Fall Flower Arranging Class with Garden & Roads

Last week, I attended a flower arranging class with my friend and neighbor Anne, the owner of Garden and Roads, a floral design company in Medford.

I be perfectly honest here and tell you that I know almost nothing about flowers. I deeply admire Anne’s passion for flowers, but when she starts rattling off the varieties she used in an arrangement or pointing out the specific tending needs of the flowers in her garden, the unfamiliar terms seem to whoosh right out of my brain until my eyes start to glaze over.

I would even go so far as to say I have a “brown thumb.” While I occasionally grow a successful zucchini or tomato in a little garden box in my backyard, I also have a bad habit of torturing herb plants by bringing them back and forth from the brink of brown crusty death. I let Trader Joe’s flower bundles shrivel and dry in their vases for want of water.

So. That’s what poor Anne was starting with when I walked into her house last Monday night.

Luckily, she knew how to build up my confidence… With wine and cheese, of course! We snacked and chatted and looked over beautiful aspirational flower books and then, terrifyingly, we began.

Only, it wasn’t truly terrifying. It was actually fun!

First we learned about flower care, DIY flower food, and general tips for how to plan and visualize an arrangement – all with a handy written guide, just in case my brain decides to let everything flower-related whoosh out again. We “greened” our vases, chose our key flowers, and then began to fill in our visions.

I felt simultaneously completely ridiculous and a tiny bit magical. I thought my arrangement was lopsided and wrong, but with a few tweaks and tips, it was suddenly kind of beautiful!

For our arrangements, Anne was inspired by large delicate frilly coral and blush-colored roses and some vivid orange Celosia, which looked to me like little fuzzy brains. Our arrangements were vibrant fuschia, pink, and orange, perfect for this not-quite-fall season we find ourselves in.

This intimate, creative space full of cheerful guidance and good company was the perfect antidote to this particular whirlwind (read: BUSY) moment in my business. I always feel more at peace when I take a moment to make pretty things and play. Plus, thanks to Anne’s advice, I might actually be able to keep these particular pretties blooming for a week or two!

To find out more about attending or hosting a flower arranging class, check out Anne’s website HERE.

Garden and Roads also offers CSA bouquets from June – October, event and wedding flowers, custom arrangements, and seeds for your own garden. She’s committed to minimizing her environmental impact. She’s also a really nice, talented human, following a flower dream.

And if you want to see what I – the flower impaired photographer – was able to make during the class, look for the arrangement in the tall white vase with the lacy cut-outs. (The vase belonged to my grandmother.)

Not too bad, eh?