Once home to William Hamilton’s spectacular botanical garden in the 19th century, The Woodlands in West Philadelphia almost disappeared during Philadelphia’s rapid urbanization, saved only by its transformation into a rural cemetery or “memory garden.” Artist Martha L. McDonald’s recent installation and performance The Lost Garden used knit flowers and public tours to highlight the fragile nature of memory and the lost plants of this Philadelphia treasure.
Enjoy the beautiful topiaries, trimmed to look like Disney characters, Garden Rocks concerts, and other festivities, which are a part of the annual festival presented by The Happiest Place on Earth! Now thru May 17, 2015.
The San Francisco Bay Area welcomes Spring each year with this popular week-long exhibition featuring unique art and floral mash-ups where floral designers create arrangements that pay tribute to and draw inspiration from the works in the de Young’s permanent collections. Throughout the week, visitors can participate in floral demonstrations by prominent designers, hands-on art activities for children, catered luncheons, and a raffle. All proceeds from this annual event support exhibitions and educational programs at the de Young and the Legion of Honor, part of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
The Opening Night Gala and Preview will be held on Monday, April 13, 2015. To download an order form, click here.
For more details about Bouquets to Art, please call (415) 750-3504.
THE THIRD WEEKEND OF OCTOBER 2015, CUTTING EDGE FLORISTS FROM MICHIGAN AND ACROSS THE COUNTRY WILL FILL THE WALLS AND CEILINGS OF AN ABANDONED DETROIT HOUSE WITH AMERICAN-GROWN FRESH FLOWERS AND LIVING PLANTS FOR A WEEKEND INSTALLATION.
THE PROJECT WILL BE FEATURED IN LOCAL, NATIONAL, AND WORLDWIDE MEDIA FOR INNOVATION IN FLORAL DESIGN AND REPURPOSING FORGOTTEN STRUCTURES IN THE CITY OF DETROIT.
The flower market at 28th Street is the historic heart of America’s $18 billion flower industry. Its traditional structure was simple: local florists bought from wholesalers in the markets, who in turn sourced flowers from growers or their agents. There are two ways into the flower business: by birth or by accident. Alongside a dozen or so family firms, 28th Street employs ex-pint-pullers from Ulster, oil riggers, Punjabi toughs and a Serbian former Marlboro Man, who have all found a happy home in a place that sells dead plants with names such as “Hot Eskimo” and “Charming Babe Spray”.
Yet for all its gritty sophistication, 28th Street is a shadow of its former self. It was set up in the 1890s and dominated by Greeks, mainly from a town called Nafpaktos, according to Louie Theofanis who runs Major Wholesale Florist, a second-generation firm founded by his father who, legend has it, started out sleeping in a flower box on 6th Avenue. Steven Rosenberg of Superior Flowers, a third generation florist, says his grandfather spoke Yiddish when he arrived in New York and learned Greek to work on 28th Street.
Transient, superfluous and beautiful, flowers decorate the pinnacle of New York society. The city’s wealthiest, whose Upper East Side penthouses can be spied from the Met’s roof, might spend $10,000 a week on them…
Read the full article in The Economist, Dec 20, 2014
