Chehalis, WA Florists

Chehalis Flower Shop News

Play nice with flowers: Lessons on 'Floral Diplomacy' in the White House (photos) - OregonLive.com

Kunstboek) are available at Powell's Books. From Portland, she travels north where she will be signing at Barnes & Noble Northgate Store in Seattle from 7-9 p.m. July 8 and Book 'n' Brush in Chehalis from 1-3 p.m. July 9.In her handsome, 144-page hardcover book, Dowling explains how diplomatic messages can be conveyed through botanical metaphors.In 2011, White House guest German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who holds a doctorate in physical chemistry, saw four small topiaries -- "molecular bouquets" -- orbiting a larger bouquet of moss, horsetail and lily grass to represent the symbol for infinity and signify endless possibilities, according to Dowling.For a White House state dinner in 2009, guests from India were honored with table settings inspired by the peacock, a source of pride and beauty in Indian culture. Atop apple-green silk linens were fuchsia and purple flowers -- hydrangeas, sweet peas, roses and orchids -- in Tiffany bamboo vermeil containers.In 2010, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and First Lady Carla Bruni were greeted by pink parrot tulips and garden roses arranged in French-style bouquets.Maybe Prince Harry will never come to your home for tea, but wouldn't it be nice to greet your mother-in-law with her favorite peonies?The ideas in the book, illustrated by 100 photographs, will inspire ways to celebrate birthdays and holidays, and, of course, one-on-one relationships.Dowling, who grew up in Chehalis, and earned degrees at the University of Washington in Seattle, emphasizes two approaches to home-style floral diplomacy.Go easy: Just as with a relationship, flower arrangements shouldn't be stiff and unyielding, ... http://www.oregonlive.com/hg/index.ssf/2017/06/floral_diplomacy_white_house_d.html

Promise you a rose carden: Ex-White House florist (and Chehalis native) tells all - The Seattle Times

Laura Dowling, who until her tenure ended abruptly in 2015 was the White House chief floral designer. “I was surprised to see such a pared-back aesthetic from them.”Dowling, 57, a native of Chehalis, was walking around the flower district in New York on the first day of spring, discussing her new book, “Floral Diplomacy at the White House,” which contains a number of juicy details about decorating drama at her former place of employment, along with anecdotes about flower arrangements and craft projects.Like the time the juxtaposition of cotton-candy machines and burlap linen tablecloths at a South Lawn picnic for members of Congress and their families led to the guests getting shocked. (Dowling got a roll of dryer sheets from the housekeeping staff and used them to cut through the static electricity.)Most Read StoriesUnlimited Digital Access. $1 for 4 weeks.Or when the White House honeybees broke free at President Barack Obama’s 50th birthday barbecue in the Rose Garden.“My image of it is the bees chasing the guests back and forth while the butlers removed the arrangements,” Dowling said.She won the job through a competition in the fall of 2009 not unlike those on “The Apprentice” (little did they know).After an eight-month process of applications and interviews, three florist-finalists were sequestered separately on the ground floor of the Executive Mansion for four hours. During that time, they had to fully deck out a table for a State Department dinner, and ... http://www.seattletimes.com/life/home-decor/promise-you-a-rose-carden-ex-white-house-florist-and-chehalis-native-tells-all/

Former White House Florist from Alexandria Publishes Book 'Floral Diplomacy' - Patch.com

Flower Ambassador award from the Royal Horticultural Society of Belgium at a ceremony honoring international floral diplomacy in Ghent, Belgium. Dowling didn't start out in floral design. A native of Chehalis, Washington, Dowling received her B.A. degree in political science and Masters Degree in Public Administration from the University of Washington in Seattle. Fifteen years ago, she was inspired to change careers (from strategic communications to flowers) after traveling to Paris and becoming intrigued with French flower design. She studied French floral art under the direction of leading Parisian designers and operated a small studio out of her basement kitchen in Alexandria. From this position, she competed in the nationwide search for White House Chief Floral Designer. By expanding her floral design and consulting platform to include writing books and teaching, her goal is to continue to share a unique vision for creative floristry in the garden style and to inspire others with her story.Dowling made headlines when she left the White House but doesn't appear to hold any grudges. Here's a bit about Dowling and her role, from a promotional blurb on Amazon.com:"Laura Dowling served as Chief Floral Designer at the White House form 2009 until 2015. In this unique position, she managed décor and flowers for thousands of White House events while using flowers as a strategic tool for communicating diplomatic, symbolic and policy messages. She is renowned for creating a new romantic style of flower arranging featuring free-flowing lines of vines and flowers emanating from a classical bouquet. This style is most evocative of nature and the garden, and balances a strong artistic vision with the wildness of nature. Under her leadership, Laura implemented floral artistry at the White House, designing bouquets of seasonal garden flowers in a style that is both modern and refined, yet casually elegant. She often presents her innovative arrangements in hand-made organic containers composed of leaves, branches and berries that are woven into patterns and motifs, creating integrated, cohesive displays that conjure both nature and the garden. Here, she describes... http://patch.com/virginia/oldtownalexandria/former-white-house-florist-alexandria-publishes-book-floral-diplomacy

