Summer Sunday Blooms and Crowns Floral Workshop Recap
Somehow the floral gods were smiling on us for the last floral workshop of summer…perfect weather and of course gorgeous blooms! We were back at the beautiful barn at Wheatland Spring Farm + Brewery in Waterford, VA. This is the second time we’ve flowered at Wheatland this summer.
This workshop had a bit of a twist at the end. After we finished up the centerpieces, we made flower crowns with a mix of fresh and dried flowers from the flower bar.
Choosing the palette for the Flower Bar
Each workshop is a reflection of the season and what’s in bloom. I sourced flowers from my own garden, the flower market (which has a huge selection of local flowers this time of year) and a local flower farm in nearby Charles Town, WV. Mid-August is a transition time for flowers - there are still lots of bright blooms, but the more faded, autumnal blooms are coming in. This is the pull from the flower market exploring a palette from lemony yellow to pale peach with hints of orange and smoky purple.
At the flower market, I place my choices on these large carts. It helps me see the palette come together and add/delete bunches as needed.
The next stop was picking up more local flowers at Small Ventures Flower Farm. Cory Lisk is a micro-grower and always has the most beautiful selection of flowers. I picked up some dahlias and zinnias to add to the flower bar. The evening before I did a walk through my garden and picked a few bunches of variegated weigelia foliage. This is my go-to foliage this time of year. I love the fresh green with edges of yellow-gold. It works so well with this late summer/early autumn palette.
All the flowers receive a fresh cut and then spend the night before in the studio hydrating and resting.
The next morning, we packed up the van and headed to Wheatland. The first thing we do is put up the hops chandelier to hang over the worktable. The barn at Wheatland has the most beautiful beam right above the workspace and I love adding at bit of dried hops.
One of my favorite parts of the workshop is talking about the flowers. With so many local blooms on the bar, it’s fun to share which flowers can easily be grown in your garden. At each place setting, there is a lazy Susan on a tulip bucket, pair of clippers, vase, and piece of coated chicken wire. I like to work closer to eye level, so the bucket elevates the vase and the lazy Susan makes it easy to turn the arrangement as you put it together. The chicken wire is the armature for the arrangement.
We had two spaces for flowers. One was the flower bar with fresh blooms and the other was bunches of dried flowers for the flower crowns.
Once we went through the flower bar, I did a demo arrangement. After that, everyone is set free to choose flowers and start on their arrangement.
Each workshop is different. Different flowers and different creative souls. The combinations are always wonderful!
Flower crowns were an added bonus this time. Everyone made a crown using a combination of dried and fresh flowers. I especially love the crowns that ended up on those summer straw hats!