Special Spring Class April 15!

Sunday, April 15

1:00-3:00

The Best of Spring with Nicolette

$165

Spring has arrived! In this special class we'll create bountiful Spring arrangements with all the best of the season. Ranunculus, hyacinth, dogwood, cherry blossom, hellebores, sweet pea, jasmine vine, rose geranium, tulips, muscari and more! We'll discuss the techniques of building arrangements, how to choose flowers, and color palettes. Open to students of all levels.

Each student will take home their arrangement, a pair of clippers and a copy of my very first book collaboration Bringing Nature Home! Photographer Ngoc Minh Ngo & prop stylist Amy Wilson will be sharing styling tips as well! This class will take place at West Elm's Broadway store.

I hope to see you there!

REGISTER HERE

orchids on a dreary February day...

A few weeks ago on a rather dreary day we put together a bright and festive orchid class at Nicolette's studio. My friends Barbara and Terry from Pine Ridge Orchids in Florida sent us a very special box of cut phalaenopsis and paphiopedilum. Students combined these rare gems with a smattering of cymbidiums, dendrobiums, and oncidiums to make bold and lush compositions fit for a queen.

Book Party!

I'm so excited to share with you the book I've been collaborating on for the past year and a half!

Three ways to celebrate:

Book Launch party - April 10th

Come visit the flower shop - April 14th

Special floral arranging class - April 15th

to register click HERE

Please stop by to say hello!

xo,

Nicolette

WOW

We just wrapped up our very first Weddings 101 weekend symposium. We're all tired I think - it was an intense weekend. We sincerely hope the 7 ladies who came to participate from all corners of the US feel prepared to travel home and build better flowers and smarter businesses.

Thank you Julia, Mahsa, Valarie, Amanda, Erica, Sue and Clare for your attention, your enthusiasm, and for participating in what hopefully will be the first in many weekend symposiums at The Little Flower School.

FYI; When the dust clears here we'll be posting a Memorial Day Class (scheduled for May 28th) and a second San Francisco class.

Up to the top of Hellebore Mountain

On our way down the mountain after a day spent at Barry Glick's Hellebore Farm I said to Nicolette "It's going to take me a long time to process today."

A few hours later, en route to Charlottesville, the last leg of our southern tier flower farm tour she said to me "Today ranks high on the list of days."

Helleborus. What is it about this plant that gardeners and floral enthusiast find so captivating?
They are early bloomers - often pushing up flowers through snow cover. They are phenomenally deer resistant. They stand up well to dry periods. Their delicate blooms face down more often than up, a quiet and modest specimen. On Barry's eight hillside acres of planted hellebores we ran around for hours in muddy boots and jeans yelling to each other ...

"You have to come see this one!" Bending over flipping up flowers to the dappled sunshine (shade plants!) pulling out iphones and cameras in a feeble attempt to document and capture the gorgeousness that these few weeks in February and March make possible; small, impossibly detailed flowers. We got the fever.

A few hours in, we had spent too long already on the hillside (home to over 50,000 stock plants) and needed to go find Barry in the greenhouses to do our business. The business of trying to wrangle a few fully developed plants from the most serious hellebore grower. We succeeded, and brought back around 15 gallon plants that will be cut up in tomorrow's hellebore focused flower arranging class and then planted in the handful of gardens that exist between the two of us.

At the beginning of the day, after a harrowing 5 mile drive up the side of Barry's mountain we arrived at Sunshine farm and were rushed by a haggle of old dogs and an ornery horse named Morgan who promptly tried to eat my camera strap..."We have to bring Jill here next year." I said. She would love it.

To be able to travel to the far reaches of this world in search of the best specimens is an overwhelming privilege. To be able to share some part of that with students and followers is the best part of the process.
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We encourage you to visit Barry's website here. Another fantastic hellebore grower we visited earlier in the weekend was Pine Knot Farm. Some people have asked about the fragility of hellebores as cut flowers - the key to keeping them longer than a few hours in water is to cut only the stems that have already been pollinated, after the seed pods have begun to form. At this stage they should last 7+ days in water.

Coral Sand and Citrus; revisited

WOW.

This was an amazing class. Thanks to all our talented students! Looking at these photos is so refreshing for me. We learn so much from students. I love the poppy that stands out in the last arrangement. A gesture like this is not something I would often do, but here I think it is offhanded and refreshing - poppy's are strange, whimsical flowers and they look fantastic out on a limb like that. A vivid punctuation to the otherwise rather formal composition. Brava!

We talk a lot about "rules" in class, and then always tell students to break the rules!

Arranging flowers should not be a rigid process, or one involving too many strict guidelines. Making flowers is about happiness, expression and the admiration of nature and beauty! (This from your cranky teacher, Sarah - go figure).

Next to share with you is the orchid class from last weekend...