Express Gratitude and Appreciation with Flowers from Capitol Florist - ThurstonTalk

Pacific Northwest growing season. Each week Cynthia speaks with her vendors to find out what blooms are available from farms such as Kirsop Farms in Tumwater, Woodbine Farm in Chehalis and Independence Valley Farm in Rochester. During our rainy season, the flowers are purchased from nurseries in California and Canada with tropicals flown in from Hawaii.Cynthia loves the nature of her business. “Sharing beauty can be an expression of love for a friend or even self-love, which is so important,” she tells me as she arranges a bouquet for a long-time client. She loves to see what the enclosure card will say. One loyal customer uses the same sentiment each time he sends flowers to his wife, the card says simply “You know what.”Marinka Major creates a floral arrangement for a customer with fresh blooms from local farms. ©ThurstonTalkThe online business from the website is the largest component of her business but walk-ins and floral subscriptions are a big part of their success. A floral subscription is a weekly bouquet of flowers delivered in a vase and ready for display. Many dentists, restaurants and local attorneys use this service to provide a splash of beauty and color in their offices. Subscriptions start at $35 and can be customized to your desire and budget.Cynthia has two year-round employees and adds additional help during the wedding season and other busy times. Her daughter Marinka shares her time between the flower shop and an internship at Wolf Haven. Both lovers of nature and beauty, they have a cooperative working relationship and will often critique each other’s work offering some friendly advice during the creation of a bouquet.img class="size-medium wp-image-100373" src="http://www.thurstontalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/1577f2772cae03-FullSizeRender-8-300x288.jpg" alt="capitol florist" width="300" height="288" srcset="http://www.thurstontalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/1577f2772cae03-FullSizeRender-8-300x288.jpg 300w, http://www.thurstontalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/1577f2772cae03-FullSizeRender-8-696x66... http://www.thurstontalk.com/2016/07/13/capitol-florist-olympia/

Benny's Florist & Greenhouse Still Blooming in Chehalis - Centralia Chronicle

Benny family.“Al was like my mentor, my adopted grandfather. I just kind of fell into the Benny family,” Dean said with a laugh.Two others owned the flower shop before the Bennys, but the Chehalis building has always been a flower shop, for about 100 years, Dean estimates.“(There’s) lots of history,” Dean said.The whole block around the building used to be all greenhouses, Dean said.In 2011, she sold the business back to the Benny family due to health reasons before buying the shops back in 2014. During that time Dean wasn’t in the flower business. She worked at The Chronicle for about 18 months.When Dean took over again in 2014, she decided to close the Centralia branch.“I wanted to spend more time rebuilding the customer base, designing unique bouquets, instead of running back and forth,” she said.During her time in the business, along with the rise of online order gatherers, Dean has also seen design and tradition changes. These days there are a lot more vase designs. When Dean began working for the shop, corsages used to be traditional for Mother’s Day, and while they are still common for school dances, the Mother’s Day orders are waning. While flower shops have seen some impacts in recent years, Dean said she thinks especially with its greenhouse and business bouncing back, Benny’s will be fixture in Chehalis.“I think we’re going to be here a long time,” Dean said. http://www.chronline.com/benny-s-florist-greenhouse-still-blooming-in-chehalis/article_f611e2e4-d78f-11e5-9e29-ffaa1c8633ec.html

This Wedding Arch With Flowers Created a Picture-Perfect Backdrop - Washingtonian

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The second-best flower shop in Naperville, Ill., is struggling to survive. Along with the American Dream. - The Washington Post

Moe Zoyarifor The Washington Post In Naperville, Ill., Jenny Latham is struggling to pay the $3,800 monthly rent for her shop, Celidan Creations Florist. Her mom Karin Jacobs, who founded the store in 1992, passed away last month. Florists dream of spring, when shops burst in a colorful riot of blooms while ledgers pool in black ink. First Communions, Palm Sunday, Easter, proms, charity events, weddings, more weddings and the flowery grail of Mother’s Day.But spring has been brutal for Jenny Latham, owner of Celidan Creations Florist in Naperville, Ill.Flowers are a luxury dependent on the health of other businesses. Ordinarily, Celidan, founded in 1992 by Latham’s mother, Karin Jacobs, supplies churches, restaurants and corporate offices in the city of almost 150,000, west of Chicago. All were closed due to covid-19. Celidan’s front door locked, too. The shop remained open to phone and online orders and was permitted to make deliveries for what has become known in the industry as ring-and-run.Florists... https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/florist-ppp-small-business-naperville-illinois/2020/05/26/65cec788-9a09-11ea-ac72-3841fcc9b35f_story.html

