I really love hosting workshops. It is always wonderful to see the creativity within a group, whether a garden club, young mothers group or fundraising event. I have conducted wreath workshops, terrarium workshops, container garden workshops, even succulent topped pumpkin workshops.
I provide a few easy instructions, lots of great and unique material and step back. I empower participants to use their own sense of design and color to create something that is uniquely them.
I even offer in-home workshops for smaller groups. These are great for a Girls’ Night Out, bridal shower, or birthday parties.
These are livable centerpieces… It’s really just fun.
You don’t even carve the pumpkins. You just put the succulents on top and bring it to someone’s house.
It definitely beats a bottle of wine.
The centerpieces consist of normal pumpkins with succulents (juicy leaves) glued on top for decoration. We used a variety of succulents to the workshop of all different shapes and sizes and colors.
I must be dreaming because I am going to Mackinaw Island in August. Initially I was not familiar with the place and referred to it as Mackinack Island, sounds like Mackinawe Island. After doing a bit of research I learned it was an island in Michigan and that cars were not allowed. To get around you had to bike or take a horse-drawn carriage. Right away I was intrigued. So many times I wish I could go back in time to a gentler type of world – this sounded like the place.
Then I found out that Mackinac Island had some breathtaking gardens.
As a huge fan of things old and galvanized I feel like I have died and gone to heaven.
The Country Living Fair is a major dose of creative inspiration plus it’s a great place for me to pick up some of the “outside the box” containers I love to use in my designs. I am honored to be speaking, not at one location, but three over the next few months.
In April I will be presenting in Nashville, TN. Come see “Jaw-Dropping, Traffic-Stopping, Get-Your-Neighbors-Talking Containers” on April 20th at 2:30 on the Main Stage.
I’ve been invited to bring my presentation, “Jaw-Dropping, Traffic-Stopping, Get-Your-Neighbors Talking Containers” to the 2017 Country Living Fair in Rhinebeck, NY.
I will have the honor of creating a unique container garden in front of a large audience on the main stage Friday (2PM -June 3 )
The Country Living Fair brings the magazine’s content to life and gives readers access to a unique shopping experience featuring more than 200 vendors from 25 states, including antiques sellers, food purveyors, artists, furniture makers, crafters, and more.
Guests will also have a chance to meet Country Living editors and their special guests, attend cooking, crafting, and DIY demonstrations, book signings, sample locally sourced, artisanal food, and shop the Country Living General Store.
This video link will give you a sense of the environment at a Country Living Fair!
It was truly an honor to present to the Wareham Garden Club this month. I had a blast chatting it up with the members while I created three container gardens. Members seemed to enjoy the hints and suggestions I brought along to help them learn to make truly outstanding, one might say ‘jaw-dropping’, container gardens. As always, I encouraged the members to think creatively and with an eye to the art of mixing plants and other elements.
I was thrilled to receive this note from Wareham Garden Club member, Nancy:
The PHS Philadelphia Flower Show is the nation’s largest and longest-running horticultural event, and features stunning displays by the world’s premier floral and landscape designers.
Started in 1829 by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the Show introduces the newest plant varieties, garden and design concepts, and organic and sustainable practices. In addition to the major garden displays, the Flower Show hosts world-renowned competitions in horticulture and artistic floral arranging, gardening presentations and demonstrations, special events, a mammoth indoor Marketplace, and the Bloom Philly Festival in the weeks leading up to the Show.
The Philadelphia Flower Show has been honored as the best event in the world by the International Festivals & Events Association, competing with events such as the Kentucky Derby Festival, Tournament of Roses Parade, Indianapolis 500 Festival, and other international celebrations.
Enjoy some of my own photos from my incredible experience at this year’s event, which carried a Holland theme, celebrating the flowers and culture of The Netherlands.
Any of you who know me know that I LOVE sharing my passion for gardening with others. Whether I am talking about container gardening or designing for pollinators or creating a rooftop garden it is always a thrill to share what I have learned.
I have also been blessed to speak at some great Flower Shows over the years and this year I will be returning to one of my favorites – The Philadelphia International Flower Show.
The theme for 2017 is “Holland: Flowering the World.”
I am very excited to walk through the entrance which will feature an overhead floral canopy created with over 6,000 blooms! Talk about a grand entrance!
-artist’s rendering-
The Philadelphia Flower Show is the world’s oldest and largest indoor event of its kind and attracts over 250,000 people from around the world.I will be speaking on container gardening on March 16. I have also been asked to be a part of the container garden challenge on the same day.
According to the Flower Show the container challenge is a friendly competition where three designers will be on stage at the same time, creating a container planting using a myriad of plants. Upon completion, the audience will be able to “vote” for their favorite.Sounds a bit like “Chopped” to me!
If you are in the neighborhood please stop by and say hi! It would be wonderful to see some familiar faces. For more on the show visit The Philadelphia Flower Show website.
This spring my hands may be holding a microphone as often as a trowel as the lecture schedule is filling up!
I recently received this email from a client with a roof garden in Boston:
“Just got home . Garden is beautiful!! Thank you. In contrast, our Cape containers look terrible. They (mostly petunias ) were pretty good all summer. Then all of a sudden they stopped blooming. I had been using a fertilizer in solution weekly. The product is supposed to stimulate blooms. I did it weekly for about a month—the last time I doubled the dosage.
Do you think that I over-fertilized? Any thoughts? Can you do magic on Cape Cod?”
While I am more than happy to do magic on Cape Cod I, unfortunately, cannot do magic with petunias. I have never succeeded with them long-term. Perhaps I am doing something wrong but it’s one reason petunias made my lecture“The 10 Most-Popular Container Plants – And Why You Shouldn’t Use Them.”
Petunias peter out, let’s be honest. They look gang-busters when you buy them in May and I think that’s why so many of us are seduced by their vibrant, brightly-colored little faces. We don’t look down the summer months and see that those same faces will resemble Grandma Moses. You can whack petunias back in July and hope that your hard-pruning will put the fear of God into them so they will bloom for your anticipated graduation/christening/bridal shower/first communion get-together. But that doesn’t always work. As I get older I get less sentimental. I am not interested in a plant that requires constant deadheading to look its best.
As my friend Kerry Mendez says “plants are not children or pets” we can get rid of them without guilt.
Which is what I do with petunias.
Out they go and are easily replaced with another colorful annual that will look even BETTER in August than it does in June. Are you wondering what that annual is?
Petunias peter out, let’s be honest. They look gang-busters when you buy them in May and I think that’s why so many of us are seduced by their vibrant, brightly-colored little faces. We don’t look down the summer months and see that those same faces will resemble Grandma Moses. You can whack petunias back in July and hope that your hard-pruning will put the fear of God into them so they will bloom for your anticipated graduation/christening/bridal shower/first communion get-together. But that doesn’t always work. As I get older I get less sentimental. I am not interested in a plant that requires constant deadheading to look its best.
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