A peek inside the Botanique Studio

A few months ago, back when the ranunculas, lilacs and tulips were flowering like crazy, my friend and amazing photographer Lora Grady stopped by the studio and took some photos. I am excited to share them with you! Welcome to my little, flower-filled world!

After taking some photos in the studio, we headed outside. Though the garden was just getting going for the year, I harvested hellebore, narcissus and camellia, foraged some lilac and huckleberry from our back alley, and went to work making an arrangement outside. I LOVE making arrangements that come solely from the garden/from foraged ingredients, and this one was no exception!

Lora and I had such a good time! If you're not already familiar with her work, click here to go check out her website. As you can see, she is an amazing photographer!

I hope you enjoyed this little visual tour of the studio and the making of a 100% local, seasonal arrangement.

AND....... just to keep it real, below are a few process shots of what it took to create this beautiful studio, starting with what the building looked like when we we bought our house, BEFORE we did a massive renovation. It has been a lot of work, but here is the living proof that hard work really pays off.

BEFORE: No windows, tilting sideways, and filled with all manner of totally nasty junk.

My dad came all the way out from Massachusetts to help us renovate the studio! What can I say, he's a great dad. Below, you can see him and Eli (my husband) putting on the new roof:

All framed out, and proud dad on ladder after putting on the exterior trim:

Drywall, windows, doors and paint, yippee!

Well, ok, I guess we had a little fun while working too....

Awesome light fixtures, sink and cabinet all found at Second Use (go there!)

And then came the shelving, organizing, etc! Suffice to say, it was a lot of work, but well worth it. And then there's the garden, which is a whole other story, and will have to be saved for another day!

Happy Weekend!

Busy times and lots of news!

There has been a long lapse in blogging around here..... not for lack of things to share, just for lack of time to share it! We've got a few great posts coming down the pike, so hang in there for some beauty coming your way soon! In the meantime, a bit of news and one beautiful image. First, the news:

We have started up a CSA Subscription for a weekly bouquet of flowers, all grown in the Botanique Cutting Garden in Seattle! You can read about it and sign up at this link: http://botanique.bigcartel.com/

Our workshop series is off to an awesome start! We had a lovely group for our Seasonal Centerpiece Design Workshop on May 9th, and the Centerpiece Design Workshop on June 28th is now sold out! We are working on some workshops for the fall (including one focused on the infamous cafe au lait dahlia!). If you would like to be notified of future workshops, send Kelly and email at emailbotanique{at}gmail{dot}com.

At long last, we joined Instagram! You can follow us there for all the latest at @botanique_flowers_seattle

And now for the image, also connected to our last bit of news: Our Flower Crown Workshop is coming up on June 18th, and there are a few spaces left! If you have been wanting to learn how to construct beautiful flower crowns, this is the workshop for you. We will be covering simple and asymmetrical styles, mechanics and finishing touches, with ample time for practice and crown making. All student work will be professionally photographed by Jenna Bechtholt Photography, who is the mastermind behind the gorgeous image below. This photo was taken a few months back, and is of a flower crown we created with lily of the valley and rosemary- it smelled amazing! You can register for the workshop at this link: http://botanique.bigcartel.com/

Hope the summer is treating you well!

Upcoming Workshops!

We are thrilled to be offering a few workshops this spring! All workshops will be taught by Botanique's Owner and Creative Director, Kelly Sullivan. All workshops will take place at the Botanique Studio in Seward Park.

Read below for workshop descriptions. Hope to see you there!

SEASONAL CENTERPIECE WORKSHOPS
May 9th and June 28th, 2015 
2:30pm-5pm

Learn how to create a gorgeous, romantic, overflowing centerpiece!

In this class, Kelly will share her approach to designing a centerpiece in Botanique’s signature, “from the garden” style, using local and seasonal ingredients. Through demonstration and ample hands-on design time, students will learn the mechanics and design principals needed to create natural, lush, floral arrangements.