Contactless flower delivery ensuring Mother's Day smiles despite outbreak - The Courier

Geneva Curren. Curren has a past with flower shops in Washington D.C., New York City, and operating three shops across Arkansas and Chicago. Her knowledge of flowers stems from her childhood in visiting her family in the South where she would spend hours and hours picking wildflowers.While the company’s main objective of creating designs that inspire and bring joy to the recipients, the employees are trained to help with selecting the best flowers for you. Under this circumstance, Curren said, “Working as a florist has been wonderful, challenging, exhausting, inspiring, hectic, fun, maddening, and fantastic!” Orders as of right now are piling in for Curren and her staff, causing everyone to feel overwhelmed. As it is described as part of the job as a florist, understanding customers mean well and only want to stay local. With a minimum of $75 for fresh arrangements and $40 for plant deliveries, Halsted Flowers plans to make multiple rounds a day for their customers. Even though hours of operation are limited each day, the employees are finding themselves working around the clock in order to finish their customer’s requests. Delivery drivers are out until late in the night and up early in the morning to make their rounds and to clear out the shop to make room for more orders. Saville Flowers: https://savilleflowers.com/ Phone: (847)864-0632Halsted Flowers: https://halstedflowers.com/ Phone: (773)883-8600... https://codcourier.org/13169/features/contactless-flower-delivery-ensuring-smiles/

Coronavirus hit California's cut-flower industry at the worst time - Los Angeles Times

Valentine’s Day through Mother’s Day. Chain groceries were among the first to cancel orders, said F.J. Trzuskowski, vice president of sales for Washington-based Continental Floral Greens, which grows the “supporting cast” green foliage for bouquets on three California farms. Advertisement “There was no forewarning of this. It was like, ‘Hey, stop all shipments starting now,’” Trzuskowski said. “Then with social distancing, all of a sudden the wholesaler can’t be open to the public. It was a very quick stop to the industry.”Mellano said he also was hit hard by cancellations of events such as conferences, particularly in Las Vegas. Weddings were put off, along with their roses, said Eufloria’s Nelson.“Maybe they didn’t happen right now, but they’re going to happen, right?” he said. “We just don’t know what size they’re going to be when they do happen. Budgets are going to be different.” Advertisement The California Cut Flower Commission has told its members that floriculture is protected under the agricultural exemption to closure orders. But with the collapse of the distribution pipeline, the clarification amounts to a technicality. Los Angeles’ historic flower market, like others around the nation, is a ghost town. “We’ve got wholesale companies closing down and retail stores, which in some cases have business, are losing their normal lines of distribution,” CEO Pruitt said. “We’re in the process of trying to put that back together.”Pruitt said it’s hard to predict how many farms will fail and which ones will have enough funds left to reboot once demand increases. Growers could switch crops or hedge their bets, as some of the financially strapped greenhouse operations did by leasing space for cannabis cultivation when that crop was added to the California agricultural portfolio in 2016.Cut flowers are a $1.3-billion industry nationwide, though most of that revenue comes from the sale of imported flowers, predominantly from Colombia, according to the UC Davis Agricultural Issues Center. Domestic growers account for about 27% of national sales, down from 37% roughly a decade ago. California-grown flowers account for three-quarters of the national domestic sales, according to the UC Davis researchers. Advertisement Trade deals that favored Andean nations in South America as part of the war on drugs are largely responsible for the decline of California’s flower industry. While Colombia and Ecuador dominate the market for bouquet mainstays such as carnations, chrysanthemums, gerbera and roses, California growers shifted to species that can’t be grown in the cool upland valleys of the Andes.Longtime California growers switched to Continental’s specialty — the “supporting cast” of greenery in traditional bouquets including ferns, eucalyptus and Israeli ruscus, as well as Christmas trees and holly. That stock can be sustained through the shutdown. Eufloria’s roses, likewise, can survive. But they all have to be nourished, pruned and protected from weather and insects.“As long as we irrigate and we do pest control, they’re still in good shape for sales when this opens up,” Mellano said. “Probably 35% of our crop mix are annual crops, and those have to be picked when they’re ready, within days, or else they’re lost.”Among the victims are the ranunculus that carpet the Flower Fields near the San Diego Freeway in Carlsbad — a working farm that also is an important agritourism destination. It closed on March 17, two weeks into its season. Advertisement “We are absolutely dependent on the partnership between both tourists and cut flowers in order to make that work,” Mellano said of the Carlsbad farm. “And this year, all of our orders for the ranunculus got canceled by the supermarkets. And the tourism was shut down due to social distancing requirements.”Only a small portion of the fields will survive in hopes tha... https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-04-04/coronavirus-californias-cut-flower-industry