetime to raising flowers of all sorts, I wrote a check for bucket loads of faux flowers.  Why wouldn’t I?  There are lots of people who love flowers and gardens who are not gardeners.  There are some who cannot garden; there are times when no one can garden.  The shop umbrella ought to be big enough for all. Some faux flowers are better than others; the strong simple shape of ranunculus is easy to recreate in a permanent form.  Silk iris I would stay away from.        

Pam made this small arrangement in a terra cotta pot painted white.  It is charming, cheery and spring like, to my eye.  It will be a month or 6 weeks before anything stirs in my garden, not to mention that the last leg of our winter is the toughest to take.  My faux flowers are primarily spring species.         

Would I take one of these home-absolutely.  I have plenty of dark places in my house that would be all the better for a little color.  I am a winter weary gardener who needs some reference to the garden.  Not to smell, or touch-just to look at.  For those days when I do not want to look at pictures of gardens, or books, or a documentary about the Chelsea flower show-just something bright to look at.  

 I do try to buy faux stems that can go outside.  Our spring season can be very short; many gardeners do not plant containers for spring for exactly this reason.  I do plant spring pots for clients; faux branches and grasses in the center of a container instantly creates some scale and presence.  A well done mix of faux and real flowers makes the fake elements very tough to spot. My observation?  People see what they believe as much as they believe what they see.           


These mini pots, furnished with white daffodils, and  finished in dark green reindeer moss-I like them.

Posted on: February 14, 2011 7 Comments
Filed Under: Good Design, Detroit Garden Works, Parties and Events Tagged With: ,

Staying Late

My come early- stay late routine came to a close beautifully.  The shop garden needed some dressing up for our evening event; we wanted the outside to say welcome, and encourage a festive mood for anyone walking to the door.  

Out at the street, an old iron cistern is stuffed with poplar branches, and finished with a groundcover of various sizes of white lights. Holiday light strings in groundcover, or in containers is an easy, portable and inexpensive way to light your winter landscape. This pot-our greeting. 

A pair of cast stone pots atop the gate piers feature steel spheres wrapped in a single ring of pearl lights.  Poplar branches were sunk in the soil, through the openings in the sphere.  The Saturn pots, as I call them, take the every day in ground landscape lighting at the base of the piers skyward.  


Wrapping the lights on the form can be accomplished quickly; we use the smallest zip tie available. This makes the removal of the lights much faster, when you need the sphere to support a vine, or provide a sculptural element in a container. The light ring reads clearly from below.

Lining the driveway with tables dressed in white linens in mid November has the element of surprise going for it.  This very traditonal symbol of a party to come gets a big boost from being placed outdoors.

Candlelight endows any event or gathering with a little romance.  However many candles you set out, a few more would probably be good.  Votive candles are much like the mini light strings-readily available and inexpensive, they can ornament a party indoors or out like nothing else. 

Straight sided votive holders are just as inexpensive, and reuseable-our trick is to put a teaspoon of water into each glass before we light the candles.  This makes popping the used candles out for cleaning easy.  Adding the votives to larger glass containers, pitchers and vases greatly magnifies the light; we did a collection of glass on each table.

The candlelight did much to illuminate the glass icicles in the lindens.  A few white laser cut plastic lanterns with a votive inside contrast with the icicles.  The walk to the door was warmly and invitingly lit.

A pair of garlic shaped steel tuteurs covered in pearl garland are illuminated courtesy of a light sphere at the bottom.  The surface of the pot is mulched in white recycled and tumbled bottle glass. Very dressy. It was a good day to stay late.

Posted on: November 13, 2010 10 Comments
Filed Under: Landscape Design, Detroit Garden Works, Parties and Events, Holiday Tagged With: ,

Sunday Opinion: Halloween Glee

 

My personal favorite-the cereal killer.


I had help from Buck and my friend Lynn dispersing 41 pounds of candy to what must have been several hundred trick or treaters.  A Halloween garden party featuring kids in costume, the fruits of the harvest, and chocolate-what could be better?

Posted on: November 1, 2010 2 Comments
Filed Under: Strictly Opinion, Parties and Events Tagged With:

Our Town

If you live near me, I am sure you are familiar with the Community House.  This organization has been in existence some 90 years in the city of Birmingham.  It is a cultural center; they offer classes on a wide range of topics.  They organize trips, host weddings, serve lunch on the terrace-they are a community resource. They are very serious in their efforts to help, educate, and serve the community in which they are located.  They are eminently worth your support.
This week marks the 25th anniversary of a Community House sponsored event-the Our Town art show and sale. The event provides a forum for local artists to show and sell their work.  This year’s juried show features some 300 works, with 10,000.00 in prize money to be awarded.     

Becky Sorenson and Janet Grant asked if I would dress the outside of the house for their event-why not? This organization does a lot of good for a lot of people-I support their efforts. The primary goal of decor for an event-a plan that draws attention to and piques people’s interest. I wanted to make a visual representation of their open invitation to the community at large to participate in Our Town. 

I took 8 containers and placed them on the steps.  Janet is an old and treasured client-she likes clean and modern.  I followed her lead.  8 containers at the front door would be bound to attract attention.  The peacock kales, the acid washed topiary forms and grey planters are all of a piece.  Succinct. 

For the opening night, I did a pair of arrangements from hydrangeas and panic grass from my own yard.  The silver plate vintage trumpet shaped containers-a nod to the 25th anniversary of this event. The hydrangea and the grasses are fresh, and will dry beautifully over the course of this event.     

Jenny designed and produced the Our Town flags.  She is instrumental in the day to day at Detroit Garden Works, but she is a very talented graphic designer in her own right.  I knew her work would make our container planting the subject of visual interest. At the last minute, she laminated the flags she printed on water color paper; rain is in the forecast.  Who would not respond to a flag flying?      

The flags waving around-this I like.  The Community House provides so many diverse services to the community-I recommend that you get involved.  The Our Town Art exhibition features plenty of first rate work.  For tickets to the opening tomorrow night, call the Community House.  Should you be interested in viewing the art on exhibition-there is no charge.  I zoomed through the exhibition while I was there planting the pots-wow.  So many provocative and beautiful works.  What are you up to the next few days?  A visit to the Our Town exhibition is worth a visit.

Posted on: October 12, 2010 1 Comment
Filed Under: Garden Design, Parties and Events