Students will each take home their completed arrangement, and all student work will be professionally photographed by Lora Grady Photography. We are so lucky to have Lora join us for these classes, as her work is stunning, and sure to give your portfolio a great boost!

Two sessions are offered:

~ Saturday, May 9th, 2:30pm-5pm, the day before Mother's Day! Design an arrangement for your mom, or sign up together!
~ Sunday, June 28th, 2:30pm-5pm

Investment: $275 includes all flower and materials, light refreshments, and beautiful, portfolio-building photographs of your completed design by Lora Grady Photography.

Photo by Jess Hunter Photography

FLOWER CROWN WORKSHOP
June 18th, 2015
5pm-7pm

Learn how to create a stunning flower crown!

Kelly will show you the basics of flower crown construction, and there will be ample hands-on time for you to create your own crown. We will cover simple and asymmetrical crown styles, mechanics and finishing touches.

Investment: $150 includes all flowers and materials, light refreshments and of course your completed crown to take home!

Breaking News!!! Jenna Bechtholt of Jenna Bechtholt Photography will be joining us for the Flower Crown Workshop, and will be photographing all student work for your portfolio/bragging rights! Lucky us!

Register for classes at: http://botanique.bigcartel.com/
Email any questions to Kelly at emailbotanique{at}gmail{dot}com

Erika and Dan at Woodland Meadow Farms

Erika and Dan were married in late August of last year, at Woodland Meadow Farms. The cafe au lait dahlias in our Cutting Garden were at their peak, and we arranged them with lots of woodsy and herbal elements to match the rustic surroundings. 

Long tables with loose branches and blooms woven through, gorgeous bouquets, sweet little flower crowns..... it was all so pretty.

Many thanks to Jenn Ireland, who took all of these beautiful photos!

Congratulations Erika and Dan! It was a true pleasure working with you!

Spring Bridal Brunch with Blooming Branches

These photos are from a shoot that took place almost a year ago, but for some reason it never really made a proper appearance on the blog. Now that spring is almost here again, it is high time to share this beauty! Blooming branches, peonies, sweet peas.... spring is a VERY good time for flowers, and we are waiting with anticipation for these gorgeous blooms to come back into season- it won't be long now.

Be sure to check out the list of vendors at the bottom of the post, there were some great people involved in this shoot!

Flowers: Botanique
Photography: Lora Grady Photography
Planning, Event Design, and mini cakes: Darien Leigh
Vintage Furniture and Decor: Vintage Ambiance
Invitations: Ashley Costlett
Hair and Make-up: Yessie Libby

Mamas, babies, beauty, and flowers for the FUTURE

Ok, forgive me while I go completely gushy over these BEAUTIFUL photos taken by Angela from Angela & Evan Photography!!!!! This is my friend Katie, at nine months pregnant, surrounded by a garland of eucalyptus, privet berry and garden roses that I created for her...... she is so GORGEOUS!!!! I can barely stand it! And there is a great story here too.....

Years ago, Katie was a student in the Environmental Horticulture Science program at Cal Poly. Cal Poly creates a float for the Rose Parade every year, and Katie became involved with the float her sophomore year of college. During her first year working on it, she was surprised to learn that a lot of the flowers used to decorate the float were grown in South America, not California. This seemed to her somewhat ironic, since the parade was founded to show off California's bounty of agriculture in the winter. SO, like the rockstar that she is, she went about changing things: She spent the next two years touring California cut flower farms, establishing relationships with local California rose growers and the California Cut Flower Commission, and completely transforming the flower ordering process for Cal Poly's float to use California roses and flowers rather than imported ones. Then she got the float California Grown Certified, which it has been every year since! Talk about a legacy......

 

A few weeks ago, Katie asked me if I would make her a garland to wear for her maternity photo session. I was thrilled by the idea, and really excited to create something for someone who cares so much about locally grown flowers.

