As a floral designer I can say last week I met with my old flower sisters and got to connect with some new ones. One of the highlights of last week was getting to meet and take two floral classes with the fairy god mother of many floral designers, Ariella Chezar.  After a crazy cab ride to get to the Flower School of NYC on time I took my spot and afterwards we got to meet our lovely instructor for the day.

Ariella was everything that I expected and more. She was gracious, with a very calm personality and soft spoken. She was also willing to share all her sources and answer the group’s questions; and when I say questions she answered everything from “Where do you get the ribbons for your bouquets?” to… “How old are you?”

The first class I took was a hand tied bouquet class. We used light pink wax flowers, dusty miller, carnations, white freesia, white anemones with green centers, ranunculus, quicksand roses, passion vine, hellebores, jasmine vine, parrot tulips and dusty miller.

My lovely bouquet…. thank you Holly for holding it!

Ariella’s Bouquet, love the passion vine!

After an amazing lunch in the afternoon at La Grenouille (thanks to Eileen who got us a reservation at the last minute) we came back for an afternoon class on the art of the compote.

I have to finish by saying that Eileen Johnson who started the Flower School of NYC is a lovely lady. She had lots of great advice and made us feel welcome. In addition, I loved how she offered champagne, scones and macaroons while we designed away. I highly recommend the school to anyone looking to take a floral class.

We were happy to learn we were included in this post by Botanical Brouhaha for our design of parrot tulips, hellebores, mimosas and dusty miller during our trip to NYC this past March. It’s a great website for inspiration from designers all over the world.

Photo Credit: Vicki Grafton Photography

Also known to me… as the new floral heaven on earth.

We met David Beahm and his lead designer Jeremy (who were the most knowledgeable and nicest men ever! ) at the floral market for a tour of the who’s who of good product at the NYC Floral Market. I’m going to let a lot of the pictures speak for themselves. I’ve never seen such quality of floral product (anemones in the most vibrant colors), different varieties, flowers that I would never be able to get in Chicago because the florist designers here wouldn’t request it for their designs, plus a rose wholesaler who carries the most amazing and beautiful roses from south america. The varieties and colors were absolutely stunning!

I’ve always looked at Martha Stewart Magazines in awe as to were do they get these flowers! After seeing the flowers around me…. I knew were she purchased all of it for those amazing magazine spreads. The good news is that now I got the “scoop” on who to call to get the good stuff.

Pink Anemones

Cabbage Roses

Cherry Blossoms

Inside the flower market

Fringed Tulips

Fritallaria

Hellebores (they had it in deep purple too, too bad I didn’t take a picture of it!)

Greens & Foliage

Peonies, Jasmine Vine and Ranunculus

Paul

Orange Ranunculus (don’t they scream put us in a bridal bouquet?)

Light Pink Center Ranunculus

Plants

Green Centered Ranunculus

Roses at Harvest (they carried the most amazing species from South America)

Scabiosa Pods and Yellow Billy Balls

Succulents

Jeremy, the lead designer at David Beahm Design mentioned that most of the floral product at the NYC floral market travels for a period of 12 hours on average, hence the reason why the product looks so incredibly fresh. After being surrounded by such floral beauty all I needed was my floral knife, a vase and water. I couldn’t wait to start arranging! That is exactly what I did at David Beahm’s office along with sixteen other designers! Tomorrow on the blog (as I continue my little trip down memory lane),  the one and only David Beahm.