 
When I went to the flower market to pick out the materials for Katie's maternity shoot, I knew they HAD to be as local, seasonal and sustainably grown as possible. They were, after all,  going to be surrounding my pregnant friend's belly; and she does, after all, have quite a clear passion for local flowers! 

 
I love how Katie’s story and this photo shoot speak to both the importance and beauty of local flowers: if we're talking about mamas and babies, we're talking about life cycles. Flowers grown hundreds of miles away, sprayed with pesticides that harm both the earth and the people who grow them, flown in on airplanes that run on jet fuel, fumigated at the border.... does this sound like something you would give to your pregnant friend? Something you want to encourage knowing the damage it is creating to the world her baby will grow up in? I hate to say it, but this is the sad, ugly truth of so many of the flowers in the American marketplace... (for a great, easy-to-read look at some flower industry stats, check out this Pop Quiz on the Field to Vase site).

I started Botanique with a mission to use local, in-season flowers to create exquisitely beautiful works of floral art. As the business has grown, I have come to realize some of the challenges of this mission, and some of the reasons that many businesses do not have this model: although it is counter-intuitive, the truth is that high-quality, sustainably and locally-grown flowers are almost always more expensive than their imported counterparts. Working locally and seasonally means you cannot use any flower, any time of year, which goes against our "This is America! I can have whatever I want!" mentality. Sticking to this mission has meant turning down business: a couple with their heart set on peonies in September will probably not be a good fit for us, as peonies are only seasonally available in the spring; someone looking to get their flowers for the cheapest price out there will probably not hire us, as our flowers are never the cheapest price out there. 

But there are PLENTY of plus sides to the seasonally-inspired way we work, and for me they far outweigh the challenges outlined above. There is a huge qualitative difference with local, in-season flowers- they glow. Instead of being out of water for days as they make their way across the world, they are harvested directly into water, and in the studio within a day or two of being cut. They are fresh. They smell amazing. And they have a special "of the moment" quality, because they actually reflect nature in that time and place. They feel alive, and they really speak to our need for natural beauty and connection to our environment. Not to mention that by purchasing flowers from local flower growers, local agriculture and the local economy get a boost! It's a win-win-win-win-win.

 
For Botanique, local means "as close as possible to home.” This starts with the flowers, foliage and other botanical ingredients that we grow in our backyard Cutting Garden in Seattle. Though we can't possibly grow enough flowers to supply all of our work, something from the garden invariably makes it's way into nearly everything we create. We are really lucky here in Seattle to have some incredible local farms just an hour north of Seattle in the Skagit Valley, as well as other parts of Washington and down into Oregon. This next layer of local- Northwest Regional- supplies most of what we do, especially during our growing season (March-October). If we can't get what we need within this Northwest sphere, we look to California, which has an abundance of blooms year-round. Given that we are smack in the middle of our off season for Northwest blooms, I can't say that the materials in Katie's garland and hair piece were Washington grown- but they were all from California, as close as possible given the time of year. 

 
I will admit that there are times when we do buy imported flowers- we are not perfect, and emergencies do happen. But we work DAMN hard to source our flowers locally, and it is nearly always possible to achieve an uncompromisingly beautiful selection from within that three state range. A project like Katie's photo shoot reminds of why we are so committed to this mission despite the logistical and financial challenges it sometimes presents: The BEAUTY! The FUTURE!

 
After I came home from this photo shoot, the phrase “socially and artistically responsible” came into my head. This feels like a good marriage of our absolute devotion to beauty, and our belief that we cannot pursue that beauty without thinking about the context from which it comes. We are striving to flower life's important events in a way that pursues the highest, possible artistic outcome, the most beauty, and the best, healthiest outcome for people and the planet. It's EXCITING!

 
Thank you Katie for inviting me into this intimate moment, and letting me share your story and these images! And thank you Angela of Angela & Evan Photography for sharing your breathtaking work! I can't wait to do something like this again....